Christmas Themed Adventures – 2015 Update

When I went looking for a Yule/Holiday/Christmas one-shot adventure, I was surprised to see there wasn’t a ton of content out there. Here is the list of what I was able to find, updated with some new items for 2015. I also wrote my own adventure last year for D&D 5e called the The Darkest Night.

If you have anything you’ve created or found that you’d like to see included please comment below and it will show below once I approve (comments with links require approval).

D&D 5th Edition

• D&D 5e Holiday Adventure – The Darkest Night – Tribality.com
  The Darkest Night is our own holiday themed adventure where players battle an ancient evil to save Krinklefest. This adventure can be used as an outline for any game system, but the specific details are for four 1st-level adventurers using the rules of the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
• Bag of Krampus – Ultanya
  Legend holds that Krampus captures terribly naughty children in his bag and then takes them to his lair.
• Santa Claus Monster Stats – World Builder Blog
• More Christmas Monsters – World Builder Blog
• Yule Cat & Season of the Witch Adventure – Ultanya
  According to legend the Yule Cat will eat anyone who was not gifted new clothing to wear during the holidays.

D&D 4th Edition

• A Christmas Carol (PDF) – 2nd Level adventure for 2 PCs
• The Hope Day Massacre
• Twas the Wight Before XMAS – Encounter Level 15
• Christmas Special – Sarah Darkmagic (PDF) – A great collection of encounters and monsters including the Grinch and Jack Frost.

Pathfinder

• Krampus Christmas Carnival – Kobold Press delivers a 3 part adventure in blog post format. Part 1 is for Pathfinder.

D&D 3rd Edition

• Santa Claus Monster Stats (PDF) – Wizards of the Coast

D&D 2nd Edition

• Santa’s Soldiers – Complete 60 page game. PDF for $7.00 at DriveThru RPG.
  Saving Christmas… By Any Means Necessary. Join the OSN and save Christmas from the depredations of Santa’s deadliest enemies! In this hilarious roleplaying game, you take on the part of an elf operative in the Order of St. Nicholas, Santa’s paramilitary defense force! Take on bizarre villains like the Winter Wizard, the Boogieman and Anti-Claus!

FATE

• Spirit of the Season – Evil Hat Productions and Atomic Sock Monkey Press
  Spirit of the Season is a holiday treat featuring characters and new rules compatible with both Spirit of the Century and Truth & Justice. Spirit of the Season is your ticket to two-fisted holiday pulp adventure!

Miscellaneous Systems / System Neutral

• Krangle’s Workshop (PDF) – A seasonal encounter for five 10th-level adventurers
• Penny Arcade – Christmas Eve D&D – Article by Gabe that outlines a Christmas Eve game in detail
• Krampus Christmas Carnival – Kobold Press delivers a 3 part adventure in blog post format. Part 3 is for AGE.
• Sinister Soltice (PDF) – Holiday themed adventure for Dungeon World
• Dragonlance – Yule Spirits – Dragonlance Nexus
  While I don’t think Santa is really Krynn appropriate, I see no reason why there wouldn’t be some sort of Yule spirit or folklore figure on Krynn. The idea of mid-winter gift-giving occurs in many cultures, and hospitality towards guests is a similar common strain in culture.
• Three Sinister Santas for Your Holiday Game – Gnome Stew
• 4 Christmas Themed Adventure Plots – 6d6Fireball
• Adventures in Bayhaven – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Free PDF) – Hero Kids
• The Christmas Wars (PDF) – Critter System
• The Cult of Christmas (PDF) – The Cult of Christmas is a tongue-in-cheek mission for the Corporation RPG.
• Christmas in Kingsport – Five Tales for a Not-So-Silent Night for Call of Cthulhu

Other Ideas

• Penny Arcade – Vault of Winter Comic
• Dark Wizard Santa
  Josh Lee wrote a description for the illustation I used on this post that paints Santa as the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) for an adventure:
  “Once a year, every year, the hobelves swear themselves and their collective energies to the dark wizard Santa in the frozen forest. From the many clans throughout the forzen north Santa gathers this energy to perform his dark magicks around the globe.”
• Celebrating Christmas with 13 Trolls
  The Icelandic Christmas period is an intriguing mixture of religious practice and traditional folklore, but unlike most countries that have a single Father Christmas / Santa Claus character, Icelandic children are fortunate enough to be visited by 13 Yule Lads.

Photo Credit: Josh Lee – http://evil-santa.deviantart.com/art/Jolly-Wizard-169298145