Midnight: My players wonder--What's the point?

[TheAuldGrump]

Heroism is often about fighting that which may not be beaten (though in honesty I feel that in Midnight the Shadow may be beaten, the task of many lifetimes, but the Shadow may be beaten back) from Gilgamesh to Arthur to Don Quixote the hero often falls, but his fall lights a lantern to be seen in darkness for many generations. I would use this to inspire the players, that their legends and lessons will live on, stories told in darkness, to bring the light.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Tomas

The Auld Grump

 

[Speaker]

In my Midnight Campaign, not only can the players win, but also they WILL win. I already know the general shape of what will happen, although I'm looking forward to all the sifters my players will throw at me.

Just looking through the campaign books, I came up with several frameworks through which the world could triumph over the 'dark god'.

Perhaps the collective of The Lost (those souls who have died but cannot leave the realm of life) could be used as a weapon against evil, sacrificing the multitude of souls who have died to, say, break every mirror in Midnight at once, or call back the good gods. This would contribute to the melancholy feeling of the campaign setting - what a cost for victory! The Whispering Woods bereft of life, every soul gone forevermore...

Perhaps (as has been mentioned) two of the night kings could be turned back to good, repenting of all they have done under the control of evil.

Perhaps the dwarves could yet be united.

Perhaps the 3000 missing elves could be found.

In the end, I hope to see a (mostly) united front against the 'dark god', with the PCs as the instruments that have forged each desperate band together into the force that should have been their in the first place.

Epic? Yes. Contrived? I'm not going to let the players get away with it easily! But I know they can do it. And I know that they'll enjoy every moment they spend battling desperate odds... for the betterment of all.

 

[Nifelhein]

(though in honesty I feel that in Midnight the Shadow may be beaten, the task of many lifetimes, but the Shadow may be beaten back)

This is my take on it too. Victory is not everlasting destruction, after all they can win 8000 years of peace, it would be a great victory, without ending midnight as it is.

 

[hong]

If you mean killing evil and taking its stuff so that you can buy magic items and rule kingdoms.....then you're right, it's not for you.

Killing evil is okay, but its stuff is TAINTED! Kinda like when you leave a body lying around in Nethack. Or when a TV series runs too long.


[SHATNERIAN voice resounds; enter KIRK]

Kirk: It's like evil is.... UNDEAD! It cannot... be KILLED!
I mean, it CANNOT... be killed!
I mean, it cannot... BE... killed!
Darn. Can we do this take again?

[Enter DEANNA TROI]

Troi: Captain, even though mixing characters from two different series constitutes a terrible crime against continuity, I must insist that we give evil a chance. The Prime Directive requires us to do so.

Kirk: Counselor, how many times do we follow the Prime Directive on this show?

Troi: Ah, you're right, Captain. I apologise.

Kirk: That's not enough. You must be punished. See me in my quarters at 1850 hours.

Troi: You pervert. You've never been the same since that Bilbo Baggins music video. Hang on a minute....

Kirk: MUAHAHA!

[removes Shatner facemask]

Yes, it is I, SPOCK! I have been through the darkness and come out to the light! The terrible experience of Bilbo Baggins, which would have driven any mortal insane, has proved me to be the ONLY ONE FIT TO RULE THE UNIVERSE!

Troi: But if Bilbo Baggins drives any mortal insane, and you are yourself a mortal, then doesn't it logically follow that you, yourself, are insane?

Spock: CURSE YOU, DEANNA TROI!!!! YOU HAVE FOUND MY ONE WEAKNESS!!!1

[Spock's head explodes]

[Enter Q]

Q: Thank you, Troi. And now that you've saved me the bother of disposing of this poseur myself, I will now get on with the task of TAKING OVER THE UNIVERSE!

Troi: Ah, damn. Why do you always show up when you're not wanted?

Q: I'm just evil that way.

[JANGLING NOISE OVER LOUDHAILERS]

THE BORG: EXCUSE ME, GENTLEMEN.

TROI: Hey, what am I, sliced cheese?

THE BORG: AND LADIES, EXCUSE ME. AS I WAS SAYING, THERE'S ONLY ONE BEING FIT TO RULE THIS UNIVERSE, AND IT'S ME. I MEAN WE. I MEAN US. I MEAN... AH, HELL, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

TROI: What?

THE BORG: DO YOU KNOW HOW TRICKY IT IS GETTING THESE NOUNS RIGHT WHEN YOU'RE A COLLECTIVE?

Q: I don't believe I've ever had that problem.

THE BORG: OH SHUT UP, YOU ANNOYING PRAT. DO YOU KNOW HOW ANNOYING YOU ARE? YOU MAY BE THE MOST POWERFUL INDIVIDUAL BEING IN THE UNIVERSE, BUT BY GOD YOU ACT LIKE A SPOILED KID SOMETIMES.

Q: Hey, baby, it's my prerogative. Are you going to tell me otherwise?

THE BORG: WHY YES, WE BELIEVE WE WILL.

Q: Ah, oops, you weren't meant to say that. Excuse me, m'dear, I think I'll be leaving now.

TROI: You know, there's this sector called the Delta Quadrant which I hear is really nice this time of year. Very few cubes around, if you get my meaning.

Q: Thank you, perhaps I'll check it out.

[Exit Q, pursued by a bear]

THE BORG: WHY DID YOU TELL HIM THAT? OUR INFLUENCE EXTENDS TO THE DELTA QUADRANT, YOU KNOW.

TROI: Yes, but there's this ship over there which is crewed by a major rival of mine, and I want to see you guys muss up her perfect hair. I swear, I don't know how someone with a name like "Janeway" could be promoted ahead of me. Janeway? Sounds like a freakin' toilet, if you ask me.

THE BORG: WE WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND HUMAN FOIBLES. VERY WELL, WE WILL DEAL WITH THE BEING KNOWN AS Q, AND "MUSS UP" YOUR RIVAL'S "PERFECT HAIR" AS WELL. AND THEN WE WILL TAKE OVER THE UNIVERSE, IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR 5-YEAR PLAN.

[Exit THE BORG]

TROI: Whew, so much for them. Now then....

[TROI'S form morphs and changes, turning into GARY COOPER]

GARY COOPER: Teehee! With those nitwits out of the way, now NOTHING CAN STOP MY FIENDISH PLAN TO RULE THE UNIVERSE!

[Enter ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER]

ARNOLD: Ah believe ah haff already stopt your fiendish plan.

GARY COOPER: D'oh! NEXT ELECTION, Arnie! NEXT ELECTION!!! You're GOING DOWN!!!1!

Defeating evil in this setting means a whole lot more than it does in other settings.

Because unlike other settings, Midnight is real. And Darkleaf is still ALIVE! ALIVE, I TELL YOU! But Elvis is still dead, unfortunately.

It might just be more sophisticated than some people want to deal with, which I can understand (I'm looking at you, hong).

Why are you looking at me?

 

[TiQuinn]

HEY! Wow! That was....not too funny.

 

[Pbartender]

[Enter the editors and continuity experts.]

Um... That's Gary Coleman, Hong, who was running for governor of California. He openly admitted that he would vote for Schwarzenegger, and was quoted as saying, "Now that Arnold is in the race, there is no race."

Gary Cooper died in 1961. If he's runnning for governor, California's got worse problems than Illinois... Our deceased just vote, they never run for office.

Oh... And the Borg collective is having problems with pronouns and occasionally adverbs. It passed its nouns test with flying colors in 2nd grade grammar school.

 

[Micco]

Hm....back OT...

I tend to draw parallels from the movie 'Red Dawn' when I think of Midnight. The players have little hope of drastically changing the world in the short-term, but they can strike at the Shadow locally and have a meaningful effect on the lives of those around them.

My players started out sort-of ho-hum about the setting, but after about 20 hours of play they love it.

As for moral quandries, there are many:
1) The characters come across a group of starving refugees. Helping them will put their mission that is vital to the resistance at risk. Not helping them will ensure that dozens of refugees will die of starvation. Can they risk it? Does the good of the many outweigh the good of the few?

2) A great opportunity to kill a Legate must be weighed against the sure retaliation of the Shadow to the towns and villages in the region. Can the characters watch 10 villagers killed every day until they turn themselves in for the killing of the legate?

or better yet

3) The players have an opportunity to disrupt the Shadow by killing the Senior Legate of a region, but doing so will almost guarentee that the overseer would be replaced. This particular overseer is relatively good to his subjects, establishing a real legal system that gives subjects a few rights. Is the killing of the Legate worth it?

4) The players have managed to create a plan to destroy a Dark Mirror. Dark Mirror destruction is one to the few ways to really hurt Izrador. Unfortunately, the Dark Mirror is located in the middle of a large town. It's destruction will kill hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocents. What price, victory?

Clearly there will be good people who will have different opinions about what is right in each situation. It is no wonder that the players will be heros to some and villains to others...even to those that oppose Izrador.

But I do agree that it is important that the players get to enjoy a few clear victories from time to time. Otherwise they begin to wonder if this is really fun...

Not the right setting for all, and not the right setting all the time for any, but a great setting that changes the rules.

------------
Micco

 

[Desdichado]

There's a good comparison; who doesn't like Red Dawn?

 

[Krieg]

There's a good comparison; who doesn't like Red Dawn?

For some reason our friends don't seem to find it as viscerally appealing as we Yanks.


Anyways....


One thing is that hasn't really been touched on so far is that even if the setting isn't someone's cup of tea, the game mechanics in the book alone make it a worthy purchase.

Want an alt./more flexible Monk? ---- There's the Defender.
Want a non-magical/customizable Ranger? ---- The Wildlander fits the bill.
Want an alternate low-magic/gritty magic system? ---- Midnight has just what you need.
Want to add a little flair to your NPCs? ---- Slap a heroic path template on 'em!

Midnight has a wealth of useful info far beyond the setting itself.

 

[Wombat]

There's a good comparison; who doesn't like Red Dawn?

Easy. Me. Most of my friends.

Lousy film. Would never play in a game like it.