There are places in this world that are abandoned, destinations lost to the annals of time. Invariably, these places drove their inhabitants away for one reason or another and have since become freakish wrecks of their former selves, surrounded by strange tales and urban legends. You know these places. There's at least one in every town, usually a rumored haunted house or shunned cemetary. They are always described with phrases like "a truth stranger than fiction". These lost destinations, their myths, and the truths behind them are the focus of this book series.
Shadows of Midnight is dedicated to "exploring the wayward places, lost destinations, and haunted locales of the real world." The series covers everything from haunted homes and towns to abandoned military facilities to strange regional legends. Like the Big Bang series, the books are intended as a bridge for the gap between gaming material and "coffee table" style reference books. Each book goes into extraordinary detail regarding the subject matter. The books could be used as travel guides, provide interesting reading material regarding anectdotal horror and ghost stories, and finally finish by providing ideas for putting the material into use in your game. The back end even includes new gaming material.
The flagship in the Shadows of Midnight series is Shadows of Midnight: West Milford. Originally published as Lost Destinations: West Milford, this book is more than a simple rebranding. As the third edition of the book, it expanded by nearly 40 pages full of new and revised material. And now the fourth edition expands it by an additional 50 pages.
This volume focuses on Township of West Milford, NJ, the epicenter for all that is freakishly strange in the state of New Jersey. The town is full of oddities, many worth mentioning, some not. It is home to a small housing development in which Satanists supposedly killed all the residents in the 1980's. It is home to a dark, winding road plagued by cults and hate mongers, serial killers, strange ruins, and even its own particular breed of hellhounds. It is home to a strange metal tree sprouted in the middle of the woods. It is home to the crashed remains of a military jet that some say was never manufactured. This and more plague this 80 square mile township nestled in the mountainous highlands of northwestern New Jersey. Whenever I need to get the mojo flowing to do horror, I visit this place and every time, I find something strange and new. Now revised four times, this book proves there is no end to the strange things in West Milford.
In this revised edition, taking into account events that have occurred in West Milford since the October 2004 release of the original edition, as well as all new strangeness we've unearthed over the intervening six years. The book also now includes the West Milford mini-campaign, a chain of scenario ideas that should provide numerous gaming sessions worth of adventure. We've also added the township's new oddities, such as the abandoned recreational facility of West Milford Lake, the former nudist colony known as the American Gymnosophy Association Camp, the Echo Lake House, the Outhouse Wars, The House of Non-Euclidian Geometry and more. In all, the book is expanded from 56 pages to 94 and now to 144. Game-related system-specific material includes new monsters and magics, as well as a new basic class, the Victim.
Shadows of Midnight was a 2007 rebranding campaign. In this instance, a rebranding and revision of our old Lost Destinations product line. As with the other rebranding projects, we are dedicated to not simply giving new names or covers, but to provide improved or enhanced products as well.
Here's what our customers have to say regarding Shadows of Midnight and its previous incarnation, Lost Destinations:
* "A very popular recurring thread on many web forums is the "tell your scary story" thread. We all love to hear anecdotal ghost stories, and the fact that you're getting them "from the source" adds a great deal of frisson to it. I have at least one of these threads bookmarked from rpg.net, where people talked rather vaguely about how to use these stories in a game. Well, in Lost Destinations: West Milford, the author has done the hard work of actually accomplishing what those discussions vaguely alluded might be cool. The book lists many locations throughout the real-life township of West Milford (including instructions on how to get there if you want to check it out IRL!) For each location, the author has gotten an enormous amount of detail, the aforementioned anecdotal creepy stories, and most importantly, has created several plot hooks for use in any occult/weird game. Stats are provided for D20 as well. The PDF's well-illustrated (in color). This is a very different project from the author's Big Bang series, which, although useful, can't possibly hold a candle to this excellent work. I don't hand out as many five star reviews as I used to, but this one definitely deserves one."
-- 5 Stars -- J Corley, Lost Destinations: West Milford
* "Lost Destinations is a great source book well worth buying even if you're not using the D20 system. I managed to read this book through in just one sitting. Lost Destinations is crammed full of interesting small town folklore and plot hooks, which were perfect for the game I was running. I would strongly recommend this supplement to anyone planning on running a "Small town' horror campaign as it's rich background material and plot hooks should help keep you're players occupied for quite a while. Even if you're planning on running a more wide ranging horror game this book is still a good buy as some of the larger plot hooks such as abandoned housing estate could easily serve as full adventure all on their own."
-- 4 Stars -- Gavin Cope, Lost Destinations: West Milford
* "An excellent resource if you want to play a modern day horror campaign, especially for those of us not native to the US. It is intended for d20 rules, but most of it contains "fluff", including plot hooks, so you should find it useful regardless of what gaming system you use."
-- 4 Stars -- Goran Bergstrom, Lost Destinations: West Milford
* "West Milford, although containing a few stat blocks for d20, is 97 pages of Unexplained weirdness: paranormal sites, UFOs, cryptozological sightings. It contains the creepiest photos taken by the author (a resident of the state of NJ) who did extensive research into the sites. Not only is each site explained, but you get driving directions! The author also provides non-paranormal explanations of all sites, includes a mini-campaign that connects them in a bloody modern-day Cult war (Slasher-film style), character templates (for d20 but easily portable) and advice for using the entries for a variety of other uses (police investigation, UFO). Also includes are modern-day horrors ("new elementals"), the Radon monster and the Lead monster (spontaneously oozing out of the radiation-infected local or the lead-poisoned homes). Note that the primary focus for the mini-campaign focues on the incredibly disturbing Cult slayings that focus one of the claims of the area (Demon Alley -- only one of the backgrounds, but a slaughter-house mess) but do include the ghost-hauntings as well."
-- 4 stars -- Tim Loud, Shadows of Midnight: West Milford, 3rd Edition
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