To Serve Her Wintry Hunger – Rolling Beyond the D20

By: Culliope (Maryanne Cullinan)

Dungeons & Dragons is the 500-pound lizard in the room, using up all the air, when we talk about tabletop roleplaying games. However, there are many other games that are a lot of fun to play and easy to learn. It can be a little overwhelming trying to figure out what might be fun without investing a lot of time and money into something new. So, in my next few posts, I’ll be highlighting systems that I have played and are worth a try—even if they are just a palate cleanser for your next run through Waterdeep!

Rolling Beyond the D20
Fun and Easy Indie TTRPG Systems 

Missing winter already? We begin this series with my very favorite one-shot game, To Serve Her Wintry Hunger, from Stephen Dewey, aka Cavalry Games. You may recognize Cavalry Games from the truly unique game, 10 Candles, another amazing game from this author, that involves blowing out real candles as part of the game mechanics!

This is the description from the Cavalry Games webpage:  https://cavalrygames.com/shop/to-serve-her-wintry-hunger.

May the crocus never bloom, for you have work to do.

In To Serve Her Wintry Hunger, players take on the roles of wicked winter spirits hunting down a human lost in a deadly blizzard. This dark fairytale roleplaying game is designed for one-shot zero-prep 1-2 hour sessions, for one facilitator and four players.

Gameplay At A Glance

Players: 5 (four players, one facilitator). This number is a must for this game, there is no flexibility.Dice Needed: Six 6-sided dice per player (24 in all—they can’t be shared)Other Supplies needed: A pair of scissors, four pieces of white paper, four different tokens to choose who plays which spirit, tokens numbered 1-4, and 24 small markers/tokens (such as pennies) that serve as tangible marks of pity.Realistic Time Frame For Gameplay: 2-3 Hours. The actual plays I have seen recorded online are between 2 hours and 15 minutes and 3 hours and 45 minutes, and all the games I have personally played have been within that time frame as well.Ease to Pick Up: Pretty easy! Get out of your D20-based thinking pattern, and you’ll be fine! The entire guidebook is 27 pages long. The facilitator reads pre-written prompts to the players, and the players use a pool of D6s, so it isn’t hard to figure out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9INGV5C8bbE is an actual play you can watch to get the idea as well.

In To Serve Her Wintry Hunger, players roleplay spirits who serve Yuki Onna—the ever-hungering wintry solstice wind. Yuki Onna is a character from Japanese folklore who preys on travelers lost in the snow. Your collective job, as her attendants, is to capture a human who has become disoriented in the winter woods during a storm. You must bring this human to your mistress while also trying to win as much favor as possible with Yuki Onna for yourself.

The game is played in six rounds. In each round, the players roll their pool of D6, and when they roll that round’s number, the facilitator asks them that round’s questions. So, in round one, the players are trying to get a 1, and in round two, a 2, etc. Simple. However, in each round, a die is removed, so the game gets harder and harder over time. If you don’t roll the right number in time, the human can escape, and then you have to face the angry Yuki Onna empty-handed….

There are two main reasons this quick game is so much fun to play. The first reason is mechanical—it is both collaborative and competitive at the same time. The players are four spirits that are all jostling for favor and position in the eyes of Yuki Onna. There is a clear hierarchy as the game begins. It is advantageous for the more powerful to remain so and the less powerful to pull down those ahead of them. 

However, the number one objective of the group is to bring the lost human to Yuki Onna. If they are successful, the most powerful and favored of the spirits will be rewarded. However, if they are not successful, the most powerful will be the most punished for the failure, and the least powerful and most pitiful will get out unscathed. As such, players have to constantly weigh helping each other, accepting another spirit’s help and pity, and the value of personal success versus supporting the team’s mission. Helping each other comes at a mechanical in-game cost to those who are helped, but losing the human hurts everyone. 

The second reason is in-fiction—the game is deceptively simple to play but facilitates the creation of a fascinating and dark story better than any other TTRPG game I have played. In each round, as players roll the correct number, they answer questions that fill out both the overarching narrative and the relationships between the spirits. The guidebook’s stylized writing is compelling and maintains the dark fairytale ambiance throughout gameplay. Here are a couple of examples:

 “ …speak of the snow and how it shifts and twists. What do you say, in shout or in whisper, to the snowflakes as you charge through them?” (p.14)

“ … speak of what you whisper to your prey. Do you tell them truths, mock them with taunts or make wicked promises?” (p.17)

The mechanics of this game are easy, and so, the beautiful and simple questions allow for collective storytelling and a collective presence in the fiction. Without all of the trappings of looking at HP, encumbrance, dividing up loot, etc., this game has a very different feel from a typical D20-based TTRPG experience. Regardless of whether the group captures or loses the human, or if any one spirit loses or gains favor with Yuki Onna, the way the game is written, it will make for a compelling story.

However, this isn’t a game that you will be playing every week. To Serve Her Wintry Hunger is designed to be an occasional one-shot. I have played it once or twice a year for the past six years and enjoyed it each time. Even though it is a quick and simple game, there is enough meat to the game that it can be replayed. For variety’s sake, I like to play with different people—the narrative changes remarkably depending on the imaginations of the players and the way that the dice end up rolling! Consequently, if you are looking to spend a couple of hours collectively writing a dark fairytale whose plot will put the Grimms brothers’ classics to shame and will change the way you think about how TTRPGs can be played, check out To Serve Her Wintry Hunger! 

May the crocus never bloom, for you have work to do.

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About the Author

Maryanne Cullinan is a middle school teacher, PhD student and Academic RPG Researcher. She multi classes as cleric/bard/cat herder. You can check out some of her work on http://www.culliopescauldron.com or say hello @culliope on Discord and Twitter.