Review: "Ice Maidens of the Frozen Horn" by RC Pinnell

Back in May, I reviewed RC Pinnell's Cold Drake Canyon, a module with an engaging ambition but lacklustre achievement.  Pinnell's latest on Dragonsfoot, Ice Maidens of the Frozen Horn, is another module outside of the usual design parameters.  Styled as "X14-T", Ice Maidens is described as a tournament module for the 1981 B/X rules, but it would work very well under the other Classic lines or their clones.  There's a sensible note that running the module under AD&D would require conversion and - perhaps for my benefit - permission to modify the scenario is granted but not repeated too many times.  The scenario is a little unclear but it seems to be aimed at six to nine characters of 8th to 12th level.

The idea of tournament modules is an under-used one.  Although any printed scenario allows for gamers in different places to share experiences, a module that gives a definite scoring schedule allows for a certain degree of competitive play.  At the very least, a discussion that begins with a question like, "How did you guys get through Ice Maidens in just two hours?" could bring up the elements of effective gameplay.  But if those conversations are going to be meaningful, the scenario needs to have effective and varied challenges.

This is a small document, and of the nine pages only five are devoted to the game text.  (The balance deals with the cover, inner cover, and maps for the DM and players.)  Ice Maidens is graced by the artwork of Del Teigeler, the Art Director of & Magazine.  Del's efforts give the module a professional look and help to set the tone.  I still like Pinnell's maps, though as with Cold Drake Canyon the overall area map is a little bit small for my eyes.  It also strikes me that the player's map is slightly too "rich" in terms of game information, as it's meant to be a representation of a real item that the characters find.

However, unlike with Cold Drake Canyon, I don't feel that this work is substantially incomplete.  The hook is a bit basic, but Pinnell baits it with 100,000 gold pieces.  Not a bad reward even before considering the prospect of war booty!  The scenario consists of a core tournament section, plus optional material for use in non-timed games.  As one might expect, the optional material is weaker, serving mainly to make the acquisition of useful information a matter of prudent play.  It's a little hard to judge the difficulty of the scenario without playing it, but my sense is that the main decisions are a bit obvious and there's a lack of puzzle-solving.  However, it's clear that the player's decisions will affect their time through the scenario.

Although Ice Maidens is pretty sound, a few weaknesses in the design did catch my eye.  The decision to place "optional encounters" rather than call for wandering monster checks means that the overall difficulty of the scenario is going to be affected by DM fiat.  Similarly, the design could have been strengthened by the addition of treasures to distract the players from their main objective - especially easily-spotted wealth that is somewhat difficult to obtain.  I also feel that the Tournament Characters provided were incomplete in that the Magic-User and Elf did not have specific spells in their spellbook.  Although it's not unreasonable for the DM to stock the books, this introduces an unwanted variable into the tournament performance.  The question, "How did you guys get through Ice Maidens in two hours?" deserves a better answer than, "Teleport!"

Nonetheless, I think Ice Maidens is something of a success.  It's definitely playable with minimal preparation time and should entertain a group of players in campaign or one-off games.  I'm not so sure about its qualities as a tournament work, for reasons stated above, but I continue to be impressed by Pinnell's attempts to expand the scope of OSR modules.  My rating is 3/5 and I particularly encourage module designers to take a look at Ice Maidens of the Frozen Horn.