Everyone’s Been Naughty by Christopher Waples (@Grumpy_DMs)
“Everyone’s Been Naughty is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure that takes place in the remote northern Kingdom of Hartsvale in the Forgotten Realms. Deep in this valley is the city of Darkwell. Located at the base of the Weeping Spire, it is a city few have heard of. It is there where an unlikely ally seeks to repair the Midwinter Cycle, before all the magic from the holiday is lost forever and replaced by an unending darkness.
This is a 4-5-hour one-shot adventure designed to be played by a party of four to five 5th level characters.”
This heightened holiday nightmare cartoon adventure contains a lot of dark, adult themes and content, but is crafted with skill and care, and will bring the right group with informed consent a whole lot of epic fun.
CW: Violence towards children (Referenced: Krampus, whipping), Children in Combat (Tossed by Krampus from his Sack, becoming Active in Combat), Spanking (as Attack: Krampus), Kidnapping, War (Referenced & Many Bodies of the Fallen), Suicidal / Assisted Suicide (Snowman: Requested, Bargained, Described), Loss of Agency (Magic Item: Becoming a 15 ft. Killer Snowman), Necessity of Fighting Irreversibly Warped Innocents, Mass Death from Depression (Referenced), Fat-shaming (Child)
It should be clear from the sheer amount of content warnings above that Everyone's Been Naughty is an adventure with a number of mature themes. I’m choosing to address this up top because I feel the weight content warnings above warrants it. This isn’t, as was once said, your granddaddy’s Christmas/ Midwinter adventure. That having been said it is clearly not designed to be anything other than good, if not clean fun. There is a heightened nature to things that I would compare to the cartoons aimed at adults such as those produced by Adult Swim. If they are something you and your group enjoy then I can see this being a lot of fun, it’s simply a case of knowing your group, having open communication, giving them the opportunity for informed consent by being clear about the elements and nature of the adventure. I would seriously recommend the use of Safety Tools with this adventure to ensure the comfort of your table. The TTRPG Safety Toolkit (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/114jRmhzBpdqkAlhmveis0nmW73qkAZCj) co-curated by Kienna Shaw (@KiennaS) and Lauren Bryant-Monk (@jl_nicegirl) is an invaluable resource.
Now this has been established I do raise the issue that the appropriate content warnings are not present in the document or product page. Due to this and little else influenced my rating this adventure 4/5, rather than 5/5, which I believe it would be with the nature of the content and discussion of safety tools addressed because this is clearly a quality adventure with great imagination, lore and world-building/ dovetailing with the Forgotten Realms. Finally, on this matter I want to draw attention to the fact this is one of the first works of a new creator with the RPG Writer Workshop (@StoryTellingCol) and the genuine openness and understanding of this matter when I raised it with them. I hope this can be addressed in a future update.
Right, let’s get into this supplement!
There is a heck of a lot here for the introductory price, set to increase after Boxing Day:
• 3 unique holiday themed subclasses
• 3 unique holiday themed monsters
• 3 full color battlemaps
• A full-sized map of the kingdom of Hartsvale
• A full-sized map of the city of Darkwell
Subclasses of Midwinter
“The kingdom of Hartsvale is one of the most secluded places in all of Faerûn. Due to this, the people and creatures of Hartsvale have developed skills and abilities unique to the area.”
This came out of nowhere! I was not expecting subclasses as a bonus to this adventure. I absolutely love these having organically grown up from the Harstvale being so cut off from the wider Faerûn.
Artificer Subclass: Toymaker
“A Toymaker seeks to bring out the magic in mundane items.
Toymakers can mold discarded wood, metal, or other assorted scrap material to craft magical toys. The toys bring wonder and joy to the allies of the Toymaker, while they bring pain and suffering to those that are hostile. The Toymaker is highly sought after in cities and towns during major festivals and holidays.
Each Toymaker carries with them a burlap sack in which to keep their scrap. Reaching into this bag, the Toymaker can magically pull out a fully-functional toy.”
I can’t accurately describe how much I love everything about the concept of this Artificer! The magical upcycling speaks to me on a deep level. Turning scrap into wonder-imbued toys for kids is a glorious kind of magic that captures the joy of the holidays.
The toys produced are rolled on a d10 table from
“A nesting doll of the Companions – You open the nesting doll of Bruenor Battlehammer, Catti-brie, Regis, and Wulfgar. Within the last nesting doll is a note that says: Drizzt Do’Urden sold separately. The toy has no other effects”
To
“An action figure of the wizard Elminster – Roll a d6 and then cast the spell centered on a point or target within 150 feet. You can increase the level of the spell by expending a higher-level spell slot. The spell will then cast at that level. This choice can be made before or after you roll for the spell.”
• 1-2 – 1st level Magic Missiles
• 3-4 – 2nd level Dragons Breath
• 5 – 3rd level Fireball
• 6 – 4rth level Ice Storm
Each one a fabulous reference to the stars and totems of the Forgotten Realms! I genuinely felt the hairs on my arms stand up in excitement. This is one of my favourite subclasses I’ve come across, let alone my favourite take on this concept and Holiday subclasses.
Bard Subclass: College of Merrymaking
“The long-dreaded cold of winter can break even the strongest individual. The bards of Darkwell, deep in the north of Hartsvale, have developed unique methods to keep holiday cheer going throughout the year.
Spreading good song and festive decorations, these Bards empower their allies and hinder their foes through large radius effects.”
This holly jolly bard truly is wonderfully thematic, using their performance to spark joy and wonder. This does include the charming of creatures, which can be hinky depending on how it is handled at the table, though being all about spreading the Christmas spirit than control or seduction is using enchantment for good.
The Merrymakers also get floating “motes” they can summon in festive shapes with various utility abilities, gaining more little sparkle friends as they progress.
Ranger Subclass: Bond of the Reindeer
“The Firbolgs of Hartsvale have spent countless generations in their forest stronghold of Meadowhome, surviving each gruelling winter on what little harvest can be saved and off the game of the land. Because of this, the Firbolg developed a symbiotic relationship with the reindeer that live in the region. This allowed the Firbolg to utilize the reindeer for numerous tasks, while providing the reindeer protection and shelter from the harsh winter and other dangers in the region. The Firbolg learned to use their magical connection to nature to nurture this relationship further, and gained the ability to summon small Reindeer spirits to aid them when the need arose. The Firbolg have shared these abilities with the other Hartsvale races, but few are able to a similar bond.”
Yo Ranger, I heard you like reindeer, so we put a reindeer in your reindeer, so you can reindeer while you reindeer!
These Rangers have the power to summon reindeer in a plethora of ways that expand as they level up from familiars, steeds, conjured animals, helpful spirits, taking on the powers of Rudolf complete with sweet antlers and light up red nose, all the way up to dropping a Sleipnir of reindeer on your foes and having the eight reindeer go buck wild for a turn!
Everyone’s Been Naughty
The adventure itself is a tight action-packed one shot beginning with an investigation of missing villagers and strange meteorological goings on, snowballing into battling twisted festive creatures, reconstructing and bargaining with a suicidal last survivor of the Snowman Wars to possibly team up with or battle Krampus, before finally discovering the missing warped by the influence of a furious Saint Nick who is angrier than that time he got stuck in a chimney and someone wrote a song about it. A final confrontation against Father Christmas is an epic battle of life and death, a more importantly the survival of the holidays and the Midwinter Cycle with multiple endings, from everyone living happily ever after all the way to “Thousands of people [dying] each winter due to the depression and dreariness of the season!”
It’s...a lot, but a whole lot of fun.
Great “Adjusting the Scene” advice and additional options for parties under or overqualified for the base encounters is included throughout
There are a plushie Beholder and Owlbear acting as Toy Shop guards with appropriate change that could act as a template for creating your own plushie creatures, which is adorable and awesome. The “peaky-looking creatures” who are the “elven citizens that were kidnapped and have been fully corrupted by Santa’s evil holiday magic” that will try to kill the party are much less cute.
In the final confrontation Santa Breaks the fourth wall, sound a bit like Ryan Reynolds:
“Ah, list the names of the players, not their PCs>. I am glad you could finally make it. You’ve been especially naughty this year.
Playing Dungeons and Dragons instead of helping the needy and downtrodden.” Santa then rises from his desk. “Ho Ho Ho! Looks like you will only be getting one present this year, the gift of death.””
There’s not enough meta ridiculousness in D&D and singular, wild adventures like this are perfect places to play about with this.
New creatures included in the adventure:
• Snow Monstrosity: A CR 5 evil pile of snow that makes me want to run a Frozen game with this as the Let it Go Guardian
• Krampus: An interesting take on the festive punisher of naughty children with moves akin to Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion...and a sack of children soldiers that fight for him, which is admittedly grim, but in the heightened holiday nightmare cartoon for adults (and with the right, consenting group) this could be the ridiculous, amusing spectacle it’s clearly intended to be.
I’m unsure if I’m being too sensitive because of my own experiences, but I’m unsure about one of the children named “Chungus the Humongous - Equipped with a Chicken Leg” could be seen as fat-shaming and did give me a cold shiver of memories of bullying when I was a kid.
This heightened holiday nightmare cartoon adventure contains a lot of dark, adult themes and content, but is crafted with skill and care, and will bring the right group with informed consent a whole lot of epic fun.
Also included:
“Battle Maps of the City Center, Krampus’s Domain, and Santa’s Workshop are provided.
A full world map of the Kingdom of Hartsvale and the city of Darkwell.”
Credits
Designer/Writer: Christopher Waples (@Grumpy_DMs)
Story Creator: Christopher Waples
Producer: Christopher Waples
Editor: Shelley Waples
Play Testers: Countless friends during Christmas D&D sessions in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The AL group at Zenergy Gamers.
Balancers: Samuel Amidon, Jay Johnson, Dmitri Virnig
Map Cartographer: Jon Vasquez https://www.jonvdesigns.com, jonv.designs@gmail.com
Cover Artist: Adam Shumpert https://www.artstation.com/adamschumpert, a_schumpert@yahoo.com
Krampus Artist: Fil Kearney https://www.twitter.com/filkearney
Background Template: Nathanaël Roux https://www.barkalotdesigns.com
Map Designer: Christopher Waples Map Maker Tool: Arkenforge, https://arkenforge.com
Grumpy DM
E-mail: GrumpyDungeonMasters@gmail.com ChristopherWaples@gmail.com
Website: https://grumpydungeonmasters.com/
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My Affiliate Link: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/338682/Everyones-Been-Naughty?affiliate_id=1507682
Included in the RPG Writer Workshop Fall 2020 Vol. III [BUNDLE] https://www.dmsguild.com/product/338635/RPG-Writer-Workshop-Fall-2020-Vol-III-BUNDLE?affiliate_id=1507682
Wertung: | | [4 von 5 Sternen!] |
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