I had the privilege of playing in Hans Messersmith’s one-shot of Dust Devils at Con Bravo this summer, and it was amazing! I immediately fell in love with this game, by Matt Snyder, which was the 2002 Indie RPG of the Year“. In my search for more material for the game, I discovered that Jason Morningstar had released Frost Devils, which sets Dust Devils in Nome, Alaska during the gold rush. The pitch is something like this:

Nome, Alaska, 1901. There’s a gold rush on at the very end of the Earth, attracting every manner of ne’er-do-well and fiend from deranged Kuskokwagmiut to Wyatt Earp. And you, of course.

Frost Devils is a reskinning of Matt Snyder’s excellent game Dust Devils. It can also serve as a really solid and historically meticulous resource guide to Nome at the turn of the last century for any game.

Frost Devils also provides a great looking character sheet, and a bunch of characters who have roots in the community; however, due to the fickle nature of history, the list of movers and shakers is a little light on ladies. While not a perfect solution, I have decided to go the ahistoric route– re-writing the descriptions provided so that they are more gender neutral, and providing a couple of name options for each character.

Click here to download my Frost Devils Playbooks.

And now to get you all in the mood to play Frost Devils, here are some postcards from Nome!

Nome, seen from a hot-air balloon in 1900. This postcard was published by Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco. This historic postcard is in the collection of Murray Lundberg, and was found online at www.explorenorth.com

Dogs hauling water, Nome, Alaska, 1899. This image was found online at www.arcticwebsite.com/

Passengers landing at Nome, Alaska, circa 1900. This image was found online at www.arcticwebsite.com/