Midnight: First Impressions of Campaign Book

[gambler1650]

The final 'victory' was 99 years ago though fighting still goes on against the dwarves and elves, with the former in a lot more trouble at the immediate moment. The average human is very well aware that they're ruled by evil minions. There are always orcs around to order them about, and legates are fairly common. They know just who to turn in an insurgent (or even anyone who just wants to carry a weapon) so's to curry favor, or at least disinterest in their family. In some cities life seems more or less normal so they can pretend nothing happened though they still know. The only people who tend to have it better than they had it before and perhaps even believe that they're in charge are some of the puppet rulers with a huge ego. Everyone else is generally much worse off, at the whims of the orcs, etc.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Thanks - I wanted to know if it was "The Bad Guys are in control, and people believe in them" - as I'm sure most Germans believed Hitler was good at first, or many dictators throughout history. After all, when Hitler took control, Germany was down and out and became much more powerful and feared under Hitler.

 

[Orias]

I think Midnight looks awesome & I am really psyched to pick up the book sometime soon.

 

[gambler1650]

Just put the first Enworld review up. Also, one other thing is I think at least a small inspiration came from George R.R. Martin's "The Game of Thrones" series... Anyone wanna comment on that?

 

[danbala]

Also, one other thing is I think at least a small inspiration came from George R.R. Martin's "The Game of Thrones" series... Anyone wanna comment on that? [/B]

I see a few nods to those books. (By the way I love both Game of Thrones and Midnight so the inspiration-- if it exists -- I see as a Good Thing). Midnight is clearly a seperate invention (even if it wears it sources proudly), but I do see some references:

1. First, you have Izrador himself. The obvious inspiration is Sauron but many of the details seem similar to the unamed Big Bad is lurking in the frozen north in GoT (although that is also similar to the Stormking in the Tad Williams books -- I'm sure in many others, too).

2. The Wall also shows up in Midnight although its not an ice Wall (although the line of abandoned keeps is familiar.)

3. "Worgs" are included as a heroic path which are very similar to the Worg concept from Thrones.

4. Another nod seems to be the history with the Norns standing in for the GoT First Men and the Sorcasson (sp?) standing in for the Andals. (But again, the whole humans show up and fight the eldar races trope is pretty common in fantasy novels). This may be more inspired by Tolkein, but I'm not an expert.

5. The plague of undead caused by the Fell appears similiar to what happens to the dead in GoT when they become the Others.

Any others?

 

[spacecrime.com]

Wil: just wanted to say that you folks at FFG did a great job with this book. It's selling like hotcakes -- we sold out over the weekend -- and the concept and quality is proving irresistable to people who didn't know they were going to buy it until they saw it for the first time.

cheers,

 

[d20Dwarf]

Wil: just wanted to say that you folks at FFG did a great job with this book. It's selling like hotcakes -- we sold out over the weekend -- and the concept and quality is proving irresistable to people who didn't know they were going to buy it until they saw it for the first time.

cheers,

Thanks Chris, that's great! I'm sure Greg and Jeff will be happy to hear this too!

 

[FFG Greg]

1. First, you have Izrador himself. The obvious inspiration is Sauron but many of the details seem similar to the unamed Big Bad is lurking in the frozen north in GoT (although that is also similar to the Stormking in the Tad Williams books -- I'm sure in many others, too).

Sauron is, of course, the main inspiration. But one of the reasons the basic premise of Midnight is so accessible (the dark lord wins) is that so much of our epic fantasy literature has a "dark lord." LotR, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Thomas Covenant, Shanara, Wheel of Time...you name it, if it's modern epic fantasy, it probably has a dark lord.

2. The Wall also shows up in Midnight although its not an ice Wall (although the line of abandoned keeps is familiar.)

The Fortress Wall is a cool historical element and a plausible excuse to scatter dungeons around the frontier.

3. "Worgs" are included as a heroic path which are very similar to the Worg concept from Thrones.

Again, this is pretty common in fantasy literature. The details of the path probably owe more to Wheel of Time and Robin Hobb's "Farseer" novels than Martin's stuff.

4. Another nod seems to be the history with the Norns standing in for the GoT First Men and the Sorcasson (sp?) standing in for the Andals. (But again, the whole humans show up and fight the eldar races trope is pretty common in fantasy novels). This may be more inspired by Tolkein, but I'm not an expert.

We tried to make Midnight a richly historical setting, and invasions and migrations (and the consequent wars and newly emerging cultures and nations) are an important element in history. One could find parallels in our own history, as well as in much of the fantasy literature (the Numenorean's migration to Middle-earth and the nations of Men they sired being one prominent example).

That said, yes this aspect of Midnight shares a common theme with the First Men and Andals in A Game of Thrones. There's a similar historical and cultural tension between the "old ways" of the Dorns and the "modernity" of the Sarcosans.

5. The plague of undead caused by the Fell appears similiar to what happens to the dead in GoT when they become the Others.
Any others?

I can see that, though I don't think the author (Jeff Barber) has gotten that far in A Song of Ice and Fire yet.

Greg
FFG

 

[gambler1650]

Thanks for the picking up of the Martin wondering and running with it. It's been awhile since I read the first two books in the series and I've held off on the last one so far (I kind of want to get at least two new ones to read at once since I rarely remember what happens in a previous book even a few months later). I only really remembered the wall, and the feel of the undead being sorta similar to those items in Midnight. The Game of Thrones is really reasonably standard fantasy with a unique writing twist (many different characters, and most have varying levels of good and evil in them, and you tend to like most of them even if they're on opposite 'sides). So it's not surprising that many of the elements in it could be traced to Tolkein too. For non-standard Fantasy, try Anne Bishop's Dark Jewels series (my plug to get more folks to read it).

Back to Midnight... Everyone involved with this book should be very proud of themselves. It truly is the best put together, self contained sourcebook I've seen in a long time. Running a Midnight campaign really needs nothing else than this book, though I'm sure I'll get most if not all of the supplements as long as the same level of quality is maintained (just don't fall prey to Jordanitis! - dragging out material that becomes more long winded and wastes the promise of the beginning - my opinion anyhow of Robert Jordan). Simply put, this is the first D20 sourcebook I've read more or less start to finish with only a couple of breaks to flip through other supplements. And I've never gone through an entire sourcebook in just three days.

The only immediate wants I have is a separate PDF for the map (or at least a pullout version of it in the next supplement) and a PDF character sheet. Oh, and one more want is... I want more Midnight! When's "Against the Shadow" coming out?

 

[Velik]

The only immediate wants I have is a separate PDF for the map (or at least a pullout version of it in the next supplement) and a PDF character sheet.

Your want is answered go check out the Midnight site on FFG's page its there under support