fragments of a blue ruin
I wanted to appraise my beloved readers of an extremely exciting third-party Vaarn project which is being developed by Jacob Marks, game designer and member of the Vaarn discord server. This project is the Vaarn Atlas, an an in-game artefact, toy, generator, and tool that creates interactive maps of Vaarn's Interior in accordance with the… Continue reading VAARN ATLAS
This is another post focusing on the merging points between classic B/X-style fantasy, and science-fantasy. I was partly prompted to write this by an email from the GM of a Vaarn campaign, asking for my thoughts on incorporating traditional magic-user PCs into Vaults of Vaarn. I'm personally happy with how Mystic Gifts work in vanilla… Continue reading SOURCERY
The Construct Itself Of all the artefacts the ancients left littered across the cerulean sands of Vaarn, few are more imposing than the canted bulwark of pale ferrosteel that is known variously as the Great Wall, the Weeping Wall, the Backbone of the Gods, the Titanspine, and the Sacred Impediment. The Wall forms the western… Continue reading THE WALL
I hope you'll forgive the title; I know it's only marginally amusing but once I thought of it I had to do something with it. Anyway, this post was sparked by a discussion I had on Reddit about re-skinning dungeons and monsters from classic fantasy RPGs to the Vaults of Vaarn setting. This is an… Continue reading B/X TO THE FUTURE
I have a new interview out with the Wobblies & Wizards podcast. I talk to Logar the Barbarian about Vaarn, Moebius, academia, making zines, distributing zines, the Antipode Zines store, e-readers vs printed books, why people still love zines in a digital world, and more. Logar is a great interviewer and keeps the energy high… Continue reading Guest Spot on Wobblies & Wizards
Hello folks, I've got something new on sale at Antipode! Presenting the first Vaults of Vaarn Adventure Pack. The mysterious, far-future wasteland of Vaarn is expanded in this pack of three short format adventure locations. Together Khenet Rock, Eigin Oasis, and The Tomb of Nassak An-Rah provide two challenging dungeons and one safe haven for your vault raiders. Khenet… Continue reading VAULTS OF VAARN: ADVENTURE PACK 1
Last time, our intrepid adventurers battled themselves in jelly-clone form, finally drained the water from the flooded lower level of the Water Baron's Aquifer machine, and were ambushed by some glider spiders in a tunnel. We left them standing at the bottom of the main shaft, faced with the newly revealed body of the Hydra… Continue reading VAARN ACTUAL PLAY: EPISODE 31
Hey folks, hope everyone's having a good holiday season. Vaarn is closed for the moment, but there are a couple of quick news items I wanted to post before the new year. Italian Translation Vaults of Vaarn #1 has been translated into Italian! This was an effort by some Italian OSR fans, Pedro Celeste and… Continue reading Holiday News Roundup
I find that it’s easy to overlook the lower end of the monster power curve. I completely understand why: you want your monsters to be memorable and cool and dangerous, so anything that gets its own blog post feels like it needs to be at least 4HD or above, have a load of weird powers,… Continue reading LOW-LEVEL MONSTERS
The Vaults of Vaarn are subterranean ruins that riddle the blue desert. Crucially, these Vaults will always contain Exotica, the far-future treasures the PCs are searching for; therefore, the GM is advised to create one such location before the campaign begins. Follow these steps to begin drafting a Vault. Roll a d20 to determine the… Continue reading CREATING A VAULT
VAULTS OF VAARN 