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!)

 

[Weiley31]

I'm now tempted to buy Legacy of The Crystal Shard. But then once this comes out, what would be the point.

 

[Parmandur]

It's not nearly as good or easy though. I could cut the four guardian keeps from Princes of the Apocalypse and put them into my campaign, but I have to figure out what is motivating my players to clear them out; what they get at the end of it all; how I am supposed to cut out the allusions to greater threats; figure out why my players are in the sumber hills to begin with; etc.

That's nowhere near getting something like Master of the Desert Nomads.

Much easier to take stuff out than to add it in.

That might be true for length but many of those "adventures" make no sense at all decontextualized from the overall adventure.

I love these books, but honestly the context is usually pretty flimsy...by design, so it can be removed easily.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

In general, I've had mixed feelings about the adventure books. Dungeon of the Mad Mage doesn't really count as an adventure book, it's just a dungeon crawl with little plot. (I know, I've run a lot of it)
SKT was okay. I liked some of the ideas, but it is kind of boring, and the plot is linear.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat just suck. They're way too railroady with little character choices.
Descent into Avernus is cool, but the starter chapters are boring as hell, and it's also a bit too linear for my taste. I've made huge side quests based on a few words in the adventure for this book.
Princes of the Apocalypse is kind of a dumpster fire, IMO.

I hope this adventure is better, and more of a sandbox, but I am fully aware that the amount of content I will use from this book will be close to 5% of the book unless I run it, which will only happen if I like the adventure.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

You know, I could do that, but I'm not going to.

Fair.

In all honesty, I would imagine spoilers on EnWorld will come before the book is released, as they tend to do. So "wait for the spoilers" would be more like "actively avoid the spoilers and wait for the book"

I'll be buying this book regardless.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I'll be buying this book regardless.

Yeah. I'm that piece of trash that will buy any 5e book for D&D published by WotC, as well as some 3rd party content (Tome of Beasts, etc.)
I have every 5e book published by WotC besides Rise of Tiamat.

 

[jayoungr]

If I could clarify what I mean though: Most official D&D modules used to be what I'll call 'intermediate-length adventures' (more than 1 level/night's adventuring, but not a full campaign). Keep on the Borderlands was for levels 1-3. ....

I don't see much of that from WotC today. In terms of official adventures for 5e, I only see long campaigns (seemingly influenced by Pathfinder Adventure Paths?), such as Descent into Avernus, or short Advernturer's League adventures, which seem designed for conventions or a single session, even if they can be strung together (please correct me if I am wrong).

Each AL adventure is designed to be played in a single session, but sometimes they come in "arcs" of three or four adventures that cover several levels and roughly correspond to the kind of thing you were talking about. As an example, let me describe the general story of three adventures in the DDAL04 season (Ravenloft). Spoilers below.

Spoiler

(DDAL04-02, "The Beast") The PCs arrive in a small town in Barovia, where they are asked to find out what happened to a husband-and-wife pair of fur trappers who are missing, with a massive winter storm due to roll into town soon. Investigation reveals that the pregnant wife killed her husband in self-defense after he learned that their baby would inherit her lycanthropy and attacked her. They probably have to fight the wife when she loses her hold on her humanity and reverts to wolf form.

(DDAL04-03, "The Executioner") When the PCs return to town, they encounter a mysterious man who is searching for a particular wooden box. After a few encounters, they realize this is the fur trapper, who has been raised as a wight and given a hat of disguise to conceal his identity. This leads to a showdown with the trapper and his ghouls, but the question of who raised him and why is not answered.

(DDAL04-04, "The Marionette") The PCs meet the local healer, a formerly wealthy woman who lives in a decrepit mansion on the edge of town. Then they are summoned to a meeting with the burgomaster, as a Vistani fortuneteller has mentioned their names during a reading. They are invited to participate in a dream ritual in which they travel back in time to when the mansion was in use and meet the healer's daughter, a child who died several years before. When they come out of their trance, they are asked to rescue a local girl who has been kidnapped by the healer. They must enter the mansion, where the healer is attempting to transfer the soul of her dead daughter into the kidnapped girl, and rescue the girl before the ritual can be completed. Afterward, they learn that the box was an artifact traded by the healer to a mysterious benefactor in return for the knowledge of the soul-transfer ritual, and the healer raised the fur trapper to act as her agent in finding it.

Now, that, to me, looks very much like the sort of thing you're wishing for: a single story thread covering a few levels. It could very easily have been bound as an adventure for levels 1-4 or so. To me, it seems like it's the same sort of material, just packaged differently. These adventures took our group 4-5 sessions to play through.

 

[pukunui]

Yeah not disagreeing with to much of that. Xanathars looked great more I see it there's a lot of powercreep.

I’ve described XGE as a box of chocolates - you never know what you’re gonna get. Some good, some bad, and a whole lotta meh.

You can get Legacy if the Crystal Shard on the DMsGuild

I wish I had run this and gotten a copy of the physical release.

Ive got a physical copy of both LotCS and MiBG. I loved that format, and I was pleased to see that they updated the BG gazetteer in DIA. I’m hoping they do the same with the ID gazetteer here.

That said, I tried to run LotCS twice. Didn’t finish it either time. The first attempt ended in a TPK when I tried to adapt one of @iserith’s scenarios and the group wasn’t prepared for the high stakes. The second time, I could tell the group just wasn’t into it so we gave up and did something else.

That might be true for length but many of those "adventures" make no sense at all decontextualized from the overall adventure.

Can’t say I agree with that at all. A few years back, I ran a homebrew episodic campaign. I kicked it off with the “Trouble in Red Larch” intro adventure from PotA. Later I ran Neverlight Grove from OotA as a trippy Halloween episode. I also used the fire cult base and dungeon from PotA as a different episode. I used the Amber Temple from CoS. And so on. All with minimal effort to cut and paste. No issues with making no sense decontextualised.

 

[ddaley]

...But I do have two fairly strong deal-breakers, and I fear it may run into one or both: it needs to start at 1st level (and needs to really start at 1st level, without 'bootstrap' material like in SKT or CoS)...

For what it's worth, my group really like the Death House in CoS. It fit in well with the adventure too. It didn't feel out of place.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Nice - I'd love to see Icewind Dale fleshed out for 5e. Hopefully there will be some reference to The Companions of the Hall, The Crystal Shard, etc.

I just realized - they'll probably include Drizzt's 5e stat block in this...

 

[ddaley]

I'm now tempted to buy Legacy of The Crystal Shard. But then once this comes out, what would be the point.

Legacy of the Crystal Shard is a fun little adventure. I started it with my group, but we didn't finish it. There is a lot going on (multiple plot threads) and it was a bit too much for my group to keep track of. I had them whisked away into CoS before finishing Legacy. I really like that region, and am looking forward to this next book (assuming this is what will be released).