Post/Author/DateTime	Post
cabertoss 10-04-07, 06:29 PM	Hello fellow Game Masters, After many years, I'm finally beginning a campaign in the frozen wastes of my world. I've recently got hold of Frostburn for some ideas to get me going, but want to create something big. Does anyone know of or recommend any ice/snow-based adventures, existing campaign worlds, maps or other resource books to help me flesh things out? Thanks for your help! ct
GoriceXII 10-05-07, 09:55 AM	I think you need some questions, so here goes: 1. Why Frostburn? Is this an ice age type of setting or is it just really cold sometimes? 2. I think Forgotten Realms has a setting that is entirely in the northernmost part of Faerun. I'll see if I can dig up a link for that for you. 3. What elements of Frostburn are making you feel inspired?
cabertoss 10-05-07, 04:34 PM	Thanks for helping me focus... 1--I've got a major quest happening in the far northern reaches of my world, and am using Frostburn for some PC creation (ice gnome, everfrost barbarian, etc...). The PC's will be spending a lot of time (and most of their previous lives) in the ice and snow. 2--Yes, I need to check into Forgotten Realms. A pre-existing, nicely fleshed out frozen realm would be the best resource of all-- for maps and topographic features, etc... 3--I've already introduced Icerazer and some of the gods into my campaign from the Frostburn book, as well as monsters, classes, etc... I'll take the best and leave the rest, which I was hoping to do from a variety of sources. Since I have yet to map and/or create the frozen part of my world, it leaves me lots of room to shape things now. If you find that Forgotten Realms link or anything else, please shoot it my way-- I'll start looking around as well. Thanks again!
GoriceXII 10-05-07, 04:47 PM	Okay, a major quest--are we talking a long adventure path kind of thing? When I plan out stuff like that I find I need to put down the following: 1. Overall plot and story. It is actually from this that you get your locations. 2. Cast support. You also get locations and build up from what kind of pcs are available. For instance if you are assuming that the everfrost barbarian class is generally available there must be a society nearby that supports that class. 3. What kinds of cold environment are available? For instance Antarctica is radically different from the Arctic. Then there's cold desert, cold icepack, etc. 4. What kind of bestiary do you want to use? I find it helpful now and then to just sit down with a setting book and whatever other books I have--for instance let's say I'm going to use Frostburn plus MMI and Fiendish Codex I--then I come up with creatures, races, etc that fit the milieu and eliminate everything else. That gives me a good limited and clear set of choices for wandering monsters, racial communities and so on. If I have wandering monsters I want to know why they're in the area.
Shimura 10-07-07, 11:26 AM	A nice, if slightly cheap, long term quest is to go with the "Narnia style" Ice Queen/ King who has sheathed the land in ice & snow for several generations using epic spell (read Dire Winter/ Ice age). Players are the prophesied ones that can break the endless winter and get back to the nice normal temperate land that it was. For races obvisouly you've got Frostburn and then in most of my games I choose a couple of monster races as the main bad guys. For this there is the polar bear people or frostfolk in Frostburn or the Goat-folk in MM3 that might be suitable. Or Frost giants and frost 1/2 giants... I don't know of any particular things per se, but if you read up Dark Sun stuff then it would be pretty comparable (if you turn the desert to ice). Both feature isolated cities ruled by evil mages and vast stretches of dangerous & deadly terrain between them and a lot of slave people yearning to be set free...
Naderion 10-07-07, 02:23 PM	A problem with arctic settings is, that there are only so many places to discover and villians to fight. If you want to have a long campaign in such a land, you'll have to have a rather large population for the area so there are actually things for the characters to do. In normal circumstances, animals either eat other animals or plants, and plants don't grow when the soil is frozen. In the arctic and antarctic, all the food comes from the ocean brought there in the form of migrating animals who had feed on plants in warmer climates. If you are in the mountains, you'll have to find a way to support the people and animals with food. They only can prey on each other for so long... The settled parts of the himalaya have valeys where there is soil to cultivate plants and sumers long enough to grow and harvest them. An area without these is practically a huge wastland where nothing can live. There's actually much more wildlife in the sahara or death valley than in antarctica. One solution would be vulcanism. There could be very deep valeys on top of underground lava rivers that heat up the ground enough so it can be used for planting. These places would be like an oasis in the dessert, just that it doesn't provide water but warmth for plants.