Developing a "points of light" campaign setting

[Kzach]

How do you explain why 1st-level characters are so powerful? What are the deleterious effects (on the game world) of players being the most powerful members of their society, and how do you mitigate them? (Sorry for the shotgun-questioning)

Easy.

If you base your setting on an average medieval design, then you have a sortof in-built reasoning for PC power. As for control, 4e deals with that nicely using the minions concept.

To explain, break down your society into several levels of power. Knowledge is power in this respect. Not everyone can become a fully fledged fighter. They need to not only have the ability, but also the drive and a mentor and trainer.

Bob could have great ability scores but just lacks the drive to be a fighter, wishing to simply live a peaceful life. But let's just say he is incredibly keen to learn how to swing a sword, what opportunities does he realistically have to do so? He's not a noble, so he has to find someone willing to teach him, which costs gold, which he doesn't have.

So Bob joins the local militia and gets basic training. That gives him the power of an NPC, but he'll never be a great (PC) fighter. His mate, Joe, is also in the militia but his stats suck, so he only counts as a minion.

With power levels you can equate them to people's rough ability to obtain them. I have minions, monsters, NPC classes (I still plan to use these even if they're not included in 4e), PC classes with less powerful people (so, if the average PC is 28 point buy, these would be 22 point buy) and the PC's.

That doesn't mean that they're the only ones with that level of power. I usually break it down by saying 10% of the population is nobility. 60% of nobility only manage minion status for whatever reason. 30% manage NPC level classes. 5% manage PC level classes but don't excel because of lower stats or whatever. 4% manage to be equal in power to PC's and 1% exceed the PC's power.

Generally what this equates to is that the PC's are of noble blood and are privileged enough to be taught by skilled mentors. Giving them noble blood is actually a really good idea. Nobles generally aren't that much richer than their peasant counterparts. The primary difference is access to knowledge and equipment. And if you look at realistic medieval societies, there are literally thousands of noble families, most of which have little more than their swords, horses, armours and allegiance to a lord who gives them food and accommodation in return for their sword arm.

It also gives you a gazillion plot options. As a noble, they have less freedom than a peasant. They are duty bound to honour their noble obligations, which more than not, include doing stuff that is very adventure-like. And if they don't honour these obligations, they've just made an enemy

With minions, you can have guards in towns just as high level as the PC's and therefore posing a significant threat without overshadowing the PC's and their abilities. This gives them reason to pause instead of fireballing the tavern and flying off.

If you're developing (or have developed) a "points of light" campaign setting, what did you do to get the right atmosphere (so that I can steal it from you)?

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

 

[bramadan]

I don't think that PoL is a stable historic equilibrium (and by that I think it is not something that can last more then a few hundred years on the outside).
Therefore I intend to treat mine as a bit of a pre-industrial post apocalyptic world inspired by the europe of the early dark ages. Generally the spirit is thus:

There was a great empire of men and the oldest of the people living today remember its dying days. Towards the end of its life the empire was riven by an intermittent civil war of increasing brutality that lasted several generations. Many beautiful things were lost in the civli war and many of the wise men of the Empire turned to evil to further their cause. Perhaps most pernicious was the fact that as the civil war entered its second generations all sides turned to mercenaries to fill in their depleted armies and in particular towards the war-like race of Orcs who have in the ages past been pushed by the Empire into the inhospitable north. For a while this worked, as ancestral fear and awe kept Orcs in line under their Human generals, and the warring sides kept on hammering at each other. However, as the second generation of Orc mercenaries grew up they saw the Humans for what they were - weak, corrupt and ultimately powerless. After the death of one of the last great Imperial generals, Orcs turned on their masters and civil war degenerated into a carnage of free-for-all plunder and looting with Orcs leading the way and some Human regiments resisting them but many more simply joining in. When the dust settled the great cities of the Empire laid in ruins (with possible exception or two if that suits your campaign) and only areas of relative safety being ones that were either too poor to begin with to attract the attention of Orcs and looters or the ones which were taken as a home to a particularly tenacious and competent army captain with a loyal regiment on his back. Those places are your Points of Light.

It is now some 40 years after the beginning of the great looting. Two generations of Orcs and Humans have grown up that have known neither the Empire nor the great war. Most of the old human settlements and monuments lay in ruins. Some have been taken over by Orcs (who are by nature very bad at building things) and some are avoided even by them having been in some ways tainted by the Imperial wizards in the last days. Being physically stronger and faster to breed in the aftermath of the looting Orcs are probably the more numerous of the two but they lack all but most rudimentary political structure to enable them to exist in a group bigger then a small tribe. Humans on the other hand have congregated to the Points of Light and begun forging a civilization of sorts from the ashes. Each PoL is ruled by its own petty-king, usually the best warrior or otherwise someone able to provide a modicum of protection. Their resources (and willingness to use them) however are stretched thin and in the world where Orcs and worse threaten the humanity's very existence, most of the people organize themselves into yeomen militia, trained at arms and willing to drop their plows and pick up the spears at the moment's notice. It is from the very best (and blessed) of those yeomen that the PCs/Heroes are coming from. Theirs will be the story of trying to re-discover and re-build what Humanity has once had.

 

[VannATLC]

I'm running with the following..

My PC's will, for whatever reason they choose to pick, have congregated in a largish (10K+) city, that is at the edges of the old Human Empire. The timeframe for this will be during the last moments of the Empires's life, though my PC's won't know this.

I'll have them as powerful as they are simply due to the wealth of the old empire. Much like our world now, people could be trained in whatever they wanted, through schooling programs, etc. Good food, good hygiene leads to stronger, tougher people.

The PC's will be awoken one night by sounds of battle, to find the city in flames, and a mysterious enemy decimating the city guard, and looting/burning at random.

The PCs will probably engage, might run away.. in either case, I plan on them stumbling into a Shadowfey gate, roaming lost for a few days, before stumbling out of the same gate.. some 400 years later.
The city will have been transformed into a small trading community of maybe 2000 people, although the city proper I plan on being haunted, and I'll probably modify Keep on the Shadowfell for that.

From their, I've highlighted some surrounding areas the PCs can explore, and they are months of conventional travel from anywhere larger than this city. Small hamlets and baronships have been carved out, and I'll leave it to the PCs to decide what they want to do..

 

[hbarsquared]

Read The Pillars of the Earth.

Although not magical fantasy, this historical medieval fiction book gives a great idea of what PoL setting would be like. The story focuses almost entirely on the monastery and the small town surrounding it. Once in a while, the story meanders down the road, to a satellite monastery, to the big city, to a nearby fort, a nearby castle... But none of these things are the largest in the land. They are simply the largest "within fifty miles," and beyond that the characters know next to nothing. People know the name of their king (maybe), and that's about it.

Besides, its a great book, anyway. ;-)

 

[Halivar]

Read The Pillars of the Earth.

Wow. Ironic, but my roommate is reading that book currently, and it's on my list.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I'm building mine off of North America in the wake of the Columbian plagues.

A continent of diverse cultures at all manner of levels of sophistication. Then it gets hit by a plague that wipes out anywhere from 50% to 95% of the populace. The places that survive aren't those that were spared by the plague. It's those that were in gentle enough areas that people could still feed themselves once they lost most of the population.

In the wake of the plagues the whole ecology has changed. New creatures have show up, old ones have new habits, and new peoples have arrived as well.

A new cultural practice has developed as well. Prophets in the aftermath of the plague spread to the peoples the old ways of the pilgrim roads by which the peoples lived together adn hosted each other. Those who follow these revived ways live often live in diverse heterogenous communities. And even those who live in the old communities and nations still welcome all those who follow the Pilgrim ways.

The Pilgrim peoples are scattered and far apart, and there is still tension between them. Their ability to cooperate, however, and their sense that they should do something to abbrogate the chaos has given them hope. Now they sponsor Pilgrims errant who wander in small bands between the pilgrim communities bringing a new sense of heroism, trade, and culture to the ravaged lands.

 

[arscott]

I've been working to update my setting for 4e. I've got almost everything figured out, except what to do with the two most powerful wizards in my setting. Both are very high level, even by the standards of epic characters. One is a neutral evil lich wizard, and has conquered an empire, and has expanded that empire over quite a distance. The other is a neutral good wizard who's prolonged his lifespan with magic (he's essentially the Gandalf, Elminster, Fizban, or Merlin of the setting). Now, my only question is what to do with the two of them? The timeline is going to jump ahead a bit, I think, but I'd really like to hear what anyone thinks would be a good idea for what to do with them.

At some point, Dumbledore is going to try to kick Voldemort's butt. The two have their duel of epic Wizardry in Voldemort's dark tower. With his most powerful spell, Dumbledore destroys most of Voldemort's undead body, and the Dark energies unleashed Kill Dumbldore and transport the entire fortress into the shadowfell. Voldemort's floating head manages to Survive, though the residue of Dumbledore's spell keeps him trapped in his tower.

Since Dumbledore is dead, his soul is also in the shadowfell. And rather than moving on to his eternal reward, he remains to keep tabs on his nemesis. Should Voldemort ever try to escape from his shadowy prison, Dumbledore's shade would surely seek out powerful heroes to thwart the Evil Lich's plans.

 

[vulcan_idic]

My Points of Light Setting

In my Points of Light setting Good and Evil have had their great titanic struggle and it is over. Good lost evil won.

All of the good deities have been either utterly destroyed beyond any hope of recall or imprisoned/enslaved by evil dieties. Tiamat has imprisoned/enslaved Bahamut, Boccob was utterly annihilated, Gruumsh has imprisoned/enslaved Corellon and is torturing him, and so on.

Taking advantage of the chaos of the titanic battle one of Hexors underlings, Bane, rose up to slay him and take on his Godhood. So powerful is the new comer that he rapidly rose through the ranks to become *the* dominant deity of the pantheon, ruling all others with an iron fist.

The outward aspect of Bane's dogma is one of rightful authority, of order and structure supporting the few with power so that they might govern effectively for one and all. Of course he's really a god of Tyranny but that doesn't make a real good "sales pitch" to the common folk. All deities have similar outwards shows related to/promoting yet simultaneously hiding their true agendas. Bane is spreading his church (and to a lesser extent the churches of associated deities who bend to his will and acknowledge his lordship over all the Gods) like a wildfire in a manner not unlike Stargate's Ori - the carrot and stick approach. Believe and follow me and I will protect you, raise you up and make you truly powerful, defending you from all those evil people and monster who desire to do you harm, only I can save you (kind of a mafiaesque protection scheme, basically dreawing on Terror Management Theory) being the carrot and the threat of utter destruction if the worship of Bane (et al) is refused being the stick.

In this grim situation some people find themselves to be heroes, there are the PCs, who decide to take a stand and go out into the world to try to change things for the better in whatever small way they can who are certainly heroes and spend much time in the spotlight. Then there are the heores who are out of the spotlight, but great heroes nonetheless, who not unlike Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger, are the friends and family of the PCs who stayed behind hiding the PCs absence from the Banites/Jacobeans/Nazis/Black Riders as long as possible to give the PC the greatest possible chance to do good in the world, undetected for as long as possible, knowing full well what will happen to them when their deceit is inevitably discovered. It is the heroic sacrifices of these off-screen heroes that harden the wills of the PCs to do what must be done for the greater good, to ensure the sacrifices of their loved ones were not in vain.

I imagine starting such a campaign in a frontier village which has just converted to the worship of Bane, clerics come to minister to the people and soldiers of Bane come to protect them and train them militarily so that they might destroy the infidels who refuse the worship of Bane. One citizen, a town militia man or woman, cannot stand what s/he sees, so leaving their spouse and children behind goes to fight the evil they see frustrated that their neighbors cannot pierce Bane's lies as the PC can. Once the Banites discover the PC's absence they send an emissary to bring them in - perhaps a cleric of Bane, or a Warlord in Bane's army - who in their investigations comes to see the truth of Bane and turns against their deity and joins forces with their quarry...

Our PC's strive to become thorns in the sides of the Banites and their allies all the while striving to avoid detection by the enemy forces who far outnumber them. The cleric/warlord perhaps retains the dressings of a Banite cleric/warlord trying to still pass as one and getting similar armor to dress the fighter in (a la Han and Luke on the first Death Star in A New Hope) and simultaneously seeking allies.

As they strive to find allies and fight the bad guys identity is important - hiding their identity from foes, while being able to reveal it convincingly to potential allies before the allies kill them thinking they're bad guys, hoping the potential allies are allies and not someone who will turn around and turn them into the Banites (Lando at Cloud City?)

That is the basic sketch of my world concept and the basis of my first adventures. WHat do you think?

 

[Flynn]

Our PC's strive to become thorns in the sides of the Banites and their allies all the while striving to avoid detection by the enemy forces who far outnumber them. The cleric/warlord perhaps retains the dressings of a Banite cleric/warlord trying to still pass as one and getting similar armor to dress the fighter in (a la Han and Luke on the first Death Star in A New Hope) and simultaneously seeking allies.

As they strive to find allies and fight the bad guys identity is important - hiding their identity from foes, while being able to reveal it convincingly to potential allies before the allies kill them thinking they're bad guys, hoping the potential allies are allies and not someone who will turn around and turn them into the Banites (Lando at Cloud City?)

That is the basic sketch of my world concept and the basis of my first adventures. WHat do you think?

Some people thrive in this kind of setting, while others would be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task that lay ahead and the oppressive nature of the setting. It really depends on your players as to whether or not this will succeed. For me, I don't think I'd enjoy it, but then again, I've never played under you, so you might be able to carry it off and make it feel more like Robin Hood than Oppressive Tyrrany. Can you engender hope in your players instead of despair?

As an aside, what you describe almost sounds like a homebrew version of the Midnight setting, so if you want some suggestions and details that you could possibly integrate into your setting, check out Midnight and get some ideas.

Ultimately, the question you have to ask yourself is "Will the players have fun here?"

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[Cmarco]

Hey, thanks for the quick responses folks. I'm liking some of these ideas. Keep 'em coming.