Cast away your pathetic, childish fantasies; this is no winter wonderland.

There are no toys here, no candy, no songs about tinsel and joy. 

This is a harsh, bleak wasteland of chemical spills, centuries-long elvish serfdom and utterly absent hope.

This is a land where the bells don’t jingle. They toll.

Operation S.A.N.T.A.

Operation S.A.N.T.A. is a "Festive" Roleplay Adventure set in a world where Santa is a horrible tentacled alien, and the North Pole is some kind of dystopian, nuclear waste spoiled horror-land, and there's anarchistic penguins in the Arctic, and no one gets any presents ever again. You know, the standard Christmassy sort of story. 

The zine includes a setting, characters, lots of thematic tables, a map of the grotty hole that is the North Pole, and an encounter to play as a group, or alone, if that's your sort of thing. There is a Monster Manual for NPCs and monsters, and a safety disclaimer with content advisories.

Will it DnD?

It's system agnostic, which means you can pick it up and play with any RPG system you are familiar with, such as D&D.  I'm including MÖRK BORG and Troika! stats to make things easier. (You can download free rules for MÖRK BORG here, and for Troika! here)

Tell me more about the North Pole.

Oh, go on then...

Show me more spreads and maps and stuff!

Who are you?

I'm CM Lowry, a writer, RPG player and designer and Humbug.

Contributors

Asmus Nielsen, (he/him), lives on Jutland, Denmark, and is fluent in Danish and English. He's never been naughty enough to miss out on presents, but he has previously eaten too much Christmas pudding and would do it again. Find him on Twitter as @Kinas_Ten and his games at Itch.

Mol (they/them), is found as @molomoot on all socials, their pronouns are they/them & they are mostly known for drawing weird lil creatures and handmade ttrpg zines. Mol is probably not allergic to polar bears. Probably.

Malik Hansen (he), was born in Nuuk, capital of Greenland, and now lives in Illulissat. He are fluent in Kalaallisut, Danish and English. They are not scared of penguins, mostly because you don't get penguins in the Northern Hemisphere.

Content Warning

This is not a normal Christmas story. It is silly... and horrible. It is intended to be entirely tongue-in-cheek, but there is a risk that topics might come up that make you feel uncomfortable. Please be warned that its content spans multiple deeply objectionable areas.

Warning for themes including physical & psychological harm, death, murder, tentacular horror, blood, kidnap, non-consensual surgery, aliens, indentured servitude, harm to animals and nuclear radiation poisoning. There is zero sexual or gender abuse in this zine. Some aspects such as body part removal may stray into themes of disability, and whilst my aim is to firmly avoid ableism, the topic could easily be raised by a group.

Please consider using safety tools like my own Yes, No, Maybe as a group before you play. I’ve got a list of more safety options at allaboutchris.org/rpgsafety.

BUY A PHYSICAL VERSION!

This game is a lovely PDF, but it's even better wrapped up under the Christmas tree...

Visit the BeyondCataclysm.co.uk website to pick up your very own physical version of the game! Comes with an exclusive bookmark! You can get the PDF there too if you'd like...