I keep finding hair in my K.D.

    Imagine if the cover art for Dopesmoker by Sleep was turned into an OSR-styled TTRPG. That is Vaults of Vaarn (VoV)... and over the past 48 hours I have been subsumed by it. I've bought the PDFs for the rule-book & a bestiary supplement, already have ordered professional quality prints of said PDFs, taken university-level notes on the rules, and have begun crafting my own world within VoV. To say I am committed to the creative endeavour of exploring this world may be understating things.

    This mania was brought about through a glance in the RPG category within the In Rust We Trust Discord server. Someone there made mention of an acid western RPG, and that led me to Questing Beast's video review of Frontier Scum. This led my curiosity to DriveThru RPG and eventually to looking up the publisher's other titles. Which led me to VoV. The moment I began reading about what VoV is and its world, I was in*. 

    Something about the world of Vaarn has grabbed me. It has encouraged a creative desire to bring life to a world. I have no ultimate goal for what is produced from this current mania. I've made mention on Instagram and in passing to some that I may take all of this, and run a "West Marches" campaign. I know a few of my friends love a lo-fi, science-fantasy setting for RPGs and have said they're down for it. But we shall see. For now, I am solely seeing this as a creative exercise. 

    The wood for this fire is primarily the synergies I am discovering within the book itself. I am seeing how one could run a procedurally generated campaign with minimal worry of dissonance. Since the world of Vaarn is focused and stylized, everything within it is fairly connected to one another already; I keep becoming giddy when I realize another synergy that exists between two or three parts of VoV. I get further elated when I imagine players making such connections on their own. 

    So, what is the ultimate focus of this post? Man, like... It's 21:43 right now and I'm barely able to finish this thing right not. I have no clue. Gun to my head, it just a post for me to share my thin thoughts on VoV, at this time. I think the world is really cool, I am loving building a world within it, I am getting giddy from discovering interplays between its elements, and I think I may run a campaign for it. But we'll see on that last point. I say that as I have never run a long-term RPG campaign, yet. I've done plenty of one-shots in a variety of IRL settings, with a variety of people, but nothing long term with a consistent group. Part of me wants to have a fleshed out playground ready before attempting such a task. Yet another part of me hears the words of a wise man (whose friendship and wisdom I treasure deeply),

"DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT"

Of course, now that I have mentioned that... hmu if you sincerely want to play around in this world I'm currently building. I make no promises on what the experience will be like. But I do promise, that at the least, you'll probably have a pleasant time with some other weirdos you may or may not know.

      * The dormant seed that flourished within me when I began reading about VoV was my love for the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune (a wonderfully, wild documentary on a "what could have been" version of Dune). Jodorowsky's Dune is one fuelled by a psychotic, psychedelic, 1970s energy. Striking colours, tripped out creatures, and mind-bending designs.