(ENN) Kobold Press’ Midgard Coming soon to Kickstarter

Wolfgang Baur, publisher at Kobold Press, has been in touch to let us know that a revised Midgard Campaign Setting for 5^th Edition D&D and Pathfinder is on its way! The Kickstarter should be launching mid-January so we’ll keep our eyes peeled for it and see if we can get some preview at or something off the Kobold team to share with you.

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THE WORLD SERPENT AWAKES

The age of heroes is dead, and the bridge to glory is broken – Bifrost fell long ago. Midgard is lost in an age of war, of dark wilderness and lost empires sunk beneath the waves. Only magic and the warmth of hope keeps lights aglow when dread things prowl and priestly wardings shake, bent by demonic rage.

Now, sinister forces are forming new and terrifying alliances throughout the world. The roads to the shadow realm are open again, and the fey have returned to claim their ancient tribute. In the north the giants prepare for Ragnarok, while the goblins in the west grow restless. In the Crossroads, the shadow of the vampire princes fall across the land. The World Serpent is stirring – and not even all-knowing Baba Yaga can say what will happen next.

It is a dark time. But a new breed of hero is coming to stand against the dark, driving it back with spell, steel, and cunning!

[video=youtube;if59Fc8jo5Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if59Fc8jo5Y[/video]​

 

[JeffB]

I definitely got the 3.5 vibe when I looked through Tome of Beasts. It seemed very 2006, and not very 2016.

That said, I got that feeling with their 4e stuff too. Like it's all just conversions of PF material they produced while ago.

Maybe not rational, but that's the vibe I got from them, as well as Frog God's 5e (and to lesser extent S&W) output. Jumping on the 5e bandwagon using old stuff.

 

[GameOgre]

Love the Kobold Press stuff and love Midgard though I already own the books for pathfinder and bought the pdf's for 5E that give you the races ect in 5E so im not sure why I would need this book. Will prob buy it anyway just to have it but it would be nice if it offered stuff I don't already have.

 

[vpuigdoller]

I have the idea by the description due to the awakening pf the world serpent there will be massive changes to the world, or at least thats the vibe i get from it. It has me intrigued.

 

[Monkey King]

What a wonderfully strange thread! The Kobold Press team has been thrilled to work on 5th Edition since it was called "Next", and the various 5E team members play the game, write official material for it, edit and design professionally for WotC now and again, etc. That isn't to say the releases are perfect or that we couldn't do better (everyone can always improve!). However, I think I speak for every kobold when I say we love the system and enjoy tinkering with it. If we didn't, we would work on something else.

Further, I'd point out that the addition of new adventures, new player options, new spells, etc isn't a specifically 3.x approach; it's fundamental to the RPG industry. I like the fact that the 5E release schedule is slower and more deliberate than the 4E schedule was; it gives groups more time to actually play through and adapt to new material. At the same time, players and DMs do want more crunch and more adventures over time. Wizards and Kobolds alike do their best to provide that, from Tyranny of Dragons to Tome of Beasts, and on to Midgard. If parts of what we do underwhelm part of the audience, that's pretty much normal in tabletop gaming culture; not everything works for everyone. (More than that: I've watched the threads on bits of Unearthed Arcana material, and it's clear that those WotC folks get both lots of love and full-on napalm every time they release something).

To stay remotely on topic: Midgard is my particular baby, and the subject of my last 10 years of worldbuilding or so, together with a host of talented contributors. I think we're doing some great, original, inventive world design and rules around ley line magic, character races and options, and a few topics we're not ready to reveal just yet. As always, YMMV, but it seems a bit early to diss the thing before any of it is kickstarted, much less completed.

Luckily, with early access to the Midgard rules, people can and will weigh in with improvements before publication. Feedback has been SOP for Kobold Press since day 1; we'll continue that peer review and playtest with Midgard material.

 

[darjr]

As a patron from before there was a Kickstarter and a subscriber to Kobold Quarterly I do have to say that I adore Kobolds stuff and can't wait for this.

Any chance of a living campaign to support the line?

And always betwixt editions it seems.

 

[turkeygiant]

Doesn't seem likely. They wrote the first official D&D storyline after all.

Tyranny of Dragons was also far and away the worst storyline of 5e too though lol

 

[Marc Radle]

Tyranny of Dragons was also far and away the worst storyline of 5e too though lol

Of course, many folks really like the Tyranny of Dragons adventure series. One also might wonder how much of that storyline was out of KP's control ...

 

[Marc Radle]

The folks at Kobold Press are massive 5E fans as well as massive Pathfinder fans. I promise there is ZERO attitude of doing 5E material just becasue they feel they have to. It's also worth keeping in mind that early 5E material from 3PP companies was being developed as the 5E ruleset was still being finalized.

I can also attest to the HUGE amount of energy, work, and passion that is going into every aspect of this Midgard project. I think 5E and Pathfinder fans are going to be very impressed and extremely pleased!

 

[Monkey King]

As a patron from before there was a Kickstarter and a subscriber to Kobold Quarterly I do have to say that I adore Kobolds stuff and can't wait for this.

Any chance of a living campaign to support the line?

There is definitely some discussion of a living campaign and other ways to expand support. We think we have a solution for it, which we'll talk about in February.

 

[darjr]

James Introcaso talks with the Kolbold folks about this very thing at the Table Top Babble podcast.

https://dontsplitthepodcastnetwork.com/table-top-babble/2017/1/8/002-worldbuilding-and-spell-design