​Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found On Itch.io…The Anvil of Winter

An adventure by Seba - Rackhir - SlmlOfDoom, leveless
Written for as high-concept notional whim of a system’s idea
   You saw this adventure’s art, didn’t you? Do you really need me to tell you that this thing is high concept? Well, yeah, of course, this is a high-concept little adventure. I’m mostly surprised by how little this adventure is. It’s just a little bifold, call it two pages, with ten locations keyed on the map, a quick random encounter table, a “here’s the story setup” paragraph or two, and the by now de-regur “here’s how to freeze in winter” rules. I don’t know if this is supposed to be “OSR” or freaking Dungeon World, but at least it doesn’t hurt my eyes. Those are my standards here on Crapshoot Monday, folks.
   So, what’s our high concept? Looks like the god of seasonal change (the Smith of Seasons) has been killed, which, oops, has locked the world into eternal winter. Standard D&D Problem, happens maybe 2-3 times a decade, I get it. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to summon spring, just have to strike the eponymous Anvil of Winter with the dead god’s hammer. Sadly, said hammer is half a ton, so must be moved by sled or a giant, and only someone huge can use it. Also there’s a minor nature goddess who’s imprisoned a wild elemental, local villages, and an extradimensional necromancer ship full of sleeping invaders who killed the ol’ guy in the first place because they want to plunge the world into eternal winter. That’s a regional campaign waiting to happen. “Warmth points” are designed to encourage more and more movement as the players bumble onward.
   I’ll begin what I liked with an approving nod to the map’s look. It is vivid, clear, and invites a regional exploration. The weird spiky Necromonger interdimensional spaceship in particular is pretty cool-looking. The concept in general is neat, and I can see a fun game based on it, especially with the (admittedly arbitrary) need for gigantism in the hammer-striking. Said hammerer magically becoming the new Smith of Seasons is rad.
   …but when I consider how much effort it would require to make this idea into a playable game, it’s obvious that what can be improved first, second, and third is GIVE MORE THOUGHT TO YOUR EXECUTION. There’s a ton of handwavium at play here, from accessing the Necromonger Ship to climbing mountains to dealing with the factions to handling the hammer-blow itself. One could certainly manage to make a fun campaign with this high concept, but it certainly appears that the designer intends something like a one-shot here. That’s…a little rough.
   I’m scratching my head a little on the best use case here.  I like the concept, but it’s a tremendous amount of work to give it a proper treatment, while running it as a one-shot feels a little…cheap? It’s also not something that easily fits into most ongoing games/worlds unless you’re cool with really changing your setting’s baseline theological design. I guess I’ll land on “one shot” side here, but it really is awkwardly positioned. Given this is a set of wild ideas mixed with sneaky homework assignments, mining the adventure for neat ideas is very rewarding.
   Final Rating? **/***** and that one added star is only grudging because while it is a cool idea, it’s NOT a COMPLETE adventure. Come back and do the work to turn this into a 20-pager, oh authorial trio.
Nifty yak illustrations, tho.