Pipes, Pints, and Polyhedrons

Someone in a FB group posted about playing DungeonQuest from Fantasy Flight Games. It's a game in which players draw and place random tiles onto the board, thereby creating the "dungeon". Characters move through the dungeon, drawing cards and resolving actions against monsters, traps, and the usual stuff you'd expect to find, all the while trying to collect treasure and then escape the dungeon alive. The player with the most loot wins, very similar to the Dungeon board game from TSR/WotC.


The cool thing about DQ, though, is that it is set in the same universe as Runebound, a board game which I used to own WAY back in the early 2ks before my second gaming group (with Ancalagon and Captain Blood), split and scattered to the four winds. I'm pretty sure I bought Runebound from Plycon's, a game store that was owned by Tony Harrell. Tony, as it was, also happened to be my very first DM, whom I met my sophomore year of college, sometime in 1993. As I think I mentioned once before, Tony ran a homebrew campaign setting using AD&D 2nd Edition, in which the primary evil god was none other than a deity named Plycon.

With Tony graduating and getting a real job, wife, and kid, he stopped running his game. When that happened, running games for the next few years fell onto the shoulders of my buddy Scott, and myself. From then on, aside from our usual fare of AD&D 2e, we played everything from WFRP 1e to Marvel Super Heroes and Werewolf the Apocalypse to Call of Cthulhu. Weekends were spent on all-day gaming, or loading up and driving down to Orlando to hit up some of the big game shops and theme parks. Eventually though, as with Tony, other members of our group finished school and moved away, or just stopped playing in general. For me it happened around '96, I moved away, focused on other things.

That was the first big gaming "era" in my life.

The second, longer lasting era, started around the turn of the century and lasted for over a decade. I moved back to Valdosta in '99, moved in with my buddy Scott. At that time though, table-top gaming took something of a back seat. EverQuest, the online MMORPG had become a massive hit. Almost everyone I knew or hung out with at the time, was playing religiously, including me. Thankfully though, I never really gave up on pen-and-paper RPGs, even while playing EQ.

This was also around the time I met Ancalagon and some of his co-workers, we started running AD&D 2e again, with the occasional foray into 1e, WFRP 2e, Hackmaster, and even D&D 3e (because that was all the rage in the early part of the 2000s). The Adventure Zone was the only local game shop at the time and usually had a decent selection of games, but it really fell into decline in the 2ks. When I eventually found out about Tony's store, Plycon's became the place to be for both electronic LAN parties and table-top gaming. Through Plycon's our gaming group formed a small core group, with other revolving players either from the Air Force Base or the college.

What's funny about all of this, is that the post from FB showing off DungeonQuest is that it really brought back memories of the afternoons we spent playing Runebound. Runebound was a great game in which players adventured independently, moving characters around the board, completing quests, collecting items, and increasing power to be the first to rid the lands of great evil. There were a lot of expansion sets and add-on packs you could get. I don't know what happened to my original copy, I think it got lost in the move from Valdosta. Which is even more of a shame, since FFG no longer has it in-print. It would be nice to get it again and give it a run.

Runebound was a fun board game. I recall playing several games back when I lived in Valdumpster.

Too bad FFG let Runebound go out of print. FFG also let the Midnight RPG go out of print. And turned WFRP3e into a half-assed board game. Those folks just ain't right.

Ancalagon wrote: ↑February 21st, 2022, 5:41 pm FFG also let the Midnight RPG go out of print. And turned WFRP3e into a half-assed board game. Those folks just ain't right.

I agree with WFRP, they did try the board game angle with it, using counters, character plates, and standees, etc. It just wasn't a good fit for an RPG, especially following WFRP 2nd Edition, which was great.

As for Midnight, it did go out of print, but then again, pretty much everything for "d20" did once folks got tired of the glut of d20 products being put out. D&D 3.x was the new hotness at the time, first new edition after WotC acquired the IP from TSR. Everyone in the hobby was trying to fit their own games, systems, and settings to cash in on the popularity.

Regardless of who owned it, I think Midnight would have been doomed regardless. I do have the entire line of Midnight products on PDF, but the last time I read back through, it reminded me why I wouldn't want to run it. The 3.x system is just so cumbersome with all of the feats, skills, huge as stat blocks, etc. As much as I dig the setting, the system is just too crunch.

Necron 99 wrote: ↑February 22nd, 2022, 7:07 am

Ancalagon wrote: ↑February 21st, 2022, 5:41 pm FFG also let the Midnight RPG go out of print. And turned WFRP3e into a half-assed board game. Those folks just ain't right.

I agree with WFRP, they did try the board game angle with it, using counters, character plates, and standees, etc. It just wasn't a good fit for an RPG, especially following WFRP 2nd Edition, which was great.

As for Midnight, it did go out of print, but then again, pretty much everything for "d20" did once folks got tired of the glut of d20 products being put out. D&D 3.x was the new hotness at the time, first new edition after WotC acquired the IP from TSR. Everyone in the hobby was trying to fit their own games, systems, and settings to cash in on the popularity.

Regardless of who owned it, I think Midnight would have been doomed regardless. I do have the entire line of Midnight products on PDF, but the last time I read back through, it reminded me why I wouldn't want to run it. The 3.x system is just so cumbersome with all of the feats, skills, huge as stat blocks, etc. As much as I dig the setting, the system is just too crunch.

The setting sure was a fun change of pace. Wasn't there a rumor of a Midnight game in the works for 5e?

It's not even a rumor, it's happening. BUT...

I'm not really looking forward to it, based on what I know already. For one, as you said, it's for 5e, which I'm simply not interested in playing in any capacity. Second, this article which discusses the upcoming edition has some info that just doesn't jive well with me.

Full article: HERE

This year, Fantasy Flight got out of the roleplaying games business, and sister studio Edge picked up their Star Wars license, Genesys RPG and Legend of the 5 Rings. It’s Edge, a publisher based in Spain, who is resurrecting Midnight.

Midnight, which has already had two editions, will not use Genesys. Instead, it’ll use Wizards of the Coast’s OGL and run on 5th edition. That’s the D&D ruleset.

Asked why this was the case, Stewart offered up two reasons for not moving to Genesys. Firstly, Midnight’s legacy has been with the D&D rule system, and there was the feeling at Edge that this should be maintained. Secondly, it would be easier.

We didn’t get timelines for the project. In fact, Edge is still working to onboard Fantasy Flight Games’ RPG assets and don’t even have a website ready. The lockdown has made matters worse.

Stewart was also asked about “evil races”. D&D has recently acknowledged the idea of “bad by blood” is wrong and issued a diversity in Dungeons & Dragons statement. Could this be a concern for good races versus evil races setting like Midnight?

It could be, acknowledged Stewart, but it was an issue they were already working to address. In fact, Legend of the Five Rings already works with sensitivity readers and cultural experts since that RPG draws so heavily on Asian cultures.

I may be wrong, but I'm not expecting anything good to come of this. The original edition of the game was great, if you change the lore of the system to fit woke, modern tropes, then you're not going to evoke the same feeling. Midnight is supposed to be oppressive, dark, and generally feel like you're not going to make a difference in the world. Evil abound, you never know who you can and can't trust, it's a losing struggle of power for the forces of good.

Necron 99 wrote: ↑February 24th, 2022, 8:08 am I may be wrong, but I'm not expecting anything good to come of this. The original edition of the game was great, if you change the lore of the system to fit woke, modern tropes, then you're not going to evoke the same feeling. Midnight is supposed to be oppressive, dark, and generally feel like you're not going to make a difference in the world. Evil abound, you never know who you can and can't trust, it's a losing struggle of power for the forces of good.

Yeah... WotC's cultural shift with D&D would absolutely clash with the foundations of the Midnight setting. I wonder if Edge games would disregard WotC's ideology and just use the rules framework. It should be an option via the OGL as opposed to a license agreement with WotC.

Another concern could be a D&D 6th edition. What would happen with Edge's Midnight if, after publication, WotC announces a forthcoming 6e? WotC doesn't have the best track record regarding current editions and denials of replacement editions in the works. Just sayin'.