Friday Fantasy: Chill Factor

 Chill Factor is an adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Critical Kit, it is designed for a party of four to five Player Characters of Third Level and is designed to be played in a single session, either as a one-shot or as part of an ongoing campaign. It involves a port city, piracy, a strange ship, and an environment which is likely to be radically different to that which the Player Characters find themselves in. Whilst self-contained, it would be easy to adapt Chill Factor to the setting of the Dungeon Master’s choice, but would work very well in a setting involving sea travel and potentially, piracy. For example, Green Ronin Publishing’s Freeport setting would be an excellent choice. However it is used, Chill Factor is fairly straightforward and involves a mix of combat and interaction.

Chill Factor begins in the city port of Wasseldor, the busy trade gateway on the Sea of Ancestors between the Western Lands and the continent of Cantorus—the latter the home setting for fantasy adventures from Critical Kit. Of late, several vessels have gone missing, including a ship carrying goods for the Cantor dynasty, and piracy is suspected. The Cantor family has dispatched a royal investigator to look into the matter, forcing the Wasseldor port master to move quickly to make his own enquiries—or at least have someone else, that is, the Player Characters, conduct them for him—and so avoid official entanglements. Very quickly, the Player Characters will be provided with a contact who claims to have seen the pirates sailing in a brilliantly white ship and can take them to where he last saw the ship. After a bit of haggling over his fee, the contact will get them there and ready to board the enemy vessel. A vessel which turns out to be not a ship at all, but a massive iceberg—and not only that, but an iceberg with chained plesiosaurs to haul it and steps leading up inside it!

After ascending the stairs, the Player Characters will find themselves aboard a pirate vessel made of ice and crewed by Whiteweather Goblins armed with their dread ice scimitars. The pirate vessel consists of just nine locations over three decks, crewed by a handful of the Whiteweather Goblins under the command of their captain. The scenes aboard the pirate vessel are primarily combat orientated, plus a little exploration and one major interaction scene. The combat scenes feel underwritten and lacking in terms of numbers, that is, as if the iceberg ship should have had a bigger crew, so perhaps the Dungeon Master might want to increase the numbers. However, they do have some hard-hitting attacks and the captain is himself a tough opponent. The interaction focuses on another Whiteweather Goblin rather than the captain and here the Dungeon Master is left on her own to improvise should the Player Characters defeat him and the other Whiteweather Goblins rather than simply kill them. Another issue is that the conclusion to the adventure is underwritten, either suggesting that the Player Characters sail back to the city port of Wasseldor and claim the rest of their fees or sell off in their newly acquired ice vessel… There is a lot more going in the scenario—the reasons why the Whiteweather Goblins have sailed south and why they have turned to piracy—which are not as effectively explored as they could have been. This is less of an issue if the scenario is being played as a one-off, but nevertheless, an experienced Dungeon Master should be able to take those elements and develop them further as necessary, especially if Chill Factor is being played as part of a campaign.

Physically, Chill Factor is well-presented, the maps and the illustrations being decent enough, and everything is presented in full colour. It does need another edit though. For the Dungeon Master there is advice on setting up the scenario and how to run it as a shorter two to three-hour affair or a longer three-to-five-hour affair. As a scenario, Chill Factor is underdeveloped in places, leaving the Dungeon Master with a little more work to bring aspects of it into play that the designers do not, but the Dungeon Master is given a decent overview and map of Wasseldor, deck plans of the pirate ship, and some nice NPCs to roleplay (excepting the pirate captain that is).

Overall, Chill Factor is serviceable and straightforward, simple enough to set up and run as a one-shot or worked into a campaign. The price is good too, especially for a single session of adventure.