How Orcus Stole Christmas (5e) by James M. Spahn is a role playing game supplement published by Frog God Games for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. A such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is an adventure for 4-6 characters of levels 3-5 and is also available in versions for Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry.
The supplement is available as a 24-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $4.79 and is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed, although it was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the front matter, one an ad, one the Table of Contents and one the Open Game License.
The village of Newville – going by later references, located somewhere in the Lost Lands setting – has been attacked by a being called Orcus’ Claws and his Crueltide elves. Whilst the inhabitants were singing around a tree, the Crueltide elves – actually goblins – stole every piece of metal from the village. Which caused it to collapse. Orcus’ Claws promised to return.
The characters arrive the day after the initial attack and can help with rescue attempts for some trapped locals. They can also hear from a d8 table of rumours and will be asked if they can help defeat Orcus’ Claws. Should they agree to help, they can make their way to Orcus’ Claws’ lair, defeating appropriately winter-themed foes on the way, including Crueltide elves, who seem to have weaponised toys. In the lair, they must stop Orcus’ Claws from leaving on his sleigh pulled by demonic reindeer and attacking the village.
Appendix A: New Monsters covers those; essentially, everything is a new monster.
Appendix B: New Magic Items describes four new minor magic items.
Appendix C: Orcus’ Christmas Slay, describes the magical artefact. It can be used by the characters, but doing so is foolish. The final page of content is a player’s map of the area.
How Orcus Stole Christmas (5e) in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents, however, only links the adventure and Legal Appendix, making it essentially useless. Navigation, in the PDF using bookmarks, is decent; in the printed book it may be terrible. The text maintains a two-column colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of colour illustrations, up to full page in size, which look as if they are custom, as well as the, really lovely, full colour area map, which comes in GM’s and player-friendly versions. Presentation is excellent.
This adventure, despite being what is effectively a dark take on Christmas, is not a dark adventure. Despite the dangers, the, probably deliberately, annoying villagers and the tainted Christmas, it comes across as being a lighter adventure than might be thought. If you want a dark and grim Christmas tale, this definitely isn’t it. If you want one that is more on the darkly humorous side, this fits. It is a rather linear adventure though; characters follow pretty much a set path from start to finish, which is a shame. How Orcus Stole Christmas (5e) is a different type of Christmas adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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