Yarn is the working title of a home brew game system I’ve been tinkering with for a few years. It is a middle road between crunchy old school and modern narrative approaches. The main features are familiar to those who’ve played a lot of TTRPGs, but the mix is I hope unique.
Yarn 0.1
Volume I of the Favored is done. Yarn held up well, and I learned a lot. We ran it every other week for the most part, for about 10 months. 18 adventures with no rules modifications.
Yarn 0.2
Now that we’re wrapping my campaign in our shared Traveller setting, I’m shifting to Symbaroum using Yarn rules.
This file is the second major revision, learning from the mass experiment that was the Favored. This is currently being tested.
Update: This is Yarn as of July 2025. Bookmarked and ready for play. I will give the players a few options for genre and setting, or let them use the Imagining from the rules.
Update for August 2025: Mike suggested I consider a published setting for the Yarn 0.2 test. I plan to locate the game in Symbaroum, from Free League . This is the opposite of the Favored, because the fantasy tropes are well-established, albeit with a Swedish spin on them, while the Favored was a home-brew in system and setting. I will wait on Mistrathe Manor for now.
Update for December 2025: V 0.24 Two sessions in to Symbaroum. Added two rules: another character can offer a help die to your feat if they forego their feat for the round; and players can “buy back” one trouble per session each from the narrator by playing their drawbacks in interesting and entertaining ways.
Symbaroum is turning out to be a good test for Yarn. It’s been tough, as I’ve been relying on a translation system to use their game info and stat blocks. When I use it for Mistrathe Manor, it will be an easier fit, as MM has used both our Short and Core systems, and Yarn is their successor.
Update for March 2025: V 0.25 Changed trouble mechanic. Now, the narrator only gets a trouble if you use two or more fortune for a roll, or if you have two or more un-kept ones on the dice.