Midgard (RPG)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Midgard
The fantasy RPG
publication
Author (s) Jürgen E. Franke
Original publisher Fantasy and Science Fiction Games Publisher (VFSF)
Original publication 1981–
original language German
World and system
genre Fantasy
Game world Midgard
Ascent XP purchase system
cube W3 / W6 / W20 / W100

Midgard is a fantasy role-playing game . It is the first German-language role - playing game from Germany.

Despite the name, the role-playing game has nothing in common with the mythological Midgard .

system

In contrast to Dungeons & Dragons, Midgard is not a level-based system. The characters have a level (called "degree" by Midgard), but this only shows how much the character has already learned in his life ( experience ) and is rarely a prerequisite for learning anything. There are 15 character classes , but these only determine how easy or difficult it is for a character to learn a skill. Most skills can theoretically be learned by almost any class, only some classes find it more difficult than others - for example, a warrior can theoretically learn to do magic later, which is very expensive for him.

To dice the system a W100 used (mostly by two W10 replaced), a W20, classic W6 and since the latest edition and the W3 (the number indicates the number of pages of the cube and, lo dice ).

Midgard (in the 1985 edition) was the first role-playing game to introduce the separation of stamina points and life points , whereby the former can be greatly increased in the course of a campaign, while the latter remain (almost) constant. As a result, even high-level characters cannot go into combat completely safely - they are exhausted less quickly, but a targeted hit is just as deadly for them as it is for a "beginner".

Game world

Since Midgard is a fantasy role-playing game, it is hardly surprising that Midgard has many similarities to JRR Tolkien's world from the Lord of the Rings . The player will surely meet elves , dwarves and halflings (although the common people appear much more frequently), but dragons , trolls and of course various forms of magic are not exactly rare. However, the Midgard game world is culturally much more diverse than Tolkien's deliberately “European” Middle-earth. With the exception of North American cultures, most of the earthly cultures appear in the game in slightly modified or combined forms. In contrast to the more renaissance-like Aventuria , the Midgard world is much more archaic, for the most part it is influenced by the early Middle Ages, even if there are regions that are severely cut off from the rest of the world and which are still at the Stone Age , and the center of Midgard is on the Way into the Renaissance is located. With Myrkgard there is a second game world that offers a gloomy parallel world to Midgard.

Midgard

The well-known part of Midgard consists of four continents. In the middle of the map is the "Sea of ​​the Five Winds". This is bordered by the European continent Vesternesse with the countries Alba, Chryseia, Erainn, Ywerddon, Clanngadan and Fuardain in the northwest. South of Vesternesse is Lamaran with the coastal states, Eschar, Urruti and Buluga as well as the Ikenga basin. East of the Sea of ​​the Five Winds is Sirao, an Asian continent. To SiRAO include Waeland, Moravod that tegarische steppe, Aran, Medjis, KanThaiPan, Rawindra and the island kingdom Minangpahit. In the far west of the known world lies the continent Huaxal , which includes Nahuatlan, a state with a South American-Indian culture, and south of it the "Fire Islands". Approximately in the middle of the Sea of ​​the Five Winds lies the Valian archipelago, the remnants of the empire that perished in the “War of the Magi”.

Myrkgard

In 2003 a parallel world to Midgard, which is much darker, was introduced via an adventure cycle and a source volume. In this, 800 years before the current plot, the so-called Dark Sea Masters won the War of the Magi . The players face interesting and dangerous adventure opportunities here - without the backing of the "good" gods (it is possible, however, to wander between the worlds).

history

In 1978 Jürgen Franke self-published a set of rules under the name "Empires Of Magira". This first role-playing game was set in the fantasy world Magira (known from the novels of the author Hugh Walker and from a continuous game of the tabletop simulation game Armageddon ), but later had to be dispensed with due to licensing disputes.

In 1981 the improved game was released under the new name Midgard .

It also introduced the world of Magira, whereby Midgard was never bound by the rules to a certain game world or to a certain (more or less esoteric) philosophy. For example, instead of a consecrated god of a specific god with a fixed name, Midgard has a neutral "ruling priest" - which ruler deity of the game world it is exactly is up to the game master and the players. In other respects, too, Midgard prefers the unpretentious linguistic - "game master" instead of "master", "adventurer" instead of "hero" etc.

In 1983 a rule extension "Midgard II" is published.

In 1985 the revised set of rules appeared in two books under the names "Midgard - The Fantasy RPG" and "Midgard - The Key to Adventure" . The rules were almost completely turned inside out - approx. 20 classes instead of the previous four, introduction of the stamina / life point distinction, extensive system of skills, etc. This was the last edition that (in the appendix) presented the world of Magira, and the appeared in J. Frankes own "Verlag für Fantasy und Science Fiction RPG" (VF&SF for short).

In 1989 and 1991 the game manufacturer Klee Spiele released the third, only slightly changed, edition of the rules for the first time as a box. From now on the underlying world was also called "Midgard" and was closely based on Magira. Even some country names have been kept unchanged. After that, Midgard was quiet. The second part of the set of rules was soon sold out and was not reissued. New adventure modules also appeared relatively rarely.

A stripped-down entry-level box called "The Adventure Begins" was released by Pegasus Press in 1999 . This was largely based on the rules of the fourth edition, which appeared in the following years. But the fourth edition was also slightly different from the 1985 and 1989 editions.

In 2000, after a long break, "Midgard - Das Arkanum", the magic part of the fourth edition of the rulebook, was published as hardcover. It was followed in 2001 by "Midgard - The Fantasy RPG" , in 2002 "Midgard - The Compendium" with a few additional rules and in 2003 "Midgard - The Bestiary" , which describes the various creatures of Midgard.

In 2006, "Midgard - Masters of the Spheres" - now under its own publishing label Midgard Press - was the last part of the rules for the time being. For the 25th anniversary of the role-playing game in 2006, the complete set of rules was published in a three-volume luxury edition, again under the old VFSF publishing house of the 1985 edition. With "Midgard - The Codex" , "Midgard - The Bestarium" and "Midgard - The Arkanum" the complete Midgard set of rules is published as a luxury edition.

In October 2007, after long preparatory work and numerous test games, "Midgard - the board game" appeared as a dice and strategy game in the well-known Midgard world as a licensed product. The Rune Blades series was created especially for roleplay beginners . The first volume "Runenklingen 1: Klingensucher" of the multi-part series begins with a comic introducing the events and characters and was also published in October.

In 2008 the publisher began to make out of print adventures available again as a purchasable PDF . In addition, a completely new adventure was published as a PDF for sale instead of the usual print publication. The sequel "Runenklingen 2: Wolfswinter" appeared in February 2008, in June the last part "Finstermal" .

In 2009, the fan community experienced the revised new edition of the Alba source book, which had been out of print for a long time, as well as a source book on the culture of the dwarfs, the first description of one of the non-human peoples. In the fan base, three novels were published against the backdrop of the game world. In 2010, two completely new official source books and further novels from the fan base were published. Currently (November 2013) there are 45 official publications on this edition of the rules.

In 2013, a fundamentally revised new edition of the basic rules, Midgard 5 , was published by Midgard Press. For the first time, the community of players was involved in the revision process ( open innovation ) and many wishes, experiences and suggestions were taken into account. In the new edition, the rules have been freed from old ballast, simplified and a new orientation has been implemented for beginners and those switching.

Regulations

Midgard 1 (1981)

Midgard 2 (1985)

Midgard 3 (1989)

Midgard 4 (2000)

Basic rules

Supplementary rules

Luxury edition

Source books

Rune blades

Midgard 5 (2013)

The 5th edition of the Midgard rulebook was published on October 28, 2013.

Basic rules

Supplementary rules

Source books

With the printed rulebooks, you also acquire download codes for PDF versions and bonus material.

According to the workshop report, the following objectives were pursued during the revision:

  1. Ease of use, especially for newbies
  2. Compatibility with Midgard 4
  3. simplification

Magazines

Official magazine

Gildenbrief (1985-2015): 63 issues

Unofficial magazines

DausendDodeDrolle (since 1993): So far 26 issues
Midgard Herold (2000–2002): Four editions
Hodgepodge (2006–2009): 6 issues

Derivatives

Midgard Adventure 1880

In 1994 the publisher published a historical version of Midgard, which is set in the last years of the 19th century (Midgard - Abenteuer 1880, authors: Heinrich Glumpler, Jürgen E. Franke). Midgard 1880 is not set in a fantasy world, but on earth. In the following years the two adventure volumes "Between the Worlds" and "From the Earth's Dark Womb" appeared . However, due to lack of interest, the system was soon discontinued, there were no more publications apart from a few adventures and scenarios in role-playing magazines and the official source volume. In this work, the game master is invited to present the Protocols of the Elders of Zion , an anti-Semitic forgery that the National Socialists used to justify the Holocaust , as authentic. The Berlin historian Wolfgang Benz sees the typical strategy of anti-Semites at work and compares the publication with someone who sets fire to a barn “with purely playful intent”.

In 2010, Effing Flying Green Pig Press took over the rights to Midgard 1880 from VFSF. In July 2010, the rules were finally revised. As a result, numerous adventures have appeared under the revised rules.

Rulebook and source books

  • MIDGARD - Adventure 1880: Book of Rules. Green Pig Press, ISBN 978-3-9813601-0-3 .
  • Doctor Nagelius' cheap and rambling, eccentric and eclectic Encyclopaedic Compendium of the Known World. Green Pig Press, ISBN 3-924714-73-8 .
  • MIDGARD - Adventure 1880: Doctor Nagelius' Miscellings. Green Pig Press, ISBN 978-3-9813601-4-1

Perry Rhodan

With the Perry Rhodan role-playing game ( PRRS ), the publisher released a special version of Midgard in 2004, which is based on the current cycle "The Star Ocean" (volumes 2200 to 2299) of the science fiction series Perry Rhodan . A source book and several adventures were published for this offshoot by 2006.

The Perry-Rhodan role-playing game was published under the company's own publishing label Edition Dorifer . It was discontinued at the turn of the year 2010/2011.

Rulebook and source books

Awards

The basic rules of the fifth edition were nominated for the shortlist of the German Role Playing Award 2014 in the category basic rules.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.midgard-online.de ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Workshop report: MIDGARD 5. Accessed May 24, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.midgard-online.de
  2. ↑ Rainer Nagel, Doctor Nagelius' well Feiles and rambling, eccentric and eclectic Enzcyclopaedisches compendium of the known world. VFSF + Green Pig Press, 2002.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Benz: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The legend of the Jewish world conspiracy. CH Beck, Munich 2007, p. 77 f.
  4. ↑ www.dorifer.com ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. End of a cycle - Dorifer says good bye. Accessed January 7, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dorifer.com
  5. ↑ German RPG Award. Retrieved June 14, 2016 .