fragments of a blue ruin
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
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
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
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
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
Hello everyone, after two months of writing and drawing, the second issue of my zine Vaults of Vaarn has been released! Issue #2 Includes: Information and background on the city of Gnomon: what it looks like, how it feels to walk through its streets, and why your players might visit the city.Seven major NPCs who influence… Continue reading VAULTS OF VAARN #2 RELEASE
"Others still travel to Gnomon seeking wisdom, for the city is not only home to a thousand shaded markets, but also to a thousand philosopher’s guilds and esoteric colleges. The study of the lost wisdom of the ancients is feverishly pursued. Tech-priests, petty gurus, science mystics, and alchemists compete for patrons, prestige, and precious glimpses… Continue reading PHILOSOPHER’S GUILDS OF GNOMON
It's been a big few months in Vaarn-land. I launched the first zine that details the setting, and had a really great response, much better than I had hoped. However, all the work I've been doing on the zine has distracted from updates from my ongoing Sunday night campaign. I'm going to summarise the last… Continue reading VAARN ACTUAL PLAY MEGA UPDATE: EPISODES 14-16
The first issue of 'VAULTS OF VAARN' is now available for download or purchase. This is the rules I use to play Vaarn, the character generation tables I use, as well as monsters, NPCs, generators for ruins and rare drugs, basically a mix of material from this blog and also stuff that hasn't been seen… Continue reading VAULTS OF VAARN ZINE NOW AVAILABLE
In Vaarn many things have become intertwined, and much that was once the province of mankind alone - speech, reason, art, religion - has been granted to other forms of life and these beings hold themselves as humanity’s equal. In the mycomorph death and life are preserved in strange balance, for the creatures are formed… Continue reading PLAYER ANCESTRY: MYCOMORPH
