Longwinter: Referee's Book

The snows are alive. A soft, cold spirit courses through them. Her lace threads the world; watching, drinking, listening, stroking, soothing, killing. Her touch is soft and icy. She is Winterwhite, the daughter of the Waterdrinker and the Northwind, and she is a terrible god. An avatar of ice and hunger, of visions and death.

Longwinter is the RPG sandbox of a realm that has broken its vows to Winterwhite and will now pay the cold price.

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This book contains secret knowledge and mechanics for the referee. The Visitor's Book is the setting gazetteer with information to be shared by all the players.

The setting is profoundly close to that of Witchburner (by the same author and artist). 

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This sandbox includes:

• ~110 pages of content.
• some colour illustrations.
• 3 variations of the Brezim map to represent changes as Winterwhite's curse bites harder.
• faction trackers for the 5 key factions and over 40 events to represent different groups growing or waning in strength depending on player actions.
• detailed weather and event tables to simulate a living setting.
• detailed encounter tables for night and day, which grow harsher as Winterwhite's curse grows stronger.
• several more tables to generate corpses, caches, vaults, and memories of summer.
• optional playing card-based escape mechanic with 54 different locations, challenges and characters encountered in each location.
• alternatively, the escape section serves as a resource to mine for winter locations, challenges, and characters.

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Be aware:

• This is a book of factions and winter encounters for the full-fledged mini-setting detailed in the Longwinter Visitor's Book.
• The content is mostly system-neutral. It references some 5E or d20-style conventions, but should work with most low-power systems easily.
• Many of the encounters, and particularly the escape, will not work with characters resistant to cold, capable of flight, or otherwise able to avoid the environmental challenges.

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Finally, thank you for considering running Longwinter for your players. It is a bit of a tribute to the mountains and myths I've walked and heard over many years, and I hope you will find fuel for many adventures and good memories herein.

 It has also been a challenging project to prepare. Many people helped make it as good as it is. The fault for all errors and typos is my own. 

 —Luka, December 2020

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• Attention! The two Longwinter books are a permanent bundle, costing $21 if purchased together. Get Longwinter Completely Bundled.