Help w/ the world of MIDNIGHT

[ruleslawyer]

What other posters here have said. I'm a big fan of StalkingBlue's Story Hours on this site as well.

An important thing to recognize with Midnight is that while the setting may seem restrictive due to the peculiar balance of power (Izrador, the Night Kings, legates, and orcs on top, everyone else underneath), it actually lends itself to a number of play styles. I actually tend to think of MN as quite close in flavor to Middle-Earth at the close of the First Age or, for that matter, the Third; hope is almost lost, and short of the other powers returning to Aryth or something else equally improbable happening (say, a halfling and his gardener buddy sneaking into Theros Obsidia and tipping over Izrador's Grand Mirror), the world will be lost to the Shadow. There are a few ways to play this, though:

1) Horror. The world is already lost to the Shadow, and the PCs' unique talents just mean that they're front and center to witness the terrifying nature of the Shadow manifest. This is a campaign style in which the PCs, as in Ravenloft, are largely helpless bystanders traveling through horrific scenarios involving creatures that could eat them as an appetizer or are sure to destroy them without serious detective work and "strategic behavior" (i.e., running away a lot!). Deluge the PCs with cunning, powerful, unique Fell, dread ceremonies, bound fiends, and other scary scary foes.

2) Hack-and-slash gaming. This version of Midnight resembles the worlds of Starcraft, Halo, or Warhammer; dark fantasy, "gritty" settings in which most motivations other than survival and bloodlust have long vanished. Gaming in this environment will involve stealth missions such as smuggling and rescue attempts, assassination campaigns against orc leaders and legates, and participation in the full-on, devastating warfare between Izrador and the surviving fey. Play up the world-at-war, grim, morality-deprived nature of the setting.

3) Heroic dark fantasy. "The Shadow does not hold sway yet. Not over me; not over you." This style of gaming echoes great fantasy works like LotR,; in such a style, there is hope, nobility, and honor in combatting the Shadow, and possibly even an outside chance that the PCs can turn the tide, if only temporarily. Such a campaign might culminate in the destruction of the Grand Mirror or possibly even the reforging of the world of Aryth itself.

Anyway, the point is that there are a myriad of options involving this setting. Good luck choosing yours!

 

[StalkingBlue]

Excellent advice here already, especially ruleslawyer's list of three main styles. (Hi rl, thanks for SH praise btw! How's your own game planning going?)

Also, as others have already posted there're a number of story hours going on that show a fantastically wide range of how other people are approaching the Midnight setting, and the boards on www.againsttheshadow.org are a wonderful place to wander over to, browse and throw out crazy ideas and read other GMs' even crazier ones. I torment the guys over there with my own skewed view of Midnight on a regular basis, and they're usually very good about it and often helpful.

 

[Teneb]

To be totally honest, I'd wait until you get your hands on Fury of the Shadow, the new boxed set that someone mentioned earlier. I received one at GenCon, and its awesome. The writing is incredibly evocative, giving off the feel and mood of the setting extremely well. There's the added bonus of years worth of campaign ideas as well. Without a doubt the strongest Midnight supplement to date. (in my humble estimation, at any rate)

 

[StalkingBlue]

You might want to have a careful look at the rules material in Midnight btw. I believe the rules were written more with a view to providing extra flavour than balance, and that tends to show. If you're interested in more rules discussion, there was a recent thread in General here* in which we talked about balance issues a bit. It had Midnight in the title... I can't search, else I'd link you.

EDIT: *Posted by ruleslawyer. Sheesh, how could I forget to write that! /Edit.

Depending on how heavily challenges solveable by applying rules figure in your game, you'll likely have to modify rules quite a bit - but IME it's worth it, it helps give the characters their own individual slant and sets them apart even rules-wise, from anything you'd ever get to play in a standard setting game.

Especially heroic paths and covenant items are beautiful tools in the hands of a GM and player if you can work together to modify them to tailor the character to what the player wants and what fits the game. In our game it really helped shift the focus of the game away from the eternal looting, listing and selling of magic items that comes to dominate most standard DnD games - towards the heroic deeds and decisions and sometimes tragic, but no less great, failures of the PCs.

 

[Paka]

Wow, Teneb, thanks for the high praise on the Fury of Shadow. Garsh.

Againsttheshadow.org is really the place to poke around. There are active forums and a Plot Hooks section that myself and others have contributed to that is fairly rockin'. There is one article I wrote that was 13 ways to begin a Midnight Campaign that might be worth looking at. Not that you'll need it, the main rule book is dense with idea-inspiring material.

Enjoy Midnight and if you have an specific issues, I'd be glad to brainstorm.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Wow, thanks for all of the feedback. I will check out Against The Shadow site thoughly. Hopefully I can meet with my players soon to get their feel so I can customize the mood/play style to match the players expectations.

 

[Shadowfane]

Hi KnowTheToe,

The guys here have given you some very good advice, not least to check out Against the Shadow! If you've got Crown of Shadows (the published Midnight adventure) it is a great romp in and of itself, but there are also a myriad of fantastic threads on AtS where people have modifed and customised that adventure - well worth checking out (most are in the DM's Corner section of the site).

Have fun and you may well be advised to wait to get Fury of Shadow and be one of the first to start your campaign in the raging war between the Shadow and the beleaguered elves of Erethor!

Teneb, thanks for the kudos man! Much aprpeciated. We're waiting with bated breath to hear what people think of Fury and I have to say reading your post made my heart skip a beat!

Cheers,

Shadowfane

 

[KnowTheToe]

What is the release date on Fury?

 

[Shadowfane]

I guess it's going to be around the second week in Sept. It's printed, but needs to be shipped to the distributors, etc. So, next couple of weeks. Start harranging your FLG!

Cheers,

Shadowfane

 

[KnowTheToe]

Woohoo!

I am really excited about running this campaign