Friday, February 24, 2012

4e Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl

Fresh off the e-presses at Wizards is the next installment in Chris Perkin's adaptation of the Against the Giants module series: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. Previously we've seen Steading of the Hill Giant Chief followed by a wholly original chapter in the remake, Warrens of the Stone Giant Thane. The third part of four in this series, the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is of course only open to D&D Insider subscribers. While the game mechanics is 4th Edition (with 5e looming behind it), collectors of all things Greyhawk will not be disappointed in the content as this module positively adds more richness to the original story. Mention is also made of classic Gygaxian NPCs like Beek Gwenders, Flerd Trantle and Obmi. Chris Perkins takes care in his writing as this author's note attests:


"In reimagining "Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl," I made some changes to the maps and encounters to make the adventure a fun and balanced 4th Edition experience. I tried to keep the map scale on par with the original to capture the sheer immensity of the Glacial Rift, acknowledging that this scale creates some mapping challenges for Dungeon Masters with limited tabletop space. I hope that DMs with fond memories of the original read this latest incarnation and feel the same overwhelming desire to run the adventure that I felt back in 1980, when I read Gary Gygax’s adventure for the first time."

Download this module now if you have the means. I don't normally shill for Wizards, but with the news that more Greyhawk material might be written leading up to D&DNext there's probably no better reason than that for old school fans to subscribe to D&DI in 2012.

Update 4/30/2021: Like before I updated the 4E link to DMsGuild. You will have to purchase this module instead of the old subscription model.

7 comments:

Theodric the Obscure said...

Warrens seems an unfortunate name for the homes of any kind of giant, except perhaps giant rabbits.

Mystic Scholar said...

Agreed. Just another reason I have no interest in 4e materials.

Scott said...

Normally 4e tempts me about as much as moldy bread, but THIS tempts me. Module G2 is a wonderful classic and a joy whenever I run it. How much could 4e mess *that* up...?

Jason Zavoda said...

I am always glad for more gaming material regardless of edition because I only use 1e AD&D and have to convert everything anyway.

It will be interesting to see a different take on The Frost Giant Jarl, though the picture shown reminds me of a blue 'Tim the Enchanter' from Holy Grail with the funky head gear.

If WotC starts coming out with more Greyhawk it may lead some new DM's down the rabbit hole back to the original setting where the real treasure lurks.

grodog said...

Thanks for the pointer, Mike, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, I don't have access to the content ;->

Chris Perkins has some Greyhawk roots, so it's good to see the setting still getting some love outside of the usual circles (i.e., Canonfire!, blogs, K&K, Dragonsfoot, Delver's Dungeon, etc.).

Allan.

Argon said...

Mort,

I don't have the means to download the module. I would like to read this but don't foresee a subscription to DDI anytime soon. It's good to see Chris keeping the hawk lights burning. Maybe one day I'll get to see his work.

Later

Argon

Mike Bridges said...

Thanks for the comments guys. Yeah I don't expect many in my readership will have a D&DI sub, but yes it is good to see someone cares about the classics for more than borrowing proper nouns. I am optimistic about GH in the next year or two.