fragments of a blue ruin
Last time we saw our brave boys, they had delved deeper into the innards of the Water Baron's Aquifer machine, discovering a deep flooded shaft infested with grasping jelly-like tentacles and other strange creatures. They discovered a farm of giant aphids, a shriekman graveyard, and a makeshift prison with a single living captive: a curious… Continue reading VAARN ACTUAL PLAY: EPISODES 25-27
Last time we saw our brave boys, they had unleashed gravity-related destruction against the shriekmen, killing their own guide in the process. They then opened a path to the Diagnostics Centre of the Aquifer machine and headed there, evading an enormous predatory tentacle en route. Our cast: Flim-Flam, a two-headed cacogen. Proficient cook. Fights with… Continue reading VAARN ACTUAL PLAY: EPISODE 24
At long last, our brave boys return! We've had a rough couple of months for scheduling, but the gang were finally able to get back on the road and play two consecutive sessions of our Vaarn campaign. Last time we saw them the crew had entered the dungeon underneath the Water Baron's keep, ostensibly to… Continue reading VAARN ACTUAL PLAY: EPISODE 22 & 23
We're rapidly closing in on the one year anniversary of Vaarn, which I'm defining as the first time I DM'd a game session in my current ongoing Vaarn campaign. It's not exactly the genesis, but it's close (there were two playtests before that session that never led to full campaigns). I decided to go back… Continue reading PROTO-VAARN
The sun is shining, so what better excuse than to run a demonstration of the point-crawl procedures I've been working on for Vaults of Vaarn #3? Join me on a procedurally generated journey into a thirsty, sun-baked blue desert... So the first thing we do is drop a bunch of dice onto a page. I'm… Continue reading VAARN REGION GENERATOR
In which the author appraises his readers on various small matters that don't merit their own posts. Work on Vaults of Vaarn #3 is ongoing. It's shaping up to be longer than the previous two issues. My printer have dropped their prices this year, which is pretty exciting, as it means I should be able… Continue reading State of Play
Strange beings even by the standards of Vaarn, Lithlings are a slow, solemn species with a silicon-based biology that surely originates in a solar system far removed from Urth. They are solitary by nature, concerned mainly with the opinions of other Lithlings, and with the esoteric academic studies they devote their long lives to. Lithlings… Continue reading PLAYER ANCESTRY: LITHLING
I've been wanting to make the Planeyfolk a playable ancestry for a while, I just hadn't sat down and worked out how their special rules would function. I finally decided to have a stab at it today. Here are the results. The study of hypergeometry claimed many casualties, for those who seek to unpick the… Continue reading PLAYER ANCESTRY: PLANEYFOLK
Hello everyone, just wanted to let you know that I'm on the latest episode of The Lost Bay Podcast, which is a new show that interviews RPG creators about their work. We talked for ages about science-fiction, writing for RPGs as compared to writing novels, my process as an illustrator, the lore of Dark Souls,… Continue reading Guest spot on The Lost Bay Podcast
Solo play: everyone's talking about it. Well, perhaps not everyone, but it's been on my mind recently. Several people have written to me during the pandemic to say they've used the tables in the Vaarn zines to run solo campaigns, and the idea appealed to me. Really, who needs players? The true GM can challenge… Continue reading VAULTS SOLO PLAY
