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danieljosephoneil rated VAULTS OF VAARN #1

A downloadable RPG zine.

I haven't played a lot of it, but one of the points of OSR seems to be that the GM has a lot of control-there's a lot of ambiguity in the mechanics, (the better to play many sessions with a tiny zine with), that require on the fly rulings and collaborative descriptions of powers and aspects of the reality of Vaarn. So it's hard for me to say how much of how great I have with this game is the game and how much is my GM.

Regardless that,  this game is just amazing. I sat down with zero knowledge and had a functional character that I love the feel/atheistic of in like 15 minutes or less, including waiting for the GM to answer questions that were answered clearly- often in the part of the zine I was looking at. Our adventures are fun during successes and failures, and feel random in the most real way. I love playing this game and the world we've started to create more than any other I've tried in nearly a decade.

And the zine itself, (I haven't gotten to look at the book yet), is just wonderful as an object. The language is so perfectly minimalist and evocative. The art is so attractive and perfectly matched with the tone of the writing. The world is so cool and and tightly woven into the mechanics it constantly creates these little moments that just feel like something's snapped together in your head, in the collective head of the table. it's like a giant sky-hook dragging you into the reality and logic of the world and fun as hell. Play this game!