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

[NewJeffCT]

There is a lot that can be done in Midnight to satisfy the desire to be a hero. The goals are just different. Rebellion Era Starwars is actually a VERY good example.

Some goals:

Disrupt the slave trade.

Help out in the war in the Forest of Erethor and Kaladrun Mnts.

Free a city and set it up as a bastion of resistance. Pehaps the Shadow's "puppet ruler" is now controlled by the good guys.

Smuggling weapons and refugees.

The goals are there, they're just a bit smaller. As Wil says, Izrador is more an aspect of the setting than he is something to be actually overcome.

There is actually a loosly organized resistance and the PCs will likely find their way to it eventually.

The best thing the DM can do is to simply not tell the player that "there is no hope", at least, not out of character.

However, in Star Wars, the Empire and Emperor eventually get beaten in Episode 6... that doesn't mean everything is hunky dory and all nice and sweet in the end, but just that the BBEG is gone and whoever is left can take what they want. It is assumed everything is good, but that doesn't mean it won't take years to defeat all those stormtroopers and star destroyers.

The group I am in generally plays long term campaigns - our last campaign was in Kalamar and ran from level 1 to the mid 20s (with one guy around 27, I think at the top)... so, I can definitely see a long term campaign that - while maybe not defeating Izrador - can bring a lot of hope back into the world.

I see some of Ashrem's campaign goals above as short-term adventures where the PCs grow and learn about the world. Maybe the first adventure involves them smuggling weapons to the resistance. From there, maybe they earn the trust of somebody in the resistance and he/she uses them on a few more adventures to make sure the PCs can be trusted - run a message or refugee between the dwarves and elves / smuggle a spellcaster to some place of high magic power to make items to help the resistance / disrupt some orc slavers who have unknowingly thrown a halfling with vital information into the slave pens.

Meanwhile, the PCs are building up in level, gaining a reputation and gaining the trust of the resistance. From there, the PCs get involved in a strike to destroy a black mirror or defeat a legate...

Soon, the Witch Queen recognizes that these PCs are similar to some vague ancient prophecy and, in a desparate gambit, sends the PCs on a near suicidal mission to see if they truly are the heroes of this old prophecy...(maybe this involves confronting a Night King and living to tell the tale?)

The PCs then prove themselves by completing this mission and are now in Epic Levels and they undertake a great quest to find 2 ancient artifacts - one that was in human hands 8,000 years ago and one that was in dwarven hands. (Izradow realizes this now, too, and also starts to look for these artifacts, or maybe his minions already have one or both?) The third has been worn as a necklace by the Witch Queen herself and has acted to keep her alive for these 8,000 years.

The PCs then find these artifacts and use those two artifacts and the necklace of the witch queen (who turns to dust when it is taken off, as she should have died 7,500 years ago or more...) to pierce the veil and let the other old gods back into the world.

That doesn't mean evil is defeated or that Izrador is directly defeated - after all, it took the combined might of all the other gods to cast him out before. However, it allows clerics of other gods to now exist, it gives hope to the good folk of Eredane. These good clerics still have to train and grow in magic and the orcs still have a huge numerical superiority in sheer number of warriors - but, the PCs have succeeded in bringing hope into the world. Maybe not straight out of the book, but not too much modification, either.