Christmas Crime
Step into a world where the spirit of the season clashes with the grit of crime fiction. Christmas Crime takes the tired holiday tropes you’ve seen before, shakes off the tinsel, and drops them into a hard-boiled story that captures the true essence of secular Christmas. This isn’t about fighting holiday-themed monsters or groaning over another pun-laden plot. It’s a toolkit for roleplaying stories where decisions, not dice, determine the outcome, and where the stakes are as real as they are festive.
I wrote this because too many holiday sourcebooks lean on cheap jokes and shallow gimmicks. Christmas deserves better. It deserves stories that embrace the tension of the season, the joy and the stress, the generosity and the greed, the connections and the loneliness. This book is built to highlight those contrasts, to create a narrative that’s grounded in character and driven In choices. You won’t find elves with mob ties or Santa leading a heist crew here. This is about people, flawed, desperate, hopeful people, trying to navigate a world wrapped in twinkling lights but shadowed In long nights.
The setting oozes atmosphere. Picture the glow of a snow-draped city at dusk, where shoppers rush home with their treasures and the smell of roasted chestnuts mingles with exhaust fumes. But not everyone’s sipping mulled wine and basking in the warmth of the season. Somewhere in that crowd, someone’s running a con. Another’s got a score to settle. Maybe it’s a missing person. Maybe it’s an art heist that went sideways. Maybe it’s a kidnapper who left a ransom note in a Christmas card. Whatever the crime, the story isn’t just about solving it, it’s about the fallout, the consequences, and the choices your characters will have to live with.
What makes Christmas Crime stand out is the focus on storytelling and collaboration. The book gives you the tools to create narratives that echo the themes of classic and crime fiction. Think dark nights and bright lights, misfits and masterminds, redemption and regret. It’s all there. And the beauty of it? You’re not boxed in. The book is a framework, not a straightjacket. You can build your own story, make your own rules, and let your players’ choices shape the narrative.
For fans of sharp-tongued detectives, morally gray characters, and the kind of Christmas stories that don’t make it onto greeting cards, this sourcebook delivers. It’s perfect for anyone who loves the contrast of warmth and danger, tradition and rebellion. Whether you’re a seasoned roleplayer or someone looking for a fresh way to engage with the season, Christmas Crime offers something new while feeling strangely familiar, like a holiday ornament you didn’t realize belonged to you.
If you’re tired of the same old sleigh bells and snowmen, give Christmas Crime a shot. It’s a story-first, character-driven experience where the only limits are your imagination and how much you’re willing to risk to make it to New Year’s in one piece.
This book, inspired In Christmas Fantasy (also published In Lightspress), builds on the same core structure and foundational exploration of Christmas history. However, it isn’t merely a reiteration of the original work. Instead, it offers a thoughtfully reimagined approach, specifically tailored to the crime genre in roleplaying, providing fresh insights and unique content distinct from traditional heroic fantasy.
Navigating This Book
Here’s what you’ll unwrap when you dig into Christmas Crime, a guide to capturing the heart, grit, and glow of Christmas in crime roleplaying.
Christmas Crime: We start In defining the Christmas we’re working with: a secular celebration grounded in cultural traditions, devoid of religious trappings, yet brimming with the energy and contradictions that make the holiday season so compelling. From family gatherings and over-commercialized cheer to the quiet moments of reflection that sneak in during the chaos, this chapter lays the foundation for incorporating those elements into a crime setting. It’s not about caricatures or clichés, it’s about using Christmas as a narrative tool to heighten stakes and deepen character connections.
Secular Traditions: Holiday traditions offer a wealth of storytelling possibilities, and here, we explore how to adapt them to a crime setting. What does a Christmas Eve dinner look like when it’s interrupted In a shakedown? How does a gift exchange play out when someone’s trying to pass off stolen goods? Whether you’re working with cultural norms, familial expectations, or modern holiday rituals, this chapter shows how traditions can ground your stories in the real world while adding dramatic tension.
Holidays in Crime: The holidays don’t just happen around your characters; they happen to them. This section examines the role of celebrations in a world where crime is always lurking. Whether it’s a department store heist staged during a Christmas sale or a ransom demand delivered in the form of a holiday card, we’ll explore how to integrate holiday-specific events into your plots without slipping into kitsch. The result? Stories that feel authentic and resonate with the highs and lows of the season.
The Meaning of Christmas: Crime stories grapple with themes of morality, redemption, and sacrifice, concepts that dovetail perfectly with the meaning of Christmas. Here, we examine how to interpret these themes in a way that feels organic to your narrative. Whether your characters are trying to find redemption, protect what matters most, or struggle with the consequences of their choices, this section offers ways to weave Christmas’s deeper meanings into the fabric of your stories.
The Spirit of Christmas: The spirit of Christmas is more than carols and tinsel, it’s about generosity, hope, and connection. But what does that look like in a world of crime? This chapter dives into how to hold onto that spirit while still telling gritty, compelling stories. It’s about finding moments of humanity and hope even in the darkest situations, and using those moments to drive the narrative forward.
Capturing the Mood: From the cold snap of December air to the warmth of a fire-lit room, Christmas is as much about mood as it is about events. Here, you’ll learn how to use the season’s feel, its sights, sounds, and emotions, to create immersive settings and stories. Whether it’s the bright chaos of a holiday market or the eerie stillness of a snow-covered alleyway, the mood becomes another character in your story.
Traditions & Growth: Holidays are personal, and this chapter is all about making them matter to your characters. How do they celebrate? What do they value about the season, or hate about it? We’ll explore how traditions can reveal character growth and create meaningful connections between party members. Whether it’s an annual ritual that ties into a character’s backstory or a new tradition born of shared experiences, these details make the season unforgettable.
Year-Round Spirit: Christmas doesn’t have to vanish with the decorations. Here, we explore how to keep the spirit of the season alive throughout your campaigns. Whether it’s through recurring themes of hope and connection or subtle nods to past holiday adventures, this chapter shows how Christmas can be a lasting part of your worldbuilding.
Characters: Injecting holiday spirit into your characters doesn’t mean turning them into caricatures. This chapter offers tools and prompts to help you create grounded, complex characters whose connection to the season feels authentic. From their favorite traditions to the grudges they carry from past holidays, these details make your characters pop off the page.
Worldbuilding: A crime setting with a Christmas backdrop demands careful attention to worldbuilding. How does the season affect the flow of life in your world? What changes during the holidays, from the legal system to the rhythms of the streets? This chapter dives into how to build a world where Christmas feels real and integral, not just window dressing.
Adventures: Whether you’re running a one-shot or incorporating Christmas into a long-term campaign, this section is packed with ideas for putting the season at the heart of your adventures. From holiday-themed heists to crimes of desperation driven In seasonal pressures, we’ll show you how to craft plots that are as engaging as they are festive.
Reference: The final chapter ties it all together with practical tools. You’ll find stock characters, creatures, and equipment to populate your world, plus notes on converting everything to the system you use, or back into the system-neutral framework this book is built on. It’s a one-stop shop for making Christmas a seamless, impactful part of your crime stories.
101 pages. PDF and epub files included.
Step into a world where the spirit of the season clashes with the grit of crime fiction. Christmas Crime takes the tired holiday tropes you’ve seen before, shakes off the tinsel, and drops them into a hard-boiled story that captures the true essence of secular Christmas. This isn’t about fighting holiday-themed monsters or groaning over another pun-laden plot. It’s a toolkit for roleplaying stories where decisions, not dice, determine the outcome, and where the stakes are as real as they are festive.
I wrote this because too many holiday sourcebooks lean on cheap jokes and shallow gimmicks. Christmas deserves better. It deserves stories that embrace the tension of the season, the joy and the stress, the generosity and the greed, the connections and the loneliness. This book is built to highlight those contrasts, to create a narrative that’s grounded in character and driven In choices. You won’t find elves with mob ties or Santa leading a heist crew here. This is about people, flawed, desperate, hopeful people, trying to navigate a world wrapped in twinkling lights but shadowed In long nights.
The setting oozes atmosphere. Picture the glow of a snow-draped city at dusk, where shoppers rush home with their treasures and the smell of roasted chestnuts mingles with exhaust fumes. But not everyone’s sipping mulled wine and basking in the warmth of the season. Somewhere in that crowd, someone’s running a con. Another’s got a score to settle. Maybe it’s a missing person. Maybe it’s an art heist that went sideways. Maybe it’s a kidnapper who left a ransom note in a Christmas card. Whatever the crime, the story isn’t just about solving it, it’s about the fallout, the consequences, and the choices your characters will have to live with.
What makes Christmas Crime stand out is the focus on storytelling and collaboration. The book gives you the tools to create narratives that echo the themes of classic and crime fiction. Think dark nights and bright lights, misfits and masterminds, redemption and regret. It’s all there. And the beauty of it? You’re not boxed in. The book is a framework, not a straightjacket. You can build your own story, make your own rules, and let your players’ choices shape the narrative.
For fans of sharp-tongued detectives, morally gray characters, and the kind of Christmas stories that don’t make it onto greeting cards, this sourcebook delivers. It’s perfect for anyone who loves the contrast of warmth and danger, tradition and rebellion. Whether you’re a seasoned roleplayer or someone looking for a fresh way to engage with the season, Christmas Crime offers something new while feeling strangely familiar, like a holiday ornament you didn’t realize belonged to you.
If you’re tired of the same old sleigh bells and snowmen, give Christmas Crime a shot. It’s a story-first, character-driven experience where the only limits are your imagination and how much you’re willing to risk to make it to New Year’s in one piece.
This book, inspired In Christmas Fantasy (also published In Lightspress), builds on the same core structure and foundational exploration of Christmas history. However, it isn’t merely a reiteration of the original work. Instead, it offers a thoughtfully reimagined approach, specifically tailored to the crime genre in roleplaying, providing fresh insights and unique content distinct from traditional heroic fantasy.
Navigating This Book
Here’s what you’ll unwrap when you dig into Christmas Crime, a guide to capturing the heart, grit, and glow of Christmas in crime roleplaying.
Christmas Crime: We start In defining the Christmas we’re working with: a secular celebration grounded in cultural traditions, devoid of religious trappings, yet brimming with the energy and contradictions that make the holiday season so compelling. From family gatherings and over-commercialized cheer to the quiet moments of reflection that sneak in during the chaos, this chapter lays the foundation for incorporating those elements into a crime setting. It’s not about caricatures or clichés, it’s about using Christmas as a narrative tool to heighten stakes and deepen character connections.
Secular Traditions: Holiday traditions offer a wealth of storytelling possibilities, and here, we explore how to adapt them to a crime setting. What does a Christmas Eve dinner look like when it’s interrupted In a shakedown? How does a gift exchange play out when someone’s trying to pass off stolen goods? Whether you’re working with cultural norms, familial expectations, or modern holiday rituals, this chapter shows how traditions can ground your stories in the real world while adding dramatic tension.
Holidays in Crime: The holidays don’t just happen around your characters; they happen to them. This section examines the role of celebrations in a world where crime is always lurking. Whether it’s a department store heist staged during a Christmas sale or a ransom demand delivered in the form of a holiday card, we’ll explore how to integrate holiday-specific events into your plots without slipping into kitsch. The result? Stories that feel authentic and resonate with the highs and lows of the season.
The Meaning of Christmas: Crime stories grapple with themes of morality, redemption, and sacrifice, concepts that dovetail perfectly with the meaning of Christmas. Here, we examine how to interpret these themes in a way that feels organic to your narrative. Whether your characters are trying to find redemption, protect what matters most, or struggle with the consequences of their choices, this section offers ways to weave Christmas’s deeper meanings into the fabric of your stories.
The Spirit of Christmas: The spirit of Christmas is more than carols and tinsel, it’s about generosity, hope, and connection. But what does that look like in a world of crime? This chapter dives into how to hold onto that spirit while still telling gritty, compelling stories. It’s about finding moments of humanity and hope even in the darkest situations, and using those moments to drive the narrative forward.
Capturing the Mood: From the cold snap of December air to the warmth of a fire-lit room, Christmas is as much about mood as it is about events. Here, you’ll learn how to use the season’s feel, its sights, sounds, and emotions, to create immersive settings and stories. Whether it’s the bright chaos of a holiday market or the eerie stillness of a snow-covered alleyway, the mood becomes another character in your story.
Traditions & Growth: Holidays are personal, and this chapter is all about making them matter to your characters. How do they celebrate? What do they value about the season, or hate about it? We’ll explore how traditions can reveal character growth and create meaningful connections between party members. Whether it’s an annual ritual that ties into a character’s backstory or a new tradition born of shared experiences, these details make the season unforgettable.
Year-Round Spirit: Christmas doesn’t have to vanish with the decorations. Here, we explore how to keep the spirit of the season alive throughout your campaigns. Whether it’s through recurring themes of hope and connection or subtle nods to past holiday adventures, this chapter shows how Christmas can be a lasting part of your worldbuilding.
Characters: Injecting holiday spirit into your characters doesn’t mean turning them into caricatures. This chapter offers tools and prompts to help you create grounded, complex characters whose connection to the season feels authentic. From their favorite traditions to the grudges they carry from past holidays, these details make your characters pop off the page.
Worldbuilding: A crime setting with a Christmas backdrop demands careful attention to worldbuilding. How does the season affect the flow of life in your world? What changes during the holidays, from the legal system to the rhythms of the streets? This chapter dives into how to build a world where Christmas feels real and integral, not just window dressing.
Adventures: Whether you’re running a one-shot or incorporating Christmas into a long-term campaign, this section is packed with ideas for putting the season at the heart of your adventures. From holiday-themed heists to crimes of desperation driven In seasonal pressures, we’ll show you how to craft plots that are as engaging as they are festive.
Reference: The final chapter ties it all together with practical tools. You’ll find stock characters, creatures, and equipment to populate your world, plus notes on converting everything to the system you use, or back into the system-neutral framework this book is built on. It’s a one-stop shop for making Christmas a seamless, impactful part of your crime stories.
101 pages. PDF and epub files included.
Step into a world where the spirit of the season clashes with the grit of crime fiction. Christmas Crime takes the tired holiday tropes you’ve seen before, shakes off the tinsel, and drops them into a hard-boiled story that captures the true essence of secular Christmas. This isn’t about fighting holiday-themed monsters or groaning over another pun-laden plot. It’s a toolkit for roleplaying stories where decisions, not dice, determine the outcome, and where the stakes are as real as they are festive.
I wrote this because too many holiday sourcebooks lean on cheap jokes and shallow gimmicks. Christmas deserves better. It deserves stories that embrace the tension of the season, the joy and the stress, the generosity and the greed, the connections and the loneliness. This book is built to highlight those contrasts, to create a narrative that’s grounded in character and driven In choices. You won’t find elves with mob ties or Santa leading a heist crew here. This is about people, flawed, desperate, hopeful people, trying to navigate a world wrapped in twinkling lights but shadowed In long nights.
The setting oozes atmosphere. Picture the glow of a snow-draped city at dusk, where shoppers rush home with their treasures and the smell of roasted chestnuts mingles with exhaust fumes. But not everyone’s sipping mulled wine and basking in the warmth of the season. Somewhere in that crowd, someone’s running a con. Another’s got a score to settle. Maybe it’s a missing person. Maybe it’s an art heist that went sideways. Maybe it’s a kidnapper who left a ransom note in a Christmas card. Whatever the crime, the story isn’t just about solving it, it’s about the fallout, the consequences, and the choices your characters will have to live with.
What makes Christmas Crime stand out is the focus on storytelling and collaboration. The book gives you the tools to create narratives that echo the themes of classic and crime fiction. Think dark nights and bright lights, misfits and masterminds, redemption and regret. It’s all there. And the beauty of it? You’re not boxed in. The book is a framework, not a straightjacket. You can build your own story, make your own rules, and let your players’ choices shape the narrative.
For fans of sharp-tongued detectives, morally gray characters, and the kind of Christmas stories that don’t make it onto greeting cards, this sourcebook delivers. It’s perfect for anyone who loves the contrast of warmth and danger, tradition and rebellion. Whether you’re a seasoned roleplayer or someone looking for a fresh way to engage with the season, Christmas Crime offers something new while feeling strangely familiar, like a holiday ornament you didn’t realize belonged to you.
If you’re tired of the same old sleigh bells and snowmen, give Christmas Crime a shot. It’s a story-first, character-driven experience where the only limits are your imagination and how much you’re willing to risk to make it to New Year’s in one piece.
This book, inspired In Christmas Fantasy (also published In Lightspress), builds on the same core structure and foundational exploration of Christmas history. However, it isn’t merely a reiteration of the original work. Instead, it offers a thoughtfully reimagined approach, specifically tailored to the crime genre in roleplaying, providing fresh insights and unique content distinct from traditional heroic fantasy.
Navigating This Book
Here’s what you’ll unwrap when you dig into Christmas Crime, a guide to capturing the heart, grit, and glow of Christmas in crime roleplaying.
Christmas Crime: We start In defining the Christmas we’re working with: a secular celebration grounded in cultural traditions, devoid of religious trappings, yet brimming with the energy and contradictions that make the holiday season so compelling. From family gatherings and over-commercialized cheer to the quiet moments of reflection that sneak in during the chaos, this chapter lays the foundation for incorporating those elements into a crime setting. It’s not about caricatures or clichés, it’s about using Christmas as a narrative tool to heighten stakes and deepen character connections.
Secular Traditions: Holiday traditions offer a wealth of storytelling possibilities, and here, we explore how to adapt them to a crime setting. What does a Christmas Eve dinner look like when it’s interrupted In a shakedown? How does a gift exchange play out when someone’s trying to pass off stolen goods? Whether you’re working with cultural norms, familial expectations, or modern holiday rituals, this chapter shows how traditions can ground your stories in the real world while adding dramatic tension.
Holidays in Crime: The holidays don’t just happen around your characters; they happen to them. This section examines the role of celebrations in a world where crime is always lurking. Whether it’s a department store heist staged during a Christmas sale or a ransom demand delivered in the form of a holiday card, we’ll explore how to integrate holiday-specific events into your plots without slipping into kitsch. The result? Stories that feel authentic and resonate with the highs and lows of the season.
The Meaning of Christmas: Crime stories grapple with themes of morality, redemption, and sacrifice, concepts that dovetail perfectly with the meaning of Christmas. Here, we examine how to interpret these themes in a way that feels organic to your narrative. Whether your characters are trying to find redemption, protect what matters most, or struggle with the consequences of their choices, this section offers ways to weave Christmas’s deeper meanings into the fabric of your stories.
The Spirit of Christmas: The spirit of Christmas is more than carols and tinsel, it’s about generosity, hope, and connection. But what does that look like in a world of crime? This chapter dives into how to hold onto that spirit while still telling gritty, compelling stories. It’s about finding moments of humanity and hope even in the darkest situations, and using those moments to drive the narrative forward.
Capturing the Mood: From the cold snap of December air to the warmth of a fire-lit room, Christmas is as much about mood as it is about events. Here, you’ll learn how to use the season’s feel, its sights, sounds, and emotions, to create immersive settings and stories. Whether it’s the bright chaos of a holiday market or the eerie stillness of a snow-covered alleyway, the mood becomes another character in your story.
Traditions & Growth: Holidays are personal, and this chapter is all about making them matter to your characters. How do they celebrate? What do they value about the season, or hate about it? We’ll explore how traditions can reveal character growth and create meaningful connections between party members. Whether it’s an annual ritual that ties into a character’s backstory or a new tradition born of shared experiences, these details make the season unforgettable.
Year-Round Spirit: Christmas doesn’t have to vanish with the decorations. Here, we explore how to keep the spirit of the season alive throughout your campaigns. Whether it’s through recurring themes of hope and connection or subtle nods to past holiday adventures, this chapter shows how Christmas can be a lasting part of your worldbuilding.
Characters: Injecting holiday spirit into your characters doesn’t mean turning them into caricatures. This chapter offers tools and prompts to help you create grounded, complex characters whose connection to the season feels authentic. From their favorite traditions to the grudges they carry from past holidays, these details make your characters pop off the page.
Worldbuilding: A crime setting with a Christmas backdrop demands careful attention to worldbuilding. How does the season affect the flow of life in your world? What changes during the holidays, from the legal system to the rhythms of the streets? This chapter dives into how to build a world where Christmas feels real and integral, not just window dressing.
Adventures: Whether you’re running a one-shot or incorporating Christmas into a long-term campaign, this section is packed with ideas for putting the season at the heart of your adventures. From holiday-themed heists to crimes of desperation driven In seasonal pressures, we’ll show you how to craft plots that are as engaging as they are festive.
Reference: The final chapter ties it all together with practical tools. You’ll find stock characters, creatures, and equipment to populate your world, plus notes on converting everything to the system you use, or back into the system-neutral framework this book is built on. It’s a one-stop shop for making Christmas a seamless, impactful part of your crime stories.
101 pages. PDF and epub files included.