Midvinter Adventure Review (w/ bonus cultist gift table!)

Midvinter is a short cult-centric holiday adventure that is compatible with OSR games. It features wilderness survival and a lot of NPC interaction to explore and investigate kidnappings. The party will have to unravel what is going on and find out how to stop and escape the cult while avoiding their outwardly friendly but sinister machinations. It is, of course, an obvious parody of Ari Aster’s Midsommar (a masterpiece), right down to the cover paying homage with the Flame Princess in a crown of holly with tears and a look of devastation on her face. 

Physically, it’s a high quality hardcover with fantastic art by Yannick Bouchard. It’s printed in color with lots of art. In the LotFP style the endpapers are printed with maps for quick reference. While this is the most visually appealing choice, I would have preferred for one to be encounter tables and tips. The book is also too long, and could have been condensed by 10 pages or more if the location keys were presented together rather than one per page. There’s a LOT of full-page art. 12 pages worth.

The idea is that the PCs are hired by a man who wants his kidnapped daughter back. The cult responsible is trying to perform a solstice ritual to fend off the Fimbulwinter by appeasing Odin, and the PCs need to stop them by any means necessary. The adventure is an LotFP piss-take; their beliefs are fake and they are manipulating the PCs into unwittingly murdering them for ultimately pointless reasons. Playing it straight is also an option, but it isn’t presented in that fashion- it is like the book is saying “strip out the fun stuff if you want”. The adventure is focused in its scope, and reading through it gives a strong sense of the tone and atmosphere. It can also be immersive from all of the potential exploration and NPC interaction, but can also be difficult to manage for the same reasons. The behind-the-scenes meta-joke doesn’t come through to the players very easily. It is, however, really fun to read and Kelvin’s sense of humor is very present.

Running it, I found myself really appreciating the wilderness encounters, where my players were harried by a blizzard and then by some wolves. The planning of the journey is quite well-paced the way it’s written, with the tavern rumor buildup, hazardous journey and encounters, and sightings of ominous runes creating tension effectively. The “crossing of the threshold”, in pretentious literary theory terms, is excellent.

The cult’s village is small and very limited. It’s remote and has little in terms of goods or services, just a lot of cabins, the usual village buildings, a great hall, and a big tree in the middle waiting to be festooned with bloody organs. The atmosphere came off really unsettling for the players, who were itching to get in and get out. Playing it as it’s written and using the mannerisms of the many townsfolk, I found it really fun to creep them out more and more. Honestly, I was surprised they held off as long as they did before going full murderhobo, but I do think that the premise begs for some engagement with the townsfolk rather than a “well this is creepy, let the fireballs fly” approach.

There’s got to be a way to consolidate and organize things better than this. The adventure is laid out by location and lists the inhabitants of each house in the entry. It’s more beneficial to have a list of the NPCs with their names and personalities easily accessible. I was able to consolidate them into about 3 densely-packed pages of notes rather than the “1 house with inhabitants” per page format it’s presented in. I think that it’s emblematic of a recent problem with LotFP products, which is that there doesn’t seem to be the same effort towards at-the-table usability the products were once known for. Authorial freedom has pushed for larger, longer passages, with Kelvin’s many jokes and comments being among the biggest culprits.

As a novelty, it might be worth your money. As a big fan of Midsommar, I get a chuckle out of it and it’s fun to have an LotFP holiday farce adventure. As an adventure in and of itself, it is more like something for the referee to read and chuckle at than a serious, usable adventure. 

 

444/666

Bonus Gameable Content:

This being a christmas/gift-holiday adventure, here are some gifts players might find if they start opening random parcels left behind by massacred cultists, or are given gifts by these creepily-charming fools.

d20	Gift
1	Reindeer fur cat-o-nine-tails
2	Taxidermied hedgehog with a ceremonial hat and bag of gifts
3	Charcuterie board with salted lynx meat
4	Coonskin-style cap made from winter fox fur
5	Candied winterberries. Taste awful but great for bowel movements.
6	Gluten-free pinecone flour and a booklet of recipes
7	Tiny dart board and mini-crossbow that fires sharpened twigs. Can shoot your eye out if not careful.
8	Pointed elf shoes made from dyed & felted human hair. They itch and mortify the flesh.
9	Secret decoder bracer with built in sundial. Can decipher secret runic messages.
10	Mittens that convert into fingerless gloves. Can keep you warm  while allowing precise tasks like lockpicking.
11	Knitted scarf with cute winter embroidery. Always smells  wintery-fresh and gives a benefit against inhaled odors and poisons.
12	Long tasseled winter cap. Penalty to Stealth from the bell attached,  but looks snappy.
13	Illuminated booklet titled “Maiden with the Fenris Tattoo”.  Tawdry but gripping.
14	Wooden duck with intricate scrollwork in the style of viking ship prow. Floats.
15	Matching packages for twins. Each holds a thinned and hardened deerhide folded raven, Hugin and Munin. One flies slightly farther than the other.
16	Woad makeup kit. Fool’s Gold dust makes it sparkly.
17	Membership card to the Jelly of the Month Club.
18	Crocheted saucy lingerie. Mistletoe stitched on the panties.
19	Thin but strong wooden throwing disc, carved with the runes  “ ᚠᚱᛁᛋᛒᛁᛁ ”.
20	Intricate bone zoetrope depicting Odin calling down/banishing storms  depending on which direction it is spun. Extra animation scrolls included.