This edition of Midnight updates the entire campaign to Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 and the Core Rulebook includes the content from the original Midnight volume and the player’s guide, Against the Shadow. New rules from both books have been compiled, streamlined, and updated. The setting information has been expanded and deepened, including all-new content on the Northern Marches and the orcs who were bred there. The GM’s section has been expanded as well, and now includes information on all of the creatures of Aryth, detailed maps, adventure ideas, and more!

The World of Midnight

In the world of Midnight, evil rules and the last, brave heroes strive against unbeatable odds. The lands of men have been crushed under the iron heels of the Night Kings and their minions and the lands of the fey are besieged on all sides by the dark hordes of the Shadow in the North. Those who would resist the dominion of the dark god must often do so from the shadows, fighting a secret war that most people believe was lost a hundred years ago.

The heroes of Midnight stand against orcish hordes with snow elf warriors in the frozen woods of northern Erethor. They travel the barren lands of the Dorns and fight a guerilla war in the shadow of the broken Fortress Wall. They join with gnome smugglers to carry food and medicines to the besieged dwarven clans of the Kaladruns. They ride with Sarcosan outlaws and halfling nomads on the open plains of central Erenland. They elude scheming legates and their magic-sniffing spirit servitors as they search for the priceless artifacts of a lost age. These heroes fight to defend isolated towns from the ravages of fell beasts and undead—the same towns that shun them as troublemakers and glory-seekers.

In the world of Midnight, the rewards of heroism are not fortune and fame. In this age of shadow, your hero fights only to guard the last lights in a darkening world and to preserve the glimmer of hope that the long night will pass.

This is the legacy the heroes of Midnight have inherited and the world they must survive. As the Shadow falls across the world, they are the few brave and defiant souls who dare to oppose the tyranny of the Night Kings. They struggle to stem the tide of darkness and restore hope to a despairing world. Pursued by the Night Kings’ foul minions and the secretive legates of the Order of Shadow, these heroes will never receive parades and victory feasts as the reward for the their noble efforts. Their greatest foes are often the suspicion, resentment, and fear of the very people they strive to champion and protect.

What Is Roleplaying?

In a Roleplaying Game (RPG) you create an alter ego, a fictional character like one of the heroes you've read about or seen in films. Using the game rules, you and your friends create characters and develop them as you play through a series of adventures. Imagine a group of detectives working together to solve a case or a company of knights sent to defeat a monster, but rather than reading or watching the story, you tell it.

How is the story told? How do you decide what happens? What do you do if you and your friend disagree? That's where rules come in. Roleplaying is only half of the story; the other half is the game itself. Midnight Second Edition presents you with the rules of the game—how to design your character, how to resolve actions, and how to have fun doing so. During a game of Midnight, the players roll pools of custom dice to determine the outcome of combat, social intrigues, or other risky actions.

Before you start playing, you and your friends will need to decide which of you will be the game master (GM). The GM is the referee and the lead storyteller, the person who describes the game to the other players. The GM presents the stories and situations, provides the setting and its denizens, and adjudicates the rules. The other players take on the roles of the characters, around which the action primarily revolves. These characters are known as the Player Characters (PCs). They describe their intentions and actions to the GM, who then decides how their actions affect the plot.

So how do you win?

The answer is up to you. The game master is not set against the heroes. Both the game master and the hero party are working together to create a memorable experience for all involved. Each session gives both parties a chance to become part of something larger, and allow them to create their own legend in an Age of Shadow.