The Doom Of Blackwinter

By Mark Meredith
Dice Monkey
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Level ... 1?

The villagers of Ethan’s Vale seek out a group of heroes to find the whereabouts of the strange Drengr raiders that have been causing harm to the area. As the heroes track the Drengr higher and higher into the mountains, they realize that the premature winter that has struck the land may be connected to the Drengrs’ actions. The heroes must stop the Blackwinter Court from awakening Winter’s Heart, an immense frost elemental, and prevent the ancient magics of a renegade unseelie fey from consuming the land. With bravery and cunning, the heroes must brave the icy dangers of the Fey lands and save the land from the doom of Blackwinter.

This 64 page adventure is a linear railroad conversion from 5e, presenting 21 encounters in about forty pages. It is exactly what one would expect from a 5e adventure. 

Some D&D ads have popped on TikTok for me, for the next edition/version of the books. There were, like, six comments on the ad. I found the few comments to be weird; there should have been more? And, they were all VERY negative. And, thusly, this cycle of “D&D’s Renaissance” completes, with the brand sleeping now for fifteen or so years until it reemerges again in to the pop culture spotlight, parked by WoTC while a succession of VP’s get hired and fired by Ha$bro for lack of monetization. And this is all relevant to this review because this may be the poster-child for a 5e adventure. And we all know that’s not a compliment.

Orcs are attacking villages. The party tracks them down to find that they made a deal with the Fey. The party tracks the fey to a dwarf city, abandoned, and through a frost gate to the Feywild. There they kill some fey and fight a giant ice elemental. 

This takes place over 21 encounters that are all going to happen in a row. A railroad, so to speak. Now, I HATE railroad adventures, but, also, I’m willing to admit that there may be a place for them in certain game types. Like 5e plot ‘adventures.’ I find them worthless dice rolling exercises without merit, but, some people are looking for an activity with friends instead of a game. I note, however, the lack of agency in this adventure, in particular. Even within the encounters/scenes the party has little to no agency. This extends to their deaths. If you attack the orc village and they kill you then the orcs heal you up, bringing you back. Not even in death can you escape the railroad! Too extreme? When talking to the orcs chief (where you are brought for questioning after they bring you back to life) then you need to be completely truthful with him. No deception allowed! Because “Unless the players are completely truthful, he will be dissatisfied.” There’s no fucking reason for this. God forbid the party do ONE LITTLE THING that is not in alignment with what the designer wants to have happen.

The usual issues with formatting. Long sections of read-aloud. In italics. Long DM text with little to no formatting to help the DM wade through things. Abstracted textual descriptions that do little to help bring an environment to life. In spite of sections of purple prose. “They find a Drengr Seidmadur, or spellcaster, casting a ritual over the rocks …” You mean an orc shaman? Got it. Did I mention the skill checks? Yes, abstracted skill checks. [Insert tired story of  Knowledge:Religion to sneak past gate guards … with appropriate dirty looks from DM]

The tropes are heavy in this one. I guess the modern trend of religion being bad is over and has moved on to the Fey being the faceless bad guys now. Every other adventure seems to have them evil and plotting and angry at [something in history] and the bitter about the encroachment of the mortal races. In contract, of course, to the noble orcs found in this adventure. While in league with the fey, they are the goodies. When raiding farms they burn down bard, but only after releasing all of the farm animals first, and, of course, don’t kill people. The orc wolfmaster cares deeply for his pack and will try to speak to the party once one of this pack has fallen. If you are winning against the orc village then the leader calls down an avalanche to bury you until they all escape. He has a resigned look on his face. He’s sad. All that’s missing is a single tear as he looks at the litter. Meanwhile the fey are just faceless stat blocks to kill. There is no nuance here. There is no complexity. It’s just a ham handed sledgehammer of a tale. Why not make everyone an asshole? Or, at least, lean in that direction. Villagers, orcs, fey, dwarves. Insular and self-interested, the lot of them. You know, giving the party a choice. Ahh, and there is the rub.

The adventure ends when the party meets Lareth the Beautiful and his ice elemental. “Temintariel Elenvaul, the enigmatic leader of the Court, stands in silent vigil before the massive, glowing heart of Winter” Ah yes, he is behind the entire thing and we don’t hear anything about him until the final encounter. Literally Lareth.

Pathetic earthlings, hurling your bodies out in to the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the adventures, anything at all, you would’ve hidden from it in terror. But, sure, why not just throw some words on a page and charge $20 for it instead. Dude obviously put some effort in to this. But, also, he focused on the wrong things and made some of the most common mistakes in adventure writing. Meaning this is blunt force effort rather understanding the purpose of the design. And, thusly, just more conversion trash.

Oh, I forgot that this “lower level adventure for parties just getting started in the world” has you fighting a band of frost giants. Uh huh.

This is $20 at DriveThru. The preview is ten pages. You get to see four or so encounters at the end of the preview, and those are quite representative of the adventure.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/482815/the-doom-of-blackwinter-old-school-essentials-edition?1892600