I am currently putting together a brand spankin’ new campaign for my three Game Masters because lord knows they deserve it, but I’ve found that I can be woefully unimaginative when it comes to building adventures; my creative talents lie elsewhere; which is why I’m a big fan of hacking apart published adventures and stitching together the bloody remains.

That’s why today we’re going to talk about creating a hombrew Western campaign using the published adventure Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. This is the first in a series of essays, one that aims introduce our concept and organize our thoughts for the project going forward. My goal here is to provide DMs with a resource that can be used to run their own Western campaigns, and to create a framework for rebuilding existing modules.

Let’s Start with a Story

To build our new narrative first we’ll want to identify two key elements: our genre and our theme. In the original version of Rime of the Frostmaiden, I would identify these as horror and survival, respectively. Set in the snowy tundra of Icewind Dale, it’s a game of secrets and lies, one of brutality, where everything wants you dead, and where your goal as a character is to help the people of Ten-Towns survive the Endless Winter.

Identifying the genre for our homebrew is easy enough; it’s a rootin’ tootin’ gun-shootin’ Science Fantasy Western, complete with cowboys, aliens, wizards, demons, robots, undead, and of course big ass sandworms. To compliment that, I’d like the main theme of the campaign to be progress; we’ll illustrate how advancements in technology and trade can positively and negatively affect a community. To do so, we will be using these four plot threads to explore our theme from different perspectives.

In this adventure (1) a looming industrial revolution threatens the current power structure, (2) a fanatical religious order prepares for an awakening, (3) enemies unseen near completion on a super-weapon to blot out the sun, and  (4) members of a powerful mage guild search the desert for a city buried beneath the sands. 

Our first plot is a tangent I’ve pulled together from three different points; the strangeness of Dougan’s Hole, the expansion of Easthaven, and the Zhentarim speaker of Targos. We’ll be combining these into a storyline that pits an old crime family against the behemoth thieves’ guild as they fight for control over the region’s growth.

Our second thread involves a wholly new faction, the Children of Ahmon. Inspired by Sly Flourish’s Rime of the Frostmaiden game, these cultists believe that mortals have reached too far into the realm of the Gods and must be wiped clean.

The third and fourth threads are minor remixes of what’s already in the book; the duergar and their chardayln super-weapon will have the added task of blotting out the sun, and the Arcane Brotherhood will wreak more havoc in their attempts to find Ythryn.

Outlining Our Steps

Now, to build our new story using this module we’re going need to do a bit of restructuring. First we’ll get rid of Auril, the titular Frostmaiden, and change our setting from an icy tundra to a desert oasis. We’ll also to be adding two new factions; the hobgoblin crime family trying to hold its ground against the encroaching Zhentarim threat, and Children of Ahmon who will attempt to summon The Demogorgon to “reset” this corrupted world.

In addition, we will be taking a close look at Ten-Towns, the collection of settlements that most of the campaign centers around. Each town has rumors and hooks that lead to adventure, and the surrounding area is dotted with “places of interest” that offer the same. All told there are something like 20+ missions between chapters one and two that we will need to comb through.

To keep track of all of these changes we’re going to separate them into steps.

1. Campaign Pitch. Where we create an evocative and concise intro for our players to get excited about.
2. Fronts. Where we talk about our villains, antagonists, and any other factions our party might come across.
3. Locations. Where we take a look at the overall changes to the environment and encounter tables, as well as individual changes to the towns and “places of interest”.
4. Adventures. Where we’ll talk about the adventures themselves. Some will be removed or replaced, others added in from outside sources or invented whole cloth, all to serve our new narrative.

This is just a rough sketch of our plan however. As we get further into the weeds we may need to add steps or addendums or tangents, but we’ll get there when we get there.

Step One: The Campaign Pitch

Now that we’ve got a plan in place, let’s jump right in to our first step. Even as we build our world we want to take into consideration how we’ll present our campaign to prospective players. I’m not the sort to create a campaign bible, if only because I’m not a great note taker. We could turn to the book; it does provide blurbs for each town, but in my experience it’s hard for players to retain that much information, especially before play.

Instead, I like to draw up a campaign pitch: a sort of ad posting for our campaign, a couple paragraphs of descriptive text we hope will spark our players’ creativity. We’ll give them a couple nuggets on the towns we want to signal as important, and have a nod towards the kinds of dangers their characters will likely face. Our goal here is to present our genre and theme to help players build characters that want to adventure in our world.

Along with the pitch, we’ll provide them with the big map to give them a sense of scale, and add a few notes to tease their starting town. Here’s our end result:

Welcome to Ten-Towns, a (not-so-)safe haven for those looking to start anew. Whether a retired adventurer attempting to lay low in their twilight years, a convicted criminal hoping to escape a complicated past, or a disillusioned noble seeking a simple life free of excess, Ten-Towns is just the place to reinvent yourself.

Once the site of a short lived gold rush, Ten-Towns is in the midst of a metamorphosis. Industry and innovation have swept through the streets, touching all four corners of this desert oasis. From the alchemical and mechanical workshops of Easthaven, to the thriving gem mines of Termalaine, the mead distilleries buzzing with activity in Good Mead, and the many public works projects about Maer Dualdon; you'll find that Ten-Towners of all creeds and colors are doing their part to make this corner of the world the best that it can be.

But, of course, progress doesn't come without its complications. Luckily there's a thriving community of adventurers ready to take on life's toughest challenges! Lovingly referred to as rat-catchers by locals, these heroes travel town to town solving problems the sheriff's department is unequipped to handle.

Outlaw gangs, Reghed tribes, wolves, worms, and worse all gather here in the shadow of Kelvin's Cairn. So, despite the rumors, there's still gold in these hills, if you're willing to fight for it!

Your journey starts in Bryn Shander, the largest of the Ten-Towns. It sits atop a rocky hillock and boasts the only caravan route to and from the region, making it a center of trade and culture, a badge it wears pridefully. Speaker Duvessa Shane, head of the Council of Speakers, leads this settlement of over a thousand souls alongside Markham Southwell, sheriff of Ten-Towns and captain of the Bryn Shander militia. 
Notable locations include the Blackiron Blades smithy, the House of Ahmon, and the Northlook Inn and Tavern.

And there we go! I hope you’ve enjoyed this first piece of our puzzle. Now that we’ve got everything lined up, we can get into the nitty and the gritty. I’m planning to release a new essay each week, but this is my first foray into blogging so please be patient with me, and thanks so much for sticking around!