D&D 5E Rime of the Frostmaiden Post-Mortem (Spoilers)

[ECMO3]

As is my new tradition, each time a campaign ends, I'm trying to learn from it. This will be about my Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign.

About the Group and Selection of the Campaign

The group contains a “seasoned” casual player who’ve I’ve been gaming with for over 20 years. I put seasoned in quotes because he regularly confuses 5e with rules from Pathfinder 1e and 2e (though he only played a handful of sessions with that system over a year ago), and he’s been playing 5e twice a week for over two years now.
The three other players include another casual player who is starting to DM for his family, and another two players who watch online power-build tutorials to come up with some brutal combos.
We had put on hold an OSR game that ended in a TPK, and at their request, went back to 5e after having completed Curse of Strahd around 4 months prior. They wanted to do an official WotC mega adventure (along the lines of Curse of Strahd) but avoiding ones that none of the players have previously read or played (even in part), which left the following choices: Descent into Avernus, Tyranny of Dragons, Tomb of Annihilation, and Rime of the Frost Maiden.
After a little debate RotFM won.

Preparation

I knew that this was a sandbox campaign, and I wanted to be well prepared. In addition to purchasing the module on Roll20 (since we play online), I also purchased the hardcover adventure for reading away from the computer, read numerous guides, watched videos on YouTube, and downloaded a DMs Guide on DriveThru. The DMs guide ended up being very helpful as it provided additional encounter maps that aren’t included in the hardcover (or on Roll20).
Using the various resources, I followed the advice for presenting the best starting quest and Ten Towns quests from the beginning.

A Rocky Start

The first session the party went after the goblins from Bryn Shander. Using ranged guerilla tactics, the goblins killed most of the party (effectively a TPK). This set a grim tone for the rest of the campaign. The players had invested those characters in the setting and as a party, only to be cut down in their first fight. (In hindsight, it was largely the blame of players’ forgetting their abilities and one of the players making some terrible tactical blunders.)

The Pointless Sandbox

The bulk of the adventure is a sandbox that isn’t connected to the main story. Going from town to town without any direction or purpose got very boring. On top of it, the players didn’t want to focus on travel or survival in our limited, short sessions (about 2 hours per week). So, it became “you find your way to town X and have to do Y.” It was repetitious, and often the challenges were well beyond what the party should’ve been able to defeat. One example I previously ranted about on these boards was being assigned to clear out a cave of an opponent who had to have a Dispel Magic cast to keep him from regenerating – when the party was too low of level to have access to the spell. Another insurmountable challenge was a 1st-2nd level adventure that required a Knock spell to get past a door.

Adding Content

Realizing that much of the content wasn’t linked, I decided to add an overarching plot to the locations to give the party a reason to explore other than “go here, kill everything there.” I added an NPC that directed the party to find a Macguffin that could be used to defeat the Frost Maiden. It would need to be assembled, scattered across the remaining Ice Wind Dale adventure sites. This added purpose and gave new life to the campaign. Unfortunately, after finding the four pieces, the party was dismayed that they inadvertently destroyed the Macguffin with a cursed magic item (essentially putting them in a bag of devouring).

Climax-Change

RotFM has no lead-up to any climax other than taking out the Frost Maiden and ending the curse, so along with the rest of the players, we decided that would be a good place to end the campaign after 6 months of play. So, the party decided to end the campaign (for better or worse) with a direct frontal assault on the Frost Maiden’s palace. Amazingly, the place is pretty much empty, so they walked right into her throne room to defeat the deity.

Lessons Learned

Many readers consider RotFM a top-tier campaign adventure. To me, it is far below “Curse of Strahd” or “Tomb of Annihilation” (two that I’ve run to completion). I have run nearly all the official WotC adventures [at least in part]: Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Phandelver, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Dragon Heist, Undermountain, Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Tales of the Yawning Portal, and Storm King’s Thunder. Of the ones I’ve run, I consider only three of them to be “good” (Strahd, Tomb, and Phandelver).
I think it’s (finally) time to consider that the mega-adventures just aren’t for me.

What’s Next?

Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve been largely running modules since 3rd edition. When I started in 2e I wrote my own material mostly. Since that time, as life has gotten busier and the games more complex (and on top of it, I’m also running games for more groups than ever), it’s difficult to make the time to curate custom experiences for my players. When you run for a group that is comprised mostly of casual players, you often don’t get the feedback you need to tailor an adventure to their interests. They are there to go on quests, kill monsters, loot treasures, etc.
None of the official adventures seem appealing to me – and the players have shot down all of them last time they were presented. It seems like doing a few one-shots until we find something that sticks is the way to go.

I am playing it right now and I am finding it rather engaging.

I am a player and our DM has really tied in backstories. There was some go here and do this, like you said but usually it was either tied to a specific backstory or it was something we needed to do because of something else happened and that is where we needed to be. Almost everything we have done and everywhere we have gone has had a point.

Quite frankly, what we are having problems with right now is there are things we want to do that we don't have time for, because some big pressing story problem reared its head. When I say "problems" I don't mean game problems, I mean character problems and delimas that make for good storytelling.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

RotFM is my favourite WotC adventure. Really not keen on Carry on up the Castle or Tomb of Hexcrawl.

But it's just down to personal taste.

 

[Bolares]

This book is really weird. I don't get a lot of the decisions. But I LOVE the character secrets, and how out of the box some of them are.

 

[Retreater]

RotFM is my favourite WotC adventure. Really not keen on Carry on up the Castle or Tomb of Hexcrawl.

But it's just down to personal taste.

That's great. I don't consider my preferences the sole taste of D&D. With the way most of the adventure content from Wizards of the Coast has failed to connect with me, I'm finally realizing that my preferences don't line up with the majority of D&D players.

It's a sort of bad spot to be in, honestly. When I'm not interested in the bulk of the official content, it feels like the hobby has moved on from me. Like if most D&D customers are getting excited about an adventure that can be won by hugging unicorns and befriending cuddly baby displacers (the newest Feywild adventure), I have to just enjoy what is there from the past and make my own fun.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There are more people playing, so there are more different tastes. But whimsical stuff has always been part of D&D as well as serious stuff. Gygax wrote Dungeonland/Land Beyond the Magic Mirror. Not everyone wants to do whimsy (and not everyone wants to do game of Thrones), and WotC are trying to mix it up. RotFM wasn't very whimsical.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

Thanks for the write-up.
For me, RotF is a mid-tier module; evocative setting, but little to connect the actual pieces together cohesively.

Curse of Strahd is up at the top (admittedly I'm biased as a HUGE Ravenloft fan!!), but Ghosts of Saltmarsh is also up there for me. (The setting is evocative and detailed, the core trilogy of adventures is generally solid, and the "tie-ins" are reasonable. BUT that could also use a bit more connective tissue, IMO.

Decent into Avernus and Tomb of Anniilation also seem solid, but haven't run either to completion yet.

When I'm not interested in the bulk of the official content, it feels like the hobby has moved on from me. Like if most D&D customers are getting excited about an adventure that can be won by hugging unicorns and befriending cuddly baby displacers (the newest Feywild adventure), I have to just enjoy what is there from the past and make my own fun.

The hobby is DEFINTELY skewing younger and more into the mainstream; D&D is becoming a "Lifestyle Brand". But that's not INHERENTLY a bad thing! I look at it as a chance to help shepherd the younger audiences to appreciate what became before them, and in turn, I get to keep up with current trends and interests! "Going to Magic College" (Strixhaven) isn't exactly for me, but I do appreciate something like "Witchlight", which offers something new in the way of potentially completing an adventure without combat!! (And befriending cuddly baby displacers sounds like great a great opportunity for an adventureous Druid or Ranger!!)

 

[Scottius]

I completed RotFM as a player and found it an unenjoyable slog. Would not recommend to anyone. Curse of Strahd and Ghosts of Saltmarsh are great but beyond them I'd suggest looking outside of WOTC if you want quality modules.

Kobold Press has great 3rd party content for 5e including adventures. Goodman Games also has a 5e adventure line as well.

 

[MarkB]

When I ran it, the sandbox quests happened to gel together well, in that they managed to hit just-about every awakened-animal quest (it became a running joke that non-awakened animals were a rarity in the Dale), and also connected the dots on the duergar plotlines.

There are also other links you can build between quest lines - some of them focus on the Reghed tribes, for instance, others on the goblins, and others on exploring strange old ruins.

The way I'd do it if I ran it again would be to start out the same way, but then once the players engaged with a particular quest, see what other quests it can tie into, and set out some breadcrumbs leading them in that direction rather than just dropping the next random quest-of-the-town each new location.

That does require you to familiarise yourself with all the quests, though, so it's more overhead when running the campaign the first time.

 

[akr71]

The Pointless Sandbox

The bulk of the adventure is a sandbox that isn’t connected to the main story. Going from town to town without any direction or purpose got very boring. On top of it, the players didn’t want to focus on travel or survival in our limited, short sessions (about 2 hours per week). So, it became “you find your way to town X and have to do Y.” It was repetitious, and often the challenges were well beyond what the party should’ve been able to defeat. One example I previously ranted about on these boards was being assigned to clear out a cave of an opponent who had to have a Dispel Magic cast to keep him from regenerating – when the party was too low of level to have access to the spell. Another insurmountable challenge was a 1st-2nd level adventure that required a Knock spell to get past a door.

Thanks for this write-up. I was given RotFM as a gift last year. I think I only ever intended to use it as a resource for Ice Wind Dale and adventuring in an arctic/subarctic environment. You would think that the people responsible for designing the game would know better than to publish an adventure that requires a particular class or spell. Throwing the challenge at the party before they would even have access to the spell is even more heinous.

For example, my current group of 7 players does not have a sorcerer. Their wizard is a multiclass rogue who only started taking wizard levels after 5 or so levels of rogue. I doubt the bard would have thought of taking Knock since it is their first time playing. I can almost guarantee no one would think to cast Dispel on a creature to stop it from regenerating.

Horrible adventure design. What happened to failing forward? I try very hard not to design challenges that only have one solution - moreover I try not to write a solution at all but listen to the players ideas at the table.

 

[MarkB]

Thanks for this write-up. I was given RotFM as a gift last year. I think I only ever intended to use it as a resource for Ice Wind Dale and adventuring in an arctic/subarctic environment. You would think that the people responsible for designing the game would know better than to publish an adventure that requires a particular class or spell. Throwing the challenge at the party before they would even have access to the spell is even more heinous.

The OP may be overstating things. Only two of the 1st-2nd level quests involve doors which require knock spells to open. One is the main gates to a keep, into which the PCs are freely invited under certain circumstances, or can get into by other means (which the book specifies) if not.

The other is a barrow whose front entrance is locked, but that's of no consequence since part of the wall has crumbled away. Its inner chambers are similarly locked, but open under specific phases of the moon, and gaining immediate entrance to them is not necessary in order to complete the quest.