INTRODUCTION

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Blood and Snow is a story, a world, a challenge, and a
set of tools. If you’re reading this, you’ve already dis-
tinguished yourself as a fringe RPG scholar. You seek
the most esoteric material to augment your knowl-
edge, to make your nuances authentic. This book is
TAGS to offer more options to your players…
Players can never be offered enough options to build
and create new heroes. Far-footed wanderers, out-
landers, or city-shunning nomads might use these op-
tions to construct themselves. You’re a Game Master;

made for use with Index Card RPG Core 2nd Edition.
As a setting or region for your game…
The continents of the ice age are hidden, unfamiliar,
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the conversions are easy. Blood and Snow offers the
conceptual roots that can build a truly foreign hero
backstory. Let them cherry pick all of it for their own
vision!

and rife with peril and promise. Blood and Snow can
be transplanted as a planet, region, nation or dimen-
sion in any game. When the ice stretches on forever,
when the wind is as deadly as the claw, when the sun
is a pale grey ghost... this is your setting.
Mechanics for a far-North adventure…
If you’re looking to lend gravity to a cross-glacier ex-
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Let the dice conjure a snowbound campaign...
The table below gets you started. Often, the begin-
ning can be the most puzzling time for both player
and Game Master, as there are so many possibilities.
Blood and Snow takes a focused, small-scale approach
to campaign building. Make it human, make it desper-
ate, make it tangible. As the details of survival play

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pedition, or make an ice dungeon feel cold, or smite
over-bold heroes with a true wasteland, Blood and
Snow can give you the weapons you need to drive
it home. Your players will never underestimate the
out, the larger story can take form. This is a ruthless
world, so with all the gravity I can muster, I say to you:
May your dice roll high.
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wind-scoured cold again. Good travels, wanderer.

Roll 1D20 HOW IT ALL BEGINS...

1: Lost Hunters You’ve become lost seeking game for your village
2: Keepers of the Dead Sent with the ashes of a chief to the great burial stone
3: The Banished Inevitable violence has you and your kin cast out to the wastes
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4: Vengence A slain girl demands avenging, and you have chosen to do it

5: Last Hope Your people must relocate, and your team must find where
6: Mammoth Trackers Starving and desperate, you’ve tracked the beast too far
7: Homeward Afield for months, your only goal is to get home
8: The Prophecy The village seer has chosen you to pursue a cryptic destiny
9: Green Dragon The storms in the stars lead you to distant lands
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10: The Envoy A young boy must be taken to the Mudmen

11: Eagle Omen Your charge: to follow the great bird to promised lands
12: The Gathering Find, meet and trade with the hundred tribes at Grey Fork
13: Sentinels The enemy is coming, and you lead the defenses
14: The Raid Find, break, and plunder those who defile your homeland
15: Metal Men Rumors of metal-working folk have drawn your chief’s greed
16: Crystal Call You have defied all you hold dear to answer a strange hum
17: Oasis You and your people have undertaken an exodus
18-20: Relic Seekers You must find a way to find and realign the demigod below

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 FUNDAMENTALS
‘The dead we left unburied on the steppe, laid in rows, for they were beyond count. Lo, the grim
faces we wore that day, trudging forward to The Relic without our kin. Our tears froze in their salted
tracks.”
-Vorr the nomad
FUNDAMENTALS
HAZARDS OF THE ICE AGE
In the frozen world of Blood and Snow, death is always
close. It can be important to forewarn the danger of
this world with players, so they are not shocked or dis-
couraged. It has been said ‘danger is the great unifi-
er.’ This is true, but worth mentioning with emphasis.
Expect players to lose two or more characters on any
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one quest. To mitigate this, consider three or more
characters per player when embarking. With so many
heroes afield, the lifeblood of an entire village can be
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spent in one sojourn, and so the gravity of this deadly
game is revealed.
There are no HEART STONES, resurrections, or healing
spells in Blood and Snow. This is due to a larger truth
that should chill a player’s blood: there is no magic,
in any form. Beyond this frightening truth, there are
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a thousand dooms to discover here. Listed below are
the mechanics of these dooms, and their applications.
May the strong survive.
TREKKING
To move from place to place is no small undertaking
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in this world. Despite the evidence, many glaciations
were far more extensive than the geologic record
suggests. One such case is the Wurm Glaciation, a
deep freeze centralized in what was later called the
Alps. This fifty-foot thick layer of ice encased 70% of
the temperate earth. The ecozones it created are de-
scribed here, for use in wilderness travel and the end-
less quest to find The Relic.
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ICE SHEET
Traveling on the ice sheets is only done as a last re-
TREKKING
sort. Some stretch for a hundred or more uninterrupt-
ed miles of perfect desolation. No rock, no plants, no
shelter, and the winds here are never ending. Any ef-
fects from cold are twice as harmful and likely when
on the ice sheets, as the cooling effect from the glacier
drops temperatures terribly, especially by night. Hunt-
ing and foraging are utterly impossible here, unless
the quarry be other humans.
BROKEN ICE
At the glacier’s edge, near lakeshores, or in the low
foothills, ice forms and breaks into a baffling landscape
of leaning shards, frozen boulders, and bottomless fis-
sures. While not as desolate as the ice sheets, broken
ice is far more difficult to traverse, requiring four times
the travel time and supply than open ground. Cover is
ubiquitous here, as the ice forms all kinds of maze-like
corridors and micro-canyons. The average sight dis-
tance in only ten to fifty feet. A dangerous recipe for
any who dare wander there.
SNOW LANDS
Most common of all landscapes in this world is the
snow lands. Snows drift ten to twenty feet deep but
are generally between two and eight feet in depth. El-
der pines survive here, piercing the snow and forming
deep, powdery snow wells. Smaller plant and animal
life are common here, too. Where snow lands meet
the mountains, cave dwelling beasts and tribes of men
make their homes.
 FUNDAMENTALS

OUTCROPS
In all environs besides the ice sheet, jagged knives of
stone pierce the white expanse. These are often uti-
lized as shelter by all kinds of creatures and serve as
landmarks for travelers. The particularly large ones
are valuable territory for any alpha-level predators,
THAW
Even more rare than pine forests are the warm places
of the world. These include deciduous woods, grassy
lakebeds, and cool-watered peat bogs. Here, some of
the strangest beasts make their lairs, like the River Gi-
ant or Hook. The insects are horrific here, but the val-

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including human kind. ue of oil-black peat tar make excursions worthwhile.
Sucking tar and other perils make travel here twice as
PINE LANDS costly and hazardous as open ground.
The rare green jewels of a frozen world are crowd-

ed with pine trees, succulent undergrowth, and li-
chen-coated stones. Flowing water, fish, and small an-
imals of kinds can be found here. Large enough pine
lands are the seats of the largest human tribes and
fought over fiercely. When a cave coincides with pine
lands, it is an ideal place for a large tribe to set per-
manent camp. In these places, human technology and
culture is the most advanced.
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DICE AND TREK TABLES
When heroes are traveling great distance by foot, they
must cross the landscape rolled below and are bound
by three key rules of TREKKING:
1 DAY = 10 MILES TRAVELED = 1 SUPPLY
Roll at least 1 HAZARD per day traveled
Roll at least 1 WEATHER per day traveled

1: Ice Sheet
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ROLL 1D20 LANDSCAPES ENCOUNTERED
2D10 miles of featureless ice stand ‘tween you and your goal
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2: Ice Sheet: Vast 4D10 miles of ice must be crossed to reach your goal
3: Broken Ice Roll 1D4 Broken Ice hazards to cross
4: Broken Ice: Maze Roll 1D4 hazards, and travel at 1/10th your typical speed
5: Snow Lands 1D10 miles of deep snow
6: Snow Lands: Known Trails and way-stops make travel here FAST and EASY
7: Snow Lands: Frontier Log fences hold warring PEOPLES at bay
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8: Outcrop: Barren A tower of bare rock. Foraging is HARD, Scouting is EASY

9: Outcrop: Lair Something in the dim. Roll for MEGAFAUNA or warring PEOPLES
10: Outcrop: Tribe A camp of warring PEOPLES has made camp here
11: Pine Lands Woodcraft and cover are abundant. Ignore STRATOFALL
12: Pine Lands: Vast 2D100 miles of Pine Lands must be crossed to reach your goal
13: Pine Lands: Tribe Encounter a large hunting camp. Roll for its PEOPLE
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14: Thaw Re-roll MEGAFAUNA rolls until a beast is encountered

15: Thaw: Marsh Re-roll MEGAFAUNA for an encounter, and travel at 1/4 speed
16: Navigate to any Avoid difficult lands with no penalty in distance or time
17: Navigate to any Thin snows! FORAGING and tracking are EASY
18-20: Navigate to any Good weather! IGNORE any STORMS or STRATOFALL

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 FUNDAMENTALS

ROLL 1D20 TREKKING HAZARDS

1: War Band Encounter 1D10 blood enemies in the wild
2: Crazed Herd A huge column of stampeding beasts slams into your camp
3: Spooked Giant A River Giant or Alpha Mammoth attacks in a confused rage
4: Pilfered! Unseen raiders steal 1D8 pieces of equipment

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5: Alpha Predator You are hunted by a colossal Sword Tooth or Anacon
6: Injury Sprained ankle! Travel at half speed for 1D4 days
7: Bad Omen Haunting weirdness in the wild. All rolls are HARD this trek
8: Earthquake Cut off! Re-roll your landscape and lose all progress

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9: Predator Your group is stalked by 1D8 Black Wolves each night
10: Trap A hunter’s trap ensnares one of you! Take 1D6 damage
11: Fissure Go around. Expend 3 extra SUPPLY
12: Mold Your food is spoiled far too soon. Expend 2 SUPPLY
13: Clumsy Oops! Destroy 1 piece of equipment
14: Bad Hunt No game to hunt out here, expend 1 extra SUPPLY
15: Barren Foraging yields nothing
16: Hopeless One member of your group is simply gone one morning
17: Wrong Way
18-20: No Hazard e
You waste a day looking for the trail
A good day
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ROLL 1D20 WEATHER AND DEADLY COLD
1: Stratofall Super-chilled air from space. Make a CON roll or drop to 0 HP
2: Ice Storm Travel impossible. Take 1D6 damage, expend 2 SUPPLY
3: Howling Gales Roll twice on the HAZARDS table
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4: Hard Frost All rolls are HARD. If below 3 hp, lose 1D4 more
5: Bone Chilling Make a STR roll to move in battle, travel a maximum of 1 mile
6: Snow Storm Change current landscape to snow lands, roll 1 HAZARD
7: Sticky Ice All equipment is unusable for 1 day
8: Magnetica A maddening hum in the brain. Reverse 1D20 miles of progress
9: The Green Dragon Chase the borealis effect to a new landscape roll
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10: Swarm of Flies A thaw causes a hatch. 1D4 SUPPLY is ruined, take 1D4 damage
11: Sudden Thaw Sloppy mud and slush, encounter 1 MEGAFAUNA
12: Sulfur Cloud Geo vents form a poison cloud. If at 1 hp, drop to 0
13: Fog Lose 1D10 miles of progress, HUNTING is EASY
14: Smoke Forest fires nearby! Foraging is HARD
15: Snow Light, drifting flakes. HUNTING and STEALTH are EASY
16: Thunderstorm An amazing display of nature’s fury. Roll 1 OMEN
17: Eclipse Travel twice your normal distance for this landscape
18-20: Clear Skies Bright, calm skies on the steppe

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 FUNDAMENTALS

MEGAFAUNA GM’s should also consider that defeated or slain

The beasts of the Pleistocene, and all ice ages, are
enormous. Their size in itself is not deadly, but their
savagery has no such qualification. Here listed are the
most noted horrors faced on the ice and the dirt be-
tween. When rolling on MEGAFAUNA tables, rolling a
MEGAFAUNA are rich sources of SUPPLY and FORAG-
ING. Butchering and processing of animal stuffs is time
consuming, attracts predators, and attracts enemy hu-
mans. Use the rule of thumb below to make determi-
nations on these matters.

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listed beast indicates a direct confrontation, encoun-
ter, or altercation unles specifially mentioned other- 100 LBS. mass = 1 HEART EFFORT TO
wise. See the full entries for all MEGAFAUNA in the
BUTCHER, YIELD 1D4 SUPPLY
BEASTS chapter (p. 26).

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100 LBS. mass = 1 FORAGED LOOT ROLL

ROLL 1D12 MEGAFAUNA ENCOUNTERED

1: Sword Tooth Solitary hunter, actively stalks and attacks humans
2: Cave Bear Found near its lair, easily provoked, 1D4 appearing
3: Anacon Attacks undetected, re-roll if on Ice Sheet
4: Black Wolves Pack hunters, actively stalks and attacks humans, 1D20 Appearing
5: Snow Bear
6: Sky Shadow
7: Hook
8: Mammoth Kin
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Solitary Nomad, will flee 1D10 miles or until cornered
Hoarder. Will attempt to steal equipment, 1D4 appearing
Hateful temper if encountered. Always CRAZED. 1D4 appearing
Passive until provoked, 1D12 appearing
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9: River Giant Actively defends territory around THAW or PINE LANDS, 1D4 appearing
10: Pine Stag Performs hit-and-run raids, 1D20 appearing
11: Reroll 1-10 Spot rolled MEGAFAUNA from a distance
12: Reroll 1-10 Spot rolled MEGAFAUNA from a distance, undetected
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 FUNDAMENTALS

PREHISTORIC LIVING
Most folk never dare the wilderness expanses be-
tween settlements. They stick to a life in the relative
safety of the camp, cave, fort, or village. Nevertheless,
the challenges continue even for them. The following
outlines most aspects of that life, as useful for players

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as GM’s.

SHELTER
The first task of any tribe struggling to survive is to find

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or build shelter against BEASTS, warring PEOPLES, and
WEATHER. The following rules apply:
• Even if not TREKKING, roll HAZARDS when not in
shelter of some kind
• For each day spent building shelter, it will offer
protection for 10 people for 10 days and have 1
HEART of hp
• Spend an additional day to add an additional fea-

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ture: cavalry spikes, archer perches, well, forge, or

• Consider ‘sidedness’ when shelters are attacked:

caves are best, then forts, then villages
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WEALTH AND STATUS
There is no currency in Blood and Snow. Instead, econ-
omy is based on trade, rarity, materials, and seasonal
need. The following tables show the basics, when he-
roes encounter PEOPLES willing to consider trade.
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ROLL 1D12 SHELTER WEALTH ROLL 1D12 CHIEF STATUS

1: Junk Junk quality items only 1: Forager A lowly wretch
2: Poor Junk and Foraged items 2: Tyrant The people hate their chief
3: Poor Common items, deceptive 3: Cannibal A folk gripped by terror
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4: Nomads Common and Rare items
5: Nomads Common and Rare, thieves
6: Traders Rare, triple prices
7: Traders Rare, fair trades
8: Heir Rare and Wonders, no trust
9: Heir Rare and Wonders, liar
10: Warlord Wonders, Savage values
11: Ancient Wonders, fair trades
12: Wonder Wonders given freely
4: Hunter Mighty but humble folk
5: Hero A storied adventurer
6: Heir Offspring of the once-mighty
7: Warlord Unforgiving and violent
8: Warlord Just and beloved
9: Ancient An enlightened seer
10: Legend Everyone knows this chief
11: Immortal A luminous, inhuman thing
12: Choose Player’s choice

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 FUNDAMENTALS

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ROLL 1D20 TRIBE DISTINGUISHING FEATURES
1: Mud Men Frightening, feral hunters who build huge mud headdresses
2: Tattooed A complex society that uses tattoos to mark the stars and the gods
3: Jewelcrafters Intelligent craft folk who have discovered flourite, diamond and rubies
4: Cruelty This brutish clan rejects all weakness and flogs its folk for purification
5: Matriarchy A band of explorers led by an ancient woman with impressive garb
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6: Totemic Strange statue-worshippers seeking a great spirit or holy mountain

7: Fire Cult Masters of making fire, but also those who revere it as a living thing
8: Astronomers Star-gazers and calendar builders who predict a great doom
9: Mariners Seafaring folk who believe a great thawed land lays beyond the sea
10: Abundant A huge tribe, living in a vast nomadic camp of tents and fish racks
11: Xenophobic A tiny band of hunters who consider all outsiders demons
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12: Giant These Nordish folk are no less than 8 feet tall
13: Artistic Cave dwellers mostly, who depict hunts and pastures with colorful paint
14: Slaggers Soot-coated stout folk who continually work to refine slagg
15: Explorers True nomads who believe redemption is beyond known lands
16: Kin This band is one large family, and their genetics are beginning to decay
17: Cannibals The worst of us
18: Skull Men Those who wear the bones of their dead and seek new victims
19: Snake People Anacon worshippers who feed and care for the aging beasts
20: Urban A rare group of building-makers with advanced settlements

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 FUNDAMENTALS

ROLL 1D12 GEAR QUALITY

1: Junk Barely edible food, sharpened sticks, walking sticks
2: Junk Single-use-spears, Single-use-bows, awful beer
3: Common SUPPLIES, wooden crafts, tradeable jewelry and tackle
4: Common SUPPLIES, wooden crafts of +1 STAT quality
5: Common SUPPLIES, stone crafts of +1 STAT quality, odd gems

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6: Rare Stone crafts of +1 quality, leather gear to make WEATHER EASY
7: Rare Leather crafts of +2 ARMOR, makes WEATHER EASY
8: Rare Leather and Stone crafts of +3 quality
9: Wonder Metal craft of +1D6 quality, makes one roll type EASY

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10: Wonder Metal craft of +1D8 quality, makes two roll types EASY
11: Legendary Relic fragment
12: One of a Kind GM’s discretion, Player’s desire

NAVIGATION NAVIGATION RESULTS

One key breakthrough in technology unlocked the Fail Add 1D20 miles of distance to goal
world’s reaches to mankind: the SUNSTONE. These Critical Fail Lost! Roll LANDSCAPE again

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crystals refract the sun to aid in finding true North.
They are considered WONDERS when trading. Naviga-
tion rolls apply to land and sea journeys. Failed naviga-
tion rolls may also cost time, which will expend more
Success Subtract 1D20 miles to goal
Crit. Success Shortcut! Arrive in a few hours
Sunstone All naviagtion rolls are EASY
Bad Weather All navigation rolls are HARD
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precious SUPPLIES.
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LANDSCAPE TARGETSe,
Here are some suggested TARGETS by LANDSCAPE type:
Ice Sheet 18, Broken Ice 16, Snow Lands 14, Outcrops 14,
Pine Lands 12, Thaw 12

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