Vaults of Vaarn is a series of zines comprising a TTRPG setting known as Vaarn, which takes inspiration from settings like Dune and Hyperion. In this setting, the sun is going out and you - the player - are combing through the detritus of prior great civilizations.
Personally, as I read this I get vague memories of my (very minimal) exposure to the Dwarf Fortress-inspired game, Caves of Qud. The setting is weird, alien, far-future and post-calamity. It's a really neat setting that I first heard of while watching another fellow's YouTube The Amazing Aaxor. He uses this together with Starforged to create a completely unique playthrough of solo Starforged and it was such a neat setting that I had to find at least a PDF of it myself.
Now, the Zine/book for Vaults of Vaarn does include its own set of rules for things like character creation, gameplay, and combat, so if you don't want to run this as a setting you're plopping into another game's mechanics that's fine! You can run Vaults of Vaarn by itself just fine.
Much like a lot of RPGs on the market, there is a six-stat array of abilities:
Unlike games like D&D, the default mechanics of this system does cap your character's level at 10 - which I read as a very good thing!
Once a character has reached Level 10, they are considered complete. Each subsequent level will grant one extra HP, and they cannot increase their Abilities further. It is recommended that they recruit an Apprentice to accompany them on Expeditions. Once they have gained a few Levels, this Apprentice can become your new main character
Unlike some games, this ensures that you'll actually have a chance of not just capping your character level, but of also resolving their character arc to a satisfying conclusion - and because of the additional suggestion that they then take on an apprentice you can still continue your adventure! You can keep a story going without needing to tie yourself to one character exclusively, and that is an exciting option.
One of my key features of this book is the abundance of really fun roll tables. Things like an easy to reference and well-designed table for generating quick NPCs on the fly:
Four d20 rolls (or less) and you have an instant NPC. That's something a solo gamer or any GM can instantly get value out of.
Another random example that I could easily use in my ongoing D&D game (and honestly, probably WILL use now that I've seen it) is a chart for quickly generating random books:
This is absolutely fantastic. What a great little system to leverage for a GM or solo gamer.
Most of this first zine's content is comprised of handy tables like this, as well as some quick and easy rules to play the game, and a few pages of stats for pre-rolled monsters/enemies.
There are two other Zines, which I haven't yet read:
So far, I'm really happy with this purchase. I can see a lot of value in the neat setting and the great tables. I doubt I'll run the game itself any time soon, but I may take inspiration from Aaxor and smash together Vaults of Vaarn with another solo-focused game I enjoy. We will see! My ttrpg time has been extremely limited lately, so I make no promises about videos featuring this any time soon. That said, we will probably read through the other two zines in the days to come and give thoughts to their content.
As always, until next time my friends: Happy Gaming!
