“The Bestiary”. The ultimate book of creatures for MIDGARD.
To play MIDGARD, you need two books, “The Codex” (“Der Kodex”) as well as “The Arcanum” (“Das Arkanum”). They contain the core rules of Germany’s first fantasy role-playing game, but what about creatures and other encounters which the players characters could face during their adventures? In this case, you need another book: The Bestiary (“Das Bestiarium”).
In my previous article (link), I told you a little about Germany’s first fantasy role-playing game, MIDGARD which was first published in 1981. I also told you which books you need to play the current 5th edition of the game. So far, so good, but the players characters will make acquaintances with other people (non-player characters) as well as with dangerous creatures during their adventures. The game master will need a book that contains descriptions of some of these encounters. The question is, “Does MIDGARD own such a book?” The answer is really simple, “Yes, MIDGARD does have such a book.”
“The Bestiary”. The ultimate book of creatures for your MIDGARD campaign.
The book is called “The Bestiary” (“Das Bestiarium”) and usually a “must have” for any game master, who wants to run a MIDGARD campaign or a one-shot. Officially, it is not a core book as it does not contain 5th edition core rules, instead it describes a lot of fantastic creatures the player characters may face during their adventure.
Are you looking for magical creatures, demons or trolls? All the important information, such as game stats, can be found in this in this book. Some of the described creatures are also illustrated, so both the players and the game master can see what the appropriate creature looks like. By the way, the whole layout of “The Bestiary” is an eye-catcher.
The quality of the book
And what about the quality? It is impressive! “The Bestiary” is a robust hardback, it has many illustrations, it is completely in colour and has 266 pages. As well as the table of contents, it contains an index, which is very useful. If you are looking for a particular creature, there is a very good chance that you will find it there. The best thing is, with the purchase of “The Bestiary” you will receive a code that you can enter in the publisher’s online store “Branwens Basar” (link) to get the book as PDF as well. Is it awesome? Yes, it is!
Some last words
Behind MIDGARD is a small publishing house called “Verlag für F&SF-Spiele”. It seems that it doesn’t have the capacity to publish Germany’s first fantasy role-playing game in other language. That means that the game is currently only available in German. If you want to play MIDGARD, at least one member of your party should speak German. Will this circumstance change in 2024, when Pegasus Spiele releases the new 6th edition? Maybe but I am not sure. It would be desirable to do so.
Did you like this article with information about MIDGARD? If so, please leave a comment and let me know what topic you would like to read next about Germany’s first fantasy role-playing game? I am not a native English speaker, but I enjoy writing my articles in English to improve my skills.
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