Point of Light

[Elf Witch]

I keep hearing Point Of Light as the way they are going to be structuring adventures. What exactly does this mean?

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Smaller areas of civilizations (fortified towns, city states, etc) surrounded by big areas of wilderness with dungeons, monster-infested ruins, forgotten cities, etc. At least that's how it sounds every time it was mentioned.

 

[Numion]

My character will be a Point of Bling!

Damn this magic items will be rare .. I'll just need to collect them more greedily and scam my adventuring companions, I guess

 

[Voadam]

I understand it as a metaphor for the default campaign civilization setup, isolated points of light in the vast darkness.

Villages are not well connected or reinforced. When your hero is there and bad things happen the hero is the only one who can be turned to to deal with the immediate threat, not the distant kingdom, not a church organization, etc. outside the villages are wilderness and threats for a long ways. People go in well armed groups and lock their doors at night.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Honestly, it's just taking what the game is about, by default, and making the setting work.

The 2E happy high fantasy stuff, with folks galloping about, pennants in the breeze, didn't plausibly have lots of ruins and monsters continually threatening civilization. The PoL set-up just gives all those adventurers loitering about something to do, other than run from law enforcement.

 

[Vague Jayhawk]

I like them going back to the points of light idea.

More wilds, less kingdoms.

Too many times I would look at a map of one of he published worlds, scratch my head, and wonder, "with all of those civilized human lands, where are all the monster coming from"?

 

[Elf Witch]

Thanks that helps explains what people are talking about when they mention points of light.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'm very keen on it, myself. I've shared some of the concerns that people have had in terms of working out where to fit all the lost kingdoms, tribes of orc barbarians and secret dragon lairs that every good fantasy world needs.

The idea that the PCs are the only heroes for miles around is going to ratchet up the tension a little, too.

 

[Elf Witch]

While I think this can be a very fun gamestyle to play. I hope it does not become the standard and only way to play. With modules only being written from this viewpoint.

I enjoy running urban adventures and having political intrigue going on between countries and this would be hard to do in a setting with more wildnerness than cities. My favorite setting is Kingdoms of Kalamar and I don't see it as a point of light setting at all.

In my current homebrew there are areas in the wild north that would fit the points of Light campaign style but in the south it is a different matter all together. I think there is room for both in the game.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

While I think this can be a very fun gamestyle to play. I hope it does not become the standard and only way to play. With modules only being written from this viewpoint.

Never fear. As long as there will be other companies that support 4e, there will probably be other styles of play.