fragments of a blue ruin
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
The laws of the Titans were subtle and terrible edicts, for held in common amongst those seven mighty minds was the belief that humankind was destined to seek its own destruction, in the same manner that a precious vase dropped from a rooftop seeks passionate reunification with the hard and unyielding ground. The Titan AIs… Continue reading ARGENT SHEPHERD
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
Let it never be said that fate has no sense of humour, for the only region of Vaarn blessed with vast bodies of standing water is the polluted swamp-sink of Ikor Quag. The foolhardy travellers who drink from the toxic canals of the Quag die in convulsive agony, and even touching the water of the… Continue reading LAMIGATOR
In the last episode, the party fought off a group of spider-women, went in search of a surgeon for Findus' spider-egg problem, and lost Nephew in a bakery. What will happen this week? Our cast: Flim-Flam, a two-headed cacogen. Proficient cook. Fights with twin pistols. Owns a cyborg hawk named Midnight.Findus, a newbeast. Horse-man with… Continue reading VAARN ACTUAL PLAY: EPISODE 21
Preparations for the Bloodheist Zinequest Kickstarter are very nearly complete, and we should be launching on the 2nd of February. I have been hard at work this week on a fun little trailer video to accompany the campaign, featuring voiceover by Annie Kelly from the conspiracy theory and internet politics podcast QAnon Anonymous, and a… Continue reading Bloodheist Trailer
We are back! I've only played intermittently over the last two months, mostly due to the holiday period. However, we are playing on Sunday nights again, and have even managed to schedule two consecutive sessions. In the last episode, the party visited Salari's Grill, an upmarket restaurant on Gnomon's Apex. The Water Baron was also… Continue reading VAARN ACTUAL PLAY: EPISODES 19 & 20
VAULTS OF VAARN 