Kobold Press' MIDGARD Campaign Setting For 5E & Pathfinder

Over on Kickstarter, Kobold Press has launched an updated version of their Midgard campaign setting for D&D 5th Edition and the Pathfinder RPG. It's already funded, and consists of a 300+ page campaign setting book, plus separate supplemental books for each game system, and a book of short 5E adventures. For those not already familiar with Midgard, it has been around for a few years in various incarnations, and describes itself as "a world of dark roads and deep magic, firmly rooted in European myths and legends". You'll find the Kickstarter here.

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There are a few options for backers. Most people seem to be going for the 5E Basic Books Combo for $80 so far, which gets you the campaign setting hardcover, the Heroes Handbook hardcover, and the PDF versions of each. There's a lot more info about Midgard over here on Kobold Press' website.

 

[arjomanes]

Personally, I have my sights set on the DM's Screen when we hit 1,000 backers. Currently a 3 panel, landscape screen is the plan. Anyone have strong feelings about landscape vs portrait? Or 3 panel vs. 4 panel?

I feel strongly that it should be landscape, not portrait. I own the GF9 DM Screen, but I don't use it. Instead I use a customizable 3-panel screen since it lets me change the artwork. The GF9 screen is very generic D&D, and that doesn't really suit my game very well (currently a weird blend of Midgard and Zak S's Vornheim/Voivodja/Maze).

 

[Monkey King]

Understood about being on the fence; let me tell you some of what's in the new edition. Frankly, we're trying to add a LOT to the world: new magical traditions like Shadow, Ring Magic, Dragon, and High Elven Magic. New city maps (including a new Zobeck map). New lore for the Western Wastes, and new Backgrounds and martial archetypes for 5E. 12 new domains for 5E, to better serve the Midgard pantheon (while being totally portable to anyone's homebrew, of course).

Visually, it's a big upgrade too, with new art and new heraldry. And new adventure hooks, and some hints about Loki and Ragnarok, and a few new monsters that haven't been given stats before. The nice thing about revisiting a setting is that you can strengthen the weakest point, and expand on the high notes, and basically just refine the heck out of everything. I'm biased of course, but I think you'll find it's an even stronger, tighter, and more compelling world than it was the first time.

Art and overview for Midgard HERE

 

[Monkey King]

I feel strongly that it should be landscape, not portrait. I own the GF9 DM Screen, but I don't use it. Instead I use a customizable 3-panel screen since it lets me change the artwork. The GF9 screen is very generic D&D, and that doesn't really suit my game very well (currently a weird blend of Midgard and Zak S's Vornheim/Voivodja/Maze).

That blend sounds pretty great. And duly noted on landscape! The responses have been trending that way.

 

[Parmandur]

Understood about being on the fence; let me tell you some of what's in the new edition. Frankly, we're trying to add a LOT to the world: new magical traditions like Shadow, Ring Magic, Dragon, and High Elven Magic. New city maps (including a new Zobeck map). New lore for the Western Wastes, and new Backgrounds and martial archetypes for 5E. 12 new domains for 5E, to better serve the Midgard pantheon (while being totally portable to anyone's homebrew, of course).



Visually, it's a big upgrade too, with new art and new heraldry. And new adventure hooks, and some hints about Loki and Ragnarok, and a few new monsters that haven't been given stats before. The nice thing about revisiting a setting is that you can strengthen the weakest point, and expand on the high notes, and basically just refine the heck out of everything. I'm biased of course, but I think you'll find it's an even stronger, tighter, and more compelling world than it was the first time.



Art and overview for Midgard HERE

Based on looking at the rewards, it would also be perfectly viable for folks who already have the setting but play 5E to just get the crunch book, as well?

 

[Lanliss]

In generic terms, what is Midgard? The fluff text is highly descriptive, and quite well written, but I don't see anything actually describing the setting. Is it gritty? High fantasy? Low-magic, like Thule? What can I expect from the stock adventures in this setting? Heroic heroes, plowing through hordes of foes like so many paper towels? Normal people, barely scraping by in a fair fight?

Sorry if these questions seem obvious, but I am recently finding that stock FR does not mesh with what I or my players want out of D&D, and am looking into better options.

 

[Monkey King]

Based on looking at the rewards, it would also be perfectly viable for folks who already have the setting but play 5E to just get the crunch book, as well?

Yes, it's entirely viable to just grab the Heroes Handbook for the player options and mechanics. There are some DM-specific rules bits in the Setting book, but it's a relatively small set of things like Void Magic (which you could get separately).

 

[Monkey King]

In generic terms, what is Midgard? The fluff text is highly descriptive, and quite well written, but I don't see anything actually describing the setting. Is it gritty? High fantasy? Low-magic, like Thule? What can I expect from the stock adventures in this setting? Heroic heroes, plowing through hordes of foes like so many paper towels? Normal people, barely scraping by in a fair fight?

Great question.

Midgard is a dark fantasy RPG setting for D&D, Pathfinder, and a handful of other games. It's inspired by the myths and folklore of Central and Eastern Europe, and replaces a lot of the standard fantasy gaming races with more interesting player options like minotaurs, kobolds, trollkin, and elfmarked. It's fairly lethal; heroic heroes *can* go through big hordes of foes, but it's just as likely that an elder thing will suck a hero's soul and inhabit his skin. It's not a "always balanced against the party" sort of world; there are great powers at work, and opposing them requires both heroic courage AND some clever plans.

The dark fantasy is not low-magic, like Thule. Ley line magic is a key part of the setting, as are shadow roads and other portals connecting various regions for those willing to walk those dark and magical roads. In addition, the setting features hidden/masked gods who take a fairly active role in some regions, and there are several non-human kingdoms with a large influence on the setting (the dragon empire is really mostly kobolds, but also dragonborn and true dragons--you can imagine they are all about conquest and plunder).

The stock adventure varies depending on the region you choose to play in, though it is fair to say Midgard does more with wilderness and urban adventuring than some settings. The Northlands, the Grand Duchy, Seven Cities, and Crossroads are heroic and human-centric. The Western Wastes are alien and horrific badlands full of twisted reality. So there's a range of environments to allow for more than one type of adventure. That said... Well, here's two examples. The Raven's Call is a classic "save the village" scenario for new heroes against trollkin raiders; very Norse in tone. The intro-level Cat & Mouse is an urban exploration with some dark combat encounters in the undercity; it's more Arabian Nights-ish.

Most adventures are attempts to stave off some truly vile plot from winning over the light side. Heroes do it all the time, but it isn't easy, and there's sometimes a price to be paid in blood, corruption, or sanity.

 

[Lanliss]

Great question.

Midgard is a dark fantasy RPG setting for D&D, Pathfinder, and a handful of other games. It's inspired by the myths and folklore of Central and Eastern Europe, and replaces a lot of the standard fantasy gaming races with more interesting player options like minotaurs, kobolds, trollkin, and elfmarked. It's fairly lethal; heroic heroes *can* go through big hordes of foes, but it's just as likely that an elder thing will suck a hero's soul and inhabit his skin. It's not a "always balanced against the party" sort of world; there are great powers at work, and opposing them requires both heroic courage AND some clever plans.

The dark fantasy is not low-magic, like Thule. Ley line magic is a key part of the setting, as are shadow roads and other portals connecting various regions for those willing to walk those dark and magical roads. In addition, the setting features hidden/masked gods who take a fairly active role in some regions, and there are several non-human kingdoms with a large influence on the setting (the dragon empire is really mostly kobolds, but also dragonborn and true dragons--you can imagine they are all about conquest and plunder).

The stock adventure varies depending on the region you choose to play in, though it is fair to say Midgard does more with wilderness and urban adventuring than some settings. The Northlands, the Grand Duchy, Seven Cities, and Crossroads are heroic and human-centric. The Western Wastes are alien and horrific badlands full of twisted reality. So there's a range of environments to allow for more than one type of adventure. That said... Well, here's two examples. The Raven's Call is a classic "save the village" scenario for new heroes against trollkin raiders; very Norse in tone. The intro-level Cat & Mouse is an urban exploration with some dark combat encounters in the undercity; it's more Arabian Nights-ish.

Most adventures are attempts to stave off some truly vile plot from winning over the light side. Heroes do it all the time, but it isn't easy, and there's sometimes a price to be paid in blood, corruption, or sanity.

Thanks for the excellent response. This will definitely be on my wishlist, though I am afraid I don't have the money to put into the Kickstarter.

 

[arjomanes]

The way I've approached Midgard is through the adventures, particularly those in the Eastern-European-flavored "Crossroads" region, so that's the perspective I have. I haven't really run a game in the "Southlands" region, which is more middle-eastern or Egyptian in tone.

For me, the setting book and the adventures I've played and run lend the world a dark, but enchanting storybook quality. In my experience, it feels like the world I imagine when I read Grimm Fairy Tales. It's a setting where on the road through a dark forest, you could encounter kobolds, a hag, and a wolf, but they aren't as evil as the merchant prince at the inn you stop at; in other words, there's leeway to treat monstrous races as three-dimensional characters, just like in the fairy tales.

But even if there is a storybook feel, some adventures are small in scope, isolated and creepy, while others are grand, epic and world-spanning. There's one low-level adventure set in a small creepy eastern-european-style hamlet in the woods. There's another that starts in the realm of giant godlike beings frozen in stasis by ancient wards, and goblins have entire villages on them. To me, it's a world built around memorable stories and memorable characters.

The inhuman races that exist have a real reason behind them. There are few true elves left around, and halflings aren't so common either. And some of the races, like gnomes, have made dark pacts with devils to avoid the clutches of Baba Yaga. Dragonborn belong to the warlike Dragon Empire conquering the human kingdoms (think the Ottoman Empire in our own history). Kobolds are common in Zobeck; they live in their small squalid ghetto ruled by their too-many kings, and the city residents can hear the faint sound of their picks mining late into the night. The city of Zobeck also has gearforged, clockwork bodies with mortal souls.

At any rate, to me, Midgard is a great setting because it feels familiar, and works well with my D&D rulebooks, but feels unique and rich with great story ideas. It has hints of real-world places and legends, which for me make it easier to picture the places. I definitely recommend looking into it.

 

[Lanliss]

The way I've approached Midgard is through the adventures, particularly those in the Eastern-European-flavored "Crossroads" region, so that's the perspective I have. I haven't really run a game in the "Southlands" region, which is more middle-eastern or Egyptian in tone.

For me, the setting book and the adventures I've played and run lend the world a dark, but enchanting storybook quality. In my experience, it feels like the world I imagine when I read Grimm Fairy Tales. It's a setting where on the road through a dark forest, you could encounter kobolds, a hag, and a wolf, but they aren't as evil as the merchant prince at the inn you stop at; in other words, there's leeway to treat monstrous races as three-dimensional characters, just like in the fairy tales.

But even if there is a storybook feel, some adventures are small in scope, isolated and creepy, while others are grand, epic and world-spanning. There's one low-level adventure set in a small creepy eastern-european-style hamlet in the woods. There's another that starts in the realm of giant godlike beings frozen in stasis by ancient wards, and goblins have entire villages on them. To me, it's a world built around memorable stories and memorable characters.

The inhuman races that exist have a real reason behind them. There are few true elves left around, and halflings aren't so common either. And some of the races, like gnomes, have made dark pacts with devils to avoid the clutches of Baba Yaga. Dragonborn belong to the warlike Dragon Empire conquering the human kingdoms (think the Ottoman Empire in our own history). Kobolds are common in Zobeck; they live in their small squalid ghetto ruled by their too-many kings, and the city residents can hear the faint sound of their picks mining late into the night. The city of Zobeck also has gearforged, clockwork bodies with mortal souls.

At any rate, to me, Midgard is a great setting because it feels familiar, and works well with my D&D rulebooks, but feels unique and rich with great story ideas. It has hints of real-world places and legends, which for me make it easier to picture the places. I definitely recommend looking into it.

I think "Grimm Fairy Tales" is an excellent description of something I would enjoy. Depth, darkness, and always a good chance (but rarely a gurantee) of failure. I am liking the sound of this more and more.