Family-friendly, Winter/Holiday-themed OSR Adventure?

[Bill Zebub]

We (family and I) are going to be spending Christmas week with a bunch of other families for the whole week. I'm thinking it might be a great time to introduce a whole lot of new people to RPGs, using my system of choice, Shadowdark.

However, since there will be a lot of kids, who may or may not know anything about RPGs, and with unknown sensibilities/values, I'll want to keep the murderhobo aspects in check and the differences between monsters to be fought and humanoids to be negotiated with should be pretty clearly defined.

Any ideas? Even something to start with that I could modify and tone down?

I'm imagining we'll have time for multiple sessions, so I'd love to get 8-10 hours of total playtime out of it.

 

[jdrakeh]

Adventure Most Fowl. Just change the chickens to turkeys (for Thanksgiving) or geese (for Christmas).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Most of the ones on DMs Guild are, unfortunately, pretty bad. I've gone hunting myself several times and ran one last year that was Grinch-themed, but they all seem to have one good idea and a half-hearted or no real implementation outside of it.

I think it'd almost be easier to crowd-source such an adventure here.

A few years ago I attempted a Frozen-inspired adventure where an unnatural blizzard had sealed off a town right before the solstice festival. I didn't quite stick the landing, but it was intended as an all-ages adventure (no intelligent beings to be harmed, just animated snow and ice) and worked well in that regard until the littlest adventurer overloaded from stimulation and we had to wrap up.

 

[Theory of Games]

Death Frost Doom.

Maybe the classic, The Village of Hommlet, set in the winter?

There's also the published Shadowdark adventure, Midnight Sun. It's set in the frozen north and has a Nordic-ish theme. It also has new monsters, gear and tables

 

[Bill Zebub]

I think it'd almost be easier to crowd-source such an adventure here.

Awesome idea!

A few years ago I attempted a Frozen-inspired adventure where an unnatural blizzard had sealed off a town right before the solstice festival. I didn't quite stick the landing, but it was intended as an all-ages adventure (no intelligent beings to be harmed, just animated snow and ice) and worked well in that regard until the littlest adventurer overloaded from stimulation and we had to wrap up.

That's a start!

Anybody else have anything to contribute? Anything from flavorful details to full plotlines welcome.

 

[Bill Zebub]

There's also the published Shadowdark adventure, Midnight Sun. It's set in the frozen north and has a Nordic-ish theme. It also has new monsters, gear and tables

Oh right in Cursed Scroll #3. I'll check that out. Great idea.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Idea: berserk Yeti terrorizing snowbound village turns out to be tormented by something killable (e.g. 'ice spirits' or something like that). Resolution leads to Yeti becoming mascot/protector of the village.

 

[Theory of Games]

Idea: berserk Yeti terrorizing snowbound village turns out to be tormented by something killable (e.g. 'ice spirits' or something like that). Resolution leads to Yeti becoming mascot/protector of the village.

It's such a brilliant trope that it can't be over-used. Especially with Fantasy and specifically when it's a game with friends and/or family.

The Yeti's stirred up the locals though, and they approach the party to get rid of the "monster". The locals are ready to charge off and hunt the Yeti down, so the party has to manage that crisis, while trying to find whatever is menacing their Yeti friend?

 

[Bill Zebub]

It's such a brilliant trope that it can't be over-used. Especially with Fantasy and specifically when it's a game with friends and/or family.

The Yeti's stirred up the locals though, and they approach the party to get rid of the "monster". The locals are ready to charge off and hunt the Yeti down, so the party has to manage that crisis, while trying to find whatever is menacing their Yeti friend?

Oh, right! There's a "Gaston" character who is also out hunting the monster.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh right in Cursed Scroll #3. I'll check that out. Great idea.

Cursed Scroll #3 features a funnel of not-vikings raiding the tomb of another not-viking and running into undead, as I recall, and squatters. I think it would need a fair amount of work to be made family friendly, unless everyone in said family are teenagers and older.