WHAT WORKS: The production values are amazing. The flavor text is generally short but evocative, and the art almost universally compliments the feel of the setting. A ton of information is provided (it is a 400 page book), giving ample material to run the setting out of the one book (or so I assume…I do own the whole game line). A lot of effort has gone into making the world oppressive. In many ways, Midnight is more horrific than classic horror settings like Ravenloft. Also, there is no metaplot. The game line never really advances the timeline, so the setting is truly yours to do with as you will.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: I would kill for a version of the book that isn’t written for d20, though I do have a great Savage Worlds conversion downloaded. I don’t necessarily need more supplements, but the line being available via print on demand or something would be great. The setting is written with the assumption that the heroes will always fail, though with no true metaplot being present, that can be worked around.

CONCLUSION: Midnight, along with the Art Haus Ravenloft, is the best thing to come out of the d20 era for me, regardless of how I feel about the game system. I’m eager to give the Savage Worlds conversion a go, and I’ll report back on how that goes here on the blog. I went out of my way to ensure that I purchased the entire Midnight collection in print (I even own the first edition and Against the Shadow, both of which were largely folded into Second Edition), and I’m glad I did. And while I will run the setting harsh, the outcome will ultimately be very much in the hands of the PCs, not myself or the designers’.

For my full review, please visit http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2013/01/tommys-take-on-midnight-second-edition.html

My one gripe here is that, despite being a "complete" update, there's no full setting map. I've seen the 3.0 version, which has a 2-page map of the whole continent. This has little clips of it in sections, way back in the geography section, which is ok, but no big picture. As I haven't yet seen the 3.0 version available here (unless its packaged w/ the movie?), I'm still hoping to see a full map file show up. Art is good, mechanics are internally consistent, LOVE the heroic paths.

Midnight: Second Edition is a massive d20 campaign setting from Fantasy Flight Games. The single PDF file is over forty megabytes in size, weighing in at over four hundred pages. Being watermarked, your name appears in a small font at the bottom left corner of every page. There are no bookmarks, nor is the table of contents hyperlinked, which is a shame, considering the size of this book.

Midnight is a book overflowing with artwork. As this is a direct PDF version of the print book, all of the original art has been preserved, from the covers to the interior art to the backgrounds. Full-color artwork is fairly generous throughout the introduction, where even the pages have a colored background. The rest of the book is in black and white, but the art is no less numerous for it, and all pages have borders along the top and bottom. Unless you have a very strong printer and plenty of ink cartridges, you may want to buy the print book rather than try to print out this PDF.

The world of Midnight is very similar to that of Tolkien’s Middle Earth in flavor, having low-magic and clinging to more classic archetypes of fantasy. Elves reside in deep forests, dragons are few and unique, and a shadowy evil god is present in the world. However, this last point is where Midnight is different, because here, the evil god, named Izrador, has conquered the world, defeating the great alliances of men and elves and dwarves who tried to keep him contained.

Magic is also different in Midnight. When Izrador was cast from the heavens to the mortal world, the Veil was erected, which keeps the world cut off from the planes. Because of this, planar travel and clerical magic are unavailable; only Izrador’s priests, the legates, can access divine magic. Other than creatures with innate spellcasting, characters must use channeling, accessing the native energies in the world itself, to use magic. Channeling is different from standard d20 magic, as it requires taking feats to gain access to magic. Moreover, channelers are assigned a small group of spell energy points, rather than automatically being able to cast a certain number of spells per day. Other effects, such as summoning and calling, are also changed due to the planar isolation of the world.

While the book is divided up into numerous chapters, all of them fall into three sections. The first section is meant for the players, covering the new races, skills, feats, magic, etc. This is the part of the book that all players should read so that they can properly create characters for the setting. The second section is the meat of the book, providing large coverage of the world itself, going over various lands and kingdoms. It also covers what the characters would know about the world in general, its history, and such things as common knowledge about Izrador, the Night Kings, the legates, magic, and many other things. The final section is meant for Game Masters, discussing more of the changes to the d20 mechanics, introducing new monsters, and optional rules.

Midnight: Second Edition is a massive book, for a massive campaign. The depth and precision of its setting fluff and history is rich, and its use of the d20 mechanics is not only well-balanced, but pervasive as well, making this a truly high-quality work. The only real problem with this book is how it doesn’t take advantage of its features as a PDF. Even navigating this can be a bit of a chore without bookmarks, and the lack of a printer-friendly version can be daunting if you want to print out even a single chapter. Still, this remains one of the single best campaign settings ever produced for the d20 system, and an epic realm of high fantasy. A serious setting for serious gamers, Midnight is a world that needs heroes to fight back the Shadow. Will your characters be the ones to answer the call?

Midnight is a very creative take on the OGL content for D&D--classes, races, and the magic system are significantly altered, giving a game that is actually a lot of fun to play. Add to that the flavor of the setting, and you have a game that is (my opinion) more D&D than the actual D&D. Heroic paths and restrictions on magic and equipment create a built-in sense of desperation in the game mechanic. The dark forces aren't just stat blocks ... they are malevolent beings who have plunged an entire world into darkness. This is one of the few non-WotC d20 settings that truly competes with the original, and ties Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved for being the most original, most enjoyable way to play fantasy d20. Kudos to fantasy flight for supporting such a great product.

I don't give this 5 stars for 1 reason only: no bookmarks. I bought the pdf because I didn't want another book to lug around, and aside from not having bookmarks, it's a top quality file.

And to the reviewer who gave this item 1 star due to the price ... I don't see the logic in your being angry about how much you decided to pay for something; I mean, you knew how much it cost before you bought it, didn't you?

This is a great game. A fascinating premise (The dark god won) and a very interesting setting, with some great rules that work in a place where using magick can get you killed.

Why give it bad marks then? because I am reviewing the PDF version and the price quite frankly is redicoulous. For 95 more cents I can actualy get the real tangible copy I can hold in my hand. THe pricing is stupid so I cannoy recommend anyone buy this. Go out and get the dead tree version for a whole extra dollar.