Let's check out the new dice set! You can order this set right here. According to the promotional materials:
"To help with your expedition to Icewind Dale we want to arm you with dice that'll bring the heat, so we've included in this package Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Dice and Miscellany, which will be available on September 29 and features eleven frosty metallic blue dice, a felt-lined dice tray/box, and 20 doubleside character.creature cards as well as a foldout map of Icewind Dale and Ten-Towns."
Box
I feel like they've really perfected the art of the special dice set. The only question to me is whether the price is too high. The box is really nice, felt interior. I think I like the Avernus one better, but this is really great.
Map
This double-sided map is about a foot long, maybe a bit longer. One side depicts the Icewind Dale region, and the other side has a bunch of very tiny maps of the ten towns. I think you can get a digital version of the Bryn Shander map right here on Mike Schley's site.
I'm not sure how useful the tiny maps are, I guess we'll see once we read through the adventure.
Cards
Like in the Avernus set, we get cards with info on them. One side of each card depicts a creature/NPC, then on the other side are Drizzt's thoughts on that entity. Here's a swanky list of all the cards:
Arveiaturace: A white dragon
Auril the Frostmaiden: "The divine manifestation of winter's cruelty"
Awakened Beasts: Animals who can talk
Black Ice Berserker: Black ice is infused with demonic magic which can warp people.
Chwingas: Small, good-aligned elemental beings.
Coldlight Walker: People who freeze to death sometimes become these awesome-looking undead entities.
Drizzt Do'Urden: Famous D&D Guy! In my campaign, he died in prison.
Frost Giant: Big tall guy
Frost Giant Skeleton: Maybe my favorite art in the whole set.
Ice Troll: "Their frozen hearts beat, or rather shiver, emanating cold with each pulse."
Icewind Kobolds: They serve a white dragon.
Ol' Bitey: A stuffed trout, magically animated.
Oyaminartok the Goliath Werebear: A sworn enemy of evil who is building a clan of werebears.
Reghed Nomads: There are three tribes: Tiger, Wolf and Bear.
Remorhaz: Also known as a "polar worm." Really cool art on this one.
Snowy Owlbear: Owlbears.. in the snow.
Tekeli-Li the Gnoll Vampire: He laughs a lot and has some cool unique weaknesses.
Ten-Towners: The citizens of Ten Towns.
Verbeeg: Giants who often boss around ogres or hill giants.
Yeti: Wow Drizzt really hates yetis. "I hunt hunters, and my blades have painted many a mountainside red with yeti blood."
The Dice
These are blue, pretty nice. The numbers are gray rather than bright white. They're all the same size, which is a bit of a bummer. I prefer larger d20's. There are four d6's, rwo d20's, two d10's, and one of everything else.
Overall
I really like these sets. The box is so nice, and I love having a custom set specifically for the adventure I'm running.
The only question I have is whether it is worth $30. I could buy dice like this for about $10 at the game store. The map is somewhat useful, and the box is really nice, but the cards are somewhat superfluous. I'd prefer it if the cards have stats on them. I know that would be a problem, as then you'd have players having access to stats from the adventure.
Maybe the answer there is to have some of the cards depicting magic items with the item's stats on the back, some cards depicting each of the towns, with the essential info (names of major NPCs and locations) included, heck maybe even a map of each of the towns.