Midgard

Being released in the beginning of the 1980s, Midgard represents the most traditional of Germany's RPGs. It has helped to create and cultivate the German RPG market at a time where Dungeons & Dragons ruled the world. Contrary to the latter, Midgard not so much stands for high-fantasy encounters, but a well-balanced set of rules accompanied by a world mostly based on human culture, where dragons and miracles are less frequent. As a result, player characters, too, do not develop as rapidly as in other RPGs and even high level characters will rarely dare to wrestle mighty devils and demons. While PCs gather skills and abilities during their life time, they will most probably never develop super-human powers. Although covering most aspects of medieval fantasy adventuring, Midgard's rules claim to leave game masters enough freedom to cultivate their own interpretations of the outcome of events without violating written law.

Midgard is loved by its supporters as much as it opposed by its critics who accuse its rules of being arbitrary and be based to much on random factors. In fact, apart from those who don't know it at all, there seem to be few players who feel completely indifferent towards the game. You either love it and play it, or shun it altogether.