fragments of a blue ruin
I’ve never made a secret of my admiration for the Half-Life franchise, and I wanted to try my hand at converting one of Gordon Freeman’s most famous alien adversaries (which in turn have a literary forefather in a really great Clark Ashton Smith story). The three headcrab subspecies and their respective zombies in Half-Life 2… Continue reading SCULLCRABS
There comes a time in the evening, when the lamps have been dimmed and the mammut have settled in their stables, when one sits alone on the porch listening to summer rain fall upon the orange groves and the warm wind rummaging in the deeper forests about the estate. Work has ceased and the only… Continue reading THE HEGEMONY AND ITS DISCONTENTS
To Urth they came, long hungering, riding radiation-waves in the silence like fungal spores roil upon the wind. Our light does not love them as it does terrestrial creatures and so these cosmic vagrants are without shadow or hue possessing only unseen form. Those unfortunates who glimpse them are given mind of a withered tree… Continue reading STAR VAMPIRE
The Vaarn bestiary has grown quite a bit since the first zine came out, now totalling at over 100 official monsters. There was some discussion recently on the Vaarn Discord about the encounter table given in the original zine, regional variations upon it, and encounter threat. In the spirit of leading by example, I'm going… Continue reading WASTELAND ENCOUNTERS
As stated: the Deluxe Edition is back in stock at Exalted Funeral. These sold out really fast last time so buy now to avoid disappointment!
I’m back for an eighth installment of Monsters in the Machine. To re-read our previous entry click here, or you can go back to the start and see how it all began. To quickly re-cap what’s going on, this is a series where I feed the GPT-3 AI entries from the Vaults of Vaarn bestiary and let it come up with… Continue reading MONSTERS IN THE MACHINE 8
I’m back for a seventh bumper-sized dose of Monsters in the Machine. To re-read our previous entry click here, or you can go back to the start and see how it all began. To quickly re-cap what’s going on, this is a series where I feed the GPT-3 AI entries from the Vaults of Vaarn bestiary and let it come… Continue reading MONSTERS IN THE MACHINE 7
A quick update. Vaults of Vaarn: Deluxe Edition has a second print run. The book sold out within days in 2022, so hopefully this allows people who missed out last summer to grab their own copy! Order from Antipode Zines (ships from the UK). Order from Games Omnivorous (ships from the EU). Order from Exalted… Continue reading DELUXE EDITION SECOND PRINTING
The first Vaarn Summer Jam ended on the 7th of September 2022, with 33 submissions from tabletop RPG creators on itch.io! I've been delighted by the variety of the submissions and the level of artistry shown by the community. This is the conclusion of my overview of the Jam submissions. The following summaries aren't intended… Continue reading VAARN SUMMER JAM: THE ENTRIES (PART THREE)
An underserved category of monster is the Outsider, something that hails from beyond the bounds of our universe and is strange even to Vaarn. Here are five Outsiders to throw at your party. Be warned that they all fight in bemusing or annoying ways, and most require hypergeometric or anti-paradox gear to properly fight. Also… Continue reading FIVE OUTSIDERS
VAULTS OF VAARN 