Here’s a story we’re getting used to; the next D&D book has leaked ahead of schedule. Will we be adding Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden PDFs to our download collections or the hardback to our shelves?
This time, D&D Beyond allegedly ran a trailer on their YouTube channel before pulling the video.
Whatever happened, it happened long enough for the DnD Next subreddit to notice, only for the mods to remove the post. However, D&D Leaks has shared this cover photo which was reportedly a screenshot from the video.
I’m using words like ‘allegedly’ and ‘reportedly’ because, sadly, that’s how the internet works these days. You have to treat all news, especially unofficial news, with a pinch of salt. Lots of salt.
Running that image through IMGLarger which is (allegedly) a machine-learning enhanced system that enlarges images without losing quality doesn’t really add that much more detail. It does fuzz up the line “Feel the cold touch of death in this adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.” from the bottom of the book.
However, it all looks pretty real to me. Although wouldn’t it be amazing if this all turned out be a smart misdirection play by the WotC team!
The ice and snow clues were noticed the very day WotC announced D&D Live. I said at the time;
I notice that the charity t-shirt depicts a snowy owlbear and that the thumbnail used for the D&D Live Portal mention is that of adventurers out in the snow. Is that a clue for the new setting?
The idea that the new book will for Icewind Dale is pretty popular. It is the frozen north of the Forgotten Realms, made popular by R. A. Salvatore and Drizzt Do’ Urden. There have been Icewind Dale computer games, and this year, D&D Dark Alliance is due out, just check out how snowy the trailer is.
It makes sense for WotC to line up their release schedule and increase public interest and hype in the Icewind Dale area. It makes less sense to spoil the news, though, as that gives pirate sites offering Rime of the Frostmaiden PDF downloads more time to optimise their content and it undercuts the excitement around D&D Live.
Do you think it’s real? Are Wizards of the Coast about to announce a Rime of the Frostmaiden hardback? Is this an Icewind Dale adventure?
