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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TwiceBorn2" data-source="post: 8685327" data-attributes="member: 7017725">I ran a Midnight campaign using a mix of 3.5/Pathfinder rules several years ago. My players still bring it up as their favourite campaign, thus far. We're all quite bummed that there's been no distribution of Midnight 5E in Canada.As to your questions...1) In 3.5, many heroic paths were unbalanced when compared to one another, but that didn't bother us too much. I made magic items really hard to come by, so the heroic paths compensated for that somewhat. My understanding is that in 5E, the heroic path feats are taken as normal feats would be, and not in addition to feats you would normally receive. Many of the old guard have been disappointed by the new approach to heroic paths. I won't comment one way or another, as I don't have the 5E book.2) For some (many?) players, I can certainly see the gloom and doom getting old after a while (or very quickly, even) -- especially if they prefer high adventure and a lighter mood in their RPG, and they want to forget the horrors of reality and the depressing stuff we see on the news. That said, keep in mind that a grim setting does not mean a humourless setting, especially if your players develop characters along the lines of Tyrion, Bronn, Varys, etc., in Game of Thrones. Nevertheless, I can see some (many?) players not enjoying the "small victories" against overwhelming evil. I would suggest playing a finite campaign arc with a fixed objective other than killing Izrador (not going to happen) or one of his Night Kings (also very unlikely to happen). Maybe crippling the Shadow's weapons production by mounting a successful attack on Steel Hill, or freeing slaves and leading them to "safety" in Erethor? The only official 3E adventure (Crown of Shadows), an updated version of which will be coming out soon for 5E, involves trying to bring a maguffin from one end of Eredane to allies at the other end of the continent without getting caught by the Shadow... perhaps that would be the best way to get your players to dip their toes in the setting and see if they (and you) like it?3) Yes, I agree that developing thematically satisfying stories in Midnight was more challenging for me as DM. It's much more difficult to just pick up any old D&D adventure and make minor tweaks to make it fit in, as you might in a standard D&D campaign. I think it's really important to focus on the characters in Midnight (PCs and NPCs), and to make sure that whatever scenarios you generate flow from them, rather than trying to adapt a bunch of generic quests to the setting... which, when I did do it, left me less than satisfied. Still, Midnight is a setting that lends itself particularly well to great storytelling, if you and your group are up for the challenge.4) Yep, and that's the beauty of it (IMO). Magic truly is special in Midnight... but is the power it brings worth the risk and the cost? You will need to make adjustments to your game, either by making stealth and bluffing a more realistic/achievable option than straight up combat, by reducing the frequency of straight-up combats, and by making sure at least one player considers taking the Healer feat from the PHB. In 3.5, Midnight had expanded rules for healing via herbalism... sounds like that unfortunately did not make it into the 5E version.I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have.</blockquote>

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