I have been a part of three Midnight playing groups (all of them as a gm only, so my perspective is nowhere near complete). One of them is a recent one and still active, while the other two no longer are.
IMO, the Midnight campaign for a D&D game is one that needs the gm and the players to have a serious chat about playing the campaign out. Midnight is a terrific setting, both in background and rules, and I truly enjoy the setting. It is different enough from the D&D standard that it does require a major shift in campaign play from both the gm and the players. IME, the key here has been discussing the setting (background and campaign rules), the expectations from everybody involved, and the goals that are set forth by the group, whatever they may be, after learning what they can about Midnight. The players need to know how different Midnight is from the stereotypical D&D campaign, and make adjustments accordingly, if agreed to. The groups I have been with wanted some adjustments, which I believe is quite reasonable, as every playing group has a unqiue style to it, so to speak.
I agree with a previous poster who more or less said destroying the Great Enemy is not meant to be goal of the Midnight setting. Evil has won and dominates the setting, although not completely. Given that premise, there is a good deal of "room" to work with for campaign play.
The most immediate significant change that the players told me about was the "basic survival" aspect of the game. This includes sustenance (food and water), shelter, and traveling. While this was interesting at first, the majority of players felt it lost its role-playing feel and became a tiresome game mechanic to be dealt with. So, what I did was change it so that it became an infrequent game tool rather than a persistent one. Overall, they liked that change. This ties into the main problem that my players felt they had with the setting.
This problem was that the clear majority of players felt that their characters were too insignificant as the campaign progressed. They did not mind the starting points for their characters, but to them it felt like it never changed (on a general level). At first I did not understand what they were getting at, but as time passed, I grew to understand their viewpoint. This is main reason I advise seriously talking about Midnight before playing it.
The basic premise of D&D is the characters become more personally powerful as they go up in levels. In most such campaigns, the characters typically also gain increases in social influence and status and have access to large amounts of physical and non-physical resources. In Midnight, this premise is only half true, and it presents a rude awakening for many players who have yet to experience such a thing. The personal power remains (altered, but it is still there) for the characters. The magical and non-magical resources, however, do not scale as usual. It can be a unpleasant shock to find how dependent characters are on having access to said resources when they are not available.
Couple this with another problem the players had: it's difficult to be heroes when the very people you are trying to assist and/or protect are either manipulating/using you or will betray you to the minions of Evil. Add in the fact that the campaign covers a large area but the "safer" areas are essentially isolated from each other (meaning that the immediate foes seem to be more overwhelming than they actually are), and there tends to be a player issue with the campaign. I can understand this much better now that I have been part of the three Midnight groups.
In essence, the players felt that they were more like nervous rodents who could not go anywhere (for fear of being slain out of hand) rather than experienced adventurers willing to take on a cause and complete it. With this feedback, I have decided that it is wiser to go on a smaller-scale when playing Midnight, and if a larger-scale is desired, making it a multi-part arc, each being a definitive part of the whole, yet smaller so that the players can enjoy what rewards they may earn.
IMO, Midnight is a solid campaign setting with enough flavor and game mechanics varients as to be an enjoyable D&D experience. It is not, however, one to be entered into without discussion of said differences and how it might impact everyone's playing experience. On its own, I think it does fall into the "either one will like it or not" category, so to speak. It is adaptable to other styles of gaming, but doing such will require some effort to do so. Which is what I wound up doing, and it's worked out decently so far. The players and the gm have been enjoying themselves, which is a very good thing.
For those who might be curious, some of the things I have done with the Midnight setting include the following: asking players what form they would like their covenant item to take (this has been a popular idea for the players); allowing greater access to potions, scrolls, and talismans (the craft feats for these items are more popular for pcs, and usage of these items has increased dramatically, which I favor); creating NPC contacts who are far more reliable than others; pointing out the vulnerabilities of the minions of the Great Enemy (that they are akin to a monstrous hydra whose heads fight with each other and/or do not care what other heads might or might not be doing, etc.); creating goblinoid groups that are going against the main minions - the Orcs; fine-tuning the wilderness encounters to the pcs; creating suitable non-physical rewards for the pcs so that the players can truly enjoy them, however briefly; and many others.
I apologize for the long post. I tend to get wordy when discussing Midnight.
IMO, the Midnight campaign for a D&D game is one that needs the gm and the players to have a serious chat about playing the campaign out. Midnight is a terrific setting, both in background and rules, and I truly enjoy the setting. It is different enough from the D&D standard that it does require a major shift in campaign play from both the gm and the players. IME, the key here has been discussing the setting (background and campaign rules), the expectations from everybody involved, and the goals that are set forth by the group, whatever they may be, after learning what they can about Midnight. The players need to know how different Midnight is from the stereotypical D&D campaign, and make adjustments accordingly, if agreed to. The groups I have been with wanted some adjustments, which I believe is quite reasonable, as every playing group has a unqiue style to it, so to speak.
I agree with a previous poster who more or less said destroying the Great Enemy is not meant to be goal of the Midnight setting. Evil has won and dominates the setting, although not completely. Given that premise, there is a good deal of "room" to work with for campaign play.
The most immediate significant change that the players told me about was the "basic survival" aspect of the game. This includes sustenance (food and water), shelter, and traveling. While this was interesting at first, the majority of players felt it lost its role-playing feel and became a tiresome game mechanic to be dealt with. So, what I did was change it so that it became an infrequent game tool rather than a persistent one. Overall, they liked that change. This ties into the main problem that my players felt they had with the setting.
This problem was that the clear majority of players felt that their characters were too insignificant as the campaign progressed. They did not mind the starting points for their characters, but to them it felt like it never changed (on a general level). At first I did not understand what they were getting at, but as time passed, I grew to understand their viewpoint. This is main reason I advise seriously talking about Midnight before playing it.
The basic premise of D&D is the characters become more personally powerful as they go up in levels. In most such campaigns, the characters typically also gain increases in social influence and status and have access to large amounts of physical and non-physical resources. In Midnight, this premise is only half true, and it presents a rude awakening for many players who have yet to experience such a thing. The personal power remains (altered, but it is still there) for the characters. The magical and non-magical resources, however, do not scale as usual. It can be a unpleasant shock to find how dependent characters are on having access to said resources when they are not available.
Couple this with another problem the players had: it's difficult to be heroes when the very people you are trying to assist and/or protect are either manipulating/using you or will betray you to the minions of Evil. Add in the fact that the campaign covers a large area but the "safer" areas are essentially isolated from each other (meaning that the immediate foes seem to be more overwhelming than they actually are), and there tends to be a player issue with the campaign. I can understand this much better now that I have been part of the three Midnight groups.
In essence, the players felt that they were more like nervous rodents who could not go anywhere (for fear of being slain out of hand) rather than experienced adventurers willing to take on a cause and complete it. With this feedback, I have decided that it is wiser to go on a smaller-scale when playing Midnight, and if a larger-scale is desired, making it a multi-part arc, each being a definitive part of the whole, yet smaller so that the players can enjoy what rewards they may earn.
IMO, Midnight is a solid campaign setting with enough flavor and game mechanics varients as to be an enjoyable D&D experience. It is not, however, one to be entered into without discussion of said differences and how it might impact everyone's playing experience. On its own, I think it does fall into the "either one will like it or not" category, so to speak. It is adaptable to other styles of gaming, but doing such will require some effort to do so. Which is what I wound up doing, and it's worked out decently so far. The players and the gm have been enjoying themselves, which is a very good thing.
For those who might be curious, some of the things I have done with the Midnight setting include the following: asking players what form they would like their covenant item to take (this has been a popular idea for the players); allowing greater access to potions, scrolls, and talismans (the craft feats for these items are more popular for pcs, and usage of these items has increased dramatically, which I favor); creating NPC contacts who are far more reliable than others; pointing out the vulnerabilities of the minions of the Great Enemy (that they are akin to a monstrous hydra whose heads fight with each other and/or do not care what other heads might or might not be doing, etc.); creating goblinoid groups that are going against the main minions - the Orcs; fine-tuning the wilderness encounters to the pcs; creating suitable non-physical rewards for the pcs so that the players can truly enjoy them, however briefly; and many others.
I apologize for the long post. I tend to get wordy when discussing Midnight.
