My First Exposure to the Midnight Campaign Setting

[gambler1650]

My first exposure to this setting actually isn't through the campaign sourcebook (which is on its way from the RPG shop here at the moment). It was through an introductory adventure for 2nd and 3rd level characters at this link:

http://www.gametrademagazine.com/
(lower left of the web page)

Gotta say, except for a couple of minor editing errors, this is quite high quality. Hard to tell how much of it is because of the magazine's or the authors' graphical skills. I assume most of the maps, choices of colors, the artwork, etc are from people involved with Midnight. It's a quite short little adventure but sets up interesting moral dilemnas, some graphically horrific imagery if so desired by the DM, and a couple of ideas to continue the adventure afterwards. All in all, it's nice and tight, creatively described and gives an almost instant feel of a darker than usual campaign setting for AD&D, very... Tolkeinish actually in feel, which I gather is somewhat the inspiration (just with the concept of the evil power actually winning the war).

Have to say, I'm excited about receiving this campaign setting.

 

[gambler1650]

Additionally, it's nice to see a low magic setting with a strong non-generic feel (you can feel the differences even in four pages worth of adventure and it seems that the sourcebook reinforces the difference in feel). Kingdoms of Kalamar (the official WotC low magic setting) seems even more generic than most because one of its 'different' elements is the rarity of races other than humans and apparent lack of adventuring sites (with the focus being a bit more political, at least in the campaign setting). I don't forsee the latter being the case in Midnight and the strong 'historical' feel should help matters.

I guess Midnight is to Kalamar, as Scarred Lands is to Forgotten Realms. Strong historical backgrounds and a unique feel compared to a more generic world.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Looks like an interesting setting, but I'm a sucker for anything dark and low magic when it comes to D&D. The adventure was nice, short and simple... and winds up with a nice little combat, but also allows for roleplaying both before and after.

And, to the above poster, I think Kalamar is loaded with areas to adventure and plot hooks galore. Maybe not all of them are the traditional underground dungeon, but adventuring under the sun (or moon(s)) had a lot of appeal to many.

 

[gambler1650]

NewJeffCT,

For some reason Kalamar just doesn't do it for me. Note that I refer primarily to the main sourcebook in my comments, but what felt odd to me was that you have previous ancient civilizations supplanted by humans, and yet very little information given on old cities/adventureing sited. I understand that the setting is designed to be more political in nature, but after I finished reading, I had no immediate campaign concept in mind, and not even a "Hey, I'd like to RP in <name an area, any area>" thought. Might just be the way my mind works, but I was able to come up with multiple ideas, and even multiple campaign concepts for Scarred Lands based on their Ghelspad Sourcebook (and this includes ones not explicitly described). It's all subjective of course, but Kalamar just didn't... click. Some of their adventures though are quite nice and I may run mini-campaigns in the world based on the published stuff I already have.

Midnight really intrigues me though, and I can't wait to pore through it hopefully by tomorrow.

 

[Crothian]

I've signed up for one of the Midnight games at Origins and I really can't wait to play it there!!!

 

[NewJeffCT]

Well, gambler, every person is different. I read through Kalamar and thought they had at least one good solid plot hook to develop a campaign around for each nation. Sure, some of it can be political, but haven’t political/religious differences driven all of our conflicts in real life throughout history? In the campaigns I am involved in, there are usually some sort of political implications involved – saving the world from some evil dictator/demon//devil/evil priest or mage. I think the best thing about Kalamar is that it is adaptable to whatever sort of campaign you want – low magic, high magic, dark fantasy or light, political campaign, hack and slash, etc. You can’t really take Elminster, the Chosen of Mystra, etc, out of the Forgotten Realms and still have the same feel.

Not saying that Midnight is not an excellent setting, as I am responding to this thread because I glanced through the book and liked what I saw in the store and have tried to find out more…I would be interested in your input on Midnight after poring over it.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

I bought the Midnight HC the other day, and I'm impressed.

This is the best campaign setting released for d20 to date.

It's got everything I've wanted in a setting- rare (not low) magic, powerful monolithic evil, an emphasis on heroic play, detailed cultures and ecologies, an overarching plot and theme.

It's got everything that I like about Wheel of Time, Dragonlance, and Middle Earth, with none of the things I don't like.

Forget about Faerun- this is where I'm playing!

 

[Renshai]

Same here Tyler. As soon as my current FR campaign comes to a cose, I will be making the move to Midnight... now.. how to kill off those pesky pcs...

Ren

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Anybody posted a good review?