Midnight is coming back in 5E !

[Chaotix]

Your best source for news is probably the Edge Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/edgestudioamerica

The last post from a couple weeks ago seems to indicate that a release before Christmas is "difficult", but they're going as fast as they can.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Thank you! I'll keep an eye on this one, then. I far from own all the old d20 books, but I'm really hyped about this new edition.

[Omega9999]

Sadly the book has been pushed to spring.
I cannot wait

[Omega9999]

Sadly the book has been pushed to spring. I cannot wait

[Dirigible]

Their facebook page says summer 2022... where are you getting spring from, Omega?

Either way, I'm in no rush. I'll take good over fast. I still have all the original books to read and re-read!

[Le Noir Faineant]

Can't wait to see this happen. Let's hope the delays mean the powers that be are putting a lot of effort into their job.

[JesterKwP]

I'm so excited for this I can hardly stand it! lol

[TwiceBorn]

The Asmodee USA website has a May 27 release date. https://shop.asmodee.com/midnight-legacy-of-darkness-esmnr01en

[Dirigible]

A pretty looking but not too imformative trailer:

The 'a hundred years have passed since the shadow fell' tagline still gives me chills whenever I read it.

[Dain]

We're all waiting for it to come. Counting days…

[Omega9999]

Got the pdf yesterday.
Rules-wise is a very light treatment of the setting (too light in my opninion)
I have to check out on the lore but mostly seems to be taken from 2nd edition book, tho Jahzir is not present anymore, thay changed to a new Sword of Shadow.
To be honest i'm a bit disappointed, while i think the 3.5 midnight had too many specific rules (most of the for a good reason), this treatment is way too light

[Greg Benage]

Jahzir is not present anymore, thay changed to a new Sword of Shadow.

Can anyone clue me in on why they would have done that? Was his Sarcosan ethnicity considered offensive or something? They also seem to have erased the Danisil's ethnicity, despite the fact that they're native to equatorial rainforests. There's an elf with ritual warding scars in the heroic paths chapter, but he's a white dude with blond hair. All the characters in the race chapter are white. This all seems rather surprising, given all the progress toward inclusivity and representation over the last 20 years.

I'm a little saddened but not surprised to see all the half-blood fey gone.

"Othaeron Mortenbreth."

Oy.

[jodaf12]

Rules-wise is a very light treatment of the setting (too light in my opninion)

Yeah, after my first pass through, I'd agree that the new rules are pretty light. However, that's consistent with 5E design philosophy--which is why my rules-loving group still plays Pathfinder v1.

Altogether, I'd say that Edge did a pretty decent job translating FFG's rules into 5E, and the way the flavor text has been carried over might draw some of the large 5E fan base to the setting.

I wouldn't play Heroic Paths the way that they're presented in the new rules, however. In the old rules, gaining features from an advancement track separated from class level gave players a feeling that Aryth was on their side. In the update, your Heroic Path only allows additional choices for feats at the normal levels, which seems ... underwhelming. At a minimum, I think I'd give characters their Heroic Path feats as bonuses at the appropriate levels.

I also noted one amusing typo: the Veteran Soldier background provides the character with "a sturdy pair of books", which could be a problem in a setting where literacy is outlawed. :-)

[Omega9999]

I honestly found a lot ot typos: most of them were referring to old rules of the 3.5 era. there are multiple instances of references to "outsiders" wich is not a creature type anymore. they mention charms a few times but there are no rules for them in the books... Considering this was announced back in 2020, they should have done a way better job IMHO

[TwiceBorn]

This is the one gaming product I've been most looking forward to in well over a decade... and for some strange reason, it's not even available to pre-order via Canadian distribution channels (I was itching to pre-order on behalf of myself and three of my players, who were just as excited for the book as I was). The game stores and distributors I've contacted wouldn't have known of its existence had I not provided links to product pages in U.S. and U.K. stores. When I asked about this on Edge Studio's Facebook page, they told me the Canadian distributor is Asmodee US (Asmodee Canada for the French version... how weird is that?)... but the retailers I contacted said Asmodee US does not distribute in Canada. It appears that Lion Rampant Imports normally would distribute Edge Studio products up here... but very few Edge products are listed on their site, and no Midnight to be seen. Those guys haven't even bothered to reply to my politely-worded inquiry.

Yet given the bizarre design choices, poor editing/proofreading, and generally underwhelming feedback I've been reading... it doesn't sound like it would be worth it for me to order the book from the U.S./U.K. I just couldn't justify the added expenses.

I could buy the PDF, but... why do that, when the book (and I much prefer books), includes a PDF download code? Nevermind all the comments I've read about the download codes not working and people having to contact DriveThru RPG for a fix.

I 've always been enthusiastic about sharing my love for Midnight whenever discussions online and in-person turn to the subject of favourite settings... but I hate to say it, my impressions of Edge Studio so far are leaving me with a really sour taste in my mouth. I hope they'll figure out a way to "pull up" soon, so to speak. Would be a shame if the line crash and burned after one book due to incompetence (I know, there's supposed to be a GM Kit on the way, but...???).

/end rant 

[Le Noir Faineant]

Same problem here. (Writing this from Germany.) Happy to wait until it's available via DTRPG, but the shipping issue is a downer. Also, this is a "love purchase"; don't make overthink it while I read some of the terrible and of the more terrible reviews.

[Glacialis]

I, too, made the mistake of reading the reviews.

Honestly? It's not that bad.

I see the passion for the setting of many years ago in the reviews, but the gist seems to be "I want the old setting in new rules, not something new".

Reviews on YouTube and other forms of social media are more positive. They don't seem to be long time fans like us, so seeing a positive impression of a setting they have not seen before bodes well for future supplements.

I still need to digest the entirety of it. I wish there was more mechanical backing for the themes and not aiming for the perfect balance with a light touch that 5e defaults to. If I were running a Midnight game using this book I would also award Heroic Path feats as bonuses. I'm looking forward to charms and other, non-magical mechanical additions.

Did y'all see what's in the back though? Coming soon: Crown of Shadow!

[zanshin]

I oicked it up, liked it. I ran a campaign up to L10 'back in the day'.

I plan to boot up a new one with a twist - setting it 2 years before the shadow wins the big battle, so the PC's will be trying to block the shadows infiltration and corruption in a 'slightly' more normal D&D setting.

[TwiceBorn]

I, too, made the mistake of reading the reviews.

Honestly? It's not that bad.

I see the passion for the setting of many years ago in the reviews, but the gist seems to be "I want the old setting in new rules, not something new".

Reviews on YouTube and other forms of social media are more positive. They don't seem to be long time fans like us, so seeing a positive impression of a setting they have not seen before bodes well for future supplements.

I still need to digest the entirety of it. I wish there was more mechanical backing for the themes and not aiming for the perfect balance with a light touch that 5e defaults to. If I were running a Midnight game using this book I would also award Heroic Path feats as bonuses. I'm looking forward to charms and other, non-magical mechanical additions.

Did y'all see what's in the back though? Coming soon: Crown of Shadow!

That's good to hear, and yes, despite my unhappiness with lack of hardcopy availability in Canada at the moment, I still want and will keep an open mind to the 5E version. It is absolutely true that the old guard can be unfairly harsh in their assessments of reboots, regardless of product lines. We're seeing the same thing with version 2.5 of the X-Wing miniatures game... there are a lot of angry nerds out there. But after playing by the new rules for the last several months, my friends and I think the latest version is by far the best version yet. All that to say... accepting change can be difficult, and requires time and an open mind.

I hope the reboot of Crown of Shadows doesn't just consist of updated mechanics. I thought the overall adventure was mediocre at best even back in 3.0 days. Nevertheless, I'm happy that at least one scenario will be (re)published for 5E, and pray there will be more to come.
 

[Luiniel Blades]

I have picked up my own hardcopy and perused some of it. I also did some looking around and on Facebook it seems like the guys at Edge Studios were answering a few questions people had regarding the book. Apparently the reason given for being so light on mechanics rules was to not completely overwhelm folks as a lot of people are new to the Midnight setting. They'll be releasing more of that in later books, at least that's the takeaway I got from there.

Why they decided to change Jahzir's name to Othaeron I can only guess at. Sarcosans still exist, so it's not a race thing. Lore-wise when compared to Legends of Shadow it's Jahzir's background. The only things that changed were that King Kari now had a son, in addition to his daughter, and they gave them names, Kormir, and Ayten, respectively. Othaeron was fine with the promise of marrying either the daughter or son to join the royal family. I assume it was to add inclusivity for inclusivity's sake.

[Luiniel Blades]

Here's a conversation with some Q&A:

Q: Where's the Defender gone? One of the Core Classes in the 2E?!?

A: Things are changing, we have made some evolutions on the game 😉

Q: That was to be expected, but why is there no core class that defines the setting? why not put the pugilist in? instead I find some backgrounds. I don't really see how to build the Defender. the astirax are also missing. the magic system also seems to be standard even with appropriate classes. meanwhile there used to be only channelers (also a Core Claas). Even the 3.5 didn't reflect the atmosphere of the setting 100% back then bot those Changes are...will there be Heroic path like Null from the old Sorcery&Shadow?
Could you explain the evolutions?
The PCs are (in comparison) very competent and become more and more so in the course of their career (level up). Nevertheless, it has to be played in such a way that, whether as partisans, freedom fighters, etc., you can never "win" completely. The achievements may increase, but the world will continue to crumble and the evil will remain.

A: When we did Legacy of Darkness, we had a choice of trying to build a new magic system up from scratch, or by seeing if we could just use the existing rules. Old magic rules make spellcasting almost impossible unless you played a very specific combination of heroic path, class, and several feats.
That’s why we took out the Channeler and took the approach of enabling people to play « regular » mages. The Defender is just a Fighter/Paladin, and the Wildlander was very much just a Ranger.
Our goal here is to target an easy access game, and make the play more fluid to the players and the GM.

[Fizz]

Hrmmm... no defender and no channeler, and a standard magic system?  Those are significant flaws in my opinion.  

The fact that magic is rare, difficult, and dangerous, is important to the nature of the setting. For them to say that spellcasting was impossible without a particular combination of class / feats / heroic path is just nonsense.

And to call the Defender a merely a fighter / paladin is utter silliness as well.  Did they even read the original books?

The wildlander has common features with the ranger, but there are significant differences too (magic being a major one).


-Fizz

[TwiceBorn]

Can anyone clue me in on why they would have done that? Was his Sarcosan ethnicity considered offensive or something? They also seem to have erased the Danisil's ethnicity, despite the fact that they're native to equatorial rainforests. There's an elf with ritual warding scars in the heroic paths chapter, but he's a white dude with blond hair. All the characters in the race chapter are white. This all seems rather surprising, given all the progress toward inclusivity and representation over the last 20 years.

I'm a little saddened but not surprised to see all the half-blood fey gone.

"Othaeron Mortenbreth."

Oy.

Given what Luiniel has said about the background info for Jahzir/Othaeron essentially being the same... maybe "Othaeron Mortenbreth" is what the elves call him?

[Luiniel Blades]

I get what you're going for regarding Jahzir/Othaeron, but I see no indication of it being something that only the elves call him. It's written in the same way Jahzir's history is written. It's just a different name now.

This was most definitely a deliberate action by the guys at Edge Studio. Still not sure why they did it though, they have yet to answer my question on the Facebook page. But I sent a direct message this time so hopefully they'll answer.

[Luiniel Blades]

This was their reasoning:

"We thought it was more meaningful if the Night Kings were each a manifestation of a different culture in the setting that stood against Izrador and was corrupted. We already had a Sarcosan Night King, so Jahzir, with his focus on martial prowess, was already a perfect example of Dorn warrior culture twisted and made evil. We just needed to change some small elements of his backstory."

So they intended to make Othaeron a Dorn rather than a Sarcosan to spread the Evil around culture wise. Not that it matters a whole lot, but they actually made him an Erenlander from the descriptions and emphasis they used.