fragments of a blue ruin
Some of the writing work I've been doing recently for Bloodheist has been in collaboration with Penny De Redful. Penny is the pseudonymous author of the weekly Scandal Sheet, a scurrilous rag full of gossip and rumours, a publication that every vampire in the Undying Empire decries as an atrocious breach of privacy when their name… Continue reading Penny De Redful Writes In
Long ago, when the Autarchs still reigned over Vaarn, there was a certain valley where no plant grew and no bird sang and no man had made a house for the land underfoot was poisoned and all who camped there would sicken and die. In time the Autarch's wise men were told tales of this… Continue reading BLIGHTSTONE KNIGHT
I run my vampire heist game Bloodheist fairly regularly, but I don't often post the play reports, which I think is a mistake. I was lucky enough to playtest the game with a small new group this weekend, so I've decided to offer a brief summary of the proceedings. The playtesters rolled up completely random… Continue reading Bloodheist: The Clearlake Sanitarium
My first Vaarn solo play experiment was remarkably popular, becoming one of the blog's most read posts to date. Because I'm a sell-out who only cares about engagement metrics (and also because it was fun), I have decided to revive the solo-plays and make them a semi-regular series. I'm going to keep playing with our… Continue reading VAARN SOLO PLAY: EPISODE 2
It's been quiet here recently. I've gone away for the first time since March 2020 and frankly I've been trying to use my computer as little as I can. Rest assured that I have been working however; I am progressing both with Bloodheist, which should be releasing in October, and an as yet unannounced Vaarn… Continue reading Summer Update
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
VAULTS OF VAARN 