Publisher Blurb:
“The harbinger of our agonizing death is the crow's shriek. The storeroom in the center of our small town has been ransacked; the shelves lie naked and the empty barrels din like hollow bones when thumped. Folk scurry from home to home through the knee-deep snow, begging for scraps of food and furniture to burn. Many of the elderly have fallen ill and no end to their fever can be found. Our pain is as bitter as the biting, frosted wind and I fear we will not live to feel the first warm rays of spring's sun. I beseech you, Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night Of This Cold Winter”
At it's core, Cold Winter is rules-light survival mini game for your fantasy role playing campaign. A doomed village is short on fuel, food, and medicine and the adventurers must strategically collect these supplies to keep the village folk from dying frozen and hungry in their beds. The game is lightly abstracted to fit in nearly any existing medieval fantasy role playing system just like a side quest or module would. Cold Winter uses a unique set of simple rules that create a tense atmosphere while adventurers plan each turn and fight against the nightmarish season. This product also comes with a set of map tiles for creating your own village map. Go from reading the rules to playing in less than an hour! A game with 4 adventurers will last just under two hours.
From the introduction:
Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night Of This Cold Winter is a downtime activity, or mini-game, with a focus on helping an ill-fated frontier village survive a terrible winter season. Participants collect and manage supplies in an effort to keep the village folk alive despite the bleak, frightful conditions. It is designed to work inside of your regular fantasy role playing system and campaign with a slight separation of mechanics. As the game manager you become the village elder; tasked with setting the dour mood, keeping players on track, offering advice or strategy, and taking stock of the available supplies. Player characters become the adventurers; collecting and managing supplies while ensuring each villager receives what is needed most. The ultimate goal of Cold Winter is to keep the highest possible count of village folk alive as spring finally peeks from under the blanket of snow.