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

[Hjorimir]

Midnight looks too bleak for my tastes. I don't want to play a game where all I do is strive to survive. That doesn't entertain me. I like to play the hero who can make a lasting difference for a good cause.

 

[shadow]

Midnight is pretty dark and gritty, but perhaps if DM'd right it could be an engaging setting. I could envision it played as a setting where legendary heroes take back the night. Midnight could lend itself to heroism since the players are considered to have a legendary "bloodline".

Anyway, at least Midnight is less grim than Call of Cthulhu. CoC is basically a nihlistic setting. In CoC humans are weak pitiful beings that are nothing compared to the outer gods. Combined with a heavy anti-religious slant (religions in CoC are just a bunch of lies so man won't learn about the truth of the old ones), life in CoC is completely meaningless. If I'm ever forced to play CoC, I'll have my character commit suicide to save himself the agony.

So unlike CoC, there is at least hope in Midnight. It may be more or less grim depending on how you play it, but there should always be a heroic element. You may stand against the impossible, but you will not back down. As long as you draw breath you will fight. That is the element of heroism. (BTW check out my sig)

 

[Merova]

Star Wars: Rebellion Era

Now if you want to be a hero, that's a different story. And it's possible to be a hero without completely destroying all evil in the world. But this stuff has been hashed and reshashed on the two Midnight resources I recommended above.

Hi all!

When I started prepping a Midnight campaign, I used the Star Wars Rebellion era as a model for scenario type. It was a period in which the players would have no hope of overthrowing the Empire. The best that they could do is harrass and hide. I thought that the themes of heroism in the face of overpowering evil found in both games would jibe well. I was wrong.

Although the PCs in Midnight are just as heroic as anything in Star Wars, the setting has much less flexibility. There is no "warp drive" escape in Midnight. There are no friendly rebel allies in Midnight. No hidden bases in remote locations. No healing tanks or artificial hands. The setting of Midnight has no room for reckless heroism.

This isn't a bad thing, IMO. It focuses adventure type towards gritty black ops of assassination and terrorism. Your equipment is shoddy. Everyone is a potential enemy. You're alone in a hostile world.

The basic premise of this game is one of exploration. The reason to play in this setting is to experience a world where heroism is painful and destined to fail. This a a powerful premise, but one that rankles against the preferences of many gamers, who use gaming as a form of "power fantasy" escapism. It especially conflicts with this feeling in that the mechanics create totally cool epic characters. Making them do gritty and covert adventure types feels like a waste of potential.

Well, that's my experience. I really like this game, but I can totally understand the frustration that many players may have with it. YMMV.

Thanks for reading.

---Merova

 

[Arnwyn]

Midnight looks too bleak for my tastes. I don't want to play a game where all I do is strive to survive. That doesn't entertain me. I like to play the hero who can make a lasting difference for a good cause.

Agreed. It sounds like Ravenloft - another bogus campaign setting. Your reward is "survival"? Thanks, but no thanks. (Great for one-shots, horrible for a long-term campaign.)

 

[Hand of Evil]

I don't know I would have told them it was without hope, it is a world where evil is dominate but the players are in a war to overthrow those powers. The players are more freedom fighters in occupied lands.

 

[Henry]

Combined with a heavy anti-religious slant (religions in CoC are just a bunch of lies so man won't learn about the truth of the old ones), life in CoC is completely meaningless. If I'm ever forced to play CoC, I'll have my character commit suicide to save himself the agony.

I have a player who refuses to play Call of Cthulhu as anything more than one shots because of this. The concept of a character who starts out as good as he's EVER going to be, and then dies trying, no exceptions, is too much for him to deal with.

He enjoys those Halloween games, but I'll never get him in a regular game again.

 

[Nifft]

Midnight is a cool setting. It's bleak, sure, but "Defeat Izrador" isn't an impossible goal -- after all, the good people of Eredane have done it two out of three times so far!

-- N

 

[d20Dwarf]

Hi all!

Although the PCs in Midnight are just as heroic as anything in Star Wars, the setting has much less flexibility. There is no "warp drive" escape in Midnight. There are no friendly rebel allies in Midnight. No hidden bases in remote locations. No healing tanks or artificial hands. The setting of Midnight has no room for reckless heroism.

This isn't a bad thing, IMO. It focuses adventure type towards gritty black ops of assassination and terrorism. Your equipment is shoddy. Everyone is a potential enemy. You're alone in a hostile world.

---Merova

Sounds like you've put a lot of work into your Midnight campaign! I'd disagree that there are no hidden bases and escape opportunities, however. There are gnome resistance smugglers, a 2500-mile wide elven forest, the deepest pits of the Kaladruns (although I wouldn't recommend trying to go there ), wandering halfling tribes, etc., etc.

There is plenty of resistance to Izrador, and I think one of the fun parts of playing in Midnight is finding them, piecing them together, and eventually becoming part of the vast, right-minded conspiracy.

There is hope in Midnight. Hope that you can ease the suffering of your home village by "replacing" the vile legate who oversees the region with a more sympathetic one. Hope that you can bring a little light to others through your heroic actions. Hope that you can find evidence that there *is* still good in the world. These are all fine, heroic motivations and goals for Midnight characters.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

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.

 

[Rugger]

OT for a sec...

Ashrem: the Netbook is FANTASTIC! Not only is the writing and rules quality great, it looks like FFG was cool enough to let ya'll make it LOOK pretty. This is one netbook that will actually see use from me!

Back on topic...

Midnight could very easily feel like Star Wars (a New Hope)...try to picture the original film without all of the stuff that came after. Hard to do, but if you can you'll see that there was NO hope to start. The Jedi were gone. The Empire ruled over everything. People lived in fear. Heck, Han ran from Stormtroopers! (I guess his player wasn't metagaming...)

It wasn't till later that hope entered the picture...Obi Wan...the chance for new jedi...the chance to stand up to Darth Vader...

You gotta see just how BAD things are, to appreciate the fact that they can get better...

-Rugger
"I LoveMidnight!"