D&D 5E Previews of Rime of the Frostmaiden

MarkB · Sep 4, 2020

Thanks for posting the link. I like the set-up they're going for here - lots of choices for how to start the campaign, and enough variety for some replayability if you want to run it for different groups.

You may want to fix that thread title, though.

TarionzCousin · Sep 4, 2020

""The goal of the Ten-Towns adventures was to reinforce the adventure’s themes of isolation, secrecy, and paranoia." --Chris Perkins, from the article at IGN.

I like it that they tell you upfront what the themes of the adventure are.

Parmandur · Sep 4, 2020

Urriak Uruk said:
Exclusive: Get An Early Look Inside D&D's Rime of the Frostmaiden - IGN

We've got an exclusive early look at pages from D&D's newest adventure, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

www.ign.com

IGN released a preview of Rime of the Frostmaiden, including some preview pages (I've put one below). They will also be posting more previews tomorrow!

View attachment 125498

Wow, so about a while third of the book will be regional Gazeeter and 12 modules Level 4 and lower. That's a lot of Tier 1 content. It also looks a fair bit like the Essentials Kit in terms of organization, so that's cool.

pukunui · Sep 4, 2020

I love that they're actually doing something with Termalaine's gem mine. That was a little adventure seed from the Legacy of the Crystal Shard gazetteer that I was hoping to see developed further. (IIRC there was a little tidbit about the miners' tools going missing or something.)

Reynard · Sep 4, 2020

As I said in the other thread, I think it is interesting that it seems WotC is abandoning counting XP. We've seen milestone leveling before but that makes more sense in a more linear plot. Milestone leveling in a sandbox feels weird, like they are trying to ensure the replayability of the module by limiting how many adventures can provide "XP." Do groups actually replay these?

Leatherhead · Sep 4, 2020

Reynard said:
As I said in the other thread, I think it is interesting that it seems WotC is abandoning counting XP. We've seen milestone leveling before but that makes more sense in a more linear plot. Milestone leveling in a sandbox feels weird, like they are trying to ensure the replayability of the module by limiting how many adventures can provide "XP." Do groups actually replay these?

I think they do milestone leveling so they don't have to worry about exact XP budgets, allow for wild detours, and still have the PCs show up for a fight that they expect to be challenging.

Replayability is just a bonus.

Parmandur · Sep 4, 2020

Reynard said:
As I said in the other thread, I think it is interesting that it seems WotC is abandoning counting XP. We've seen milestone leveling before but that makes more sense in a more linear plot. Milestone leveling in a sandbox feels weird, like they are trying to ensure the replayability of the module by limiting how many adventures can provide "XP." Do groups actually replay these?

The Essentials Kit Adventure module had the precise same formula, actually.

Apparently, their data is showing that most people use milestone leveling now.

Personally, I'm contemplating adopting the Dungeon Crawl Classics scene based XP system to 5E, since that wouldn't change anything, but gets the best parts of both milestone and traditional XP.

Reynard · Sep 4, 2020

Parmandur said:
The Essentials Kit Adventure module had the precise same formula, actually.

Apparently, their data is showing that most people use milestone leveling now.

Personally, I'm contemplating adopting the Dungeon Crawl Classics scene based XP system to 5E, since that wouldn't change anything, but gets the best parts of both milestone and traditional XP.

I will have to look into that. Generally I dislike milestone leveling because it feels too arbitrary, but I have been using it for Avernus because that adventure is more linear.

I'd like a system that rewards player initiative and success without being focused on CR.

Urriak Uruk · Sep 4, 2020

Reynard said:
As I said in the other thread, I think it is interesting that it seems WotC is abandoning counting XP. We've seen milestone leveling before but that makes more sense in a more linear plot. Milestone leveling in a sandbox feels weird, like they are trying to ensure the replayability of the module by limiting how many adventures can provide "XP." Do groups actually replay these?

As a DM, I'd say it's likely more common that they rerun the same adventure with different groups, using the variations to make them different. Matt Colville style!

I've run Phandelver for example twice, using the Essentials to make them very different.