Midnight: Shadow of the Gods

[gambler1650]

My first request here is please do not post to this topic until I finish my introductory posts. Thanks!

Also, I have a group already more or less ready to go, so at the moment I will not be taking new players. However, I plan to allow 'guest NPCs' down the road. More on that later.

Now, for the brief overview of Midnight for those who are unfamiliar with the setting (which is most, if not all, of my players). Please note I am intentionally glossing over some details to merely provide an overview. I would actually prefer to give less information, but for those who might be used to a standard AD&D campaign I want to make sure they realize some of the differences right from the start:


In the Time Before Years, Aryth was much like any other world, with a pantheon of gods that were worshipped. There was a great war in the heavens as the gods fought one of their own, Izrador, the essence of evil. Izrador was defeated and was cast out of the heavens to Aryth, his spirit separated from his body. But as he fell, he sundered the connection of Aryth to the heavens, cutting the gods off from the mortal realm.

On the continent of Eredane, the dark god slowly grew in power in the North, creating a race of beings known as the Orcs. He sent his armies south to conquer all of Eredane. He was defeated due to the forewarning received by Aradil, Witch Queen of the Elves. She united the races of Eredane who defeated Izrador in a great battle that ended the First Age.

The Second Age saw humans spread further. They helped create the Fortress Wall which would stand against The Shadow of the North when he came again. When he did, the races of Eredane defeated him again to begin the Third Age.

But now, seeds of distrust and corruption were planted by the dark god. The humans in particular squabbled, the dwarves withdrew into their Clanholds in their continuing fight against the Orcs, and the Elves tried to convince the other races that vigilance should be maintained. Instead, the Fortress Wall fell into ruin in human lands and four great heroes of Eredane were corrupted by Izrador to serve as his 'Night Kings'. When he came again at the end of the Third Age, he swept through human lands with hardly any resistance. The Shadow of the North had won.

Now, in The Last Age, humans are a conquered people. Izrador seeks to eradicate the Elves in their great forest of Erethor, and the dwarves in their isolated clanholds in the mountains of Kaladrun. The halflings are enslaved and tortured while the gnomes are seen by many as traitors, providing river passage for the Orc armies as they tighten their grip on central Eredane. Gold and jewels mean little in an economy that lies in ruins. Arcane magic is prohibited. Learning and literacy is a crime. Weapons beyond the simplest are disallowed. These crimes are punishable by whipping, enslavement or death.

The common human who is helped against the savagery of orcs is more likely to turn the hero in for his 'crime' than to thank them, out of fear and a hope to keep their family safe. The blessings of the gods are no more, save one, the Shadow who is the only source of divine magic left to the world, and therefore only his clerics can summon magic from him. It is a world of despair and darkness in which the lights of heroes should shine all the more brightly. Instead they seek to avoid detection, their goals often merely to harass and slow the Shadow's progress. Some hope to find a way to turn the tide, but the older insurgents feel deep in their hearts that Izrador's ultimate victory is assured.

 

[gambler1650]

Materials used

Midnight (1st Edition)
Against the Shadow
AD&D D20 Player's Handbook (3.0)
AD&D D20 Dungeon Master's Guide (3.0)

Various and sundry Midnight sourcebooks and monster collections. Players should NOT purchase the above if they don't have them already, for two reasons:

1. I like the idea of starting off the world with little knowledge of the specifics outside of what the character would know.
2. I may very well be making the jump to 2nd edition Midnight and 3.5 D20 ruleset within the next couple of months.

 

[gambler1650]

General Information

Ok, so how is this going to work? First of all I'll describe what I want from the players:

1. Prefer roleplay over rollplay.
2. No rules lawyers. If I get something 'wrong', let me know. If I made a mistake I'll correct it if possible. If I didn't make a mistake due to some factor the players or readers aren't aware of, I'll let y'all know.
3. Character driven instead of MinMax driven. I'd prefer my players to pick a skill, or feat, or combat action because it fits their character rather than maximizes their effectiveness. Doesn't mean the two can't coincide, but I want players to keep their characters in mind first.

Now a general 'mission statement':

The goal is to create a 'shared story'. While I have an overall story arc in mind, it is changeable based on the characters' actions and player desires. I am something of a novice DM although I've done a couple of real life games (in other systems) before that were well received. This format should suit me better for a variety of reasons.

The pacing will be something along these lines:

One or two 'decision points' a week (I define a 'decision point' as one requiring a choice by the players, without which I can't continue the narrative - for instance, hearing an orc patrol passing by in the distance, unless the party has given me a 'standard response'). Players should be able to check in approximately every other day and respond. Battles obviously will be somewhat different (more on this below). In between the decision points, players are more than welcome to RP amongst themselves (asking about backgrounds, telling stories, helping another character to learn something, etc). These will be the times in which I'll probably permit other people to create 'one shot' NPCs to interact with the players if it's appropriate (the person they just saved, a random villager at the tavern, etc). Once in awhile (every couple of weeks), I might try to get the group together at the same time to see if we can't crank out more RP, but this will not be a requirement.


I've read other play by post games, and the one thing I've noticed has been a tendency for the narrative to get bogged down by battles. This isn't a bad thing at all, as long as the players enjoy such. I don't plan to create highly detailed maps and ask players for their round by round actions. Instead, I will describe the scene to the best of my ability, and ask players for their general actions along with some 'trigger' situations (such as falling to 50% HP, seeing a target of opportunity, etc) and their actions at that point. Then I'll 'automate' the battle by running it myself until a situation arises that's not covered and ask the appropriate people for new actions. I'll provide the description of the battle at various points. If a battle is highly unusual or a climactic one, more detail will be used, but I don't want a situation where a simple battle takes up an entire week's worth of posts. If players request more detail that's fine, but the number of battles will probably be inversely proportional to the amount of detail requested.

 

[gambler1650]

Getting Started

Ok... I said I'd do all this on the weekend. I got a bit ahead of myself. The first step of course will be to create a character. Given that most players don't have the Midnight Sourcebook, what we're going to do is a bit different than standard character generation. I'm going to give a list of character races, a brief description, and then have the players decide which they are most interested in (they're free to ask for more detail on a few of the races, but I really want to limit what each character knows about races to what their background allows):

Humans: They came to Eredane long after the Fey Races (Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings) and for the most part live in the central plains. In the far past, humans fought the fey races, but quickly learned they were no match for the elves or dwarves. The halflings and gnomes suffered more at their hands. But by the First Age, the humans united with the fey against the Shadow of the North. There are three main groups:
1. Dorn - These humans were the first to arrive and have settled in the North. As such, they were the humans who faced the orc armies the soonest. They used to have a proud history, individuals able to trace their lineage to great houses. They are generally the strongest, loudest, most warrior like of the humans. Most feel shame at the way their once proud people let the armies of the Shadow cut through them at the end of the Third Age.
2. Sarcosans - Smaller, slighter and darker skinned than their Dornish cousins, the Sarcosans fought with them after they arrived. Instead of completely conquering and subjugating the Dorn, they worked to create a new nation that included both races. Sarcosans are often good riders and more skilled at subtlety and intrigue than the Dorn. Their cities are the most likely to feel 'normal', with puppet rulers put in place by Izrador.
3. Erenlanders - This race is the inevitable result of Sarcosan and Dorn blood mixing over the years. They have a much wider range of appearances, are accepted in both Sarcosan and Dorn lands, and live their lives and beliefs based primarily on the area they grew up in.

Elves: - The elves live in the great forest of Erethor in the western region of Eredane. The Witch Queen, Aradil, has ruled them for as long as anyone can remember and they attempted in each age to unite the people of Eredane against The Shadow. Elves as a race are highly magical. There are 4 main offshoots:
1. Caransil - They live in the central forest and are often called the Wood Elves. They are the most numerous elf race and have some of the strongest magic users in Eredane among their number.
2. Erunsil - The Snow Elves have very pale skin and eyes, and live in the northern reaches of the forest and are in the front lines of the battle against Izrador. They are consummate archers and experts at hit and run tactics.
3. Miransil - The Sea Elves live on the coast and are the most untouched (directly) of the Elves in the war against the Shadow. They live on the land but use the sea like no other race on the continent.
4. Danisil - The Jungle Elves have dark skin and an almost feral nature to outsiders. Their area of the forest is beset by foul demons trapped on Aryth for millenia, many of whom have formed pacts with Izrador. The war here is one with no front lines and the elves are known for their skills at using the plants of the Erethor both to heal and poison.

Halflings: - This small race has possibly taken the worst of the war, their people enslaved and tortured except for the nomads and a few small villages yet undetected by Izrador's armies. They have probably more magic users than any race except the elves, focusing mostly on subterfuge and illusion. There are two main groups:
1. Agrarian Halflings - They try to live much as they did before Izrador came, in peaceful villages. The magic users do their best to keep the villages safe.
2. Nomadic Halflings - These halflings roam the plains, attempting to keep their settled cousins safe from the Orcs. Their camps have large wolf like creatures called Wogren who have chosen to coexist with the halflings and help in their struggle.

Gnomes: - The most adaptable of the Fey, their quick fingers and quicker tongues and wit have allowed this small people to survive the invasions of first the Dorn, the Sarcosans and finally Izrador. They are a river and inland sea people who live almost exclusively on boats. In the past they were traders, but now they've been pressed into service by the armies of Izrador in transporting Orcs and gear down the great rivers into Central and Southern Eredane. Many of the common people consider them traitors for so obviously providing help to the Shadow.

Dwarves: - Other races fought Izrador three separate times. The dwarves feel as though they have been fighting him forever, or at least his armies of orcs which never left the Kaladrun mountains following the first invasion. The dwarves once created things and cities of beauty. Now every breath, every craft is in service of their fight against the Shadow, in a war almost none of them feel they can win. There are two main groups:
1. Clanhold Dwarves - These dwarves live in complexes and tunnels beneath the mountains. They have little interaction outside their clan, and almost none with other races.
2. Kurgan Dwarves - These dwarves still live as their race once did, on the mountains rather than beneath. In the southern portion of the range, some cities still stand. The Kurgan are more likely than their brethern to have contact with outsiders and often become adventurers, taking the fight to the Shadow rather than waiting for it to come to them.

Elflings: - A mix of halfling and Danisil parents, these mixed breeds are usually welcome in either parent's world.

Dwarrow: - The unions of dwarf and gnome parents produce these people. Generally not considered strong enough by their dwarven relatives, they usually join the gnomes where they are well accepted if thought too blunt.

Dworg: - The rare result of a dwarf woman raped by an Orc. The dwarves want nothing to do with them, except the Kurgan who offer a haven. Probably the most isolated and moody of the races, with a hatred for orcs surpassed by none.

Orcs: - Once in a blue moon an orc might decide that there's more to life than Izrador. Most people feel that these individuals are mere rumors, or spies. (Anyone who wants to be an orc should be prepared for a lot of discussion between us, and a LOT of negative interactions in the game - I'm not outright disallowing one, but I will have to think very hard about whether the character will fit).

Additionally, at this point, think of what kind of character you would like to play. Fighter of some sort, magic user, rogue type, or a live off the land type. The reason I'm not asking for professions is, I'll describe them later and based on initial discussions about the potential race and concept, will suggest one or two strong possibilities.

One more thing.. No evil characters will be permitted. 'Anti-hero' types are fine, but alignment will be restricted to Good or Neutral (Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic all allowed)

 

[gambler1650]

People can now post...

 

[darnoff]

Just wanted to let you know I was here. Would you prefer our character ideas be discussed thru email or here?

 

[gambler1650]

I would say that general questions here are fine, but I'd kind of prefer people not to become privy to information known only to or by a specific race. And welcome!

 

[gambler1650]

By the way, tentative time frame for all this:

About a month to get set up. I'm not going to rush into the campaign itself due to a possibly hectic early next month (minor possibility of a move from one location to another). This should give y'all time to work up the characters, backgrounds, etc. and me time to work on the first section of the campaign. So no one should feel 'rushed'.

If some people finish up early, I might do an initial one on one scene via e-mail to introduce them to the world of Midnight. Might also set up a mock combat using pre-made characters to test the concept of how I want to run combat, with any volunteers from the campaign. So the first month is kind of a 'get to know your corner of the world' deal. Feel free to pass along thoughts of what kinds of RP you'd like to see as well.

Also, please send all correspondance for the game to rgamble@gmail.com as that will be more or less dedicated to this game.

 

[Guest 11456]

Interested.

 

[gambler1650]

Tailspinner, at the moment I have a 'full' group (6-7 players) of probable players. I'll put you on the waiting list in case someone drops out, and of course if you feel like playing the role of an NPC (as I mentioned in the first post) I'll be happy to contact you when that aspect of the campaign gets going...