After reading several of the reviews here, I went out and bought the MCS and started reading it. I was expecting to be blown away by how good and unique the setting of Midgard was. Unfortunately, this campaign setting book is no different than the Inner Sea World Guide or the 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting in that it is a high level look at the world.
Why do I think the other reviewers are biased? Every one of them that I have seen here, and on enworld.org, were backers of the Open Design process. This means that they have a radically different view of this setting compared to someone like myself that hasn't read one word on it. And when I looked here on Paizo's store, I saw all of the products for Midgard and thought it was logical to start with the campaign setting.
That was a mistake but I don’t know how I could know that.
The MCS came out AFTER more than 450 pages of other setting material had been written and released, not to mention discussed on Open Design. So, for all of the other reviewers, the MCS works to remind them of what they have already read and knew about the world. For someone like me who has not read all of that information, the MCS read like any other high level campaign book. It was not highly detailed, despite what many reviewers say.
For me, a setting is made unique by its details. What do the people wear? What language do they speak? What do they eat? What is their daily life like? What are the names used for the people? Does the name tell you where they are from? Do the various races mingle or are they separate? If they are separate, do they like it? Or are they working toward integration? What about the gods? How present are they? What are the politics like? What are the nobles trying to do? What does the area import or export? What are the relations with their neighbors?
When I started reading the MCS, I expected all of those questions answered and more. I got a few of them answered but not enough, in my opinion, to set it apart from any other campaign setting. And what I did get was confusing. As I read through the chapter on the Crossroads, there was no sense of what the conflict was. There was an obvious bad empire but no talk about what was being done about it, if anything. I’m not even sure if there are the "standard" ruins and dungeons to be explored by adventurers!
For example, the city of Zobeck has a general in charge of its armies to repel invaders. Who invades them? Why is this army needed? That’s not answered. The city also has secret police and I have no idea why a council of five good, five neutral and only two evil members would allow such a thing to exist. Maybe it doesn’t matter, though, because there is no mention of the secret police’s goals.
I understand that campaign settings have to appeal to the widest group they can. I also don’t want everything explained such that as a DM, there is no place to add in my own creations. I do expect some things detailed out as examples of the flavor and then gaps left for me to fill. Going back to the council of Zobeck, it would have been nice if one of the evil council members had been fleshed out with goals and motivations as well as a good member, preferably the one working against the evil one that was fleshed out. This could have served to show how politics happened (Open violence? Words? By the laws? By strength of arms? Assassins? By the gods? By a vote?) in the town and still left me ten members to do with as I pleased. From my perspective, though, I’m left to do all of that.
It was at that point that I realized that the MCS wasn’t what I thought it was. In talking about it in the discussion area, it seems as if I would have liked it if I, too, had had the other 450 pages of material to read and this served to remind me of all that was happening. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. It’s too bad because I get the sense that I would be just as excited as the other reviewers if I had started with Zobeck and watched the world come alive. Instead, my introduction didn’t excite me or pull me into the world. In fact, after all of the enthusiasm from the other reviewers, I was so disappointed that by the time I finished the section on the Crossroads, I glanced at the religion section but then put the book down and have had no motivation to go back and finish it. That’s my loss.
I give this three and a half stars. I rounded down due to bad editing. I found typos or extra spaces on most pages and every reference (“see page $$”) was not filled in. I think in trying to summarize the Midgard setting and not repeat themselves from their other products, they went too far and removed too much information. This still has some good ideas but they missed the mark for me in describing a game world with conflict where adventurers are needed to help resolve that conflict, one way or the other.
