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!)

 

[CapnZapp]

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.

Thanks for mentioning that there is already an adventure featuring Auril the Frostmaiden!

 

[Zardnaar]

Quality art is related to budget, but it isn't all about how much money a company or creative team is willing/able to invest . . . "good" art is, of course, subjective, but I find that a team that puts together a well-rounded package including good art and layout usually mirrors the quality and competence in the game design and writing. I've seen this done with WotC products (big budget, relatively) and I've seen this done with community content on the DM's Guild.

Bad art isn't a guarantee of bad design/writing, but it certainly doesn't get me excited to give the product a try. Also, for me at least, the art helps me visualize the story/setting and primes my brain for the RPG experience . . . . bad art does the opposite, it takes me out of the experience.

WotC always gonna have nice production values.

A few if the adventures recently have been a bit meh though IMHO. SKT, the Waterdeep stuff.

 

[pukunui]

WotC always gonna have nice production values.

A few if the adventures recently have been a bit meh though IMHO. SKT, the Waterdeep stuff.

Disagree re: SKT. I’ve played it and DMed it and loved it both times.

As for Dragon Heist, I’d say it’s got the best art but is also the worst adventure (out of all the 5e ones).

 

[CapnZapp]

Disagree re: SKT. I’ve played it and DMed it and loved it both times.

Zard spoke of production values. Are you talking contents and story now?

 

[BigZebra]

Just bring back Dungeon and the problem is solved.

Not that it will happen, but it's the right solution.

Yeah! I would kill for a Dungeon magazine in print. It would never happen, but damn would be nice.

 

[Zardnaar]

Disagree re: SKT. I’ve played it and DMed it and loved it both times.

As for Dragon Heist, I’d say it’s got the best art but is also the worst adventure (out of all the 5e ones).

For a while there it was about the worst 5E has been for me. The Waterdeep adventures, SKT, Aquisitions Inc.

I just bought some Kobold Press stuff and older stuff I missed first time round.

 

[Reynard]

Disagree re: SKT. I’ve played it and DMed it and loved it both times.

As for Dragon Heist, I’d say it’s got the best art but is also the worst adventure (out of all the 5e ones).

Dragon Heist was a bad adventure but a really good foundation for making a great adventure at your table. It had great ingredients but it was undercooked and terribly plated.

 

[Zardnaar]

Dragon Heist was a bad adventure but a really good foundation for making a great adventure at your table. It had great ingredients but it was undercooked and terribly plated.

I passed on SKT and Dungeon if the Mad Mage. First seemed to be trying to be a sourcebook, the second was a rehash.

 

[Horacio]

For a while there it was about the worst 5E has been for me. The Waterdeep adventures, SKT, Aquisitions Inc.

I just bought some Kobold Press stuff and older stuff I missed first time round.

I have seen many posts where people say they don't like Aquisitions Inc., and I sincerely wonder why.
Is it the tone and the art, that are quite different for the usual ones? I can understand it's a turn off for some people, but the content is solid. The franchise idea can be used for many other kind of organization, the adventures are well done...

Sorry, I digress...

 

[pukunui]

Dragon Heist was a bad adventure but a really good foundation for making a great adventure at your table. It had great ingredients but it was undercooked and terribly plated.

Yes, it's got lots of great parts. They just don't add up very well. I did make good use of the Xanathar's Lair in my SKT game, and I do appreciate having official stats for important NPCs like Laeral Silverhand. Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion is fantastic. However, it also contains some of the most egregious railroading I've seen in a long time, as well as a climax that is anything but.

I passed on SKT and Dungeon if the Mad Mage. First seemed to be trying to be a sourcebook, the second was a rehash.

Most of the hardcovers double as a sourcebook, so I'm not sure why that counts against SKT. I know some people claim the plot is thin, but that could be said about pretty much every other hardcover as well. As for Mad Mage, it certainly isn't the first, nor will it be the last, rehash. I'm not sure why that counts against it either. My main issue with it is that it is just plain boring. I intended to use some of the higher-level dungeon areas as standalone adventures but none of them caught my interest enough to make me want to put the work into adapting them.

That said, I've been disappointed with most of the 5e books in various ways since about Volo's. As an alpha playtester, I was super bummed when I saw that they hadn't bothered to revise the playable monster stats at all, despite plenty of feedback that they needed a bit more work. Instead, they chose to leave them as-is and just slapped a "use at your own risk" disclaimer on them. That was the point at which I began to be disillusioned with WotC's support of 5e. Xanathar's and Mordenkainen's were further blows, as were releases like Dragon Heist.

I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic about this new Icewind Dale one, but I'm not holding my breath.

I love 5e as a game system. I'm just not loving how WotC is choosing to support it. I wish that the slower release schedule meant better quality. And I wish 5e wasn't so much of a DIY edition. There's just not enough time in the day anymore to do all the D&D things I'd like to do myself (and still have time to take in other forms of entertainment). I'd much rather know that what I'm buying is something I can use with minimal effort. Alas, the only 5e product I can really say that about is Lost Mines of Phandelver. I was able to run that with almost no prep / variation at all!

OK, that turned out to be more of a downer of a post than I thought it would be. I'd better send myself off to bed.