I struggle with the „Rime of the Frostmaiden“ book

[Sir-Carlos]

I am currently running RotF. I have skimmed through the book and read the first chapter. I wanted to read it more thoroughly this last week, but it is going slowly. I love the setting and the story, don’t get me wrong. But the book itself is… bad.

It is dryly written, the NPCs are really flat and finding information is hard. Many quest introductions are written like: „The players find out this thing and go to investigate. But then, an unexpected plot-twist occurs.“ then I have to read the whole quest, to find out what the twist is! Why? Why do you try to introduce suspense for the DM? I just want an overview.

Also, while most quests are interesting, the Towns themselves are not. Save for some exceptions. But most towns are just the same as the other before that.

(And I really don’t understand how you can make a book so massive with so few maps.)

I just really struggle getting through this book. My first campaign was „Call of the Netherdeep“ and there was absolutely no problem for me. The book was great, easy to read, well structured. And I am currently reading „Strength of Thousands“ a Pathfinder adventure and it is so much more exciting.

Any tips? I am excited for the campaign, but this excitement is doused every time I look in the book.

[J-H]

Despite being the company that made D&D, WOTC's record in writing adventures for 5e has been spotty according to some commentators. I've never personally bought or read one of their campaign books to find out. I think I recall reading that it is extremely skimpy on magic items, to the tune of only one or two magic weapons by level 6, which definitely makes things less fun for the non-caster players.

The DM's Guild has approximately 732 items listed under the ROTFM tag. (https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?filters=0_100023_0_0_0_0_0_0&src=fid100023) There are DM's Guides, maps, extra detail for some areas, encounters, supplementary adventures, and more. You may find some things here you like.

[Unoriginal]

I am currently running RotF. I have skimmed through the book and read the first chapter. I wanted to read it more thoroughly this last week, but it is going slowly. I love the setting and the story, donÂ’t get me wrong. But the book itself isÂ… bad.

It is dryly written, the NPCs are really flat and finding information is hard. Many quest introductions are written like: „The players find out this thing and go to investigate. But then, an unexpected plot-twist occurs.“ then I have to read the whole quest, to find out what the twist is! Why? Why do you try to introduce suspense for the DM? I just want an overview.

Also, while most quests are interesting, the Towns themselves are not. Save for some exceptions. But most towns are just the same as the other before that.

(And I really donÂ’t understand how you can make a book so massive with so few maps.)

I just really struggle getting through this book. My first campaign was „Call of the Netherdeep“ and there was absolutely no problem for me. The book was great, easy to read, well structured. And I am currently reading „Strength of Thousands“ a Pathfinder adventure and it is so much more exciting.

Any tips? I am excited for the campaign, but this excitement is doused every time I look in the book.

The book has few maps because most of Icewind Dale is monotonous, deadly cold terrain. Maps are provided for the many areas that do stand out, IIRC.

For the NPCs, I think it's just a question of styles and tastes. I found them plenty interesting and engaging, especially considering you're likely meeting them either only once or only with a lot of time between each encounters.

For the towns, well, that is entirely on purpose. Those towns are miserable places far from everything, and the main things that distinguish between them are:

1) Which fool is in charge
2) Which peril happens nearby that can be an adventure
3) How the population is dealing being under the thumb of the goddess of Winter

As for the "why are they trying to put a twist in the description for the DM", well, keep in mind that those adventures are episodic and can be done in any order, mostly, so those descriptions are basically "sales pitch"/synopsis to create interest.

Call of the Netherdeep is, as far as I know, a pretty linear adventure, with some diverging points that converge latter on. Rime of the Frostmaiden is a pick-n-explore meatgrinder sandbox with some story-important dungeons that each also have a pick-n-explore structure.


Now, those are explanations as to why the book is like that, it doesn't mean your tastes align with it.

I advise you to read the whiole book and decide for a more linearstructure by only making the parts you like relevent for the PCs.