Let's create a Vaults of Vaarn 1e character!

This week, to add to my series of character creation posts (which started a few weeks ago with a Cairn 2e character), I'll make a Vaults of Vaarn 1e character. This game, which recently had a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign for its 2nd edition, originally came out as a series of zines which detail a bizarre sci-fantasy setting, which can be adapted to most OSR games.
Issue 1, though, also contains a ruleset inspired by Knave and a character creation process. Let's go through it!

1. First we roll 3d6 in order for the 6 ABILITIES: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intellect, Psyche and Ego. We can then swap two of them, if we want (I'll keep them in order, as I don't have any character in mind). The peculiarity of this system is that we don't add up the dice, but instead the value of the lowest die in each set becomes the ability's BONUS, to which we add 10 to find its DEFENCE value. Let's roll:
- 5, 2, 2 for Strength, so +2/12;
- 6, 3, 3 for Dexterity, so +3/13;
- 4, 4, 2 for Constitution, so +2/12;
- 2, 1, 1 for Intellect, so +1/11;
- 5, 3, 3 for Psyche, so +3/13;
- 6, 6, 6 for Ego, so +6/16.

2. Next we choose our ANCESTRY. There are 5 in the zine: True-kin (humans), Cacogen (mutants), Synths (machines), Newbeasts (humanoid animals) and Mycomorph (fungi intertwined with the corpse of a dead human). I'll use an NPC generator table included in the zine to pick: Cacogen.
We flip to their page  and find a series of d20 spark tables to roll on:
- Name, 4, Conch;
- Demeanour, 5, Daring;
- Misfortune, 16, Rejected;
- Eccentricity, 1, A strange hat;
- Body, 2, Short;
- Face, 3, Cruel;
- Hair, 15, Wispy;
- Attire, 13, Hegemony Garb (Hegemony is a faction in the setting, inspired by the Roman Empire).

2a. We also have a d100 mutation table, on which we can roll up to three times:
- 18, Compound eyes;
- 35, Feathers instead of hair (very wispy indeed);
- 8, Beak.
So a bird head with fly eyes...nightmare fuel stuff. I love it.

3. Now we roll 1d8 for our starting and maximum HIT POINTS (HP): 4.

4-5. We have a number of ITEM SLOTS equal to our Constitution defence (which can be increased on level up), so 12, and start with 3 days of rations, 1 weapon (1d20 twice: 4, 16: Crystal Sword, occupies 2 slots and deals d8 damage), Armour (1d20 twice: 2, none, so asrmour value of 10 and +0 bonus; 13, Helm, 1 slot, +1 armour) and last we roll 1d20 for each Gear Table: 2, Magnetic Boots, 7, Luminous Paint.

6. All that is left is to roll 1d20 each for our EXOTICA (this game's magic items), 8, Chameleon Cloak, and for our MYSTIC GIFT, 18, Summon Orbs. I'm not sure what this would do, it requires some thought.

And here we are! This character is pretty unique and I'd be interested in playing them. I wonder how Vaults of Vaarn would play solo? It includes a lot of random tables, so I think it could work.
Have you heard of this game before? Have you played or run it? If you have, I'd like to hear about your experience.

This is all for this week, see you next Sunday for my next post!

May your dice never betray you,
Kirhon

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