D&D 5E Is Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden the New D&D Adventure?

It looks likely that the upcoming D&D adventure is indeed an Icewind Dale based storyline called Rime of the Frostmaiden! I can't vouch for the veracity of this, but I was cc'd into a Tweet by Navy DM on Twitter who says they found it on Reddit.

Feel the cold touch of death in this adventure for the world's greatest role playing game.

UPDATE -- the awesome Geek Native ran the small cover screenshot through an image enhancing application, to create the larger image below.

There's a post here on Reddit which says "The DnD Beyond YouTube channel posted a trailer for a new book, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, then immediately deleted it." The post has been removed since. I found the above image posted by somebody called smightmight, who looks like they screen grabbed it from the video before it was removed.

The Frostmaiden is one of the names of Auril, an evil goddess in the Forgotten Realms. You can read more about her on the Forgotten Realms wiki.

Rime is ice which forms from water droplets on surfaces.

An Icewind Dale setting was the current favourite guess for the location of the new D&D adventure based on various hints from WotC, including this snowy owlbear t-shirt!

(thanks to Pixellance for pointing me at this!)

 

[RobJN]

I liked the other title: "Icicles and Shite"

 

[Hurin70]

It seems legit, indeed! And the cover is pretty!

Personally, I only hope it isn't a full campaign, for 1st level characters advancing then to 10th or 15th level. My players would love to have some adventures in the wild cold North, but they wouldn't like a full one year campaign on it...

I would love a collection of semi independent adventures, and some good chapters on Icewinter Dale as a setting, NPCs, adventure seeds...

I miss the days when we also got small adventures, like 3-levels worth, rather than only massive adventure paths. Then I could assemble some of these smaller adventures (often customized so they fit my players' backgrounds), together with the mortar of my own original content, to make a really fun campaign. The small adventures took a bit of pressure off me making an entire campaign from scratch, but still allowed me to make my own adventure path.

Also, some of those short adventures were really tight and well constructed stories that could be told in a few sessions. We haven't had much like that from WotC in a long time.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ha, that cover image looks like how I reskinned bugbears.

 

[dalisprime]

Really would like something with Cormyr

Or Sembia or anywhere but that particular corner of the world. We only got to leave it for Chult and even then the AP started on the sword coast lol.

 

[Horacio]

I don't see the problem? Virtually every 1-15 adventure path IS a collection of semi independent adventures, with multiple chapters that can be played as stand-alones. Seems like the best of both worlds, to me?

The semi-independent adventures are often not-so independent... You can indeed play them stand-alone, but it feels weird, and you often miss things.
I fully see the interest of WotC on selling Adventure Paths, but (again personally) I would find more useful setting guides with some short adventures...

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Or Sembia or anywhere but that particular corner of the world. We only got to leave it for Chult and even then the AP started on the sword coast lol.

Does Icewind Dale count as the Sword Coast? Isnt it the Frozenfar? Most maps from 5e we have for the Coast doesnt show any locations for the Dale. IIRC, the setting was created expressly by Salvator for his books and wasnt even a part of FR before that.

Doesnt most of HotDQ and Descent (pre-Avernus) also focused on the Heartlands? Despite its name, not all that touches the Sea of Sword is part of the region named Sword Coast.

 

[Weiley31]

Is there a specific Gazette/Settings book for Icewind Dale in general? Not the novels

Like for Faerun your go to book for that is the 3.0 Campaign Guide and 3.0 Players Guide Book.(or whatever it was called.)

 

[dalisprime]

Does Icewind Dale count as the Sword Coast? Most maps from 5e we have for the Coast doesnt show any locations for the Dale. IIRC, the setting was created expressly by Salvator for his books and was even a part of FR before that.

Sword coast stretches all the way to Luskan which isn't that far away from IWD so i tend to lump one as an extension of the other. I'd be thrilled to see grounds not yet treaded is my main take on this. I want to know what is going on in Halruua for example. Or perhaps a trip into Rashemen and/or Aglarond to see how they are dealing with Thay.

 

[dalisprime]

Is there a specific Gazette/Settings book for Icewind Dale in general? Not the novels

Like for Faerun your go to book for that is the 3.0 Campaign Guide and 3.0 Players Guide Book.(or whatever it was called.)

There was one in the 5e playtest AP: Legacy of the Crystal Shard which is bound to see a reprint (possibly with a slight update, similar to the BG gazeteer) in this new AP.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Sword coast stretches all the way to Luskan which isn't that far away from IWD so i tend to lump one as an extension of the other. I'd be thrilled to see grounds not yet treaded is my main take on this. I want to know what is going on in Halruua for example. Or perhaps a trip into Rashemen and/or Aglarond to see how they are dealing with Thay.

Yeah, one thing I love/hate is how Thay and its Red Wizard seems more active in Western Fearun than in their own region. Why create such a cool faction and put then half a world away from the main adventure region?! Having them as big players in Neverwinter and the North since 4e is cool, but we do lack any information or adventure seed for their homeland! What if I want to take the fight to Szaaz Tam after defeating his expeditionary force in Chult!