Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found on Itch.io… Merry March in the Winter Wood

​A pointcrawl adventure by Petter Fornes, level -
For Cairn
  Winter, grey and cold, dark and wet…miles of tramping, woolen socks damp in the thin pale light of day…all of these are perfectly encapsulated by the stirring work of Norwegian painter Theodor Kittelsen. Oh and so I guess also this Merry March in the Winter Wood, a little outdoor Cairn adventure that uses Kittelsen’s lovely art. I have to set aside my very positive associations with the art here to judge the adventure, proper.
  This 4-page adventure (counting front cover) describes a simple pointcrawl in a snowy woodland, ostensibly looking a lost prince…the quest bit is on the “back” fourth page, which was definitely A Choice. Pretty standard set of things to bumble into, like a hunting bear, a spooky owl, and mean old cold guys. The prince is transformed into a wolverine by a shaman and will attack upon immediately seeing, the only hint that he’s not a normal wolverine is that he’s got his crown as a collar and he doesn’t talk (unlike every other animal in the wood). There’s also a travelling snow king made out of snow who makes you snowy. Walking in a winter wonderland, then.
  WHAT I LIKED IS THAT ALL ANIMALS TALK, yes, please, more of this in TTRPG settings. I really like several of the individual encounters, in fact…a hag that accidentally knocked her own head off (is mad about it), a huge frozen waterfall with a magic bell incased within, the snow royals being just on walkabout and kind of not caring about anything. It’s got a strong fairytale vibe in some of these. Some thought was also given to how rough trekking through snowy woods in winter tends to be, and there are tough but fair mechanics to reflect it. The art, as I mentioned, is gorgeous public-domain stuff that communicates the mood very well.
  Thus, what can be improved is certainly achievable. First of all, the actual quest is a little…aimless. Not sure if it’s the starting spiel being tucked in the back like that, or the choice to jettison an overarching sequence of events, or the fact that the prince himself is a random wanderer, but it feels like there will be a lot of pointless flailing by the luckless Cairnians. Who, let us remember, don’t even level up. This aimlessness applies to a lot of the weaker encounters, too, where you just bump into them and maybe fight, maybe chat, and it’s just noise. A fine thing in a general wilderness zone but adventures designed to be one-shots require focus.
  All that said the best use case here is still as a one-shot. Ideally in a better system, but with a little fat-trimming you could definitely have a good time. Probably in a perfect world, you play this in a rough-hewn log cabin in the middle of wintertime in front of a roaring fire, quaffing spiced mulled wine. Hey, there are some decent encounters to be raided individually too.
  Final Rating? **/**** Good enough to be worth your time as a one-shot in a specific situation, but needs a little investment.

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