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In The Black Midwinter

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In The Black Midwinter is a Festive adventure, designed for characters of levels 2-4, to be played in one (3-4 hour) session. The PCs battle an ancient evil threatening a remote village in the subarctic north. Very much the same as most D&D adventures, only this time, it’s Christmas themed! 

Here's a video I made about the adventure:

How To Run A D&D Game At Christmas - https://youtu.be/hr4Khkiteco


The adventure includes a new Legendary Item, The Deck of Merry Things (with full printable art to create a prop deck), five (or seventeen, depending on how you count) new monsters, ten additional magic items and four new alignments (really!).


The adventure has been revised and expanded in November 2018, with a chapter by chapter adventure synopsis, internal hyperlinks in the pdf, and separate printable files for the Deck of Merry Things and maps. Another version of the main PDF is included, with no background textures on the pages, making it more suitable for black and white printing. Also one more table, because everyone loves rolling on tables. 


The adventure has been further augmented in October 2020. Let's face it, this Christmas is going to suck, and we all know why. To that end I've created a bunch more maps, tokens and handout art for use in online games and virtual tabletops. Maps have been newly drawn, expanded, coloured and are available in gridded, ungridded, numbered and "clean" variations. There are also night and day versions. All this should make your online versions of In The Black Midwinter run as smoothly as possible. The Deck of Merry Things is now available as seperate cards in both print and VTT ready sizes. Run it before two years ago? Run it again, in the safety of your own home. Will slot effortlessly into your Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign. I'm using a rather broad definition of "Effortlessly" here obviously. But, y'know- snow!


This adventure is ideal for a one off, not entirely serious game separate from your regular campaign. Mulled wine, stupid hats and holiday cheer not included, but very highly recommended.

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Reviews (15)
Discussions (14)
Customer avatar
Andrew U December 13, 2022 6:25 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is great! I can't wait to run it for my group. Do you have a list of who the heroes of Cratch are referencing in pop culture? I know most of them but there are a few that I don't get. Is Kije the Golden Voiced a reference?
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon P December 13, 2022 7:27 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Andrew
It most certainly is, and while I'm tempted to let people work it out for themselves, I realise how frustrating it is when you don't have context so here goes:

Kije = Greg Lake
Klain = John McClane
Graswold = Clark Griswold
Axton = Rand Peltzer
Krum Holtz = Bernard the elf
Lim the Feral = Buddy the elf

I think there are others but I've forgotten - I'll have another look at the adventure!



Customer avatar
Andrew S December 10, 2021 3:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hey, what are the dimensions of the VTT maps? I'm trying to align the grid on Foundry and am not sure what dimensions to use. Thanks!
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Customer avatar
Simon P December 10, 2021 5:03 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Andrew thanks for buying it

Cratch map is 3600x3024, 5ft grids are 37x37

Holan map is 3600x3232, 5ft grids are 85x85

Kije map is 2624x3024, 5ft grids are 37x37
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Customer avatar
Andrew S December 14, 2021 1:39 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Simon, maybe it's foundry but when I use those dimensions, the Foundry grid doesn't match up with your gridded versions. I appreciate the reply though.
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Customer avatar
steven C December 14, 2022 2:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Simon, when you say 5ft grids are 37x37 are you talking about pixels? If so, that's a problem for Roll20 as it likes 70x70pix per 5ft...
Customer avatar
Paul S January 03, 2021 5:25 am UTC
PURCHASER
So, we started this on boxing day and finished off tonight. We have a regular Saturday night game playing Old School Essentials ruleset. So I took great liberties adapting this to our ruleset and group size.

It really was a lot of fun! I made the yule lads a quick skim of a few brief encounters, and never "engaged" the snowmen in the final act, since I had half the members of the party down to one HP each. I semi nerfed a few of the magic items to add into our current campaign, to make up for the stingy on magic module I am using, and had a great time.

Compared to OSE and other OSR style modules, I really appreciated the hyperlinked PDF, great physical descriptions, and all the added digital content making it much easier to setup the game on Roll20. While the module makes light of the boxed text, I REALLY appreciated it. Since my one big failing in my eyes is my lack of good descriptions, I like having some pretty words to use to set a scene and describe a major "boss."...See more
Customer avatar
Simon P September 20, 2020 2:50 pm UTC
CREATOR
An updated version of this title is now available!

Let's face it, this Christmas is going to suck, and we all know why. To that end I've created a bunch more maps, tokens and handout art for use in online games and virtual tabletops. Maps have been newly drawn, expanded, coloured and are available in gridded, ungridded, numbered and "clean" variations. There are also night and day versions. All this should make your online versions of In The Black Midwinter run as smoothly as possible. The Deck of Merry Things is now available as seperate cards in both print and VTT ready sizes. Run it before two years ago? Run it again, in the safety of your own home. Will slot effortlessly into your Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign. I'm using a rather broad definition of "Effortlessly" here obviously. But, y'know- snow!
Reply
Customer avatar
Chris D January 03, 2021 10:11 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Great adventure! 5/5. I am finishing it up the boss battle tonight. I am giving the magic snowball missile attacks a range of 150/300. I suspect the 5ft reach for a missile attack is an oversite. Also, at 15 feet of speed, I suspect a magic Snow Golem does not need to treat ice like rough terrain, but could benefit from sliding if an acrobatics check is successfully performed. I think on a failed check, instead of falling prone, and since they don't have legs, they will end up sliding 3x their speed (45 ft) in a random direction determined by a D8.
Customer avatar
Tamara F November 24, 2019 2:26 am UTC
PURCHASER
Super excited to give this a try, but I'm having a problem with the low res/black and white pdf with no backgrounds-it is colored and has lots of background in it still. Can you double check that it's what you intend to have up there? Just trying to save on some ink.
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Customer avatar
Simon P November 24, 2019 9:18 am UTC
CREATOR
Hi Tamara thanks for buying it. This version was just a quick fix with the textural backgrounds removed- my thinking was you could print it in black and white and be selective about which pages you print (ie cut out the cover and the afterword, that sort of thing). Hope that helps (a bit)- and hope you enjoy the game!
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Customer avatar
Tamara F November 25, 2019 7:43 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Oh, gotcha! Thanks!
Customer avatar
Benjamin W December 16, 2018 2:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
How many players is this adventure intended for? Could it work with just one, or would that be impractical?
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Customer avatar
Simon P December 16, 2018 10:19 pm UTC
CREATOR
One player could work if you dial down the combat encounters a bit- and definitely disregard the "Prisoner" card.
Customer avatar
Joshua D November 26, 2018 8:39 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Excited to run this one!

Any chance we could get a printer-friendly version?
Or perhaps the Low-Res version was mistakenly uploaded? My low-res pdf still has the blue backgrounds
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon P November 26, 2018 9:39 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Joshua thanks for buying the adventure. I guess by this point I've created about 14 different versions of the pdf so I may have got a few of them mixed up. Rest assured I've just uploaded the printer friendly version that has no blue backgrounds.
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Customer avatar
Joshua D December 13, 2018 3:21 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Ha! I figured that was the case.
Thank you very much!
Customer avatar
Ryan D November 25, 2018 10:28 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I’m struggling with ideas for how to help the party learn the secrets of Cratch. For example they could see the shrine to Klain but unless there’s a marker with a bunch of text it’s hard to imagine how they can learn the backstory - same for the other houses. I see there are effigies to the heroes, but I don’t think those would include much detail, simply because they’re the heroes of the town, and the townsfolk wouldn’t need to see more. I realize Caulkin could tell them something, but they would have to meet him first and convince him to talk , plus a scared halfling isn’t likely to relay the entire town history to a group of adventurers. There’s no other NPCs to talk to, unless we have Bran simply say it all, which doesn’t work that well either .

Maybe have it all in a packet the party brings with them? Am I missing something?
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Customer avatar
Simon P November 25, 2018 10:59 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Ryan
With the secrets I was thinking things like books and journals scattered around the village, paintings and tapestries depicting the history of the place, and your characters recalling stories about the area (with successful history/ religion/ arcana checks). You can initiate the latter by having them recognise a statue or carving and have it trigger a potential memory.
Hope that helps.
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Customer avatar
Boon B December 23, 2021 8:39 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks Simon, I'm not the OP, but I was struggling with the same thing. Thing. This makes great sense. I'll be running the game today and looking forward to the demise of my players. Thanks for such great work.
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Customer avatar
Simon P December 23, 2021 11:14 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi. To be honest, I ran this for my group the other day and even though I kept saying "there's runes there" or "there's a great scene carved into the wood paneling here" the players mostly didn't XXX, and just got on with the main adventure. But it's good for *you* to know this stuff just on the off-chance it comes up. They still had a great time though. Good luck with your game!
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Customer avatar
Simon P December 23, 2021 11:15 pm UTC
CREATOR
I dunno why that says XXX I typed 'b I t e'
Customer avatar
Tom G November 15, 2018 10:40 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi - just purchased and everything downloads and unzips fine except for the hi-res PDF. Unsure as to whether it is the laptop I am on currently but I haven't had any other issues.
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Customer avatar
Simon P November 17, 2018 9:56 am UTC
CREATOR
Hi Tom. This is working for me at the moment. You may have had issues because I've uploaded and deleted a few different versions of the file recently. I'd say give it a try now, and let me know if you're still having issues and if so I'll sort something out.
Customer avatar
Adrian M November 13, 2018 11:35 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi there. The full size preview does not work for me (Firefox, Windows 7).
Also, I am not seeing for what level this adventure meant to be?
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon P November 13, 2018 8:12 pm UTC
CREATOR
The preview script was trying to open the maps file, because of the file name, but I've switched it around now so the adventure PDF should open for you as intended. Thanks for checking it out (also the adventure is for levels 2-4, which I've added to the description).
Reply
Customer avatar
Adrian M November 14, 2018 7:04 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks for fixing these so fast!
Reply
Customer avatar
Adrian M November 16, 2018 12:49 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Bought it! Looks really good so far :-)
I will write a full review once I've had the chance to run it.

By the way I noticed in both the High and Low res documents that the following paragraph is repeated twice (probably an error):
"A hard (DC15) perception check near an occupied building (see the encounter table) may reveal the presence of an inhabitant. The only exception is the largest residential building- that of the halfling merchant Holan Kellister."
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Customer avatar
Simon P November 17, 2018 9:51 am UTC
CREATOR
I'd love to say that's in there twice because it's such an important detail but I have to cop to it and say oops. I'll get that fixed for the next upload. And I'll sack my copy editing elves.
Customer avatar
Christin H October 30, 2018 7:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I run a D&D club at the middle school where I teach. Would this be appropriate for a hoard of 12-15 year olds?
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon P October 31, 2018 6:11 am UTC
CREATOR
Hi. There's nothing inappropriate for that age group in the adventure. However it is written to be a fairly silly and goofy game, which I guess some players of that age might bounce off of, but it's perfectly possible to dial the dafter elements back, so you have more of a traditional D&D game. You just need to gauge the sorts of things your players would respond to best. Good luck!
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Customer avatar
Christin H November 07, 2018 12:41 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you!
Customer avatar
Angelo S December 14, 2017 5:13 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'm a pretty new DM and I just ran this adventure for 7 players -- 5 of which had never played D&D before. It was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it. Since there were so many new players, the first encounter I ran were with 6 Snow Golems. I wanted them to have a good challenge, but also enjoy killing a few enemies. They killed of 5 of them and then managed to destroy the last one as he was running away. A great way to start the game.

I had them actually traveling with a cart which carried Djimmssun and all his goods. I kinda needed a NPC like Djimmssun just so I could chime in and say a few things every once in a while. I played Djimmssun as a big, fat jerk who kept berating the players when he found out that they were lost. Eventually Djimmssun ate way too much of his own goods and fell into a food coma and wasn't a factor in the later parts of the game.

The feast scene in the great hall was super fun and with so many players there was a good split between those that chose to...See more
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Customer avatar
Simon P December 14, 2017 12:06 pm UTC
CREATOR
That's great - thanks do much for buying the adventure and I'm glad you all had fun with it. I never anticipated it would be anyone's first exposure to D&D - that's crazy! I really need to write an adventure you can play all year round now!
Customer avatar
Steve C November 13, 2017 12:18 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I have a very silly retro original D&D game I run a few times a year this looks perfect for. Looking forward to running it this weekend.
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Customer avatar
Simon P November 17, 2017 2:36 pm UTC
CREATOR
Cool - Let me know how it goes!
Reply
Customer avatar
Steve C November 20, 2017 4:10 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It went extremely well. All in all, an excellent adventure that can be played from very light hearted and silly, to rather sinister (the Krampus & the Yule Boys can easily be quite scary). It can be easily adapted or extended. The movie references (Home Alone & Die Hard) are fun and surprised my players. The folklore Fae monsters (The Yule Boys, Krampus etc) are well implemented and characterful. My only request would be maps, while you include some excellent maps in the module copy, I had trouble getting them into a usable form. You might consider releasing a printable map pack as an extra, for those of us with more money than DPT skills :)

As for our play experience. I was running for a 6 original D&D characters of levels 9 - 12. I played up some of the mysterious & scary faerie angle for the scenario and used that to up the difficulty for the higher level characters. I gave the Yule Boys, Krampus, & the Julboken immunity to everything apart from blessed cold iron weapons (which...See more
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Customer avatar
Simon P November 20, 2017 8:36 pm UTC
CREATOR
That's brilliant. Really glad you and your players enjoyed it. And thanks for the terrific review!
Customer avatar
Paul B November 10, 2017 11:12 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This looks really cool! The Deck of Merry Things... hilarious, I love it! I'm getting this and running it for my party, will report back.
Reply
Customer avatar
Simon P November 11, 2017 12:34 pm UTC
CREATOR
Excellent- thanks for picking it up. Hope you enjoy it!
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This title was added to our catalog on November 10, 2017.