Midgard Campaign Setting (PFRPG/AGE)

4.80/5 (based on 12 ratings)
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The World is Ready. Are You?

Deep in an ancient forest, a trembling young woman enters the clearing where a ramshackle hut crouches on birds’ legs.
Far below the earth, a caravan of kobold merchants passes through a stone archway carved with the faces of leering ghouls.
High atop a northern mountain, a dwarf grips his battle-axe and gazes over the rim of the world toward whatever fate the gods have in store for him.
This is Midgard, and its gates are now open.

The Midgard Campaign Setting brings to life a dark world of deep magic, with seven regions flavored by the folklore of Central and Eastern Europe plus a heady dose of weird fantasy. Lead designers Wolfgang Baur, Jeff Grubb, and Brandon Hodge led the Open Design community in a two-year project to build a sprawling setting supported by adventures and sourcebooks compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Dungeons & Dragons, AGE System, and more.

Midgard is ley line magic and warped alchemical experiments; the Western Waste’s giant, shambling horrors and magic-blasted landscapes; diabolical gnomes and the schemes of immortal Baba Yaga; wild, wind-riding elves and swashbuckling minotaur corsairs; the Mharoti Empire’s lethal assassins and exotic splendors; and the dragon-haunted crags of the icy Northlands.

The Midgard Campaign Setting 296-page book includes:

  • Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and AGE System rules for gearforged, kobold, and minotaur PCs
  • 26 new backgrounds, 3 new schools of magic, and new specialties for AGE System
  • New clerical domains including clockwork, moon, hunger, and beer
  • More than 50 kingdom write-ups, with new feats and traits for each region of Midgard
  • New spells, magical items, and incantations
  • New gear and weapons unique to the setting
  • Ley line magic and the secrets of the shadow roads!
From the Northern fjords to the hidden tombs of the gnolls, from the raven-headed reavers to the ruins of the great mage-kingdoms: all of Midgard is yours!

"A wonderfully rich and beautiful sourcebook chronicling the world of Midgard. Think of how many game masters have fancied their campaign worlds awesome enough to publish in the book. So few actually have the writing and publishing chops to accomplish this, and to do so with such style is pretty much unheard of." —WIRED GeekDad Holiday Gift Guide 2012
"What I look for in a setting book, particularly a fantasy setting book, is something that inspires me to run a game there—a book that draws me into the world, presents setting material in a way that’s both useful and entertaining, and looks like it will shows its best qualities at the table. The Midgard Campaign Setting is all of those things, in spades, with extra magic gravy on top. This is a superb book that I can recommend without qualification to any GM who likes well-realized, gazetteer-style fantasy settings." —Martin Ralya, Gnome Stew
"If you’re looking for a campaign setting that is familiar with a twist, and a book that is the spiritual successor to the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book, the Midgard Campaign Setting is for you. ...There is stuff here you can steal for your own setting, and it’s 'generic' but different. This goes double if you loved the 3e Forgotten Realms campaign or Mystara." —Critical Hits

Lead Designers: Wolfgang Baur, Jeff Grubb, and Brandon Hodge
Cartographers: Jonathan Roberts, official cartographer of George R.R. Martin's Westeros, with Lucas Haley and Sean Macdonald
Artists: Aaron Miller, Blanca Martinez de Rituerto, Christophe Swal, Hugo Solis, Jason Rainville, Rick Hershey, Marc Radle, Malcolm McClinton, Pat Loboyko, Steve Wood, and Darren Calvert
Editor: Michele Carter

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An RPG Resource Review

5/5

The foreword explains the origins of Midgard as Wolfgang Baur's own home game setting that he's been building since he was 14, and how it is amazing even to him to see the piles of scribbled notes and sketched maps that he ran games from turned into a full-colour proper book! Like many gamers I've long enjoyed creating my own worlds to adventure in, but few of us have the talent, perseverence and opportunity to share them with anyone other than their gaming group. This one is replete with a depth that comes of some 25 years of dreaming, writing and playing, jam-packed with lots going on never mind what adventurers might be doing yet plenty of opportunities for them to get involved or carve their own path. Just what you want in a campaign setting!

Chapter 1: Welcome to Midgard gives a high-level overview of the world. It's a place with a rich history of heroes that has fallen on dark times, a place waiting for new heroes to arise. For anyone who might think that this sounds like many other campaign worlds, seven differences between Midgard and 'standard' fantasy settings are laid out. For a start it is flat. In a quasi-mediaeval world, you might expect plenty of people to think that their world is flat, but this one really is flat. With edges. There are ley lines, utilised by the elves. Dragons are linked to the elements, and enjoy ruling whatever they can get their claws on, as well as the traditional dragon pursuit of amassing a good hoard. There are novel races, each with their own history and place in the world, as well as the standard fantasy human, elf, dwarf and so on. Personal prestige is important. The deities meddle with what goes on in mortal life. And it's not a static place. Boundaries between kingdoms change. Dynasties rise and fall. The party may have a chance to influence - even instigate - such change, but happen it will whatever they do.

The epic sweep of Midgard's creation (or at least, what is known and surmised about it) is then explained. Naturally all deities claim to have made it, but it's likely that they are lying. The creation myth told by the Northlanders is probably closer to the truth, but who knows? Races came and went, kingdoms rose and fell, a succession through giants and then elves until now when, although the other races are still around, humans take a more prominent role. Naturally the succession has rarely be peaceful with rebellions and wars... and if battlefield strife was not bad enough, the wizards cut loose too and waged war with arcane powers, leading to great swathes of devastation. And then the dragons and the vampires emerged to stake their claims... Ending with events of the last hundred years, the chapter finishes with a discussion of time, planets and dates. Flat or not, Midgard has a sun that rises in the east and sets in the west, not that anyone knows just what happens to it when it is not in view. There are moons and planets around as well. Naturally there are quite a few festivals and holidays to celebrate.

Next is Chapter 2: Heroes of Midgard. This provides details about the major races and assorted minor ones to be found in Midgard. It includes fascinating snippets and a wide range of variation within races, depending on where they hail from - things that create a diverse society and plenty of options for those seeking to create characters truly embedded in the lands from which they come. Humans, dragonkin, dwarves, elves, the gearforged, kobolds, and minotaurs make up the major races, and whilst some are well known, those that are not are described in sufficient detail to empower players who wish to experiment with a novel race for their character. There are seven minor races as well, ones who - as well as being less familiar as player-character races - are only found in specific parts of the world. There's a note on languages, and then it's on to a collection of Midgard-specific feats and traits. No matter where your character comes from, there is a range of traits that he can choose between, all providing distinctive regional and racial flavour.

The book goes on to describe the seven major regions of Midgard, geographically and culturally distinctive, with each getting its own chapter. In the middle of the world is Crossroads, then there are the Rothenian Plain, the Dragon Empire, the Seven Cities, the Wasted West, the Domains of the Princes, and the Northlands. Each has a wealth of description and some detailed maps to help you get a feel for the lay of the land. Crossroads can be a bit of a melting-pot of cultures, and at its heart is the Free City of Zobeck, which already has a sourcebook and an adventure collection of its own. Here there are brief notes and its coat of arms (the blazon is not quite right, the shield is not quartered but divided per pale - the full blazon is per pale gules and or, a gearwheel counterchanged if you really want to know!), plenty for a brief visit although if your game is going to spend much time there, get a copy of the Zobeck Gazetteer. Of particular note are references to magic unique to Zobeck, the Clockwork School and the School of Illumination Magic. The discussion moves on to trade, with loads of detail about trading companies, trade routes and so on, then to mercenary companies and many other locations that are to be found in the Crossroads area. The sheer wealth of detailed information packed in here is quite amazing... it spawns adventure ideas, never mind being useful if you already have reason to tread these lands. Numerous kingdoms, organisations, individuals and locations are all here...

And so it continues through chapter after chapter until all seven regions are described. As you read, the roots of Midgard begin to show: Middle European folk tales and legends, often the darker nightmare-inspiring end of things. But there is much more. A cluster of halflings around the great World Tree of Domovogrod, nomads roaming vast plains with a 'city on wheels' that travels around, as nomadic as the people it serves. There are spreading forests and towering mountains, strange customs and stranger titles... never mind the beings bearing them. Every region has distinctive spells, equipment and more. Throughout, there are suggestions for adventure, rooted in the people and places you are reading about at the time. The richness of this setting is matched by how integrated it is: sometimes you read of a campaign world where it seems a human world with other races tacked on because a fantasy world ought to have them: here they belong, as integral a part of the setting as any other creature.

After the regional chapters, there is a chapter detailing the pantheon of Midgard. It takes things much further than the usual list of deities and the domains over which they have influence, though. These gods are properly mysterious, they and their ways cannot be understood and categorised by mere mortals. Sometimes aloof, they can be jealous - it's said that the best way to attract one god's attention is to worship another one! - and are said to interfere in mortal affairs. Through a system of 'masks' deities are able to walk the land and meddle in whatever takes their interest. Mechanically, there are new domains and spells and the concept of the pantheistic priest. This novel cleric worships the five gods designated as the major powers wherever he lives, each week chosing one of them to venerate and receiving access to the appropriate domains. The underlying reasons for why the gods of Midgard are as they appear are explained, but this is a matter properly for the GM: even their clerics and most fervent devotees do not know! There's a lot of material here, enough to keep the keenest student of theology busy. Finally, an Appendix provides resources for those who'd like to use the Midgard setting with the AGE system rather than Pathfinder.

It's the sort of world that you feel that you could take a lifetime exploring it and still feel that you have only scratched at the surface. This is a book to dip into, to browse through, to read again and again. Whether you like to prowl in the woods, roam vast plains, travese deserts or trudge through deep snow, there is adventure and excitement and things to see and do at every turn. Primarily a book for GMs, there's a series of Player's Guides to the different regions available, if you want your players to learn more about where their characters are without giving away too many secrets. In sheer depth and richness, this setting is hard to beat - and one wonders just how so much is packed into 'only' just under 300 pages!


An excellent, flavorful campaign setting

5/5

I bought this book as a pdf and this review covers the pdf version of the product.

It was a campaign setting (the Forgotten Realms) that got me involved in RPGs, hooking me to the idea of playing (and running) adventures in an actual world that keeps on spinning regardless of the adventure's outcome, with nations, power groups, and individuals with their own goals and plots full of gaming potential. Flipping through the pages of a good campaign setting usually leaves me with dozens of potential adventure or campaign ideas.

The Midgard campaign setting is no exception. This wonderful, mythical world is overflowing with fascinating locations, horrifying evils, and excellent, original takes on many fantasy tropes. On most pages there is at least one or two ideas ready to be made into campaign or character ideas. There is an excellent mix of folklore inspired and truly original creations. Some particular standouts for me include the subterranean Ghoul Empire, the Seven Cities and their wars, the Wasted West with the slow moving horrors, Ley Lines, Shadow Roads, and the Gnomes, oh the awesome of the gnomes.

If you are looking for a world oozing with fun, flavorful locations and beings, with intriguing adventure ideas on almost every page, pick up this setting. Even if you don't move your campaign to Midgard you can find lots to use in this great book and setting.


MIDGARD CAMPAIGN SETTING REVIEW

5/5

(This is my 1st review.)
I’m a sucker for campaign settings. I have been since I purchased that first Greyhawk Campaign Setting with the charging knight on the front. I’ve used them as the foundation of my campaigns (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Birthright, Golarion) and I’ve taken and ported elements that I liked from others (Ravenloft, Scarred Lands, Krynn). But despite my love of campaign settings, as with most things gaming, I’m pretty damned picky. If something doesn’t work for me, it usually really doesn’t work for me.

Also, for the record, prior to a few issues of Kobold Quarterly and an Advanced Feats PDF or two, I had not purchased any Open Design/Kobold Press products prior to the Midgard Campaign Setting, so I’m not reviewing this product through the lens of a Patron, a Kickstarter supporter, or as an established fan of the setting. I’m also someone who initially avoided the setting as it seemed to me that in those dark days before the PFRPG was launched, the setting was fully embracing 4e. (Full disclosure, there is little in 4e that appeals to me.)

This review is of the PDF, solely focused on the PFRPG elements (but I’ve ordered a hardcopy).

WHAT COMPRISES THE MIDGARD CAMPAIGN SETTING?
The Midgard Campaign Setting is a gorgeous book. Layout is clear, yet attractive with full-colored illustrations & detailed maps (with a scale on each map!).

Chapter 1: Midgard presents the setting at a high level and introduces setting-specific characteristics. Most notable are the “Seven Secrets” that present some core fundamentals about Midgard, in particular, that dragons seek to rule in parts of the world, ley lines are a major conceit of the setting, and that while the timeline isn’t overtly fixed, it is assumed that the setting can change in significant ways. While that last bit may be old hat for seasoned gamers, I’ve rarely seen the “permission” to change the world so explicitly stated.

History, calendar, recent events, festivals, and planes are presented next. The history is detailed enough to present a sense of scope and backdrop without bogging down into textbook-style reading, the planes are flavorful and presented more in a tone of myth and uncertainty than a scholar’s treatise on their characteristics. Calendars, festivals, and recent events, which are often relegated to later chapters in other setting books, help ground the reader in the setting by showing up earlier than usual.

Finally, Ley Line mechanics are presented. These support the richness of the setting lore within the familiar framework of Pathfinder feats. Some subsystem details complete the Ley Line rules without becoming a burdensome add-on.

Chapter 2: Heroes
Races, Languages, and campaign-specific Feats & Traits are up next. Here are many of the things that make Midgard distinct and they are the same things that foolishly deterred me from looking at the early Open Design releases when they were 4e-centric. Kobolds as a major race? Minotaurs as a player race – didn’t we already get that with DragonLance? Dragonkin, -er Dragonborn… can you see the eye-rolling from here? Except that it all works and deliciously, flavorfully, so. The dragonkin & kobolds tie directly to the setting conceit of empire-building dragons. The dragonkin are more akin to Arcana Evolved’s dragonman race than the 4e dragonborn fluff hyped by WotC (IMO, at least). Much as Paizo has done for Goblins and Ogres, dwarves and elves are familiar but varied slightly in their own unique ways. I’m still not a huge fan of Gearforged but they’re not omni-present in the setting. Centaurs, gnolls, and tengu get more prominence than they do in many settings. Every race is recognizable from Pathfinder RPG core concepts, but all have a distinctive Midgard spin to them.

The standouts of this chapter, however, are the Midgard Feats & Traits. Broken down by region, they are mechanically sound yet dripping with setting flavor from evocative names to concise descriptive text. These reinforce the cultural differences of the various regions while avoiding long stretches of description-by-essay. By not having to hit the “generic PFRPG” button that the PFRPG line has to do, these all feel very connected to the setting yet can easily be ported to other settings. They avoid the sometimes over-specific traits found in some of the PF AP player’s guides, but those are designed to serve a slightly different function anyway.

Chapters 3-9: The Regions of Midgard
The bulk of the campaign setting, it is also the part I will summarize the most as this review is lengthy as-is. Here are the sections where Midgard is painted in vivid colors and contrasts. Each chapter covers a particular region: The Crossroads, the Wasted West, the Dragon Empire, the Seven Cities, the Rothenian Plain, the Domains of the Princes, and the Northlands. With the exception of the Northlands, the names themselves are evocative and inspire further investigation. Yet all of the chapters have a structure and flow to them that encourages one to continue reading through – a feat most campaign settings fail to achieve. Plot hooks and adventure seeds are laden throughout and each region is distinct. Yet by pulling from Earth-based myth, particularly of Norse and Eastern Europe, it has a familiarity that allows the reader to quickly grasp the cultural concepts of each region.

Important game info is presented for each region: a more detailed map, population info, gods worshipped, etc. as one would expect. But it’s the little details that stand out. Details that are often hand-waved away in other settings are found here as well. Travel times & costs between various cities, trade goods, prominent castles, cultural tidbits, and relevant game mechanics all combine to form a rich, yet cohesive whole that can support a very diverse range of themes & playstyles. It’s a customized kitchen sink, not a generic one, and the setting is stronger for it.

Midgard is a darker setting yet is still a setting ideally suited for High Fantasy. Most settings chose to hew strongly towards the dark (WHFRP’s Known World) or the High Fantasy genre (Forgotten Realms), with only token attempts to support other genres and styles of play. Midgard strikes a great balance, making it easy for a GM to lean whichever way suits the campaign or players without having to drastically change the tone of the setting.

Chapter 10: Pantheon
Once again, my expectations were dashed with this chapter. Fantasy pantheons are a favorite setting aspect of mine and compared to a Book of the Righteous or Scarred Lands’ pantheon, how could gods pulled from Norse, Eastern European, and Egyptian myth possibly compare?

As it turns out, pretty damn well. Forgive my soapbox-grandstanding for a moment, but gods should not be the top of the monster pyramid for homicidal players to slay. In a game where alignment provides a shorthand for a character’s morality and ethics, portraying the gods as relevant for something more than the source of a cleric’s power can be a difficult goal to achieve. Pages of backstory on a god’s personality might make for an interesting read, but often has little bearing on the playing of the game. Too often, there is little room for theological debates, heresies, or wars and a rich source of conflict and story/setting development is lost.

So how does Midgard avoid these pitfalls? Masks & alignment. See, some of Midgard’s theologians believe that the gods represent themselves differently to different cultures. Few regions agree which of their gods are the “masks” of another in a different region. One man’s Thor may, or may not, be another man’s Mavros. Also, most gods, being unknowable and beyond mortality, usually only have one alignment axis fixed (Law, Chaos, Good, or Evil) and the other is variable. The result is a world where the familiar mythological figures shorten the learning curve for new players and where mystery is injected back into fantasy RPG religions.

In short, it rocks.

Of equal import, rather than paragraphs and pages on a god’s personality, we get more practical, game-relevant info: expectations of worshipers, symbols, holy texts, shrines, priests, and interactions with other faiths along with standard domain & favored weapon info.

WHAT SETS MIDGARD APART FROM OTHER SETTINGS?
I’ve considered writing RPG reviews of other products. However, with Midgard, I was inspired to write a review. Honestly, that bugged me. What was it about this setting that made it stand out among the many I’ve read and used in my games over the years? I’ve been ruminating over it for a few days and these were my “Aha!” takeaways:

1. Seasoned, not saturated.
This was the setting I shouldn’t have liked. It allowed for dragonman characters, gunpowder, clockwork/steampunk, and Earth-myth gods. All things I generally do not like in my FRPGing. But they’re placed in the setting in such a light-touched and organic way that the “coolness” outweighs my reservations. Limitations are placed in a way that seems plausible rather than forced. Most importantly, the writers understand that a little can go a long way and that it’s easier to increase certain elements to suit a GM’s game than it is to rip something out.

I love the clockwork city of Zobeck and the fact that dwarves have invented gunpowder. But I still get to have orders of knighthood, witches in the forest, and all of the medieval tropes that I embraced when I bought that first Greyhawk campaign setting. It doesn’t feel forced and it’s not laden with anachronisms that break the immersion in the setting.

2. Rules serve the setting rather than the setting serving the rules.
This is perhaps an unfair critique against other settings, and I’m sure it’s not true in all cases but it rings true to me. It’s how I felt after reading this book. I look at things like Ley Lines, the Mana Wastes, gearforged and the rest and it’s clear that they are there because the writers thought they were interesting and cool. They added to the distinctiveness of the world, the plot hooks, the adventure seeds – they added to Midgard’s character. They didn’t build a world to fit the Pathfinder RPG. They built a world and then built PFRPG rules that made the integration seamless.

3. “I want to run a campaign…here”.
This is the first RPG setting where I could not only envision running a campaign in every region, I wanted to do so. There were no regions that didn’t interest me, nowhere that I definitely wanted to stay away from, no place that didn’t “work for me”. I don’t know that anyone else will feel that way, but it was a first for me.

WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE?
Not a great deal, honestly. There are a few errors/typos such as the omission of the “Time Flies” optional rule while reference to it survives and things like races having a Favored Class rather than a character choosing their favored class.

While some will find it part of the setting’s charm, fans of elves and half-elves may be surprised at how elves are less common than in other settings. Halflings return to their Tolkein-esque roots and seem almost an afterthought.

After Paizo’s much-cheered revamp of gnomes into an interesting race, some might be taken aback at the dark circumstances of many of Midgard’s gnomes. However, it’s not a universal situation for the entire race, so again, season to taste.

There is little mention of orcs, and I’ve always had a soft-spot for orcs as one of my go-to bad guys. I hope that they gain some prominence in the setting if the line expands to regions beyond the seven described in the campaign setting.

CONCLUSION

Midgard is a rich, vibrant campaign setting that should be in every fantasy RPG library. It’s familiar without feeling rehashed. It’s unique in a way that enriches the differences rather than overshadowing other genres or aspects of the game. It’s written in a way that provides a massive amount of info in manageable chunks and ignites the imagination.

Yes, it’s that damn good. Go get it now. 5 of 5 stars.


a great book, please, where in golarion can i put the Midgard?

5/5

Ok, maybe for someones the book is not so good!!
but try to read me and i explain why my 5stars

There is no classes inside, its ok, i would prefer one or two but i can handel it.

what you will find inside this pages is a lot of flavor, old and beautiful flavor!!

I want a golarion as flavorful as Midgard

There are a lot of races to expand with the ultimate race guide, there are some new spells. feats and items. I also love the traits per nation!!

Seriously, im still waiting for the traits for every etnithy in the iswg!!

Great game, my second purchase from midgard (the 1st one was the crossroad and there is one of my favorite class: The Shadowsworn)


Great Product, but I recommend waiting for the second printing

4/5

I can support most of the positive things people have said below, so there's no reason to dive into what others have obviously spent more time going over. I love the flavor of the world and the setting, and it has a nice Germanic flavor that really tickles my personal interest. I love the cartography in this book as well, so amazingly well done!

I do have some problems with the product though and figure I may as well give warning to anyone interested in purchasing the first print run. There are quite a few typos throughout the book, and while that's not so bad there are some instances of placeholder text left in (the most prominent instance was $$ rather than the page number that was being referenced). While this can be understandable to some as an admissible error for a smaller publishing company, but when I'm investing $50 on a hardcover book this leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Other small complaints of mine include: I feel there is some pretty poor art at points, but the overwhelming amount of art is astounding and more than makes up for it. This is a very admissible problem for a smaller publisher, and the good far outweighs the bad. I was also a bit disappointed with the section on the races of Midgard in general, it only encompass about 1/2 the amount of info I would have liked and am left assuming that if it wasn't covered in the MCS that I should just grab the flavor from Golarion (which takes me out of the setting a little).

So as you can tell these are only minor distractions. Honestly if just a bit more care was taken with the copy editing for this book I would still have given this product a 5 star rating, and I personally find the amount of issues in this book to be careless and not just an accident here and there. The second printing I'm sure will fix these issues so my recommendation is to wait on that and get the gorgeous hardcover version. The setting, layout, cartography, and world building in this book are top notch and it is because of that the issues I have with the first printing sting all the more.


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@ Terraleon and Wolfgang Bauer
Thanks guys.


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Jon Goranson wrote:
...I was expecting this whole book to be about the Crossroads region. Each area expanded on and shown to me how its different, in its culture, mores and daily lives as seen through the eyes of an adventurer. Maybe not getting to a "low level" of the area but at least a mid level, where the alliances of the council are spelled out, where the dangers of siege lie, and where the ruins of the past hold ancient magics to help defend or conquer the region...

So what you really want is the Zobeck Gazetteer, Tales of the Old Margreve, and The Imperial Gazetteer. Quite possibly Streets of Zobeck, and Dwarves of the Ironcrags, although this last one is OGL/3.5 in mechanics, the setting material is what you're after. (There's also a skosh of historical material in Midgard Legends and a bit in the KQ#7 article on airships, but not everyone loves airships. See my profile for that link.)

That's going to cover the Crossroads region (Ironcrags, Doresh&Morgau, the Margreve, Zobeck, and the Ghoul Imperium) in the kind of detail you want (if memory serves), above and below ground. It'll also give you about 16 adventures for the area-- 8 in Tales from the Old Margreve, 7 in Streets, 1 in Courts of the Shadowfey, and another 7 in the OGL Tales of Zobeck, if you're up for a little (very mild) conversion work. If you had Blood of the Gorgon (by Nic Logue), Castle Shadowcrag, Empire of the Ghouls, and Halls of the Mountain King, you'd have another four mega-adventures set in the area and on par with Courts. (And occasionally you'll find them on EBay, but you'd still need to convert them.) That's about 27 adventures, and I'm pretty sure there's one more in Midgard Tales. Is there any region on Golarion with that kind of attention?

The MCS is the broad overview of the world, and doesn't dive into the details on some of these places, because, well, there's already 480 pages of detail in those 6 books I mentioned above (but some repeating material between Streets and the new Zobeck Gazetteer), which is about 75ish more pages than the whole campaign setting. If anything, I think it was a matter of making sure they didn't go into too much detail for the Crossroads section. :)

I can, quite literally, start with a party of level 1 characters from Zobeck, Margreve, the Ironcrags, Doresh&Morgau, trait them up locally and run them from 1st to ...12th? without ever leaving the region (aside from a jaunt to the Shadow Realm) but still providing a mix of urban, wilderness, political, and dungeon delve adventures, and I'd probably have to do it with a very very slow progression if I wanted any hope of doing most of it. (Hmmm, I'll have to think about what I'd make for the arc of that campaign. There's a lot to choose from, but you've got me wondering.)

-Ben.


@Ben: It's more than likely, I am coming into this backward. Were those five books you mention out before the campaign setting? Is the Midgard Campaign setting a summary of those items? If so, knowing that would have helped me as well.

@EZG: Were you thinking of these five books when you posted what I quoted about knowing the alliances and liege lords?

Thanks!

Jon


@Jon:
Yes, you're coming in backwards - all of these were released before Midgard. And regarding the crossroads-section, they indeed do what you're looking for, with the Zobeck Gazetteer (and the Imperial one) combined with the two anthologies covering many facets in VERY extensive detail.

My comment on the liege-lords was also referring to other nations - offering plenty of space for development in future releases. Golarion's political set-up is imho not that well-suited for inner-nation intrigues, as nations tend to act very much in theme, whereas Midgard often features differences, potential for conflict accross borders and within them. At least that's my subjective perspective.

Cheers!


Jon Goranson wrote:
@Ben: It's more than likely, I am coming into this backward. Were those five books you mention out before the campaign setting? Is the Midgard Campaign setting a summary of those items? If so, knowing that would have helped me as well.

Yes, the setting began as Wolfgang's home campaign, and was published indirectly, starting with Steam and Brass in 2007, and then going from there. The books I've mentioned (except for the out-of-print adventures) were all out since 2009. Zobeck's been published in some form since 2009.

The campaign setting is much more than the summary of those books. It covers the wider world, giving the baseline for further development. Some of that development's been done, with books like Northlands or Journeys to the West/Pirates of the Western Seas, or Legends of Midgard, the Player's Guides to (Dragon Empire, Crossroads, Wasted West), and the upcoming Midgard Tales, but there's a lot of world out there to talk about. :)

-Ben.


Then that is too bad for me. I think I would have liked it coming in from the city and working out with hints of the world. I think I would have enjoyed seeing the flavor that EZG talked about as well as the specifics of what was happening in Zobeck.

I do stand by my previous review of 3.5 stars, rounded to 3 due to editing issues. It's good and has some interesting ideas but I think it's missing too many things to give it higher.

Dark Archive

It seems the Hardcover has sold out at Paizo. Will you get another batch or will there be a second printing?
I would order directly from Open Design but the shipping costs to Europe are prohibitive.

Webstore Gninja Minion

I don't have an estimate on the reprint of the hardcover, but until I do, it's going to be unavailable through Paizo.com.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

The hardcover is still available at some game stores and via Kobold Press, as mentioned. Shipping rates via US Post did go up sharply on February 1.

A second printing is planned.

Dark Archive

Wolfgang Baur wrote:

The hardcover is still available at some game stores and via Kobold Press, as mentioned. Shipping rates via US Post did go up sharply on February 1.

A second printing is planned.

No worries, I will support my FLGS when the second printing is out.


Is there any errata to go in the 2nd printing, or for us with the first to note?

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

There is a correction to one map, some page references, and some other relatively smallish changes like a dwarf cleric's patron god that was left out in the first printing.

I don't think any of it qualifies as errata, but they are errors worth fixing, as you might expect. I'll post the list when I can confirm a date for the second printing.


Thanks


I would still like to know where the spell lists for the schools of illumination and clockwork magic are listed. Without spell lists these are not schools, and the specialists fail in their core ability of extra spells.

I would also like to add that I hope the pdf will also be updated. The majority of the page references were never filled in. I am still overall very positive about the content of this book, but there were clearly editorial problems. Mostly technical, such as the missing spell lists, the absence of a capital city on the seven cities map (which will also hopefully be fixed on he app), and page references, but there are also places where the collegiate nature of the writing is evident.

I say this as constructive criticism. This still deserves to be placed in the top five for 2012.


Azazyll wrote:

I would still like to know where the spell lists for the schools of illumination and clockwork magic are listed. Without spell lists these are not schools, and the specialists fail in their core ability of extra spells.

I would also like to add that I hope the pdf will also be updated. The majority of the page references were never filled in. I am still overall very positive about the content of this book, but there were clearly editorial problems. Mostly technical, such as the missing spell lists, the absence of a capital city on the seven cities map (which will also hopefully be fixed on he app), and page references, but there are also places where the collegiate nature of the writing is evident.

I say this as constructive criticism. This still deserves to be placed in the top five for 2012.

The new spell school in the Player's Guide to the Wasted West, Iron & Fire, doesn't have a spell list either. It may be there are not meant to be ones for them.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Azazyll wrote:
I would still like to know where the spell lists for the schools of illumination and clockwork magic are listed. Without spell lists these are not schools, and the specialists fail in their core ability of extra spells.

These spells lists are in the Zobeck Gazetteer where the schools were first described for Pathfinder. Pages 97 and 98. This material predates the MCS publication and was not reprinted, to make room for new material.

Quote:
I would also like to add that I hope the pdf will also be updated. The majority of the page references were never filled in.

This actually was updated last year in the PDF. Download a new copy and you should have it. If the references are not there, there's a glitch in the matrix.


Wolfgang Baur wrote:
Azazyll wrote:
I would still like to know where the spell lists for the schools of illumination and clockwork magic are listed. Without spell lists these are not schools, and the specialists fail in their core ability of extra spells.

These spells lists are in the Zobeck Gazetteer where the schools were first described for Pathfinder. Pages 97 and 98. This material predates the MCS publication and was not reprinted, to make room for new material.

I forgot about them being in there.


Wolfgang Baur wrote:
Azazyll wrote:
I would still like to know where the spell lists for the schools of illumination and clockwork magic are listed. Without spell lists these are not schools, and the specialists fail in their core ability of extra spells.

These spells lists are in the Zobeck Gazetteer where the schools were first described for Pathfinder. Pages 97 and 98. This material predates the MCS publication and was not reprinted, to make room for new material.

Quote:
I would also like to add that I hope the pdf will also be updated. The majority of the page references were never filled in.
This actually was updated last year in the PDF. Download a new copy and you should have it. If the references are not there, there's a glitch in the matrix.

I will update my digital copy, thank you!

I have gone and looked at the Zobeck Gazetteer and noticed that only new spells contained in that product are on the spell lists for each school. Perhaps a brief web article incorporating material from other sources in the lists would be advantageous. I would be happy to submit such an article if no one else has the time and it's not too presumptuous.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

It sounds like a fine idea to me. Send it to me and/or the web editor, Miranda!


As a history student I think my favourite thing about this campaign setting is reading the various regions and comparing them to our world, like the Rothenian plains seems to be Kievan Rus during Mongolian occupation,great work guys.

Here is just a few quick question. The Ghost knights...Which cavalier order do you think best suits them? Is the order of the Red shield just a higher branch of the ghost knights and is the red shield a religious order of knights that venerate Marena?

Also which country would best fit the Byzantium empire?

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

The Byzantines are a little like the Mharoti, except for some major differences like the dragons being in charge and the elemental worship.

The Ghost Knights cavalier order I leave to future development.

I think your interpretation of the Red Shield works pretty well. Morgau politics are violent enough that things change quickly, but the Red Goddess is always a major player.


Thanks for the Responding Wolfgang, I cannot for all the great new things lined up like The players guide to the Rothenian plains.


Working on Rothenian PG as we speak, Teiidae, I hope to turn it over to the developer @ April 1st....

BTW - "future development" is Wolfgang-speak for "send me a Ghost Knights article pitch at Wolfgang@koboldpress.com"....make sure to put ARTICLE PITCH as the subject line.... :-)


Awesome stuff! Thankyou very much Adam for the translation( I'm not well versed in wolfgang-speak.) I Will start thinking about ideas, sadly can't put too much into it right now( alot of school work) but I'm sure ideas will come.

Dark Archive

Is the second print already available?

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

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Yes! Paizo ran out of first printing a while ago, and the kobolds delivered the second printing to the Paizo warehouse not too long thereafter.

So, what is available here is the second printing!


Is there going to be a second printing of the hardcover?

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Not unless we find some way to fund it, no. The trouble with second printings for smaller presses is that the sales at that point are "slow but steady". So a second hardcover printing would have a big up-front cost, and require years to break even.

I also considered doing a hardcover print-on-demand, but it priced out at about $89 retail. Granted, it's a full-color book and that is expensive in POD but the price seems too high.

I'm looking for other options, but right now, no hardcover reprint is on the horizon.

Dark Archive

Wolfgang Baur wrote:
I'm looking for other options, but right now, no hardcover reprint is on the horizon.

Wolfgang, you might want to check with Steven Russell from Rite Publishing. He got a very reasonable price for the POD of Heroes of the Jade Oath. If I remember correctly, the price was low due to the rpinting being analog instead of digital.


I'm looking for other options, but right now, no hardcover reprint is on the horizon.

That's too bad, but completely understandable; softcover it is then! Thanks for response, Wolfgang.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

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Today is a good day: the Midgard Campaign Setting has been nominated for an ENnie Award as Best Setting!


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Very well deserved.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Inspired by this book, I just posted my first RPG product review.

I just wanted to thank the Kobold Press family for making this product and this world. I wasn't looking for another campaign setting but it appears that I could not resist Midgard's dark beauty.

Congrats on the ENnie nomination. It is very well deserved. If there's ever another chance to get this book in hardcover, consider it pre-ordered!


Awesome!

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

BPorter, thank you for posting a review! We're struggling to keep the book in print (nice problem to have), and yet a high-quality hardcover is definitely on the list.

If Midgard wins that ENnie, I think a second hardcover printing looks pretty likely.

Liberty's Edge

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Starfinder Superscriber
BPorter wrote:
I wasn't looking for another campaign setting but it appears that I could not resist Midgard's dark beauty.

Sigh. Likewise. I don't have enough time to run all the games I want to run in settings I've already got a lot of. (It's as much, if not more, the time and "keeping track of everything in my aging brain" cost as it is any financial consideration.) But, I played in Christina's "Beyond the Ghostlight Reef" game at PaizoCon, and now after all the good word we've heard about this, I'm tempted to check it out.

What I really need is to become independently wealthy so that I don't have to work. Then I can prepare and run games 24/7, and play in all the cool settings that are out there.


rknop wrote:


Sigh. Likewise. I don't have enough time to run all the games I want to run in settings I've already got a lot of. (It's as much, if not more, the time and "keeping track of everything in my aging brain" cost as it is any financial consideration.) But, I played in Christina's "Beyond the Ghostlight Reef" game at PaizoCon, and now after all the good word we've heard about this, I'm tempted to check it out.

What I really need is to become independently wealthy so that I don't have to work. Then I can prepare and run games 24/7, and play in all the cool settings that are out there.

:) I feel your pain. I'm in a similar boat - too many things that I want to run and not enough free time to do it. Kobold Press has definitely hit the wallet hard within the last 30 days. I picked up the campaign setting, promptly purchased as many additional PDFs as I thought my budget could withstand... and then succumbed to my first Kickstarter project: Deep Magic.

Everything I've purchased thus far has been of similar quality to the campaign setting book. It's a fantastic setting.

Contributor

rknop wrote:

But, I played in Christina's "Beyond the Ghostlight Reef" game at PaizoCon, and now after all the good word we've heard about this, I'm tempted to check it out.

Dark Willy LOVES you!

I would SO sign your book if you bought one. :)


Wolfgang Baur wrote:
If Midgard wins that ENnie, I think a second hardcover printing looks pretty likely.

Pleased to see Midgard get nominated.

If a second printing happens, I'll probably get one as a reading copy to keep the patron hardcover tidy.

Now if you really wanted to be evil about it, you could release the second printing with a variant cover. In which case, I'll get one just because.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Variant cover, you say?

::publisher considers turning to the dark side::

Actually, I think a variant cover might lead people to expect revamped interior content and could lead to confusion I would rather avoid. But it surely might be beautiful.

Dark Archive

I'll be a second Hardcover no matter what kind of cover it has...

...as long as you fix those annoying $$ marks. =)


Will the softcover be back in stock soon? This campaign setting has really grabbed my attention and I'm eager to get hold of a copy.


@ Zenlike,

On the Kobold Press forums there is a thread where most of the errata from the CS was found and corrected. Included were the corrections for the $$ marks.

EDIT: I hope Zenlike comes back to the thread and sees my response.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

A lot of you asked for this, so we’re incredibly pleased to announce that Hero Lab users can purchase Hero Lab files for the Midgard Campaign Setting.

These complete and tested files include the setting's new PC races, new magic schools and domains, and the entirely original Status system. You also get Midgardian languages, feats and traits, gods, steeds, incantations, spells, and equipment.

Link to Hero Lab


Wolfgang Baur wrote:

A lot of you asked for this, so we’re incredibly pleased to announce that Hero Lab users can purchase Hero Lab files for the Midgard Campaign Setting.

These complete and tested files include the setting's new PC races, new magic schools and domains, and the entirely original Status system. You also get Midgardian languages, feats and traits, gods, steeds, incantations, spells, and equipment.

Link to Hero Lab

It's full of awesome! I also like the controls that allow you to enable or disable options, so it's pretty easy to incorporate the Midgard content for Midgard campaigns and wall it off in a straight-up Golarion game or mix-n-mash as needed.

Thanks so much for expanding the Hero Lab support! And a shout out to Lone Wolf Development for supporting the ongoing expansion of the GM tool I can't do without.


Wolfgang Baur wrote:

A lot of you asked for this, so we’re incredibly pleased to announce that Hero Lab users can purchase Hero Lab files for the Midgard Campaign Setting.

These complete and tested files include the setting's new PC races, new magic schools and domains, and the entirely original Status system. You also get Midgardian languages, feats and traits, gods, steeds, incantations, spells, and equipment.

Link to Hero Lab

Saw and purchased. I did notice a few things when it came to apostrophes. The apostrophes all ended up being spelled out in code. Well, that's the best way I can explain it.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Oooh, that's not good. We're collecting the bugs for the first update, so thank you for mentioning it!

Dark Archive

silverhair2008 wrote:

@ Zenlike,

On the Kobold Press forums there is a thread where most of the errata from the CS was found and corrected. Included were the corrections for the $$ marks.

EDIT: I hope Zenlike comes back to the thread and sees my response.

Thank you, silverhair2008. The errata definitely helps.

I would still prefer a hardcover copy with the errata though.

Until then...


Hero Lab support will definitely get my dollar!

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Yep, this makes two big Hero Lab files (the Midgard Bestiary is also available), and there is more coming.

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