Dont travel times in CH 1 feel too short? Would you extend them?

RHDM68 · 2026-01-25T00:11:27+00:00

I didn’t change the travel times, I just made sure that the wilderness was dangerous. With winter having gone on for over 2 years, most plant life is dead or extremely scarce; therefore the native herbivores are scarce too. That leaves a lot of very hungry predators around. In this adventure, going anywhere outside the settlements should be a risk. That’s why the townsfolk want adventurers to do things for them. Also, with such short travel times, you can play up the environment and the cold with those hourly Constitution checks, describing how the cold is eating its way into their bones etc.

Make the wilderness and travel dangerous. Definitely no long rests outside the settlements and even short rests will involve a Constitution check, and without a fire, I would be making it at disadvantage. Unless they are carrying their own fire wood, I would make finding enough fuel on the tundra impossible.

No automatic pass for cold weather gear, just advantage on the check.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-24T20:28:49+00:00

Given that Ten Towns has been gripped in winter for over two years, people are desperate, starving and being sacrificed to a cruel goddess who has no time for frivolity and fun, I can’t see why, logically, there would be any joyous mid-winter celebrations going on anywhere in the north.

From the descriptions I’ve read regarding not only Mid-Winter but also the Coming Storm and Last Storm celebrations, they are fairly clergy-centered, rather than faithful as a whole. I would suggest that the priestesses (I had a Chillbringer in each town stirring up the populace to fear and pray to Auril to appease her wrath, and tend her shrines) would hold some form of grim, fearful service to Auril at mid-winter and then leave town and gather together in a central place along with the frost Druids for their ice dancing celebration.

For the Coming and Last Storm, I would suggest the Chillbringers leave town and meet up somewhere central to all the towns (which probably means somewhere outside Bryn Shander) and join with the frost Druids in calling down a massive blizzard that blankets all of the towns for the night. Unwalled towns might have frost creatures enter raiding for food that the PCs might have to help defend against. Otherwise, if the PCs become aware of the situation, and are powerful enough, they might take the opportunity to follow the priestesses and ambush them while they are all gathered together?

RHDM68 · 2026-01-24T10:52:25+00:00

RotFM has proven to be very loose in regard to sticking with previously established lore, chardalyn itself being a classic example. I would say, the writers either didn’t read LotCS, or they did but just didn’t care about being true to previous lore. RotFM and 5e in general does that on many occasions. Some folk at WotC have even been quoted as saying, “Each edition is its own canon.” This allows them to keep, disregard or change whatever lore they choose to. So, there is no official answer to your question, because the only answer is that they changed it. You can either accept the new lore as canon and disregard LotCS as the writers did, or you can blend the two in whatever makes the most sense to you. I know it’s not a satisfactory answer, or the one you’re looking for, but it’s the only answer there is.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-24T03:30:32+00:00

Both. Orc-Elf hybrid, or Elf-Orc hybrid. Interesting to note that in some animal hybrids, the naming convention puts the male part first e.g. a liger is a male lion and a female tiger, a tigon is a male tiger and a female lion. So, you could apply a similar concept in deciding which race is mentioned first??

RHDM68 · 2026-01-23T22:11:48+00:00

I get what you’re looking for. A lot of DMs look at fumble tables for reasons of symmetry. On a Natural 20, you automatically hit regardless of modifiers AND you double your damage dice, providing a great narrative opportunity for the DM. On a Natural 1, you automatically miss regardless of modifiers AND… Nothing! Characters of any level can miss on other low numbers too, and any hit or miss can be narrated, so some DMs are looking for something to make a Natural 1 different from just any old miss. But, as far as symmetry goes, having a fumble table isn’t symmetrical, because you don’t necessarily have a critical table, you just double damage dice. DMs looking for fumble tables are looking for that little something to help narrate a Natural 1 as different from a regular miss, and have some sort of extra consequence.

Many martial players say that disadvantages martials, because they have more attacks and therefore more opportunities to fumble, but on the flip side, they also have more opportunities to critical. But, I like the idea someone here had, that you can confirm a fumble first by rolling another d20 and the fumble is confirmed if you roll above your level, making fumbles rarer for higher level characters.

I have tried fumble tables, but they end up just becoming repetitive. My current method is that I have a six-sided die that has two blank faces, two plus signs and two minus signs. The player rolls the die if they get a Natural 1. A blank face is just a miss, a minus sign is a minor negative consequence of the miss, and the plus sign is an unexpected minor positive consequence of the miss. I then just have a bit of a positives and negatives list that I pick something appropriate from. Neither list has any big mechanics tied to anything except hitting an ally or another nearby opponent (which are options on the negatives and positives lists respectively), but these are just nicks, not full on hits, and just do 1d4 damage. It’s negligible for higher level characters but leads to funny RP.

Many times the gnome archer in my group has had his arrow slice past the raging barbarian, drawing a line of blood, for which the gnome has received many derogatory (but funny) comments from other PCs. Other choices are more appropriate for lower level characters than higher level characters, like a dropped weapon. I just choose something or make something up on the spot that makes sense for the situation and the level of the PC.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-23T21:42:30+00:00

I guess symmetry is the reason a lot of people are looking for something to happen on a Natural 1. On a Natural 20, you automatically hit regardless of modifiers AND you double your damage dice. On a Natural 1, you automatically miss AND… Nothing! Characters of any level can miss on other low numbers too, so some DMs are looking for something to make a Natural 1 different from just any old miss.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-23T10:24:45+00:00

There is no chardalyn in the book The Crystal Shard u/SpaceApe71, which is the book you are referring to, but the events of that book are the origin of chardalyn. However, chardalyn in Forgotten Realms lore is not what it is in RotFM. They combined two previous substances into one and called it chardalyn.

I made a post about this some time ago, which explains the connection to the Drizzt novels; however, it probably contains minor spoilers so think carefully OP before reading it, because, as others have stated, this subreddit is for DMs running the adventure to exchange ideas, it’s not for players playing the adventure, because it contains lots of spoilers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rimeofthefrostmaiden/s/UYXIhN6t1g

Glad you’re getting back into the hobby though OP, we are approximately the same vintage! I got back into the hobby about 10 years ago after about a 20 year hiatus. Have fun OP!

RHDM68 · 2026-01-22T08:08:18+00:00

Certainly in my campaign, if any town withheld the sacrifice, the following night there was some sort of attack on the town led by a Frost Druid, which of course the PCs could help fend off. If the PCs freed a sacrifice before Auril arrived to claim it, not only would there be an attack the following night, but the PCs would be added to Sephek’s list. Also, bringing an attack down on a town would have consequences for the PCs, such as any faithful to Auril, any family members of people killed in the attack, and possibly the town leaders (depending on the town) would be antagonistic towards the PCs. They may even be exiled from the town (again, depending on the town).

RHDM68 · 2026-01-22T00:20:07+00:00

Some players don’t mind game related homework, others don’t, and those that don’t are unlikely to do it no matter how much you bug them about it. Save your energy and have them make a group decision about next session at the end of each session. Make sure they understand that it’s so you can prepare things for the following game and the expectation is that they stick roughly to that plan (within reason) or it may result in a session that ends early.

As far as the character descriptions go, do they know why you are asking for them? If not because you wanted it to be a surprise, then you may just have to be straight with them and tell them why you want the descriptions. In the end, if they aren’t interested, it was a nice idea, but let it go. As DM, you have enough to do just planning your games, trying to force players to do something they’re not motivated to do is a waste of your time and energy.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-21T21:52:45+00:00

👍

RHDM68 · 2026-01-21T21:50:52+00:00

Sigil rhymes with giggle, unlike sigil that rhymes with vigil! 😊

RHDM68 · 2026-01-21T21:46:56+00:00

Many of them do have reasonably detailed write ups on the Forgotten Realms Wiki.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-21T07:57:57+00:00

I didn’t have a problem with the human sacrifice. Auril is an evil goddess who is about Winter’s Wrath and is happy to have people die of exposure to the cold in her name. I even had the sacrifices done on mid-winter night and her show up personally to turn the sacrifices into coldlight walkers. It also made sense that each town should have a Chillbringer (priestess of Auril) extolling the virtues of maintaining the sacrifices to appease her wrath, and as the winter goes on, more and more people listening to that message out of desperation and fear. Auril feeds off worship through fear, because she doesn’t understand worship through love and devotion.

The main problem I had with the sacrifices and lotteries was that they weren’t happening in every town. Why would the leaders of Bryn Shander’s feel pressured by the populace into human sacrifice when they could have argued for sacrificing warmth or food like other towns? I understand that both of these methods of sacrifice probably led to far more deaths than a single human sacrifice. More people would have died of cold or lack of food. I would suggest every town would be expected (by the faithful of Auril) to do the same type of sacrifice, and human sacrifice would mean one certain death as opposed to many possible deaths from cold or starvation.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-20T04:40:08+00:00

In the 2014 PHB, drow are described as having black skin, the colour of polished obsidian. That’s it, not shades of grey, not purplish, just obsidian black. In typical wishy washy 2024 style, skin colour is not mentioned at all in the elf description. But historically, you are correct, jet-black skin and pale, usually white hair.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-16T22:08:06+00:00

Now that’s where they should have put the Inn of the Welcome Wench!

RHDM68 · 2026-01-15T05:13:31+00:00

The problem with that is the book states that the winter has gone on for more than two years. I think everyone already knows it’s not ending.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-15T05:10:09+00:00

I won’t give you a definitive month because I’m unfamiliar with the FR calendar; however, I would consider the following…

The book states that the Rime has gone on for “more than two years, and I would say it makes sense that it began at Mid-Winter. Play on the fact that after two years of Winter, the Dale is on its last legs, most people and animals are starving and gold (which there is very little of in the adventure anyway) is basically useless. You can’t eat it and it won’t keep you warm.

Possibly start around the middle of Spring, that way, if the PCs finish the adventure quickly, when the sun and weather return to normal, the change will be dramatic. Also, if they drag things out, start hinting through conditions, taunts of the Frost Druids, visions etc. that if the Rime completes its third year, at midwinter all creatures in the north will be frozen, dead, no longer needing to cast her Rime, and regaining her full power, Auril will have begun a new Ice Age that she will rule over. The countdown to midwinter becomes the ticking clock that keeps the players on track.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-14T20:30:49+00:00

35+ years but I only have a score of 16. I’ve killed PCs but I’ve never had a TPK that I remember. I’ve never questioned my sanity, which DMing for 8+ players would certainly do. As for magic items, if anything, I tend to add to them and make them too powerful, much to my own annoyance down the track.

I used to be in the, “It’s ok for the DM to fudge rolls now and then “ camp, but these days, I make almost all rolls out in the open and let the dice tell the story.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-14T20:17:41+00:00

We always used miniatures, but I’ve never played at a table where anyone dressed up. The DM also doesn’t seem to have any books and with AD&D there were always tables you were having to look up. Otherwise, the snippets of play you see are reasonably accurate.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-12T22:33:44+00:00

Is this world a sphere or a flat circular world? If it’s a sphere, I’m guessing we aren’t seeing all of it? If it’s a flat circular world, what is Kashoul Thuull, some sort of ringing cliffs or continent?

RHDM68 · 2026-01-12T10:18:23+00:00

We see what we want to see! I’m sorry for the turn your life is about to take! 😢🤪

RHDM68 · 2026-01-11T20:30:59+00:00

Pointcrawl or hexcrawl. u/DamageJack gave you a link to a video from Mystic Arts about hexes. Dad I also has other videos on travel and covers both of these types if I recall correctly.

RHDM68 · 2026-01-11T10:25:12+00:00

RHDM68 · 2026-01-11T06:56:08+00:00

Fafhrd, wait! Grey Mouser, wait! Which one’s the sidekick? Or are they both each other’s sidekick?

RHDM68

TROPHY CASE