A Bridge to Another World
The fires of creation burn hot! The design of the Midgard campaign setting is underway!
You can be part of this rare opportunity to design a published campaign setting with your co-authors Wolfgang Baur, Jeff Grubb, and Brandon Hodge. Join us!
The World of Midgard
Midgard is the home D&D campaign setting of award-winning game designer Wolfgang Baur. Over the years, Wolfgang has made parts of the setting public through articles published in Kobold Quarterly magazine, and patron-funded, crowdsourced RPG design projects under the Open Design banner.
To date these articles and projects have primarily focused on the Eastern-European-inspired Free City of Zobeck, and neighboring environs such as the Old Margreve Forest, the undead-ruled Principalities of Morgau and Doresh, and the Ironcrag Mountains. Recent Open Design projects have expanded into distant regions to the north and south. Much of Midgard, however, still consists of hints and allusions just waiting to be filled out. And that is where you come in as a patron.
What is Patronage?
If you’ve never participated in a patron project before, you are in for something new and exciting. Patronage provides the chance to modify a game design before it sees print, and to put your mark on a project. Our version of patronage is based on the ancient practice of nobles and merchants funding the works of artists, composers, authors and poets. When you become a patron of an Open Design project you are in charge, offering critique and suggestions, perhaps even adding elements to the design yourself.
Choose a Region
Midgard is a world of distinct regions and flavors, and one of the first ways you’ll shape the project is be choosing what regions of the world will get attention first. Here are the choices.
1) The Crossroads is the heartland of the setting, containing the Free City of Zobeck, the dwarven Cantons, and Margreve Forest, as well as the Magdar Kingdom. Filled with shadow elves and clockwork magic, this is where plots come together and blades cross!
2) The Dragon Empire of the East is ruled by its Sultan and his harem assassins, a place of fierce elemental gods and expanding power. Also includes a visit to the Flying Cities of Sikkim, and possibly the tombs of the River Lands to plunder.
3) The Grand Duchies of the Princes are the wealthiest of Midgard’s lands, heirs to elven civilization but very much filled with the pride of human accomplishments. Visit the ruins of the elven city of Thorn, dare to enter the Elven Court of Arbonesse, or simply take the ready money of adventuring companies in the Free City of Salzbach and its 10,000 riches.
4) The Northlands and Elflands are snowy realms held by the reaver dwarves and thursir giants, home to Thule and the Lands Beyond Knowing. Valkyries come calling, frost oracles and linnorms prowl, and a dozen mysteries await the warrior who can carve a path of steel.
5) The Seven Cities, once the great urban centers of empire, now these city states feud in a state of perpetual war. Their weapons are poison, guile, and steel, their goals to serve their oracles—or to amass great wealth and power.
6) The Wasted West, haunted lands of the wizards’ magocracy, towering horrors on blasted heaths, the wasteland of ruined kingdoms fallen into goblin realms.
7) The Tsars and Steppes with their cold gnomish hells, nomadic Rothenian elves, infernal princes, bloodthirsty centaurs, and crazed slaver despots!
Which to start with? Up to you! You, Baur, Grubb, and Hodge will focus on one or two regions at a time rather than doing everything at once.
Six Great Patron Perks
What are the perks of patrons? It’s quite a list.
1) Design Discussion and Review
Like all Open Design projects, your opinion matters. Choose what regions to build, and comment, suggest, and critique it before it sees print.
2) Chats and Virtual Tabletop Games
The Midgard project will use online chats and virtual tabletop tools to make feedback faster and easier. Major supporters can even playtest with the designers!
3) Limited Edition Hardcover
The regions above will be designed as they reach their commission, and the whole project will be edited and illustrated to the highest standard. A 160-plus page, limited-edition hardcover will be available to patrons of the project. The book will also be available in softcover to the public.
4) Worldbuilder’s Handbook
A collection of 50 years of experience and advice by Baur, Grubb, and others on worldbuilding tips and tricks, how to improve your home campaign, and how to maximize your setting’s value to players. A guide to one-shot settings and years-long campaign arcs, and building a setting that supports play.
5 ) Campaign Setting PDF
The complete PDF of the work you’ve seen and approved!
6) Credit in the Final Work
And best of all, your contributions will be acknowledged in the setting credits. Bragging rights!
System
World creation is less about system than splat books and core rules, of course, but that doesn’t mean system doesn’t matter! The Midgard campaign setting covers the systems that patrons prefer: that means OGL and Pathfinder RPG and 4E Dungeons & Dragons, of course, but it might also mean using the AGE system from the Dragon Age RPG. If 4E or DA don’t get much support, of course, we’ll focus on a single system. The mechanics will reflect patron interest.
Designers
The confirmed designers for this project are Wolfgang Baur, Jeff Grubb, and Brandon Hodge.
Wolfgang Baur is the author of the Kobold Guides to Game Design and the designer of Courts of the Shadow Fey, Kingdom of the Ghouls, Fortress of the Stone Giants, Dark*Matter (with Monte Cook), and many others, including foundational work on Planescape, Al-Qadim, and Zobeck. He has contributed creatures great and small to the D&D canon, from the demon lord Doresain in the D&D cosmology to the Shining Children and others in the recent Bestiary 2. He edited Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Adventures and serves as the publisher of Kobold Quarterly. Baur is the creator and keeper of the flame for the Midgard campaign setting.
Jeff Grubb is a legendary world-builder, and has served as one of the co-founders of the Dragonlance and co-creators of the Forgotten Realms campaign settings. He is the author of 15 novels set in the Realms and Dragonlance, StarCraft, WarCraft, Star Wars and Guild Wars. He has written over 30 short stories and essays and over 100 game products of various types and sizes. He likes nothing more than to root around inside a new universe and figures out what makes it tick. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two cats.
Brandon Hodge is a relative newcomer to RPG design but his star has risen rapidly. He broke into the field as a designer on Halls of the Mountain King, and followed up with the Open Design/Paizo dual project From Shore to Sea and Sunken Empires. He has contributed to Bestiary 2 for Pathfinder RPG and is writing an Adventure Path installment for Paizo that will ship in 2011. Hodge lives in Austin, Texas, where he haunts carnivals and flea markets, searching for the parents who abandoned him to the vagaries of the juvenile justice system. Someday he will return to the hobo tribe that raised him.
Standard Patron ($29.95) – You gain immediate access to the design forums and a rough map of the world, plus you will receive an 8-essay course in worldbuilding, a regional preview PDF, the Midgard campaign setting PDF when it ships—and you choose which regions to design first. Submit characters, monsters, and items to the mechanical track. Access to the limited edition hardcover (price depends on final pagecount).
Senior Patron ($89.85) – All of the above, plus you receive the Worldbuilder’s Handbook PDF when it ships, can join online chats with Baur, Grubb, and Hodge, and you’ll have access to any three regional discussions. You get your choice of the hardcover and softcover print copies at a substantial patron discount.
Major Donor ($149.75) – All of the above, plus access to all the regional discussions as a senior patron, and you receive a signed print copy of the Worldbuilder’s Handbook included as part of your patronage. Submit your own kings, queens, towns, guilds, and secret societies to the setting.
Sponsor ($299.50) – All of the above, plus a signed copy of the limited-edition hardcover Midgard campaign setting. Submit whole cities, new gods, demon lords, archdevils, and dungeons to the setting.
Exarch of the Magocracy $599 (1 only) – All of the above, and you receive limited-edition, autographed copies of the Midgard Campaign Setting and Worldbuilder’s Handbook. Submit materials from your own campaign—a whole nation, PC race, or pantheon—and see it fully developed, integrated, and illustrated. Play a private Midgard game with the designers at Paizo Con 2011 or Gen Con 2012.
