Winter wonderland

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Neon

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Hey all.

Being from a northern country I have always had a soft spot for art and games which attempt to capture the beauty, scarcity and elemental harshness of white winters.

In the realm of board games there is Dead of Winter and Arctic Scavengers which I find captures the right feel. But for RPG I am not aware of any system that combines both winter theme and supporting mechanisms.

So that's my question for you all. Do you have any winter wonderland rpg recommendations?

My preference is fantasy but I'm not opposed to modern or scifi games.

:smile:
 
I've not played it myself, but you might consider Do Not Let Us Die in the Dark Night of This Cold Winter, which is designed as a survival supplement/adventure. Here is the description:
Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night Of This Cold Winter is a downtime activity, or mini-game, with a focus on helping an ill-fated frontier village survive a terrible winter season. Participants collect and manage supplies in an effort to keep the village folk alive despite the bleak, frightful conditions. It is designed to work inside of your regular fantasy role playing system and campaign with a slight separation of mechanics. As the game manager you become the village elder; tasked with setting the dour mood, keeping players on track, offering advice or strategy, and taking stock of the available supplies. Player characters become the adventurers; collecting and managing supplies while ensuring each villager receives what is needed most. The ultimate goal of Cold Winter is to keep the highest possible count of village folk alive as spring finally peeks from under the blanket of snow.
 
I will say this - you can't knock them for not having a descriptive product title.

Thanks I'll looking into it. :smile:
 
Hopefully, in the next few day, I will be releasing an adventure that deals with winter themes - The River Of Frozen Souls.

The River of Frozen Souls once contained Fortress Frostfang and the Anvil of Ice. Now its shattered remains have drifted south and are caught in the Maelstrom outside the small fishing town of Halfwinter. The premise is a mystery and dungeon crawl, the dungeon being the broken shards of the fortress which continue break apart and fuse together creating a random and constantly evolving ice dungeon. There are tables to deal with calving, rolling and fusing and other dangers associated with exploring icebergs. In addition, there are tables to help build your own ice dungeons.

SchleyCaves80x80-16x16Template - Siren's Reach.JPG
 
Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at the Utmost North is an obscure and different kind of RPG (very structured, thematic, and narrative) that might fit your description.
I've only read it and never actually played it.polaris.jpg
 
Symbaroum is pretty nordic.

I had a whole section of my campaign in which the party travelled around on a frozen lake in winter exploring the various islands.
 
I'd recommend the superb Swedish fantasy hexcrawler Forbidden Lands along with its snowy expansion, The Bitter Reach.
We've been talking a lot about it on this forum, so sorry if it's redundant information, but it's basically an old school RPG in sensibilities, presentation and goals, but with a quite modern dice pool system. It focuses very heavily on journeys, outdoor survival, resource management and crafting (probably the most important aspects of the game).

I jokingly call it the fantasy Bear Grylls simulator (or fantasy Lars Fält simulator, if you're from Sweden).
 
Hopefully, in the next few day, I will be releasing an adventure that deals with winter themes - The River Of Frozen Souls.

The River of Frozen Souls once contained Fortress Frostfang and the Anvil of Ice. Now its shattered remains have drifted south and are caught in the Maelstrom outside the small fishing town of Halfwinter. The premise is a mystery and dungeon crawl, the dungeon being the broken shards of the fortress which continue break apart and fuse together creating a random and constantly evolving ice dungeon. There are tables to deal with calving, rolling and fusing and other dangers associated with exploring icebergs. In addition, there are tables to help build your own ice dungeons.


Sounds "cool". Don't worry I'll see my way out.

Will this be system agnostic?
 
I'd recommend the superb Swedish fantasy hexcrawler Forbidden Lands along with its snowy expansion, The Bitter Reach.
We've been talking a lot about it on this forum, so sorry if it's redundant information, but it's basically an old school RPG in sensibilities, presentation and goals, but with a quite modern dice pool system. It focuses very heavily on journeys, outdoor survival, resource management and crafting (probably the most important aspects of the game).

I jokingly call it the fantasy Bear Grylls simulator (or fantasy Lars Fält simulator, if you're from Sweden).

I'm sorta familiar with base FL. Do you have any details on if and how they've integrated winter elements into the mechanism?
 
Sounds "cool". Don't worry I'll see my way out.

Will this be system agnostic?


Yes, system agnostic. It should really work with any game that can handle Frost Giants (or just BIG northmen), cultists, thieves guilds, and some deranged monsters. You just need to plonk in stats from your system of choice. I played it with Zweihander (that's the game I was running at the time), but it's in part supposed to be a dungeon crawl, where the dungeon is moving, breaking up, re-forming as it moves. The dungeon is more dangerous than the creatures trapped in it.
 
The River Of Frozen Souls has shattered. As the remnants of this once mighty frozen fortress drifts south on the Sea Of Broken Blades, it carries with it the Anvil of Ice, a powerful artefact capable of bringing eternal winter to the world. Will this winter be your last?

The River Of Frozen Souls is a generic adventure set in the frozen north that can be used in almost any fantasy setting. This product includes the following:

  • Adventure Background
  • Plot Synopsis
  • Three Chapters Detailing The Adventure
  • Travel hazards And Encounter Tables
  • 17 Dungeon Location Maps
  • Dungeon Creation Rules
  • Dungeon Dressing Tables
 
I'm sorta familiar with base FL. Do you have any details on if and how they've integrated winter elements into the mechanism?

Sure! Well, in the base game, cold was already a condition the characters could get by not making a proper camp or lack the proper equipment for the night. Also, during wintertime three quarters of a day are dark, making exploration (overland travel is measured in quarters of a day) a lot harder.

In the Bitter Reach, this is all turned up to 11:
Making camp and lighting a campfire now involves tracking firewood supplies, which needs to be foraged, just like food. There are sweet weather tables, snowstorms make any sort of travel difficult, and biting cold weather requires endurance tests so frequently that your characters face a real danger of dying in hypothermia. There's also some funny minor fluff, such as using whale (? I don't remember 100%, could be seal or walrus, or whatever else) fat as insulation helps you to keep yourself warm, but due to the stench, you'll suffer a penalty on manipulation (FL's persuasion) rolls.
 
Sure! Well, in the base game, cold was already a condition the characters could get by not making a proper camp or lack the proper equipment for the night. Also, during wintertime three quarters of a day are dark, making exploration (overland travel is measured in quarters of a day) a lot harder.

In the Bitter Reach, this is all turned up to 11:
Making camp and lighting a campfire now involves tracking firewood supplies, which needs to be foraged, just like food. There are sweet weather tables, snowstorms make any sort of travel difficult, and biting cold weather requires endurance tests so frequently that your characters face a real danger of dying in hypothermia. There's also some funny minor fluff, such as using whale (? I don't remember 100%, could be seal or walrus, or whatever else) fat as insulation helps you to keep yourself warm, but due to the stench, you'll suffer a penalty on manipulation (FL's persuasion) rolls.

Thanks. I've always been interested in FL but never invested. I think the bitter reach was the nudge I needed.
 
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