I’m considering running Rime of the Frostmaiden, and for the first time. Since I’d like to get it right, does anyone have any links or suggestions for how to run it best? Thoughts on where it’s strong and where it’s weak. Ideas of extra encounters to help either pad the Campaign out, or better bridge two scenes? Aids that might improve time and environment management? Whatever else I’m just not thinking of, etc. I compiled a massive list of aids via Reddit when I was running Curse of Strahd (really felt like a full companion book plus) and I’d love to have the same support for IceWind Dale. Thank you!
P.S. How do people feel about “enabling” spell component tracking in this adventure? Plenty of other prewritten’s don’t seem to take costly components into account when distributing both treasure and vendors, and that *badly* hamstrings spellcasters from my experience. I don’t want my players to feel they’re running a character at three quarters power.
It's a weird module that is actually kind of 3 adventures happening simultaneously and aren't really related but just happen to be in the same area.
Stopping Sunblight
Finding Ythryn
Ending the eternal winter
The Sunblight acts as this catastrophe which happens to be starting while you are there but is dealt with in chapter 4 with 3 more remaining. The eternal winter is another major calamity worthy of ending which the players can do in chapter but the module leads you there almost as a detour to find Ythryn. Ythryn is a legendary city and finding it can be a climax of it's own. I think any of them are worth pursuing but I don't know if they work all at once. There are also many interesting small side objectives to explore which your players will never have time to explore all of. I recommend picking one of the 3 plots to be the goal of the campaign and letting players explore in pursuit of that. Maybe they go to ythryn to find a weapon to kill auril but if you do that maybe avoid the fight with auril and her roc in chapter 5.
i did some research a while back and ended up buying the DM Guild resource guide for the Chapter 1 stuff. the problems i ran into was where not to go as a level 1 group, how to sell the sacrifices/lottery, and some coordination for what rumors/foreshadowing should pop up where/when. this seems like a campaign that really thrives on setting and rumor. so, I ended up taking the guide's advice for making the initial Cold-Hearted Killer quest a mystery: switching up the order of murders, creating a few NPCs to provide a breadcrumb trail, and deciding the caravan timing/path. the idea was to not be caught off guard if the players managed to skip a ton of prepared optional stuff to bee-line for the killer. you'd expect to be caught off guard by too much sidetracking, right, but the book has you covered for sidetracking. this is a sandbox! less covered for what to do if the players outrun your rumors, it seemed to me.
you could also just let everybody bumble around and wing it. i guess. it might just be more of a bear to make sure they definitely understand about Auril (the darkness and the unnatural winter), the Arcane Bros, and the duergar threat if you don't shoo the players east eventually. also i just happened to think the CHK quest made such good bones that it was a waste not to structure their first three levels around pursuit of it. it was very frustrating just how dedicated the official material is to being a go-nowhere sandbox as an introduction. i never managed to find the time to get this to a table, but i'm still glad i bought the ch1 resource. beyond that seems more obvious in the official texts, but i might get the full guide one day.
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I’m considering running Rime of the Frostmaiden, and for the first time. Since I’d like to get it right, does anyone have any links or suggestions for how to run it best? Thoughts on where it’s strong and where it’s weak. Ideas of extra encounters to help either pad the Campaign out, or better bridge two scenes? Aids that might improve time and environment management? Whatever else I’m just not thinking of, etc. I compiled a massive list of aids via Reddit when I was running Curse of Strahd (really felt like a full companion book plus) and I’d love to have the same support for IceWind Dale. Thank you!
P.S. How do people feel about “enabling” spell component tracking in this adventure? Plenty of other prewritten’s don’t seem to take costly components into account when distributing both treasure and vendors, and that *badly* hamstrings spellcasters from my experience. I don’t want my players to feel they’re running a character at three quarters power.
It's a weird module that is actually kind of 3 adventures happening simultaneously and aren't really related but just happen to be in the same area.
The Sunblight acts as this catastrophe which happens to be starting while you are there but is dealt with in chapter 4 with 3 more remaining. The eternal winter is another major calamity worthy of ending which the players can do in chapter but the module leads you there almost as a detour to find Ythryn. Ythryn is a legendary city and finding it can be a climax of it's own. I think any of them are worth pursuing but I don't know if they work all at once. There are also many interesting small side objectives to explore which your players will never have time to explore all of. I recommend picking one of the 3 plots to be the goal of the campaign and letting players explore in pursuit of that. Maybe they go to ythryn to find a weapon to kill auril but if you do that maybe avoid the fight with auril and her roc in chapter 5.
i did some research a while back and ended up buying the DM Guild resource guide for the Chapter 1 stuff. the problems i ran into was where not to go as a level 1 group, how to sell the sacrifices/lottery, and some coordination for what rumors/foreshadowing should pop up where/when. this seems like a campaign that really thrives on setting and rumor. so, I ended up taking the guide's advice for making the initial Cold-Hearted Killer quest a mystery: switching up the order of murders, creating a few NPCs to provide a breadcrumb trail, and deciding the caravan timing/path. the idea was to not be caught off guard if the players managed to skip a ton of prepared optional stuff to bee-line for the killer. you'd expect to be caught off guard by too much sidetracking, right, but the book has you covered for sidetracking. this is a sandbox! less covered for what to do if the players outrun your rumors, it seemed to me.
you could also just let everybody bumble around and wing it. i guess. it might just be more of a bear to make sure they definitely understand about Auril (the darkness and the unnatural winter), the Arcane Bros, and the duergar threat if you don't shoo the players east eventually. also i just happened to think the CHK quest made such good bones that it was a waste not to structure their first three levels around pursuit of it. it was very frustrating just how dedicated the official material is to being a go-nowhere sandbox as an introduction. i never managed to find the time to get this to a table, but i'm still glad i bought the ch1 resource. beyond that seems more obvious in the official texts, but i might get the full guide one day.
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!