fragments of a blue ruin
Vaarn’s microbiome is just as varied as its macrobiome, and aeons’ worth of genesculpting have left a fearsome legacy within even the smallest of Urth’s creatures. The biomancers and alchemists of the Long Ago devoted much energy to breeding pestilences to vex their enemies, and while the monarchs who funded the creation of such horrors… Continue reading VAARNISH DISEASES
Following the success of the previous two Vaarn Summer Jams, I’m hosting a third annual game jam on itch.io! The submission period began at the start of June and will run until the end of August this year, making it a true summer event. The returning Summer Jam is a non-ranked game jam, where entrants are invited… Continue reading VAARN SUMMER JAM ’24
After a long gestation period, the fourth issue of the main Vaults of Vaarn zine series is finally available for purchase. Printed copies of the zine, along with special edition cassette tapes of the official soundtrack by Out On Our Own, can currently be purchased from my online store Antipode Zines. I will be adding more retailers here as… Continue reading VAULTS OF VAARN #4 RELEASE
After almost three years in production (!!) the fourth issue of Vaults of Vaarn is complete. If you want to start reading the PDF, it is currently available for Patrons only. The zine will go to press by the end of May, and pre-orders will be starting on Antipode Zines soon. There will also be… Continue reading VAULTS OF VAARN #4 COMING SOON
Vaarn is, of course, synonymous with the pointcrawl, generated via a dice drop map. But what if you want something different? What if you want to fill a hexcrawl instead? Don't worry, I have you covered. This is adapted from Luke Gearing's procedure from Wolves upon the Coast. If it's good enough for one of… Continue reading VAARN HEXFILL PROCEDURE
I have finally begun work on the illustrations for Vaults of Vaarn issue 4. I don't want to make any firm promises on how long this will take. I'm really rusty and realised that I've barely had a proper illustration schedule since I was doing stuff for the Deluxe Edition back in April 2022! So… Continue reading SKETCHBOOK: VoV #4 BESTIARY
A red letter day for fans of my work and weird unplaceable accent: there are not one but two interviews with yours truly out today! First up we have my second guest appearance on module-review podcast Between Two Cairns, where I join Brad and Yochai to review Gus L's science-fantasy crystalcrawl adventure Tomb Robbers on… Continue reading Double Interview Day
The bestiary at present doesn't give many examples of what a Vaarnish psychic actually looks like. Here is an attempt to rectify that error. Assume all of these creatures to be telepathic and conversant in Noospeech, although you may not like what some have to say. Psy-Owl Biological / Psychic Level 1 / Armour 14… Continue reading PSYCHIC CREATURES
Ostriel’s secret police and intelligence service. Masters of espionage, sabotage, and assassination. Always alert for threats (real or imagined) against the Queen. The Krypteia have spies and informants embedded everywhere: Ostriel, Sargattea, the wider Wall, and throughout Vaarn. Many of these informants have no idea who they really serve. The organisation’s upper echelon is a… Continue reading FACTION: THE KRYPTEIA
We return for the last (for now) installment of Monsters in the Machine, a series where I riff back and forth with GPT-3 and create monsters for Vaarn based on the stat blocks the AI spits out. Our previous episode saw the AI plant the seeds for several new additions to the bestiary. Now I've… Continue reading MONSTERS IN THE MACHINE 10: THE FINAL CHAPTER
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