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Vaarn! i do love Vaarn! And there aren't much vaarn adventure out there. And this is a very fine, simple in concept but clever in execution adventure. One in which feelings are at stake, is feeling is what you are looking for. The Despair counter is devilish and looks like something that could work smoothly setting the whole vibes on the right track. That's a special one for sure. Top notch stuff here. (graphic also is crafted with care but also makes a sens in the whole scenario menaing and vibes!)
I love the concept of a time-travelling hexcrawl! Visuals are fantastic, and the items and monsters seem like a lot of fun. The permanent despair track is interesting and locking travel inwards to the black hole seems like a good way. I’d be curious to see how things would play out as the party keeps meeting the same characters after a couple of trips through the gravity well.
One oddity I noticed is that you can lose a character, roll a new one to join the party, then travel into the well. I guess then the original party gets retconned to start with the new member, right? :D I thought it could be interesting if the new character really reset to their own timeline, though I guess that would be a headache to run.
Loved it. Adding a whole mechanic based on the title was clever. Despair and black hole go hand in hand for me. The Groundhog Day-esque loop gives the players a chance to learn a lot, while also allowing the Despair to become a ticking clock. Great work and beautiful presentation!
I love Vaults of Vaarn but have struggled to find easy-to-use adventures for the system. This one delivers on literally everything I'm looking for. Thanks to the print-friendly version you've generously supplied, I'll be printing this out and putting it in my hardcover edition.
Yeah, I’ve only really run and played in a few things with Vaarn that weren’t just generated from the tables inside, which I think is just such a wonderful resource. I am hoping this finds its way to plenty of Vaarn tables and I get to hear all the crazy stuff that goes on. I heard one group hit the Kronophage already, devestating.
Fantastic entry! The vibes, theme, colors, map, layout, the despair track, the navigational gravity mechanics- you nailed every aspect of this!
This is the only Vaarn entry I’ve seen so far, which is yet another reason for this one to really stand out. Fantastic job!
Thanks so much, you are too kind. I have been head over heals into a vaarn hole so when the star aligned with this title I had to do it.
Dammit, I am kicking myself at the missed opportunity to hyperlink to the Black Sword Hack SRD. Super big brain move that meant you didn't need to list all those tiresome page references.
I legit love the whole framework of this scenario and I think that when I run Vaults of Vaarn, I'll likely use this adventure to bring it to the table. It's one of the more effective ways of implementing a time loop I've seen and I like the despair mechanism that makes the looping finite. Very clever!
You've crammed this thing full of science fantasy and I adore the injured time traveller. Wish you'd had room for a little easter egg reference in naming him, but he's a standout feature nonetheless.
The visuals are fab. 100% nailing the Vaarn vibe and evoking a blue desert that gives you the blues! The hexflower with the keys around it is a genius piece of layout and design. Another one I'm jealous of not thinking of.
Really nicely done, sir.
Page refs are a pain, especially when there are 2 existing versions of the books, a new one (2e) in development and the first version is just 4 zines. Pure chaos! I will leverage my electron wizard powers and hoist words from castles of caged light. Anyway man, thanks for reading it and sharing your thoughts, I really laboured my ass off over this so I’m really glad it landed for you. I deeply admire your work, and respect your taste.
Gorgeous and evocative. I can't comment on play-ability, since I've never heard of the game system, but everything I can vouch for looks great. Nice job.
Well, you have heard of the game system now, AND I linked to the SRD, so you can go check out the rules and stuff for free. If you get nothing else from this, exposure to vaarn is what I want you to have.
Strong gravitational pull on this one, dense with gameable information, but do not despair! It has a clear hexcrawl framework for approaching its bespoke mechanics that will not weigh us down.
Yeah I know there its a heavy subject, but don’t let it get your down, you can always try again next loop!
Gorgeous to see, with a really cool layout and dense of informations, I am sure it's a pleasure to play. I was thinking if there is a specific design reason to start in a specific hex, by what I read any border hex should work quite well.
Hey thanks for reading. You know originally the idea was the party could start from any hex, and only one of the hooks started you in a specific hex, but in the end I decided it was less clunky to run from the hip if you just have a place to start and restart from, save the GM some work, and we can always just override that at our own tables anyway. I feel like designing in small spaces you get a lot of value from just deciding on the thing sometimes.