40 years of MIDGARD. Congratulations!
MIDGARD, Germany’s first fantasy role-playing game, is celebrating its birthday. It is not just any birthday, but the 40th! Despite its respectable age, the game still enjoys popularity and an active community today.
In 1981, Jürgen E. Franke created MIDGARD. This is now 40 years ago. Since then, the game has continued to develop and is currently in its fifth edition. Even if MIDGARD is not the most successful role-playing game from Germany, it still enjoys growing popularity and look back to an active community. This community is characterized by several things, but more about that later.
40 years of MIDGARD. Congratulations on the anniversary!
Let the number 40 roll off our tongue. Okay, that is not a „real“ age for a human being, but for a role-playing game or a game in general, 40 years is quite respectable. Only a few role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons and RuneQuest, are older. MIDGARD is currently only available in German. That is a pity, but this circumstance does not make the game less valuable than other games, which are much larger and available in different languages. Germany’s first fantasy role-playing game deserves just as much credit, because not many games of this fantastic hobby have made it 40 years so far. Therefore: Congratulations MIDGARD!
Forum, Blogs, Podcasts, Homebrew Content and much more
The community is characterized by a multitude of activities. For many the MIDGARD Forum is the central point of contact, which was founded in 2001 by Hans-Joachim Maier (podcast episode [GERMAN]) and where eager discussions and sometimes fan material is still published today.
Although fan sites have come and gone over the years, there are of course still blogs and websites that deal with Germany’s first fantasy role-playing game. Examples include the website „MIDGARD-Treffen Freiburg“ (link), the blog „Sonntagsspieler“ and this page.
With MOAM, a program was created with which players can, among other things, create characters (check out this introduction video on YouTube [GERMAN]). Dausend Dode Drolle is a magazine that deals with MIDGARD and the DDD-Verlag has been publishing adventures and sourcebooks for many years, enriching Germany’s first fantasy role-playing game.
The MIDGARD Wiki is the ideal reference work when information is needed quickly. In the podcast „SteamTinkerers Klönschnack“ we have made MIDGARD the system focus and David an I regularly talk about the game.
And if you are looking for relevant content on YouTube, you should also find it. Among other things, there is an interview with Jürgen and Elsa Franke at NordCon 2019. Finally, there are all the great conventions that usually take place on a regular basis.
Look at the 50!
What has been set up in 40 years is something to be proud of. And if we now look ahead, we realize that 50 is not too far away. Only ten more years! And maybe MIDGARD will be in its sixth edition by then. Let us see!
