Frostgrave: Tales of the Frozen City

Frostgrave

by Joseph A. McCullough, Matt Ward, Sarah Newton

After a thousand years, the fell winter has passed. The snows have receded, and Felstad has been uncovered. Its buildings lie in ruins, overrun by undead creatures and magical constructs, the legacy of the empire's experiments. It is an evil, dangerous place. To the few hardy souls who inhabit the nearby villages, the city has acquired a new name, 'Frostgrave', and it is shunned by all right-thinking people. For those who seek power and riches, however, it is an unparalleled opportunity, a deadly maze concealing secrets of knowledge long forgotten...

Long ago, the great city of Felstad sat at the centre of a magical empire. Its towering spires, labyrinthine catacombs and immense libraries were the wonder of the age, and potions, scrolls and mystical items of all descriptions poured from its workshops. Then, one cataclysmic night, a mistake was made. In some lofty tower or dark chamber, a foolish wizard unleashed a magic too powerful to control. A storm rose up, an epic blizzard that swallowed the city whole, burying it deep and leaving the empire as nothing more than a vast, frozen wasteland. The empire shattered, and the magic of the world faded. As the centuries came and went, Felstad passed from history to legend and on into myth. Only a few wizards, clinging to the last remnants of magical knowledge, still believed that the lost city had ever actually existed. But their faith was rewarded.

This new fiction anthology collects 11 stories of wizards and adventures as they venture into the ruins of the Frozen City.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Anthologies, Gaming

90 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2015

Reviews

[Jonathan Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing that I missed from the Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City core rulebook was a defined setting. We knew about the city of Felstad and that the Empire around this once mighty city fell into almost ruin when the city was encompassed in the ice, but the lands that surrounded it, what was left of the Empire that now produced these warbands hoping to learn and loot from the thawing metropolis, was a mystery.

I was hoping that this book of eleven stories set in the world of Frostgrave might shed some light on this background and, while it does provide some tantalising glimpses of the world beyond the city, it doesn't really fill in any blanks or fill out the setting. In fact, it gives only snapshots of life beyond the city and doesn't world-build at all.

The game the stories are based on is, after all, a wargame, and the nature of the short sharp stories reflects the short sharp fights that the game creates. This works for the nature of the game, sure, but as a reader who wanted to explore the world this didn't give me what I was looking for.

The stories are very short and build some excellent little pictures of the kind of situations that warbands will find themselves in, but where many short stories are paintings on a greater canvas, these felt much more like sketches of those paintings. The stories didn't really give much time for characterisation, but the motivations of the characters is already defined by the nature of the game; wizards and warbands searching out and unlocking the secrets of this once great city. The stories don't contain very much in the way of characters that you can really feel for or empathise with. At first I felt this was going to disconnect me from the stories as if I couldn't care for the people involved then why should I care about the story as a whole?

But I found that the stories did work in another way - they had twists and turns and revelations and once I realised that the stories were primarily about the way the warbands had been affected by the city, how the city was twisting and manipulating them, I realised that the stories weren't about the characters but about the city itself; the dangers it presents, the mysteries it contains, and the monsters it has produced. There are some great foundations for characters in here that I'd like to see more of - especially Aen and Caelum - but I found myself turning the pages and moving on to the next story thinking 'What will this place throw at them now?' more than 'What will they do now?'

I ended up really enjoying Tales of the Frozen City. At first I was a little concerned that I'd be indifferent to the short adventures as I wasn't really feeling anything towards the characters, but once I realised that I was reading about the city itself it gave me a whole new appreciation of the book, as well as give me some great ideas for scenarios in the game and pointers to how I should be designing my own encounters.

If you're a fan of Frostgrave then buy this book - I doubt you'll regret it. If you're not yet exploring the Frozen City but considering taking the plunge, then this might give you a good starting point to experience the setting and the kind of things you can expect. If you're new to the setting or just a fantasy fan in general then you might get some enjoyment out of the stories but don't expect any multi-layered depth; the stories are too short for that kind of detail.

I enjoyed the stories and, even though I didn't get that setting background I really wanted, I can recommend it.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduction to the Frostgrave setting, in short story form. This skirmish level wargame entails creating a Wizard and apprentice, and a small warband of 4-6 members. These tails show the diversity of the Wizards and their power, though it pales in comparison to the power, and deadly nature of the Frozen City itself. These were 11 tales to "warm" the reader up to the nature and unknown features of the ancient city, recently thawed to show the fortunes and magical power stored within its walls. Great and very quick read!

Danny

[Graeme · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, providing something of an introduction to the world of the game. It begins to flesh out the context from the main rulebook and provides some inspiration for scenarios or background for warbands. The stories themselves are a little hit and miss, with some being significantly better written than others. A couple try to cram more narrative into a short story format and so don't really work, but might be rather more successful as a full-length book. Much more enjoyable for those who play or are interested the game, rather than as a standalone fantasy book, but if you do fall into the former category I'd recommend giving it a throw.

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing in this book is so bad it is a chore to read it, which I’m still forcing myself to do to help with world building ideas for the frostgrave game. I’m shocked how bad it is though. I haven’t read fiction this dull and poorly written since I don’t know when. I would be embarrassed to have my name attached to this book.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book about adventures in Frostgrave. Each author had a different style, but it brought the city to life (and death) for the reader. If you are a fan of role-playing games you will enjoy reading this series of eleven stories by eleven authors.

[Dan Phillips]

Short stories

This contains several short stories, enjoyable mind candy. Some even left room for another chapter if the need arises. Younger readers should enjoy.

[Dimitris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of short stories that give you a feel for the setting. Also the wizards really do feel like wizards here

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

As stories, these tales are sorely lacking. But as potential scenarios for playing Frostgrave - they are great inspiration! I plan on using several of these as jumping off points for playing...

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories. Almost too short, but a nice introduction to the city.

[Paul Baldowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

For whatever reason, this didn't work for me at all. This is eleven writers writing eleven tales about the fantasy setting of Frostgrave, a wargame about wizards leading bands of warriors into the thawing ruins of an ancient city. High magic fantasy with monsters and spells aplenty.

I had read a review - possibly here, maybe somewhere else - that warned against any hope that this collection would offer any insight into Frostgrave itself. The wargame corebook concentrates on the basics of the setting and the rules, so someone picked this book up hoping for more information. They didn't find it; I went in informed that I too would not come away with any great insight about the city.

However, I also came away feeling like I could have just read a book called "What Eleven Wizards Look Like Now is Incredible" or "You'll Probably Quit Your Job When You See How These Wizards Make Their Money. No 7 Will Blow Your Mind." As short stories about wizards go, these were generic fare and I got little of anything from here that made me see Frostgrave in any light other than "just another fantasy." Surely, I hoped, even if the book didn't serve up a history lesson on the city, I would get a flavour for what made this setting different from the Forgotten Realms, Krynn, or Middle-Earth.

Alas, no.

Eleven OK tales of wizards. A couple fall short of OK. A couple better. I think I liked a couple of the Chronomancer stories best, because time travel and magic --- what isn't cool about that combination. However, slapping the Frostgrave title on this book was the equivalent of online clickbait advertising. I got to the end and didn't feel I had used my time especially well. I might have been better off reading a few of the missions for the game itself and, perhaps, looking at the miniatures and artwork.

Not diabolical, but not good either. I couldn't recommend it except as a light fantasy read.

[Alan]

As with many anthologies, there's a great deal of variety in quality. A were quite excellent, including the Bargain by Matt Ward and Graeme Davis' Mind over Matter. It was only in the latter story, though, that I found what I hoped to get out of this collection; a look at the world of Frostgrave. Ultimately, most of the stories failed to live up the imaginative setting created by the game designers.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very mixed bag of short stories, so much that it makes me wonder what the Editor was thinking with some of them. If I had to rate them individually I'd say some were 5 stars while others were 1 stars, so I'm splitting the difference on the rating overall.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent introduction to the world of Frostgrave. The only common thread between the stories was the frozen city, which ties in with the fact that the game is essentially an open world you can use any fantasy models you want.

[Justin Woody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short stories for a great game.