As we get closer to shipping the Tales of the Valiant Game Master's Guide, I have been pulling my Kobold Press books out and giving them another look. I suspect the GMG release will change many people's minds about ToV, and finally, having a complete three-book core set is what many are waiting for. Given the excellent guides for GM-ing that Kobold has put out, this book promises to be one of the better GM Guides we have seen in the last few years.
I don't need 2024 D&D books. I own these and the PDFs, and they are fine.
Also, I am looking forward to the rules and options Kobold has in the book to compete with some of the excellent systems in Level Up A5E. I would like hardcore play guidelines, supply, survival, hex-crawls, and other game rules to add to these parts of the game. I can pull from other games, but I would love to see their take on these systems.
Midgard is, in its own unique way, the Forgotten Realms of the 2010s and 2020s. It may not match the depth of lore or the wealth of fiction, but it captures the essence of the original Forgotten Realm's boxed set as a "setting for adventure." The tonal and dramatic shift it offered from Greyhawk was enough to captivate us back then.
This was before the setting was taken over by the novels! We never really got into those back in the day. Still, we kept the Forgotten Realms as a low-magic setting (yes) and ended our run here with AD&D. Unlike today, where Baldur's Gate 3 has starships flying around and magic and planar things wandering around everywhere. Today's setting is like a Star Wars with high magic everywhere, and our Realms back in the day were wonderfully low-magic, gritty, and dangerous.
Greyhawk was our high magic setting.
High magic settings are typically the last phase of a setting's lifecycle before it dies or gets rebooted. Back then, we could not stand high-magic Greyhawk, and it became a joke in our games as a place where high-level characters sat around bored and caused trouble for each other. Power corrupted everyone like superheroes with nothing to do but fight among themselves.
To me, Midgard feels like the early Realms. It has moderate magic, not really high, and the art still has a lower-level, gritty, dark-world feel. It does not feel modern, like 2024 D&D, which feels like "2024 in D&D" with all the distractions in the art and the loss of the classic feeling of adventure. And while we may get updates for the Realms and other classic settings, I don't have much hope for them, given what we saw with Spelljammer, Ravenloft, and other recent updates.
They will be what we love, modernized, and worse for it.
Midgard still has a chance of keeping its original dark fantasy feel. The art is consistent and follows a Middle Ages to Renaissance theme, with some steampunk you can take or leave.
Midgard keeps that fantasy feeling. It allows me to explore a strange world, different from our own, and experience living without modern conveniences in a world filled with magic and danger. I think this is where modern D&D "misses the mark" terribly. The entire game is dead set on transporting the contemporary world into a high-magic fantasy setting, and it comes off as lazy, lame, and boring. If I wanted "today's world," I would play in a modern setting.
I want my fantasy! I want to take my players to another world! Not this one. I am sick of it. The Wizards' art team breaks immersion with every character design and art piece they showcase.
If I wanted this world, I would walk outside.
With a half-shelf of monster books, a vast 800+ spell magic expansion, and another shelf full of adventures, Midgard delivers on a level only Traveller or Pathfinder compares to, but for 5E and fantasy. They seriously outdo Wizards at this game, having a complete, supported setting with adventures and expansions? It feels like the world support in AD&D, but for 5E, without the tacky modern veneer and persistent and reoccurring "AI infections" of D&D.
And they have their own 5E version.
There are very few downsides here.
If I have favorite characters, it is time to port them to Midgard and move them into a world I can enjoy. I was going to say, "Walk away," but I am done walking away. There is a point where you stop, settle down, and pick a home. The closest third-party competitor to this is the Frog God "Lost Lands" setting, which has fantastic adventures and mega-dungeons. I am playing that with Level Up A5E since that game feels more old-school than ToV.
Midgard stands above that, with a more profound history, current support, maps, options, and a fantastic world with room to make it your own. Combined with ToV, you have the holy grail of system plus setting, which D&D gave us in the old days.
They also have an excellent Southlands sourcebook, which I still need to dive into, complete with character options books. The world is fantastic, filled with adventures and space to explore and expand. In a way, this is what we always wanted for D&D 4th Edition, a fun world filled with people, places, conflicts, and things to do - without overly relying on nebulous planar content.
This is a world I am happy with, and one I wish I had gazetteers for all the wonderful places here. Another part of me is satisfied with not having them and having a lot of things to fill in for myself.
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