Midgard Tales (PFRPG)

This massive adventure anthology is 198 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page backer-list/ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 192 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Midgard Tales...an anthology with the goal of creating adventures to talk about. Not only are these supposed to be exciting, they are supposed to resound with the stuff of mythology, of being iconic in the truest sense of the world. This anthology is one massive book and thus, I will not go into as many details regarding the modules as usual, instead giving you a short heads-up regarding the respective modules. Also: I was a backer of this on kickstarter, but did not contribute in any shape or form to it. Got that?

Awesome! The following thus contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion, mostly because, believe me, you don't want this spoiled.

Tim Connors kicks off with the weirdest, most glorious 1st level module I've read in quite a while: Set upon the infinitely delayed Great Old Ones in eternal struggle, the PCs awake in "Atop the Warring Blasphemies" in essentially a nest...of one weird, semi-cthulhoid dragon-like being. Escaping from their predicament, the PCs have to navigate the gigantic bodies of the old ones and the politics of the weird goblin-tribes that worship and live among them. Worse, there actually are pulpy pieces of technology that keep the aura of bloodlust emitted by the huge creatures in check. Navigating the strange vertical settlements, shooting ballistae at adversaries, climbing, betrayal - this is one damn furious first module for any campaign and should be considered a true gem - it's only downside being that it will be hard to trump this tour-de-force.

Next up would be Morgan Boehringer's "Curse of the Witchkeep". Intended for 2nd level, the PCs are introduced to the village of Loshtadt in the Krakovan hinterlands. Intended as a horror adventure, a sense of desolation suffuses the area. And indeed, a dread curse has fallen upon the xenophobic settlement - biological time is passing exceedingly fast and this amplified ageing process may actually hit the PCs as well. Beyond this curse, not all is well - the village suffers from a powerplay between the lady of the area and the deadly cult of the harbinger, and at night, fear of the "night beast", which is in fact an eidolon, reigns. Undead witchwolves roam the countryside and in order to break the curse, the PCs will have to infiltrate the local keep's dungeon and put an end to the powerplay and deal in a great puzzle-combat with a semi-sentient orrery. Have I mentioned the antipaladin that may actually not be the worst possible ally or the other factions involved in the power-play? This is relatively complex and one of those deceptive modules that don't look that awesome on paper, but running it actually works exceedingly well and remarkable. Again, two thumbs up!

The next module, Ted Reed's "On the Fourth Day, We Kill Them All", for level 3 characters...is downright glorious. You may know that I have a soft spot for stories in the northlands, but all too often, the issue is that the authors don't get the mindset. Well, Ted Reed does. Set against the backdrop of a feud at a Þing, i.e. the kind-of-somewhat-democratic meetings, the PCs not only get to embark in simply superbly fun mini-games that breathe social flair and fluff, in order to persevere, they have to explore a fortress once swallowed by a living glacier and return, triumphantly, with an army of lost ancestors to prevail in a gambit for power. Have I mentioned the diverse political intriguing? Even if you don't like the Northlands, this module remains among the apex-modules in iconic imagery and things to do and should be considered a must-run masterpiece. I bow to the author! If all modules were this good, I'd be out of reviewing.

Chris Lozaga's "Bloodmarked of White Mountain" deals with a village under a strange curse - it seems like the dread ghost folk have bloodmarked a whole village to fall victim to their depredations, sending the whole village into a deep, unnatural slumber. What are the ghost folk? Essentially inbred, white face-painted orcs that ignite in white fire thanks to their strange customs and alchemy upon being slain. In order to lift the curse, the PCs will have to unearth the traumatic history of a hermit, climb a dread idol of the white goddess and finally enter an abandoned mine and defeat the ghost folk in their own environment. Sooo...this is the first module herein I consider good, but simply not that awesome. Yeah, orcs in Midgard are rare and the ignition-upon-death angle is nice...but I can't help but feel I've seen this exact plot before. Feeling more like a post-apocalyptic module, I was reminded of some classics of the genre (brownie-points if you can recall them). Now don't get me wrong - this still is a very good module, but in direct comparison, it somewhat pales.

Module number 5, Michael Lane's "Dawnsong Tragedy" (also for level 3) see the reappearance of a fabled yurt in the Rothenian plane...and the potential for sinister influence. Entering the yurt, the PCs find themselves trapped in a demiplane-style environment, requiring them to defeat a coalition of 3 agents of gods most foul, who, as it turns out, were responsible for the disappearance of the yurt. Each comes with its own, deadly environment and minions, making for a fun romp through uncommon areas. While there is not much going on beyond combat in the respective areas, their iconic layout helps make this module remarkable. Somewhat similar to Legendary Games' "Baleful Coven", this module is great, but not as 100% iconic as I would have liked. Primarily, I think the respective areas of the adversaries could have been a bit more far-out and feature some more unique terrain features. What I do really enjoy is that the respective areas are presented as hexes, though going full-blown hexploration, including random encounter tables, weird weather etc. could have made this very good module into a true legend.

Matt Hewson's "The Tattered Unicorn" (again, for level 3), kicks off with an unicorn ghost herding the PCs toward the village of Astig, where further issues ensue. Delving into the social dynamics of the small place and trysts long gone, the PCs have to find out, what has happened to the unicorn... and during the investigation, also manage the dynamics between a nymph and her forlarren sister as well as prevent a bound demon from being released by the mastermind of the unicorn's demise. All in all...an okay investigation. It's background isn't too special, the means of research not that pronounced, the plot ultimately somewhat simple. It's one of the modules where your PCs are most likely to stumble across the solution without getting all the details. Also: The final ritual, while called incantation in the text, does not get a full incantation treatment, which is somewhat of a pity. Now don't get me wrong, this module isn't bad in any way, but it also could have used more research consequences/pieces to put together. The threat promised by the set-up isn't really followed up on and while timeline etc. help, overall, it is a rather simplistic scenario for an investigation.

Ben McFarland's "To Resurrect the Steigenadler" (intended for level 4) is a whole different beast: When a bone-storm downs the airship the PCs boarded to traverse the wasted west, not only do their actions determine whether NPCs survive the crash, they also find themselves beseiged by mad cultists, terrible beasts born from insanity and in an area that simply is one of the most iconic, deadly ones in Midgard. In order to make the ship once again rise to the skies, brains, brawn and stealth are all required in a tale of survival, madness and consequences. Breathing the flair of the wasted west, this module is superb and ranks among the finest crash-landing scenarios I've seen in quite a while - once again, one of the legends and befitting Ben McFarland's superb resumé.

Erik Freund's level 5 module, "Masquerade", takes a different approach: Two-star-crossed lovers on different sides of a war, a forced marriage looming...realize something? Yes, this module is essentially "Romeo & Juliet"...much like some other modules I've read. But don't skip! Why? Because it is distinctly NOT "Romeo & Juliet" - the player characters first have to brave the seedy underbelly of Capleon for legwork and to acquire an elixir that is supposed to put Seletta, the Baron's daughter into a coma. In order to deliver the elixir, the PCs have to infiltrate a masque ball (complete with a SUPERB mini-game between Exposure and gaining enough clout to approach Seletta) - upon delivering the assassination attempt, a wild chase resumes, the after math of which is depending on the PCs managing exposure versus subtlety. Trying to retrieve her comatose body by breaking into the cemetery, the PCs finally have to flee the city and intrude into a realm in-between of Hellraiser-like madness between pain and insanity to finally face an ending that may be resoundingly triumphant or just as heart-rending bitter-sweet as its literary inspiration. The premise made me groan, the execution is so utterly ultra-glorious, though, that I can simply only slow clap to the ambition of the author. One legendary, smart epic indeed and one of the best modules I've read in ages.

Mike Franke's level 6 module "Whispers in the Dark" is more conservative in the ground it treads by having the PCs explore creepy mines and finally brave the derro-incursion beneath Breccia. Overall, a weird little crawl that, much like the second module, doesn't read as exciting on paper. However, Mike Franke seems to have a gift for fusing encounters and traps into a cohesive whole that works surprisingly well when run, creating an atmosphere beyond the sum of its parts.

Next up would be a module by the master of the macabre, Richard Pett: "Sorrow", for level 7 characters. The module kicks off with the PCs being invited to a "royal" wedding in the backwater town of Twine. As tradition will have it, the King in Rags, a debased Dark fey-lord is out to take the lord's daughter to claim his prize for services rendered in the past and thus, the PCs get to participate in a forced marriage-ceremony, where dancing with baccae, succeeding at fey-tasks and generally breathing the palpable sense of dark fantasy grit is tantamount - even before the lord tries to kill the King in Rags, thus sending his whole county into the fey's domain, where in a race against time, the PCs have to do some hasty hexploration to track down the King in Rags before the entity can consummate his marriage...potentially dealing with former brides and similar fey creatures and only, if they can stop the king's mantle of living crows from stopping their best attacks. The master of horror and dark fantasy at his finest, on par with the legendary "Courts of the Shadow Fey" in delightfully evil dark fey-flair. Another legend!

"Among the red monoliths" by Brian W. Suskind (level 7-9) caters to my preference of shades of grey morality - the city of Bourgund is a radiant place and when the PCs arrive there and have items confiscated, they probably will be rather grumpy, with those white knights mumbling something about primal giant slaying...and they'd better. The order of white knights has fallen victim to the very human sin of hubris and an ally of the most uncommon kind, the dread church of Marena, may all that stands between the city and utter destruction. In order to prevent the immortal primal guardians from escaping the monoliths that litter the city, the PCs have to help the dark cult get their hands on various items and finally, conduct the rite...which adds another issue...it requires human sacrifice. Shades of grey are not for every group, but this module makes a great stance for a module that does require adventuring on the darker sides of morality. As soon as the constantly regenerating giants get free, that ought to be rather clear. Uncommon and a type of module I haven't seen before in commercial publishing and surprisingly in line with how my campaigns tend to run, this one is rather fun, though players who see everything as black and white might disagree.

Thankfully, Brian W. Suskind also gets another module to show off his versatility as an author with the "Five Trials of Pharos", intended for level 10 characters. The premise is as uncommon as they come - Mharot dragon Yiraz invites the adventurers alongside some competing teams to embark on a race to 5 trials, each of which requires the solving of mundane, riddle-like instructions and ultimately is designed to realign ley-lines towards one nexus. The race comes with a vast array of different challenges and the symbolic power of the respective challenges also resounds properly. After a glorious, breathless race, the PCs will even have to save their draconic patron, who has been duped and thus had her body taken over by a grisly, legendary dragon/aboleth hybrid thought long-since perished. Yes. EPIC FINAL BATTLE indeed!

The final module, "The Stacks Between" is penned by no other than Crystal Frasier and takes place in our favorite clockwork-city of Zobeck, to be precise in the legendary, teleporting library Bibliolethe, last repository of so much lore of the reviled Stross family. Entering the precipice on the trail of a vanished mage, the PCs have a scant few 10 hours to navigate bound azata and their contractual obligations to a bound contract devil, avoid the groundkeeper and golems, navigate a cool puzzle-floor and finally defeat the spirit and madness of the library's former master, split in twain by the dread artifact that is responsible for the Bibliolethe's planehopping - if the shadow fey or former victims turned dread undead don't get the PCs first! Success may actually return the legendary library to Zobeck! Gloriously wicked, dark dungeon, somewhat reminiscent of Frog God Games' super "Black Monastery", but unique enough to exist alongside it.

Conclusion in the product discussion.

The previous reviewers have well covered the contents of this excellent volume. I am not a crunch genius but the adventures are varied, offering big action to all levels, and highlight the difference/uniqueness of the Midgard world.

But what I would like to say is the physical texture and quality of the book itself is the best I have had the pleasure to read. I can;t speak for how long the book will stand up to use, having only had it a few weeks, but the paper feels thick and full of texture.

Reading the book is a mental and physical joy!

Introduction

I was not a Kickstarter backer on this book but instead ordered it through my local FLGS (Jetpack Comics). Over the last couple of years, I have been very impressed with Kobold Press’s Midgard campaign setting books and own the setting book plus some of the supplemental books. If I had to describe the Midgard setting, it would be like if Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith met the Brothers Grimm and conceived a world that echoed our real world myths. It is a dark, gritty world that at once feels familiar yet its sword and sorcery influence makes everything fresh and new.

Midgard Tales collects 13 adventures set in the Midgard campaign world, ranging from levels 1-11. The adventures are not interconnected, covering a wide expanse of Midgard’s geography, however, each comes with enough hooks so that a GM can easily create a reason why the PCs are in that locale. Some of the adventures utilize creatures from the Midgard Bestiary- so if you don’t own that book, you may have to substitute some of the monsters out. I do not consider this a negative- in fact it makes sense (and sales!) as this book is designed to be used with Kobold Press’s Midgard products.

So What Got Me Excited?

1. Diversity of Adventures- Out of 13 adventures, no two felt like they were alike. Each adventure had its own unique voice that set it apart from the others, and not just because of its location, but the way the adventure unfolded.

2. Excellent mix of roleplay and combat opportunities- Not only where each adventures unique from each other, but within each adventure there was a great mix of diversity between opportunities for roleplaying and combat. My group and I prefer about a 50/50 split so these are definitely adventures that fit our play style. Obviously some fall more on one side than the other, but nothing is a “grind.”

3. Excellent writing- I felt the quality of writing was excellent and consistent amongst the adventures. Each was able to tell its own story in a tight, concise manner that was a pleasure to read. As an aspiring adventure writing, I like to not only read adventures to learn, but also for enjoyment. Additionally, I want to add that many of the adventures have a darker, more mature tone than many other Pathfinder adventures I have read. Even if the good guys win, sometimes the results are still not pretty. I like this.

4. Portability- While these adventures are set in Midgard and ooze Midgard flavor, a GM would be able to drop the adventure in any typical fantasy type campaign world. For example, I ran the adventure “Sorrow” as part of my Kingmaker campaign and set the adventure in Mivon, across the border from my PCs’ kingdom (and I didn’t even have to change the eel references). The two adventures set in the Wasted West might be the trickiest, as that is such a unique feature of Midgard. If using Golarion, however, those adventures could be set in the Mana Waste- instead of Old Ones, maybe the colossal creatures are giant Mana mutants nearly frozen by the wild magic in the area.

5. Layout and art design- This book is beautiful! The page background is the same parchment type background from the Midgard Campaign Book which creates a nice cohesive feel to the product line. The black and white style artwork feels more at home in this product than color would have and is excellently drawn. For me, this creates an atmosphere to the product that ties into the sometimes dark nature of the Midgard campaign world. It also invokes to me the look and feel of some of my favorite 2e Forgotten Realms products that utilized black and white art with a parchment type of background. The maps are well drawn and detailed and the layout is superb. I have to say, I really like the matte finish of the cover and pages versus a glossy look.

So what were some of my actual favorite adventures and why? While I enjoyed reading each of the adventures and think their respective authors did a fantastic job on them- I want to quickly highlight a few that really piqued my interest. In order that they appear-

1. Atop the Warring Blasphemies- is such a high energy adventure- running across two giant creatures with a battle going on around you! The PCs are on the constant move in this, a trick rarely used in adventure design.
2. The Dawnsong Tragedy- a sandbox type of hex crawl all inside a magical yurt! I would have liked to have seen a random encounter table for this adventure to spice up some of the empty hexes. Excellent story that integrates a hex crawl well with plenty of roleplaying opportunities.
3. To Resurrect the Steigenadler- a very unique adventure revolving around repairing your downed airship. In such a short adventure, it contains a cool subsystem involving making the repairs and protecting your camp of survivors at the same time.
4. Sorrow- I ran this one for my players and they had a blast! The feast at the beginning of the adventure is the best part, involving a lot of roleplaying if your players get into it. Then, the 2nd half, they can get their combat on.
5. Among the Red Monoliths- I picked this adventure because I really like how there were numerous ways to accomplish the different scenarios. It made me think of Assassin Creed in that way- either go all in with combat (and probably die) or using the environment to get the job done.
6. The Stacks Between- a mysterious library that suddenly appears? Reminds me fondly a bit of the Castlevania games. I like that this on a timer and the number of encounters means that players will have to manage their resources wisely and realize that not every fight needs to end in violence.

Ok, So What Didn’t I Like

My dislikes don’t have to do with the actual adventures themselves, as I have no complaints in those regards. I’m only bringing these up, because I’m reviewing the book as a whole and not just the adventures. So with that said-

1. Format/editing errors- Actual misspellings of words and similar editing errors are not that frequent but some do exist. What is more noticeable are some of the format errors- for example some of the shorthand monster statblocks might miss the CR listed or the XP. There is another weird format error where sometimes if a word contains an ability score abbreviation in it, that part of the word gets bolded. For example- Intmidate. Finally, halfway through Five Trials of Pharos, the adventure name which appears on the lefthand page abruptly changes over to To Resurrect the Steigenadler. Now, none of these errors impedes running any of the adventures. I mention them only because the adventures are so good and the book is so beautiful that I hate see to them. I know a lot of work has gone into creating this, so I want to encourage Kobold Press to be even more vigilant when it comes to proofreading to squash these mistakes so the book can be the best it can be.

2. Map errors- grammar/format aside, the one type of error that can impede play is map errors and there are some, unfortunately. With careful reading, you can deduce what is correct, but some of the errors did require me to go back and forth a few times and will take extra careful reading.
-On the Fourth Day, We Kill Them All- the first ice tower has rooms listed 1-5 in the adventure text, but the map is labeled “a,b,c.” 1-3 correspond to a,b,c but that still leaves 4,5 missing.
-Sorrow- in the adventure, it talks about patches of violent fungus being found at areas labeled “P” on the hex crawl map. There are no such areas, that I see, on the map.
-Between the Stacks- Areas 11 and 2 are swapped on the map and there are two rooms labeled 24.

Conclusion

All in all, this is a great buy. Not only do I recommend the adventures to those running Midgard campaigns, but I also heartily recommend these adventures to any GM as I think each one has something unique to offer and is highly portable. The books itself looks amazing from the art to the layout and the design of the maps, marred only by some format and editing issues. This, I wouldn’t even waste much time mentioning except additionally there are some map errors, which did require some work for me to decipher. Finally, books like this demonstrates the extensive support that Kobold Press is doing for Midgard in player and GM friendly material. I dislike buying a campaign setting that gets little to no follow up material. Not so in the case of Midgard with its wide range of adventures, campaign setting material, and player guides. All in all, I think the stellar quality of the adventures more than makes up for some editing errors, making it 5 stars in my book.

I've recently discovered the joys of running roleplaying games on the Internet. It's an easy way to get people together to have some fun. I am, however, a busy guy, and I don't always have time to come up with my own GM-made adventures. Luckily, I picked up Midgard Tales by Kobold Press at Gen Con this year.

Midgard Tales is a hardcover tome (or pdf) that contains 13 Pathfinder adventures spanning levels 1-11. All the adventures are (as the title suggests) written for the Midgard Campaign Setting , but they could all be easily ported over to nearly any fantasy setting with a minimum of effort. I should be clear that this isn't a campaign; it is 13 separate adventures that you could connect (or not) as you see fit.

The adventures are presented in numbered level order (1-11) with the level number easy to spot in the upper corner. Finding an adventure is as easy as flipping and looking. Once you've selected the adventure you need, things stay pretty simple. The adventures are presented in a straightforward manner, with a quick adventure overviews, ways to work the adventures into your game, and a clear delineation of what is for GMs and what is for players. In some cases, I only had about a half-hour to prepare, but I was able to run the adventure like I had been preparing for weeks.

The adventures themselves run the gamut from straight-forward dungeon crawls to treks through fey-marked wilderness to intrigue at a masquerade ball. I appreciate the effort to make each game experience unique; my players get bored if they are just simply killing monsters and taking their stuff all the time.

As for presentation, the art helped capture the mood of the adventures. Good art helps me get in the right mindset to run a game session. The art is all black and white, but it goes well with the book's "yellowed-paper" aesthetic. The maps are simple to follow and easy to recreate on a battle grid. As a guy who can barely draw a straight line, that's a big help. I also like the thickness of the paper in the book. I'm willing to bet that this tome could take a little punishment.

To conclude, I want to give a special shout-out to Richard Pett, the author of the "Sorrow" adventure in Midgard Tales. My players absolutely loved this adventure and told me it was the best roleplaying experience I'd run in a long time. So thanks for making me look good, sir!

I've now run a number of the adventures contained in the book, and have read through all of them. I am pleased with the purchase and highly recommend Midgard Tales.