Point of Light

[KingCrab]

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

Yup. And WotC's decision to push for just one style of play is going to hurt them in the longrun. They should be deciding on rules for a fun and balanced system, not deciding on the flavor of 4e campaigns. If Paizo makes some money off their mistake, I'll be happy.

 

[theredrobedwizard]

What's to say there can't be political intrigue and city adventuring in a Points of Light setting? There were large cities (Rome, Paris, London) in the early middle ages that had lots of political maneuvering, yet were only 10 miles from No Man's Land (tm).

-TRRW

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yup. And WotC's decision to push for just one style of play is going to hurt them in the longrun.

If that's what they're doing. WotC have never said that's their intention. They're simply writing the core books in a way that makes more sense than the 2E (or even the 3E) books did.

They should be deciding on rules for a fun and balanced system, not deciding on the flavor of 4e campaigns.

It is not possible to create core books that are suitable for new players to pick up and get interested in that do not have some sort of baseline flavor. That's all they're deciding. No one is invading your basement and telling you what sort of campaign to run.

 

[Elf Witch]

What's to say there can't be political intrigue and city adventuring in a Points of Light setting? There were large cities (Rome, Paris, London) in the early middle ages that had lots of political maneuvering, yet were only 10 miles from No Man's Land (tm).

-TRRW

That's very true as well. And travel between cities was very dangerous you may not have had monsters jumping out at you but you had to worry about robbers. Which is why if you could afford you traveled with armed guards.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Whenever I hear "points of light" in reference to D&D I always think of a map with a large section that only says "Here be Dragons."

 

[Henry]

Someone a few weeks ago made the argument that "points of light" still exist as a concept in many areas of the world today; I found it funny when I realized they were correct. The original Keep on the Borderlands was a "point of light" microcosm: The Keep was perched on the edge of a large tract of nasty wilderness not far from the most famous "monster condos" in RPG history, even if it was the frontier of a kingdom in the larger scheme of things. A better "points of light" setting is Warhammer's Old World, or Earthdawn's core premise.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Someone a few weeks ago made the argument that "points of light" still exist as a concept in many areas of the world today; I found it funny when I realized they were correct.

Of course. And the concept should always be viable. But it should not be pushed as the Big Truth.

I think the ideal game world has parts where there's mostly wilderness where no man rules as well as parts where there is little true wilderness, where the roads are quite safe to travel (well, there can be bandids, and maybe even monsters, but they have to stay on the move, because the patrols would give them hell if they found them.), and huge, sprawling cities and so many other things.

So I want points of light as well as points of darkness, oceans of light, oceans of twilight, and parts of the setting that don't give a damn about lighting conditions.

And I think messing up game worlds just so they are even more "Points of Light" than before (especially when it was very much possible to play like that before) is complete crap.

 

[S'mon]

To me PoL is Wilderlands and other swords & sorcery settings; Hyborea fits, despite its large kingdoms, because of the vast swathes of trackless wilderness. Nehwon/Lankhmar is not PoL, nor is Greyhawk, which is more of a high-medieval western European setting - likewise Kalamar. Forgotten Realms would be PoL-y were it not for the uber-NPCs; phasing out/down the FR NPCs and it becomes a PoL setting of scattered city states. Likewise Middle Earth is PoL, except for southern Gondor.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Forgotten Realms would be PoL-y were it not for the uber-NPCs; phasing out/down the FR NPCs and it becomes a PoL setting of scattered city states.

I'd bet my donkey (if I had one) on it that 4e FR will be completely PoL-ish. They won't hesitate to kill off NPCs, Deities and Nations left and right - with no plot too ridiculous - until FR totally conforms to their New World Order.

 

[solkan_uk]

Forgotton Realms can hardly be described as sancrosanct anyway - it's been through so many changes, and still always ends up being pretty much the same anyway.

Personally I might actually look at the setting again if they wiped out the uber-npcs (especially Drizzt)