fragments of a blue ruin
The fabled vaults of Vaarn - ah! Those tech-tombs that glimmer with tantalising shards of the Long Ago, tablescraps of the gods gone to rot in the recesses of the Urth! Concrete caverns, open doorways like blind idiot eyes, supercoolant lagoons in which lounge creatures of utmost malice and depravity! I have walked silent halls… Continue reading EXPLORATION BENEATH THE URTH
Trade goods are common units of exchange in the blue wastes. The worth of trade goods is measured in an abstract stat called Value, which generally correlates to an item slot’s worth of the good. Therefore 100 grubs can be exchanged for a single bottle of wine, or for any other item or tool that… Continue reading VAARNISH TRADE GOODS
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
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
Each PC may keep one pet. The equipment used to care for the pet takes up one item slot. The pet must consume one ration per day, although what this consists of is dependent upon the nature of the pet. Pets who are not fed for seven days will run away at the first chance… Continue reading PETS AND STEEDS
Travel within the Great Wall is profoundly different from travelling the empty wastes of the Interior. This is an attempt to codify the differences, and make them apparent to Referees and players alike. Directions The Wall is a vertical structure. Directions given will differ from the standard four compass points. When giving directions, a denizen… Continue reading WALL-CRAWLING PROCEDURES
The word 'daemon' in Vaarnish parlance can refer to a number of different phenomena. What these disparate entities hold in common is that they are bodiless intelligences, often malicious, that seek to influence the material world or to inhabit the flesh of humans. The term is loosely applied: a swarm of invasive nanomachines might be… Continue reading QUANTUM DAEMONS
The Deluxe Edition hardback is a compilation of the first three issues of Vaults of Vaarn. I have generally restricted the changes to correcting obvious errors and expanding on some parts of the core rules that were ambiguous. An example would be that the first issue includes several monsters that dealt damage directly to a… Continue reading WHAT’S CHANGED IN THE DELUXE EDITION?
The weapon stats given in the core zines aren't very complex. When it comes to mundane weapons, all you're really told is the basic form and a descriptive modifier, which has no set gameplay effect. They have a weight in item slots and a damage value: d6 for a light weapon, d8 for a medium… Continue reading ADVANCED WEAPON RULES
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
VAULTS OF VAARN 