Reading – Frostbite

Joshua Williamson’s comic miniseries Frostbite could be described as Mad Max meets Snowpiercer.

The world is locked in another ice age, accidentally triggered by a group of scientists seeking an alternative fuel source. Keaton is the tough survivor who takes on jobs to keep her crew and their vehicle in enough artificial heat to survive. When folks whisper about frostbite, it’s no longer just a minor problem but a terminal condition that freezes people in a long, lingering death spiral.

The plot kicks off with two scientists looking for transport, no questions asked. The rest is a chase across frozen cities and barren wastelands, with brutal gangs close behind them. As if that weren’t enough, Keaton has a secret or two she’s trying to keep hidden.

The art style of Jason Shawn Alexander is well suited to the dark grim (ice grim?) bleakness. It turns out I encountered his art previously in a Gotham Central story, the DC Comics crime procedural by Ed Brubaker. Writer Joshua Williamson has a wide range of work in comics, from the mainstream Justice League stories to things like Nailbighter – an ongoing series about the pursuit of a serial killer in a small town that has produced generations of serial killers (I’m currently working my way through that one).

For the Gamer Eye

This is the sort of read that inspires one shots set in Savage Worlds or Apocalypse World. Quick brutal action, expendable thugs, characters with an edge, and consequences other than physical harm. Overall, it’s really just an escort mission which is a bread and butter of many a gaming session. Heck, even Star Wars – A New Hope essentially kicks off with two strangers seeking passage off-world with no questions asked. I might have to check out a copy of No Flesh Shall Be Spared and see how well that fits.

Boardgame wise I can’t help but think of a Dead of Winter but instead of making quiet movement, this would be about keeping the heat down while trying to get an ice rigger to a place of safety ala Battlestar Galactica while pursued by frost zombies, crazed cultists, and criminal conspiracies.

Personally I’d prefer to run something like this as more cinematic than a grim-dark resource tracking system, but lots of that depends on your table.