anyone ever play in or run a Midnight campaign?

[Thornir Alekeg]

I just started running a campaign in Midnight and I really like it. I think the players like it as well, but its hard to say after only one session. The main key to a good Midnight game IMO is to be sure that people understand that this is a very dangerous setting. The players need to accept that 1) you cannot fight everything, there are definitely times you should run away or hide and 2) PCs WILL die, probably more frequently than in other campaigns. If the players do not heed 1), then 2) will be even worse.

DMScott's advice about a cohesive party is also pretty important. I tried to get that across to my players - with only limited success so far - not sure how long this party will survive if they don't learn it soon.

As for the book-binding issue Keeper mentioned: it is my understanding that was something that happened with early runs of the Campaign Setting book. My book has no problems whatsoever, and that's after I copied a few pages as an intro to the players (I know, I'm not supposed to copy the books, but I wanted to get the players a chance to see selected info to convince them to try the setting without having access to the whole book and all its secrets).

Also, Keeper, I have heard that FFG has been replacing books with the bad bindings if your FLGS will not - not sure if that is a fact, but I think I remember seeing it mentioned on the AtS website somewhere in the forums.

 

[DMScott]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm definitely intrigued now. Now I want to go buy the book of course!

If you're going to be playing, I'd advise against it. A large part of the fun is finding out just what the bad guys are ultimately up to. It's not going to ruin everything if you know that ahead of time, but the various surprises are worth saving if possible.

If you're DMing, of course, then you definitely need the book. There's a decent line of supplements out if your DM is interested, but they aren't crucial.

Some of the new rules (the bloodlines, for example) aren't real well balanced, so your DM might want to go over those a bit carefully.

 

[Narfellus]

midnight

Midnight is the best setting i've ever seen. Art, writing, quality, it's all top notch. I just purchased Fury of Shadow which is the boxed set that details the final drive of the Shadow of Izrador against Erethor and the Witch Queen.

BUT, my personal campaign diverges greatly from the default book. My players wanted the grittiness of Midnight, but not the oppressiveness. And yes, it is a dark and difficult world that pits the bad guys with the advantage. I moved our campaign world underground, where Izrador has not extended as far. We have a half orc werebat and a duergar druid. Magic caps at 5th level, but they're safe from istrixes and can cast magic freely. But the world is still insulated from the Astral and Ethereal. No dimension doors, no teleporting. In my campaign the last vestiges of the Elemental Lords of Aryth, Air Earth Fire and Water, have retreated underground as far as they can go, hiding from Izrador. If he finds these raw elemental beings their power will be immense. So, the party has spent their time combating underground forces of darkness that are trying to reach Izrador and heed his dark call, mostly derro and aboleths bubbling up from the deeps.

Eventually they want to reach the surface and engage in the War, but we're having a lot of fun right now not worrying about legions of orcs and the constrictive nature of magic. In due time...

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I played in a Midnight campaign for several months, and have to say that I liked the setting, and it definitly achieves it's goal of a dark and gritty world.

That said, one of my issues with the setting is just how overwhelmingly oppressive it is. It really is a very dark and grim world, and I never felt that our group of PCs was ever going to amount to much in the end, we were just going to end up as a notch in the belt of some upcoming group of evil forces. It's hard to continually be heroic when what you are accomplishing really doesn't make much of a difference in the end.

So, I guess I'd say that I recommend the setting, but be aware that it's not always the easiest setting to play in if you are used to heroic, more traditional settings. A nice change of pace for a while, but not a setting I'd want to play in for the rest of my gaming days.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I played in a Midnight campaign for several months, and have to say that I liked the setting, and it definitly achieves it's goal of a dark and gritty world.

That said, one of my issues with the setting is just how overwhelmingly oppressive it is. It really is a very dark and grim world, and I never felt that our group of PCs was ever going to amount to much in the end, we were just going to end up as a notch in the belt of some upcoming group of evil forces. It's hard to continually be heroic when what you are accomplishing really doesn't make much of a difference in the end.

So, I guess I'd say that I recommend the setting, but be aware that it's not always the easiest setting to play in if you are used to heroic, more traditional settings. A nice change of pace for a while, but not a setting I'd want to play in for the rest of my gaming days.

This is a good point. I know that if I were to make the setting as hopeless and oppressive as it could be (some of the material in the netbook Tome of Sorrows really pushes this to the extreme in my opinion), my group would give up on it after a short time. I am hoping to find a balance between the party feeling that their efforts are futile in the face of a truly dominant enemy, and being the heroic saviors of the world - which would go completely against the flavor of the setting. My hopes are that as they gain in power, they will begin to see that their efforts are making in difference perhaps by allowing the resistance to start to work together better or maybe by being able to carve out a toehold outside of Erethor where the Shadow does not have control.

 

[scadgrad]

Surprised that no one's really mentioned it yet, but Crown of Shadows is an absolutely superb way to introduce your group to the setting. I ran the module over the course of 4 or 5 months and my group enjoyed it tremendously. We're all waiting anxiously for a module that picks up at, or very near, to the level where this one ends. You could do a lot worse than to pick up CoS and just jump right in.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Surprised that no one's really mentioned it yet, but Crown of Shadows is an absolutely superb way to introduce your group to the setting. I ran the module over the course of 4 or 5 months and my group enjoyed it tremendously. We're all waiting anxiously for a module that picks up at, or very near, to the level where this one ends. You could do a lot worse than to pick up CoS and just jump right in.

Hmm, well I was a little disappointed by Crown of Shadows. I thought it started off really well, but there is just a little too much railroading for my taste, and I hate the way the end was structured - too much DM intervention.

Personally I will end up taking Crown of Shadows and mining it for individual encounters, but will not play it as the linear adventure it is supposed to be.

 

[GlassJaw]

If you're going to be playing, I'd advise against it. A large part of the fun is finding out just what the bad guys are ultimately up to. It's not going to ruin everything if you know that ahead of time, but the various surprises are worth saving if possible

Hmm, well how much of the book is player stuff? What about character creation, classes, feats, etc? Is it easy enough to make characters with just the PHB?

 

[Nisarg]

Midnight continues to be, IMO the best new setting for D&D since the advent of 3rd edition.

It is well worth playing, and as someone already mentioned its magic system can be borrowed for other settings where you want to have the more balanced situation of spellcasters being relatively competent at low levels without being the automatic superpowers of the party at high levels.

Nisarg

 

[DMScott]

Hmm, well how much of the book is player stuff? What about character creation, classes, feats, etc? Is it easy enough to make characters with just the PHB?

There's character generation stuff in the book (changes to the races, a different magic system, a few feats, a couple of base classes and some prestige classes), but nothing that really demands 24/7 player access. Advice for players to avoid the Midnight book is just that - advice. IME, it's more fun to discover most of the new (and really scary) stuff during play. But every DM is different, you'd probably be best off checking with whoever's going to DM for your group and see if they mind you picking the book up.

There is a supplement called "Against the Shadow" which I haven't read, but is advertised as a player's companion. I understand it's got background info, feats, more prestige classes, that sort of thing. Possibly that'd be a good starting point for players.