How grim and hopeless is Midnight?

[Argent Silvermage]

Not being that familiar with Athas/Dark Sun....what happens if you beat all the big bads, theoretically?

Beating the BBEGs is only the start to aiding Athas. The world has been blasted and the sun has expanded. very little can help except maybe going back in time and killing all the Magi.
The premise is that Magic users were draining the planet's life force to fuel thier spells (if this was intentional or not didn't matter). it took it's toll and the world is not a barren husk.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Oh.. And from what I have been able to read. Midnight ROCKS! I think if we start a new game we may want to try this venue Wizardru.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

It really depends on the DM's take on the world. Some I've talked to have aspirations of taking down a Night King, others, such as in my game, have characters who just want to see their next sunrise.

The tabletop game I'm running is even harder on the players than the one linked above.

Wil & Dirigible - Shame on you both for not pimping my game.

 

[Ruined]

Just picked up my copy last night. I let the players in my Scarred Lands game read the opening intro that tells what occurred to make Midnight as gloomy as it is. And all basically said the same thing:

"Wow, this makes Scarred Lands look like a picnic on a sunny day."

Heh.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

HAHA! Take THAT Nightfall!

 

[Emiricol]

Lol!

 

[KidCthulhu]

Yeah, my Scarred Lands players don't want me going anywhere near Midnight either. But I love the setting, and agree with what's been said here already. It's grim, but it's not hopeless. And in fact, I think it's more heroic than any other setting I've read. Just to keep fighting when all hope seems gone, that's heroing.

 

[Rackhir]

Not being that familiar with Athas/Dark Sun....what happens if you beat all the big bads, theoretically?

Athas isn't so much an evil enviroment as a really truely grim and hardscrabble setting, at least if set in the period after one of the Dragon Kings has been slain. Basically it's a world that has been totally screwed over, evil hasn't conquered it so much as there is very little left and what is, everyone want's/needs.

The setup is actually somewhat akin to Stargate SG-1 with the Dragon Kings taking on the role of the Goa'uld Lords. Massive oppression/exploitation if you are directly under their thumb with a cult like core that vererates the dragon king. However there is a fair amount of freedom if you stay out of the dragon king's sight and all the freedom you could want out in the deep deserts (where of course there's nothing to eat or drink).

Killing the Dragon Kings would likely just replace them with humanoid tyrants, unless you found a way to bring life back to most of the world.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I think Midnight is a dark setting, but definitely not hopeless. The main difference is that a campaign in most other worlds is about stopping the darkness/Dark Overlord from taking over – i.e., the "Lord of the Rings" is about trying to stop Sauron from taking over Middle Earth – the "Wheel of Time" is about trying to stop a similar dark lord from taking over – The "Sword of Shannara" is about the heroes trying to stop the evil lord from taking over the world… you get the idea.

In Midnight, the evil being has won that big great war. The darkness is pervasive. The heroes, instead of fighting to stave off the darkness, are fighting to try and bring the light (hope) back into the world. What you do with that fight is up to the DM and the players – if you want it to be about saving a village from a brutal legate (evil cleric), setting up a free land or nation on a new continent as a last refuge of the free, or actually bringing about the downfall of the Night Kings or Izrador himself if up to the DM.

 

[Nightfall]

HAHA! Take THAT Nightfall!

Thanks alot Ash. See if I do anything nice for you ever again!