About – Yarn TTRPG

We love games

We’re not selling anything. Playing and designing games is fun, and we’ve been at it a long time. We decided to share some of our ideas with other gamers.

We have an original ongoing shared Traveller setting with 3D maps. Two of us have been collaborating on the Array, and we will continue to do so.

I’m also busy revising a system, a home brew project that I hope will live up to the name Yarn.

We have used VTTs as well, including Fantasy Grounds, Roll20 and Foundry. As far as other in-print games, Chaosium has some really great stuff.

Update for February 2025: Wayne has wrapped his first campaign set in the Array, played a smaller one with a different set of psionic characters, and has now begun a by-the-book (at first anyway) campaign of Call of Cthulhu. Dave is preparing to begin a Pendragon (Arthurian) game. Everyone has wrapped their various D&D campaigns (3.5 and 5E), so we are Hasbro-free.

Update for June 2025: Wayne is wrapping his Call of Cthulhu campaign soon, and gearing up for Volume II of the Ebon March campaign set in the Array. I’m wrapping Volume I of my Traveller campaign and preparing for a play test of Yarn 0.2 . Dave may be running Pendragon later this summer, after we’ve had our WW2 fun by playing Days of Decision. Much as we’d love to play a full game of WiFCE, leaving a game that big set up for a year is just too much.

Update for August 2025: Wayne’s CoC campaign has reached the end of ‘season one’, with a cliffhanger, great fun. I have decided that Yarn 0.2 will be tested with a published setting, Symbaroum. It feels well-suited to offer diverse options for play style, with equal opportunity for a dungeon dive or a story-driven approach. The challenge will be interpreting the Symbaroum setting in Yarn terms, but I think it’s a good test for the rules.

Update for October 2025: Wayne has been GMing Walking Dead for a couple of weeks. For my game, the players have characters for Symbaroum, using Yarn. I’m following the recommended published trajectory for adventures, at least at first. Also, Next time we get together, Dave will prepare Blades in the Dark characters, and we’re all excited to see what the buzz is about.

Update for February 2025: Wayne has begun a D&D 2024 campaign, in his new setting, so for the moment we are not Hasbro-free. We are alternating games, D&D one week, Symbaroum the next. As to the latter, we are coming up on the end of the introductory trilogy of adventures (Copper Crown). Yarn 0.2 has needed some tweaking, notably eliminating resistance rolls and initiative rolls. I’ve also added a ‘help’ die mechanic so that characters can contribute to feats attempted by others, and a ‘buy-back’ mechanic, where players are rewarded for playing their drawbacks in interesting or entertaining ways. Players seem to really enjoy the setting. I will upload a current Yarn rule set soon.