ICOTALEOfficial
Polar horror · d100 rulebook
Frost Journals
- 2–4 players
- Difficulty 3 of 3
- Not recommended under 14
- Available in: Français, English, Español, Deutsch, Italiano
1911. An Antarctic expedition is found locked in the ice, its journals intact. The last pages were written after their authors died.
The rulebook at a glance
- d100 roll-under
- 4 attributes
- The Cold
Choose an adventure
- Campaign
Camp Erebus
3 sessions · frozen isolation, mystery, survival
Cost: 3 Dice for the whole table
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By the Icotale team
The world
- PlaceCamp ErebusThe tents of the lost expedition, buried under the snow, as untouched as on the very first day.
- PlaceThe NimrodYour ship, trapped in the pack ice two days’ walk from the camp.
- PlaceThe South CrevasseA rift where the ice is blue and where you can hear breathing.
- FactionThe Halloway ExpeditionThe twelve members who vanished in 1910, whose journals keep on moving forward.
- CharacterCaptain MercerYour commanding officer, determined to bring back the journals whatever the cost.
- CharacterEdith HallowayThe leader of the lost expedition, whose handwriting appears on blank pages.
The rulebook
Resolving actions
- Roll 1d100: a result equal to or lower than the skill succeeds.
- Half the skill or less: major success.
- 96 to 100: blunder.
- In the blizzard, every physical roll takes a penalty of 20.
Initiative : Observation
Attributes
- Endurance END
- Withstand the cold, carry loads, keep walking.
- Craft CRA
- Navigate, repair, heal, survive.
- Observation OBS
- Read the ice, spot a detail, a track.
- Resolve RES
- Keep a cool head in the face of the impossible.
Special rules
- The Cold
- Each night spent outside a heated shelter costs 1d10 hit points, unless you succeed at Craft. Fire is the most precious resource of the campaign.
- The Journals
- Reading a page of the journals gives a decisive clue, but costs 1d6 points of Resolve. At zero, the character starts writing in the journals themselves.
Character creation
Roll 3 dice with 6 faces per attribute, multiply the total by 5 · 2 rerolls allowed3d6x5
Origins
- Royal Navy
- Discipline and navigation; +10 to Craft.
- Geographical Society
- Instruments and method; +10 to Observation.
- Dundee whaler
- Born among the ice; +10 to Endurance.
Vocations
- Ship’s doctor
- Medical bag, laudanum, a steady nerve.
- Geologist
- Hammer, magnifying glass, dangerous curiosity.
- Photographer
- The plates sometimes show what the eye cannot see.
- Dog handler
- Their dogs can sense what is coming.
Derived values
- Hit points
- Endurance ÷ 5
- Defense
- Observation ÷ 2
- Initiative
- Observation
Starting equipment
- A reindeer-skin coat
- An oil lamp
- A blank notebook
Veils
Topics kept off screen: the Narrator never shows or describes them.
- violence against children
- detailed cannibalism
- mutilation