Tell me about Midnight

[Land Outcast]

Before making an investment it is good to be informed, or so they say.

Therefore, tell me your experiences with Midnight... please?

EDIT: don't tell me what's on FF Games page, tell me of your experience and opinion (pointing at reviews would be likewise useful.) thanks, again

 

[Nightfall]

Outcast, uhm check with Psion and co. I'm pretty sure they reviewed it. Though Midnight 2nd edition contains a lot of the updates not only to 3.5 but changes to the spellcasting stuff and other things that are cool.

Plus I like the concept.

 

[Capellan]

A friend and I had a short discussion about it.

 

[Nifft]

There was another discussion a while back... are you asking about the new ("2nd edition") mechanicals of Midnight, or the atmosphere (which does not depend on the mechanics)?

-- N

 

[Land Outcast]

are you asking about the new ("2nd edition") mechanicals of Midnight, or the atmosphere (which does not depend on the mechanics)?

I assume I'll be adquiring the 2nd ed, and it'd be good to know mainly about the mechanics given that I've got the right idea -or think I do- about the atmosphere (what initially attracted me to the product... but note that on that I'm basically relying on the information on their webpage)

 

[Aus_Snow]

The setting irritates me by being *far* too Tolkienesque in just about every way but not *being* Middle Earth.

That said, it's very nicely put together, it seems to do well what it sets out to do, and the line (to the extent I've seen products in it) also look quite pretty (if largely B&W.)

I haven't played it, but I would probably give it a go if someone wanted to run it. I don't feel inclined to run it, even though I still have the 1st edition main book sitting on my shelf.

I don't know much about the changes between 1st and 2nd editions. Apparently, it's still colour for the first little bit, then all B&W. . . which is something that also annoyed me - I prefer one or the other.

But, as you can probably tell, my objections are based on style rather than substance. The actual system looks good, FWIW.

 

[Particle_Man]

There are two ways to play it: Agents working to bring down the system from within, or Dudes in the Wilderness, yo!

We went the second route. It was ok, and the heroic paths are cool, but there is something in me that likes to be *ultimately winning* as opposed to the *delayed losing* that seems to be the theme.

 

[Gundark]

My GG all sat down and attempted to play the setting. I really like the fluff and it all sounds interesting. I'm gonna catch the TV show for sure.

What stopped us from the setting is the idea of the all powerful bad guy. while the fluff is way cool I don't see settings like this supporting long term play. What I mean is that when you have the BBG that can't be defeated it looks something like this. Either the PCs defeat the main bad guy plans all the time and he ends up looking like a tool, or he defeats the party all the time and is appears overpowering. The DM is hard pressed to keep that a balancing act somewhere in the middle.

Also Midnight is a bit off the beaten path when it comes to the stereotypical D&D. So if your group is used to the standard D&D model then there might be trouble.

 

[cutup]

I played in a campaign for a few months. We also used those heinous critical hit/fumble charts from hackmaster and a vitality/hitpoint system so that may skew my opinon. Observations:

The lack of divine magic was quite a hinderance in terms of the number of encounters/monsters we could face in a given day. As Gundark observed this is quite the departure from the expected D&D hack and slash experience. However, we knew this was the case when we signed up so it wasn't much of a shock.

In fact, magic became much more of a liability in general. I was playing a dwarven defender in a party with two casters. Everytime they cast a spell, I knew that either they would fall into some crazy coma/trance and I'd have to knock them out, or the shadow's forces would soon be upon us, or both.

With the hackmaster charts, combat became a liability as well. In general, our parties response to combat was to run away and hide.

Since we were on the run the whole campaign, treasure became pretty secondary to just surviving. Even if we could get some nice items off of enemeies, it's not like we could sell them anywhere and the dangling carrot of low level D&D (magic items)was just another liability.

I did really like the heroic paths: The combination of feats and paths made for interesting flavor and crunch for all the characters.

I also agree with what Particle_Man said. It did feel like we would never win but only delay losing; I would get genuinely depressed during some of the sessions. It was a hopeless battle we were fighting in a bleak world with little hope for survival let alone glory. Grim and Gritty doesn't begin to cover it. That said, it did elicit a powerful response from me and my group. Maybe that's something you and your group are interested in.

 

[Gundark]

THREADJACK!!! I'm thinking of picking up a 3.0 Midnight at my LGS (the 3.5 one is silly expensive) and using the classes/magic/heroic paths in my homebrew. Is the 3.0 heroic paths much different from the 3.5 version? If yes, how much? and how so?