- So this particular book
is set in Icewind Dale.
Now what is the actual title for the book?
- [Chris] The title of the book is
"Icewind Dale Rime of the Frostmaiden".
- Already very scary.
So what is the story that you can tell me
about this particular adventure
that you're introducing?
- Like all I can tell you
is that it's a horror story.
But unlike "Curse of
Strahd" which focused on
sort of the tropes of gothic horror,
this story set in
Icewind Dale focuses more
on a modern horror but it's
all about isolation, paranoia,
secrets being kind of trapped
with a bunch of other people
in a hostile land and having to deal with
some terrifying threats.
It's a story set in Icewind Dale
not like any other story we've
ever set in Icewind Dale.
And for those who don't know
Icewind Dale is a piece of the realms
but it's separated from
the rest of the realms
by this mountain range called
The Spine of the World and...
So it is geographically
isolated and far to the north.
It's the place where people
go to lose themselves
or to escape from their pasts
or to test their mettle against
an unforgiving frontier.
It's very much a frontier
like environment.
And because it's isolated,
you can't expect to
get help from anywhere.
You really are kind of, kinda on your own.
And the story centers around
a group of adventurers
who are dealing with the fact
that the winter never seems
to end here and there
are terrible things out
in that dark cold and those
things are getting closer
and there are secrets out
there buried under the snow
and ice and if you wanna go find them,
that's great but the risks
may not be worth the reward.
- I can only suspect
we're going to an a...
Because of like any good
horror story or sci-fi story,
a lot has to be a secret otherwise
you kind of ruin the whole
point of playing the adventure.
- Yeah, which is why
I'm sort of shying away
while I may have been
more comfortable in years
past talking about some of
the key aspects of the story.
I'm really kind of shying away from that
and speaking in generalities
so as not to spoil
any of the secrets and surprises
of which there are many.
This is a good-sized adventure.
It's 320 pages.
- Wow, okay.
- [Chris] And--
- That's healthy.
- It's a combination of,
there's like this fun narrative
through line but then there
are all these delightful,
terrifying satellite locations
and sort of side stories
that DMs can kinda take and run with.
- Are there gonna be
interesting perhaps monsters
in this as well?
- Yeah.
In fact there are more new
monsters in this adventure
than any other fifth edition adventure
we've published so far.
Part of that is simply
because the Monster Manual
as big as it is, doesn't have
a ton of cold dwelling creatures
and so we're just sort of
fleshing out that empty space
but also the story itself challenged us
to pull some monsters out of D&D's past
as well as do some fun novel rifts
on existing monsters which I know...
I can see the smirk on your face.
You know what I'm talking about.
There are a couple variations
of monster manuals,
monsters in here which are quite fun
and we think DMs will really, really like
but you know, as I was
saying like it's a bit...
One of the reasons why
this adventure is so big
is because it's based theory,
it's creature section is really huge.
- And that's kinda like...
Is that key element to this
and in some ways is that...
Especially for if you've
been playing D&D a long time
and you're very familiar with monsters,
I know what Jelena's Cube is,
I know what this is, I know what that is
but like if you present that to me,
like say there was a goblin
but also has like a goblin sharks teeth
or something that's like...
There has to be the element
right with a monster
and a horror story that you
don't understand how it works.
Like the--
- That is exactly one of
the reasons why the idea
that in horror you want to be surprised
and if your players are as well versed
in the Monster Manual
is you know, the DM is,
some of that surprise
can quickly be diluted
'cause the players will know
what they're up against.
Part of the goal is to presents
new threats that the DM
can spring on the players
and the players will go,
"Oh my God!
"I don't know what that is!
"What's it tasting?
"What if it bites?"
- Like, that came over man.
No one--
(mumbling)
- That is not how that
monster is supposed to work.
- Yes, yeah.
- A kind of fear factor?
- Yeah.
And a lot of the monsters have a kind of,
some a bit of a horrific quality to them.
- And maybe some have a cute quality.
It depends on your perspective.
- I saw that we've talked
about horror cute before
but there is, there's some
horror cute going on, yeah.
I don't know...
One of the sort of behind
the screen philosophies
of adventure design in my book
is you kind of have to have
a balance in terms of mood and
you can't just go with D&D.
Particularly in a horror story,
sometimes you have to break
the horror, break the mood,
get people's spirits back up
so you can tear them down again.
And one of the ways to do that
is to put in some quirky, fun
or cute little things
and there's lots of that
in this adventure too.
- What scares you?
Like growing up, what movies or books,
what concepts scared you the most
and even today excluding current events?
- I mean one of this...
One of the things that...
One of my favorite horror
experience's growing up
that scared me and which
certain is inspiration
for this story was the John Carpenter's
remake of "The Thing."
I love that story because it
is about a group of people
who are kind of alone,
there's no backup you know.
They're dealing with a threat
they don't understand at first.
A creature that can turn
into other creatures
and hide in their midst
and that idea of hiding in one's midst,
having the threat be
there but you can't see it
is utterly terrifying to me.
And it's analogous to a
lot of things happening
in the real world
that the idea of the
enemy walking among you
and not knowing who to trust is huge...
Has a big effect on me
and that theme is prevalent in this story.
That the person you look at
through the blowing snow walking
toward you down the
street is so bundled up
in cold-weather clothing that
you don't know what they are.
They kinda look human from a distance
but for all you know it could
be three Kobolds in a parka.
It's just...
We just don't know.
- That's the best scenario.
- Or it's something much,
much, much, much worse
and you know the, that sort
of terror is the kind of thing
that I'd love to play with
and has that kind of thing
I picked up from watching these movies
in my childhood and my youth.
- I remember...
I actually remember watching
the black and white,
"The Thing" where it
was the vegetable man.
- Yeah.
I've seen that one recently actually.
It's kind of weird one 'cause
it's a very talky movie.
It's like they...
They clearly had a very limited budget
and so what they mostly had
were just humans talking
to each other and not
really showing anything.
- [Todd] Yeah.
- And they saved the budget for like
the last 10 minutes of the film.
- [Todd] Yeah.
- When the creature shows up
and there's some sparkly
stuff that happens.
- They had about 10
minutes of Boris Karloff
and that was about it and
the vegetable blood pods.
- Yeah.
But I'm still fond of that
movie for other reasons.
- It's a...
Yeah.
The original John Carpenter's "The Thing."
And I actually didn't...
I didn't mind the sort
of sequel or prequel
just 'cause I just love that...
That's what scares me as well.
Just the isolation plus you
don't know who you can trust.
- Yeah.
And isolation and paranoia are
two that coupled with secrets
are basically themes we
hung Rime Frostmaiden on.
So everything in this story
ties back to one of those
three themes; secrecy,
paranoia, isolation.
- Why do we like to be scared so much?
What's thrilling about that?
- It triggers chemicals in
the body that remind you
that you're alive
and you know,
that's basically the long
and short of it is, it...
And it's a momentary
change from the normal
and so when you're scared,
your adrenaline starts to kick in,
certain primal impulses start
to race through your brain,
suddenly you're on guard
against all sorts of you know
potential threats and stuff like that
and then eventually it passes
and so it's sort of a break-in the normal
and I think that we like to be scared
when we're in a safe place,
to get that reaction without the danger.
To get that...
To get those chemicals flowing
without the actual threat
of being eaten or otherwise
you know disposed of.
- Yeah.
I don't think I'd watch "The Thing"
in a cabin in Antarctica.
- That's part of it, right?
Like yeah.
It's...
Sometimes when I'm out
walking the dog at night,
I'll cycle through the
music on my cell phone
and find like the
creepiest music I can find
and it has a very different effect on me
than if I'm listening that same music
while typing on my computer at home.
It's all situational.
The other thing about being scared,
about liking to be scared is
it gives you an appreciation
for normalcy in a way.
- [Todd] Yeah.
- If you're...
You don't wanna...
No one wants to be scared
for too long right.
- No.
- It's always a momentary thing
but then you feel grateful
for the return to normalcy,
to a non scared state.
- Right.
Because a long-term scared state
is not necessarily sustainable.
- Well we're kind of
figuring that out this year.
- Yeah.
- In 2020 this conversation
holds special relevance.
- Well, this is going on much longer.
- And there are I mean,
depending on who you are,
you probably you know
had periods in your life
where you were scared
for long periods of time
and that's not fun.
But the thing about "A
Dungeons & Dragons Adventure"
is it's meant to be your
ride, it's meant to be a trip.
You're supposed to be having
fun while you're being scared
and that's really the
goal of this adventure
is the players are having a great time,
yes they're being scared
but it's all within the
context of this story
and you're learning things,
you're you know, you discover
you know the party unity
is the thing that's going
to get you through this
and that's a good message
and D&D is a safe place to explore
the sorts of horrible dreadful themes
whereas isolation in the
real world just sucks.
- [Announcer] Pre-order Icewind
Dale Rime of the Frostmaiden
now on "D&D Beyond"
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