Today we're going to look at a DMs Guild product linked to Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden . This is Encounters in the Far North, a collection of scenarios to place in your Icewind Dale campaign.
My first thought I get from just looking at this product is that Rime of the Frostmaiden is already teeming with encounters. I mean.. it's overloaded. But then I consider the fact that there really aren't that many detailed encounters on the road or in the towns.
The thing I liked about Ice Road Trackers is that it had a bunch of explicit rules for handling certain things, particularly the "walk through the hollow log" encounter.
So let's see what's in this thing that we can pull out to stick in our Rime of the Frostmaiden campaigns.
I'm going to try my best not to spoil too much while still giving you a fair idea of what's in this, so you can decide if you want to buy it.
Encounter Chance: For every 8 hours of traveling, roll a d20. On a 12+, random encounter!
Chapter 1: Ten-Towns Encounters
One encounter I like in this section is a fish that can "grant wishes". Very amusing, cool effect.
I also love the next one, involving kids building a snow man. The more I think about it, the funnier it gets.
Then we get a mini-quest where the group must travel 5 days (!) in the snow to reach a cave where they need to go through a test. I actually really, really like this a lot, especially the idea of the group meeting someone who is a former worshiper of Auril. They could learn a lot from this NPC! My only issue with it is that Rime of the Frostmaiden is utterly overloaded with quests as it is. This is good, though.
Geez, the next one is good too. The group can buy mini-ice sculptures of themselves, each grants a magic effect. I don't want to say more, but this is tremendous.
I really like these. In the Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure, each actual town entry in Ten-Towns only has a few described locations. These help flesh the towns out nicely.
Chapter 2: Spine of the World Encounters
These encounters are set in the mountains with a trade route from Icewind Dale to the south. Isn't this area blocked by magical storms, or am I way off?
There is one encounter that deals with a sled race between two goliath clans. There were some sled rules in Ice Road Trackers, but these rules are more fleshed out and really fun. The two goliath clans in Rime of the Frostmaiden hate each other and wouldn't race each other, but this section points out that there could be other clans. Doesn't really matter, I just like the sled race stuff. I really appreciate these rules. Very, very useful!
Then... as soon as I see the words "Snow Fairy Market" I start cracking up. What character is going to reject the idea of going to see what the snow fairies have for sale? The fairies will trade trinkets for things like "three tears cried in grief." I would say that there is no way I would not use this encounter. I mean... it is 100% getting used. I'm laughing just thinking about running it.
Chapter 3: Sea of Moving Ice Encounters
In the Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign, the group will have to traverse the Sea of Moving Ice to find Auril's Abode, so these seem very useful.
One encounter stats with: "...the party's ship comes across a flat-topped iceberg with semi-transparent walls..." This one is very cool, and utilizes the character secrets. The only thing that gives me pause is that I wouldn't want all of the character secrets revealed at this point in the adventure. 1 or 2 would be OK, though.
Another one deals with a magic item that probably isn't used enough in D&D - it's a rare thing that makes for a huge encounter. I really like this one.
I appreciate the nod to John Carpenter's The Thing in the encounter with the gnomish contraption - very fun.
Chapter 4: Frozen Lands Encounters
The Reghed Tribes are pretty important in Rime of the Frostmaiden, so I'm interested to see if we get some juicy stuff.
I do like the one where the heroes can help the Bear Tribe hunt a mammoth. Hunting a mammoth seems like something uniquely suited for this adventure. We get rules for tracking the beast, very fun stuff.
The last one is pretty crazy. It involves a hag and yeti tykes. The one thing that makes my eyebrows raise through the roof is that the hag will reward the group with a magic item that lets a character fly. I guess one character flying won't "break" this adventure, but it could affect chapter 4 in weird ways.
Overall
Is this worth getting? I'd say yes. The thing I like best about this product is that it is such a breeze to read. I don't know why, but getting through 17 pages of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden takes a lot of effort for me, but I read through this book (and I mean READ, not skimmed) in no time at all. So breezy!
This is $6, definitely worth it. Check it out on the DMs Guild here.