Crimson Snow by Jonny Cordova is a role playing game supplement published by Wizards of the Coast through the DMs Guild Community Content Programme for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
The supplement is available from DMs Guild as a 15-page PDF for $4.99 but was obtained at a reduced price thanks to a special offer. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one the Contents.
Adventure Outline starts with Background, in which it’s explained that scouts were sent to investigate a meteor (actually a meteorite) and are now overdue for a report. This is because they weren’t the only ones investigating the meteorite. Synopsis… isn’t actually a synopsis of the adventure, more the current situation. Adventure Hooks has various ways of getting the characters involved, especially if it’s included in an Icewind Dale campaign; Rime of the Frostmaiden being the recent one.
Dramatis Personae lists the major characters giving their details but no stats.
Chapter 1 – The Meteor Outpost describes and maps the outpost and its current inhabitants.
Chapter 2 – Excavation Site covers this location, but doesn’t map it. Instead, there are checks needed to be made to travel through the tunnels, with consequences for multiple failures. The meteor itself is described.
Chapter 3 – The Gothic and the Cosmic has the final confrontations of the adventure, together with possible conclusions.
Appendix: Magic Items and Monster Statistics has a new magic item and stats for the creatures.
Crimson Snow in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. The Contents are reasonably thorough and are hyperlinked. Navigation is adequate. The text maintains a two-column format – for some reason, the read aloud text is in a smaller font which makes it hard to read – and appeared to be mostly free of errors. There are a number of pieces of black and white and colour stock art, plus maps. Presentation is okay, though it would have been helpful to have the maps available as separate files.
This adventure is essentially a combination of horror and cosmic horror, though, as this is D&D 5E outside of Ravenloft, it’s not really what could be called horrific. This isn’t a failing of the adventure but the system; unmodified D&D, especially 5E, is not a system that works with horror, given that it’s superheroic fantasy. So, what this really is, is an adventure with some potentially dangerous creatures, not a horror adventure. It’s not a bad little adventure, but it’s not a horror adventure. Crimson Snow can be found by clicking here.
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