Winter's Daughter (Shadowdark)
I have finally gotten around to fully run Winter's Daughter by Gavin Norman. An earlier attempt was cut short by restaurant staff that was not happy with us rolling dice and occupying a table for hours on end. Understandable. From this first experience, my initial impression was: cute but not great. Now i have to revise this impression after having run the full thing. First of all, my players loved it. Reuniting doomed lovers was right up their alley as far as themes go, as was engaging with the fae realm. I made a few adjustments to fit our world and situation in the ongoing campaign: Winter's Daughter became Summer's Daughter and Sir Chyde became Lady Chyde. A few cold themed elements I switched around as well but generally ran everything else by the book. As many have stated before, the format was really useful at the table and greatly facilitated well paced play. The small dungeon has nice surprises and twists, interesting NPCs to interact with (dancing with skeletons in mid air!), meaningful items to find and a riddle that is easy enough to be fun. Most impressed I was by the fact that my usual murder hobos finished the adventure across two sessions with only a single fight against the flesh eating worms. This was very out of character and shows how an intriguing location and setup can entice players to engage with the world on its own terms. Fantastic! The module provides both wonder, challenge and fun. Few other adventures I have run, have checked these boxes as convincingly as Winter's Daughter has! Highly recommended! Conversion to Shadowdark was easy and done on the fly, as only treasure had to be reduced. Could be finished in one session, realistically probably two! 9/10