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Midgard Campaign Setting: Dark Roads & Deep Magic

Created by Kobold Press

The expanded dark fantasy campaign setting for 5th Edition and Pathfinder RPG, with a GM's book and player books plus maps, adventures, and a GM Screen.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

August Progress Update
over 6 years ago – Fri, Sep 01, 2017 at 01:24:55 AM

Veles, the World-Dragon
Veles, the World-Dragon

This year, the kobolds didn’t just survive Gen Con—we thrived! The Kobold crew sold books at the Lone Wolf booth, collected a Silver ENnie award for the Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns, and oversaw more than 50 tables of Midgard gaming run by some amazing GMs. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and said hello at the booth or the gaming hall, and a HUGE thanks to our volunteers and GMs.  

In Midgard news, we completed TONS of additional work in August, primarily in editing and cartography. We are at the "moving like a freight train" stage, where every day delivers great additions, even if some bits are tougher going than others.   

  • First two chapters of Midgard Heroes Handbook (5E) now in layout, more coming online  
  • All chapters of Midgard Player's Guide (PFRPG) now in layout  
  • 9 out of 12 chapters of Midgard Worldbook now edited and ready for layout  
  • Map revisions now at update 33; working on some special icons, adjusting borders, clarifying some labels, and adding the newly-described cities and locations to the map  
  • GM Screens sent to layout
  • Return to Castle Shadowcrag cover art arrived from artist
  • Eldritch Lairs 5E in final proofing (we'll hold the print on this a bit, but great to have them in the can)  
  • Eldritch Lairs (PFRPG) in final proofing  

Here's the somewhat rocky news, though thankfully the sort of thing that accompanies any large project. We’ve dealt with it before and can handle it, but we want to keep you aware of the pit traps and random encounters of the last month or so.  

  • One chapter of Midgard Worldbook remains overdue from the designer, and communication has been intermittent. Sending more scouts.  
  • Harkesh required some adjustments to existing map; all sorted out now.  
  • Found a section of regional traits missing in MPG; corrected and added.  
  • Ongoing revisions to the Worldbook crunch and appendixes; struggling with some bits  
  • Map for Dragon Empire still needs a heavy-duty scrub of locations, borders, and provincial updates, plus some untangling of ley lines  
  • Little progress on the Backerkit surveys this month; they keep falling off the to-do list  
  • Zero hardcover chapters completed in layout (we're behind)  

The good news is that layout can be quite fast when all art, maps, text, and templates are ready and rocking. There's a good reason why we call Marc Radle "the Machine"---and he's fueled up and ready! Expect to see quite a few layout milestones knocked down by the end of September.  

Happy gaming!  

Wolfgang, Marc, Anna, Michele, Steve, Amanda, and the whole Kobold crew

Expanding Midgard in Sourcebooks
over 6 years ago – Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 10:19:51 PM

 

Back in the funding days of this project, we talked about a set of supplements/expansions for Midgard to be called the Warlock booklets. Ongoing support for any living campaign setting is important, so we are moving ahead with it. Warlock is now underway, and you can subscribe on Patreon!  

We ship the first Warlock PDF/print booklet around September 1, with a different editing/artist team than the Midgard hardcovers. I’m sure you have questions, so let’s get to them:  

What's in this Patreon that I don't get already in the Midgard Worldbook? Why should I pay even $1 for this?  

If you want to see expansion of the world, or sneak peeks of 2018 projects, or just ask questions of the loremasters and get some cool exclusives, this is a way to do that. Warlock booklets will have new monsters, new lairs, new lore, and other new options for your 5E game. It will keep adding to the world every other month, long after the core books have shipped.  

Whaaaat? No Pathfinder?  

Nope, Warlock offers 5E rules and system-neutral lore. It's a small set of booklets, so there’s not room for multiple system support. Also, our Pathfinder team is currently doing the New Paths Compendium, so...  

Am I paying for the same stuff twice, then?  

Warlock provides us with a place to try out new material, share some old secrets from designer notebooks, and put things out that might otherwise never see daylight. You might see something in the Warlock booklets appear in a future project—but you might also never see it anywhere else. (We'd LOVE to include the full Beldestan writeup in the Worldbook, but it might get chopped back for space reasons).

Is this delaying the hardcovers? I want my books!  

Different editors and artists are involved—we’re seasoned enough to not assign the same people to be in two places at once! (We do have the same layout person working on both projects, but that doesn’t affect timing.) No one working on Warlock is being pulled off any responsibilities they have for Midgard Worldbook, Heroes Handbook, or Player's Guide.  

I hope you'll give Warlock a try.  

Happy gaming!  

Wolfgang and the Kobold crew

July Progress Update
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Aug 01, 2017 at 10:04:03 PM

A View of the Nieder Straits
A View of the Nieder Straits

July was a good month for Midgard, and hit several major milestones! Here's the news in brief.

  • Midgard Heroes Handbook for 5th Edition remains in editing. This one is still behind schedule, so we've swapped it into a later layout cycle.
  • Midgard Player's Guide for Pathfinder is in layout. First pages are coming together nicely, we we hope to start proofreading in a couple weeks.
  • Midgard Worldbook is about 1/3 in layout, 1/3 in editing, and 1/3 outstanding from design. Steady on, catching up a bit in editing. Design stragglers coming in.
  • Eldritch Lairs in proofreading for both rules sets. Still some map issues and other concerns. We will have cover art to share soon!
  • Huge progress on the world map; ley lines added and annotated, new towns and ruins added, borders clarified, and new geographic features added and/or named all over the place. Preview of map above shows an important bit of the Northlands (without all forests, but pretty close to final). Huginn's Arrow is a major ley line in the Straits.
  • Marc's spreadsheet identified some missing blazons in Heraldry. Getting those together has been interesting, as we're going back into the Magocracies for heraldry that only appears on certain ruins in the Wasted West, and on ancient tomes of lore. 
  • Art almost all in (which is good, given we have 1st hardcover in layout!), and artists are getting paid.
  • Generated proposed text for GMs Screen. Sent to layout.
  • Return to Castle Shadowcrag maps are complete, and art still coming in. Cover arrived, and we might share that in the next art update as well.

Whew. We've been busy, but it's a good busy. 

Happy gaming,

Wolfgang, Marc, Anna, and the Kobold Crew

June Progress Report
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 09:50:23 PM

Time to update everyone on the Midgard books! There’s mixed news this month: motion from editors and artists, as well as some delays in design.

Good News

1) The 5E playtest reports have been compiled and delivered to the editors (huge thank you to everyone who sent in a report, you've made the MHH and Lairs better books!)

2) First 3 edited chapters for the Midgard Worldbook have gone back to designers to address comments and make revisions

3) Four chapters turned over from editor to layout for Midgard Player's Guide for PFRPG  

4) Art turnovers continuing, and sketches coming in on time

5) Map turnovers continue at steady pace: all the regional maps are in draft state. We tweaking World trees, working on labels, and updating roads and locations for Blood Kingdoms 

6) Heraldry complete, at about 75 crests, including the one above (we hope to hear from some Red Portal backers on 2 more crests)

7) All core design except three Zobeck subclasses done for Midgard Heroes Handbook 5E  

8) Eldritch Lairs has gone to layout (both versions)  

9) DM Screen commissioned  

10) Return to Castle Shadowcrag design complete for both systems    

Less-Than-Good News  

1) Three designers have missed their turnover deadlines for the Worldbook. Wolfgang is tackling some extra material to make up lost time. 

2) The Pathfinder chapter turnovers are coming in very late. This potentially throws off the Midgard Player's Guide schedule, because it means the MPG will overlap with the Worldbook during layout/proofing time. 

3) Only one Pathfinder playtest report came in. We hoped for more, but understand that finals and summer vacations make it a tougher time to gather up tables. 

4) The MHH 5E chapters haven’t been sent to layout yet. They’re close, but they’re now late based on the original schedule. 

5) The art for Return to Shadowcrag is coming in slowly. The interiors look good, but the original cover artist bowed out and we needed to find a new artist. 

What Does this Mean?

The project might miss December ship dates for some, or all, elements. While we could recover on some of this, having more than one hardcover showing up late makes it harder to shift focus to a lagging/problem project. 

I think I was too optimistic about our ability to handle multiple projects, and I didn’t realize how much we would be affected by the Starfinder RPG (which was competing for attention from our Paizo/Pathfinder staff editors) and by the Streets of Zobeck 5E project (on the 5th Edition side). 

We’ll work hard to make up some lost ground here in June. I’m not ready to say we won't make the original ship dates, just that we need to get some momentum back, and fast. Wish us luck—we’ve got a full team headed right back to the word mines! 

Wolfgang, Marc, Michele, Amanda, Joe, Steve, and the design/edit crew

 

 

Playtest Packets Out
about 7 years ago – Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 08:37:07 PM

And with that, all playtest packets for the first wave are away! 

We've sent out the playtest materials for both 5th Edition and Pathfinder RPG to 350 groups, and we're looking forward to the reports. To be honest, we're really excited about this-- this collection of playtesters is larger than the number of patrons we had on some of our early projects, and getting this many eyes on the material is wonderful. 

Playtesting is the crucible that makes good gaming material better, and we've been advocates of the process since the beginning. It was where I got my start as a volunteer for Kobold Press. 

I'm really excited for this next step for Midgard, and happy to help see it brought to fruition. Here's looking forward to a great playtest! 

-Ben McFarland,

Playtest Coordinator