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Hello wanderers, thought I'd take a moment to update you on progress with the artwork. We now have some finished pieces to discuss, so I'll take you through concept work and then show the final inks for each.
I decided to start with the steeds section, for no other reason than I felt like drawing some animals.
Zorse
You have actually seen these sketches last month, but they're relevant to this creature so I'm sharing them again. Zorses are the dominant equine strain still surviving on Urth. Since most of Vaarn's animals have gone through some process of gene-sculpting, I want them to look familiar but not quite what you'd see outside your window. The Zorse is obviously derived from zebras, but I didn't want to just draw a zebra and call it good. My initial sketches here are of okapis, a relative of the giraffe which boast a similar stripe pattern to zebras on their rumps.
The final piece ended up being more zebra-like again. I didn't actually end up doing lots of preliminary drawings for this one, I just went for it. The patterning is based on a quagga, an extinct subspecies of zebra that was hunted to extinction in the 1900s. I just think they're neat!
Regarding genetic modification, note the long tongue that can feed on insect protein and the running spikes instead of hooves, something Zorses share with the Destrier (on which more in a later update).
Stridingfool
Stridingfools seem completely logical to me in context of the wider Vaarn setting but present some unique challenges in portraying. They are human-derived burden beasts, lacking sapience but having grown much stronger. Vaarn features many creatures that have gained human-like sapience, so it feels appropriate to also feature some post-human creatures that have moved the other way. Dougal Dixon's Man After Man and the truly grotesque creatures in All Tomorrows cover this territory in more depth. I did some initial explorations that I wasn't entirely happy with. The figure on the left is clearly gorilla-derived, but I ended up feeling that 'gorilla' wasn't really the vibe I wanted here, as it doesn't really give the unnverving impression of a human form twisted back into something it isn't meant to be. Gorillas are after all meant to be themselves! Walking on all fours isn't uncomfortable for them.
The right hand sketch shows an upright posture, but I wasn't super happy with this either. It looks too generically ogre-ish. I think you could explore this one further by making his back more shelf-like and contorted, but I needed another source of reference.
My partner suggested a truly quadrupedal pose, as it's really unnatural and uncomfortable for humans to walk this way. I ended up looking at some stills of Ayla Kirstine, a Norwegian woman who for reasons known only to her has learned to walk and run like a horse. The footage is deeply uncomfortable to watch but provided some great references, as you can see above.
I refined the look further, moving away from a lithe female form to something even more primal - a kind of hairless quasi-neonate morphology. The rounded head and staring wide eyes speak of vulnerability while the hairless muscular body communicates the opposite. The final piece was hard to settle on, but I'm pleased with the effect. A truly upsetting creation. If your friends aren't sure if Vaarn is for them, show them this picture and only this picture.
Burden Bird
Bird steeds have been a science fantasy mainstay for decades, presumably based on the horseclaws from Nausicaa. Accordingly I did very few sketches for the Burden Bird, as the basic design work was already done for me. I did consider a Terror Bird-like profile, as you can see bottom right, but it looks too predatory and aggressive. I wanted these guys to seem more docile. The final piece came together pretty easily. I'm finding my stride again with the illustrations and looking forward to showing you more in a few weeks time.
Hello wanderers, hope you're all enjoying some summer weather wherever on Urth you are! Just a little community plug, I'm hosting a game jam over the summer on itch.io.
The returning Vaarn Summer Jam is a non-ranked game jam, where entrants are invited to contribute submissions relating to Vaults of Vaarn, and science-fantasy roleplaying games in general.
Entries can be adventures, maps, artefacts, NPCs, art packs, or anything else you can dream up. I have a very loose content policy but please don't submit stuff that has no relation whatsoever to science-fantasy. I would like all entries to be conceptually compatible with Vaults of Vaarn, even if they're not actually written for the setting or system. To see last year's submissions click here.
All Vaults of Vaarn material presented in the original three zines and the drafts of the Second Edition rulebook are covered by a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution license, and you are free to use it however you want in your submissions to this jam or other projects. The artwork and adventure locations I produced for the Deluxe Edition are copyright to Games Omnivorous and can't be reused.
as promised I'm going to be switching to a different update format over the summer. My big job now is to complete 81 outstanding illustrations for the core rulebook, so I'd like to post every few weeks with some news about how that's progressing.
I haven't yet completed any final pieces, but I have been filling sketchbooks with preliminary work. This stage of creating is really fun and vital for me - although I have some ideas about what the final illustrations will look like, the sketching stage is a good time to start exploring forms and composition. I sometimes wish my final illustrations could look as fresh and spontaneous as the sketches do.
The Sketches
A quick study from Moebius. He has a lot of signature quirks in his SFF illustrations, one of them being these dome-like buildings that seem almost moulded into the landscape.
An Autarch. My take on these vanished God-Kings is they're a little bit Bablyonian, a little bit Hindu god, with some Space Pharoah in there as well.
A neobloom smoking a cigarette.
More neoblooms and line testing.
An okapi, being used as inspiration for Vaarn's Zorses (which aren't quite horses and aren't quite zebras despite the name).
More okapi studies.
Some ray cat explorations. Drawing from real world Sphynx cats.
A beefy ape and some more cat studies.
A bit of inking. I'm quite out of practise with the brushes and dip pen so there's a lot of this stuff - mark making and trying to reignite the neural pathways that operate my drawing hand.
I hope this was fun and informative! There should be some final inked pieces to look at in the next update.
Currently CRIMSON HOUND is the most recent draft. If you have comments/questions/typos/suggestions on content, please try to identify which draft you're reading from! It makes it much easier for me to keep track.
What's new in CRIMSON HOUND?
I am pleased to announce that we are content complete, and only one spread remains unfinished. Amongst the additions this month:
Expanded the list of Elixirs (p.53-54). There are now 40, 8 of each potency level.
Expanded the list of Hypergeometric Equations (p.59-60). There are now 40.
Added a new type of Vault room: Treasure Rooms (p.111). These replace the old Exotica room types, and now scale with vault depth to provide greater and more varied rewards on deeper floors.
Expanded the Vault Hazards (p.113-114) to be a double page spread. It's now easier to read and includes clues for each hazard type.
New Exotica Generator (p.125-126). This is a 4d100 table, which gives inspiration for random items of Exotica (in case the d100 pre-written Exotica aren't enough). You do need to interpret the results yourself however.
You can now generate Place Names (p.159-160) during region creation. This spread is not quite finished yet! It is harder than it seems to come up with the themed place names.
New monster: the Kalopede (p.198). I promised myself I wouldn't add any more but here we are. I regret nothing.
Eigin Oasis (p.289-290) now finally has location text like it should have since the first draft of this book.
Patch Notes
Removed a few monsters from Lair generation that no longer appear in the Bestiary.
Moved the Treasure chapter to follow the Creating Vaults material, since those tables are referenced repeatedly during vault creation.
Moved the Drugs and Musical Instruments to the Equipment chapter, since both tables can be referenced during PC creation.
Added stat blocks for the Spawn of An-Rah's Guts and Brain, which were missing from Tomb of Nassak An-Rah.
What's Next?
You'll be excited to learn that we are now going into editing! I have engaged the services of Christian Sorrell who previously acted as copyeditor and proofreader for my award-winning adventure module The Shrike.Christian will be helping me edit, proof-read, and index Vaults of Vaarn 2E over the summer, so hopefully we can remove a lot of the typos and unclear language.
I anticipate this work will take us through to September. In the meantime I will be full-steam ahead on the artwork and fine-tuning the layout. It is likely that I will be updating you all with monthly artwork previews instead of updates to the rulebook, as we're content complete with this rough draft.
I hope spring is treating you well, I have been delighted to finally see some blossoms around the Vaults of Vaarn bunker. We have a new WIP draft, codenamed SABLE GECKO, of the core rulebook for your edification.
Currently SABLE GECKO is the most recent draft. If you have comments/questions/typos/suggestions on content, please try to identify which draft you're reading from! It makes it much easier for me to keep track.
What's new in SABLE GECKO?
I'm focusing on getting the last bits of new content laid out and drafted rather than updating existing pages.
Minor Factions (p.84). Some dice tables to help you create minor factions, including ambitions, leaders, and more.
New Faction creature: Unfolder (p.94). A spooky hypergeometric horror, which serves the Jigsaw Autarch.
Settlement Quirks (p.118). These tables create some additional quirks and features for Vaarnish settlement, including festivals, fashionable clothing, and entertainments. This completes the settlement-generation content.
d100 Landmarks (p.159-160). One hundred landmarks to add further texture to your overland maps. This completes the region-generation content.
New monster:Witchgrub (p.xx). A rather horrid beast, which damages armour with sprays of acid.
Updated Bestiary: now contains stat blocks for some missing creatures (Hagfluke, Fleshwarp, Laser Shrimp). All Faction-aligned creatures now appear in the Bestiary as well. This should complete the Bestiary. I know there has been some desire for more creature illustrations so I'm looking at ways to expand the Bestiary and get some more space for art in there.
Still to Come
Expanded list of Hypergeometric Equations
The Lithic Lyceum (major faction)
The Head of Briareus (an adventure site)
Innumerable tweaks and edits.
You will note that the list of content to be added is quite short now, so the end of drafting is in sight. I'm hoping to make one more major text-only update and then move into illustrations over summer while my editor does their thing.
