fragments of a blue ruin
Following the success of the previous two Vaarn Summer Jams, I’m hosting a third annual game jam on itch.io! The submission period began at the start of June and will run until the end of August this year, making it a true summer event. The returning Summer Jam is a non-ranked game jam, where entrants are invited… Continue reading VAARN SUMMER JAM ’24
After a long gestation period, the fourth issue of the main Vaults of Vaarn zine series is finally available for purchase. Printed copies of the zine, along with special edition cassette tapes of the official soundtrack by Out On Our Own, can currently be purchased from my online store Antipode Zines. I will be adding more retailers here as… Continue reading VAULTS OF VAARN #4 RELEASE
After almost three years in production (!!) the fourth issue of Vaults of Vaarn is complete. If you want to start reading the PDF, it is currently available for Patrons only. The zine will go to press by the end of May, and pre-orders will be starting on Antipode Zines soon. There will also be… Continue reading VAULTS OF VAARN #4 COMING SOON
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
I have finally begun work on the illustrations for Vaults of Vaarn issue 4. I don't want to make any firm promises on how long this will take. I'm really rusty and realised that I've barely had a proper illustration schedule since I was doing stuff for the Deluxe Edition back in April 2022! So… Continue reading SKETCHBOOK: VoV #4 BESTIARY
The bestiary at present doesn't give many examples of what a Vaarnish psychic actually looks like. Here is an attempt to rectify that error. Assume all of these creatures to be telepathic and conversant in Noospeech, although you may not like what some have to say. Psy-Owl Biological / Psychic Level 1 / Armour 14… Continue reading PSYCHIC CREATURES
Ostriel’s secret police and intelligence service. Masters of espionage, sabotage, and assassination. Always alert for threats (real or imagined) against the Queen. The Krypteia have spies and informants embedded everywhere: Ostriel, Sargattea, the wider Wall, and throughout Vaarn. Many of these informants have no idea who they really serve. The organisation’s upper echelon is a… Continue reading FACTION: THE KRYPTEIA
We return for the last (for now) installment of Monsters in the Machine, a series where I riff back and forth with GPT-3 and create monsters for Vaarn based on the stat blocks the AI spits out. Our previous episode saw the AI plant the seeds for several new additions to the bestiary. Now I've… Continue reading MONSTERS IN THE MACHINE 10: THE FINAL CHAPTER
The second annual Vaarn Summer Jam ended on the 30th of August 2023, boasting 23 submissions from TTRPG creators on itch.io. The imagination and enthusiasm emanating from these entries has been really inspiring for me, and it has been exciting to read through them all. As with the last jam, I wanted to use some… Continue reading SUMMER JAM ’23: THE ENTRIES (Part 1)
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
VAULTS OF VAARN 