Points of Light Killed the Campaign Setting...

[Agamon]

I'm actually pretty disappointed that after WotC kept talking about the Points of Light deal, all the stuff presented so far seems like "business as usual" D&D world cliche'd garbage. I was hoping for more of a palpable change in official materials, at least the generic D&D stuff.

The idea was to make cliche D&D make more sense, actually.

 

[S'mon]

. In fact it was the Muslim nations' high regard for learning that allowed the West to rediscover the classical thought of the Romans and Greeks after the passing of the dark ages.

Byzantium never lost touch with Roman and Greek learning. Western European contact with Byzantium was limited for centuries due to Muslim domination of the Mediterranean, so arguably the reverse is true.

Edit: I think this has good potential for a PoL setting - the civilised empire may still exist in far-off lands, but the PoL area is cut off from it by hostile forces; in D&D the threat might be from a hostile nonhuman race like orcs. Re-establishing contact could then be the aim of the campaign.

 

[RichGreen]

Byzantium never lost touch with Roman and Greek learning. Western European contact with Byzantium was limited for centuries due to Muslim domination of the Mediterranean, so arguably the reverse is true.

Edit: I think this has good potential for a PoL setting - the civilised empire may still exist in far-off lands, but the PoL area is cut off from it by hostile forces; in D&D the threat might be from a hostile nonhuman race like orcs. Re-establishing contact could then be the aim of the campaign.

I'm using elements of Byzantium as a model for my new campaign (see sig). The city state of Parsantium is a crossroads city and centre of trade between the Caliphate of Akhran (Arabia), Tiangao (China) and Sahasra (India). The Sunset Lands to the west are in the Dark Ages, following the fall of the Batiaran Empire. Beyond the farming villages surrounding the city is miles of hostile wilderness inhabited by humanoid hordes and worse which heavily guarded caravans make their way through.

I'm not sure it's really PoL though because the campaign is mostly set in a huge city state.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I remember reading somewhere the outstanding advice that the best campaign settings are about change, and feature predominant good with evil on the rise, or predominant evil with good on the rise.

Points of light represents one of those good axioms, but only one.

I think the PoL as presented avoid implying any change because they are suppose to be a static background that you can use to go anywhere.
If they already defined what the change is, you would have a setting that is too defined, because you limit the options on what do with the setting - you have to deal with the suggested change. (Well, you don't _actually_ have to, you can always ignore what you don't like.)

I don't know yet when I will create a real homebrew (currently I am planning on buying the D&D 4 modules), but if I would, I would introduce the "change" element myself - Evil is on the rise, and it is time for the PC to gather former allies to fight it, possibly creating a new nation in the process. I am not sure I can pull that off, but I hope I can...

 

[Asmo]

Points of Light? Is it a 4th ed thing? Never heard of it before.

Asmo

 

[TheNovaLord]

My POL is quite simple

you are in a Inn in a busy but not large hub village
everyone has terrible dreams overnight
you awake
Its is gloomy. the world has lost its vibrancy.

What do you do?

the party then decide whether they are a resident or passing through and make a little back story. They can even choose to be evil (ie they are a nasty bounty hunter, or they are a criminal being sent to trial elsewhere, or they are a diplomat from a distant evil empire).

NPCS etc in the village are added as the party need or create them

have two 5 hours sessiosn and been great so far

 

[BeauNiddle]

Points of Light? Is it a 4th ed thing? Never heard of it before.

Asmo

It's a method of world design (and not as some people think a world within it's own rights)

Basically it states that 1) everything outside is unknown and 2) the unknown is scary. (note scary - not necessarily dangerous just sufficiently scary that 'normal' people don't go there)

The players start in a small area where they know a little about the surrounding area. As the progress up the levels they explore more and more / travel further and further and so find new areas.

Each area they find is pretty much self contained and surrounded by more threats. Each 'Point of Light' is safe for travellers and a place to rest up but that doesn't mean that if you dig deeper you wouldn't find all sorts of corruption / threats within the light.


At it's simplist POL is an excuse to run D&D episodicly. When the players hit Level X they hear about temple of Doom Y over in scary forest Z. Because thats the next adventure the DM wants to run and the players didn't hear about it before because 'nobody goes into the forest as its scary'.

POL also scales all the way up so you can define the whole world before you start, you just don't necessarily give the players a full (or correct) overview of the world until they research / explore it.

The 'standard' POL is the ruins of a great empire. In times past there was a world spanning empire of might and magic but it's time is past. All that remains are unconnected villages / outposts / city states built on the ruins. It's up to the DM (and players) about whether the lights are blinking out or whether they are starting to connect back up again.

 

[Pbartender]

The 'standard' POL is the ruins of a great empire. In times past there was a world spanning empire of might and magic but it's time is past. All that remains are unconnected villages / outposts / city states built on the ruins. It's up to the DM (and players) about whether the lights are blinking out or whether they are starting to connect back up again.

A colonial frontier is another good example...

Consider a "Pirates of the Carribean"-ish setting: The major ports on the island chain, walled colonies on the mainland and friendly native villages constitute the safe haven Points of Light. The open ocean (which is rife with pirates and sea monsters), the unexplored wilderness on the mainland (jungles, deserts, mountains and forests frawling with wild animals and headhuntering natives), and any settlement controlled by pirates or hostile tribes would not.

The American Wild West is another good example.

Or even something as simple as a warzone... Castles, walled cities and otehr fortifications are the points of light, but the war rages on everywhere between.

I've even considered a single city controlled by organized crime as a points of light campaign... Certain buildings and businesses are the points of light, but the streets are dangerous, especialyl at night.

 

[Asmo]

It's a method of world design (and not as some people think a world within it's own rights)

Basically it states that 1) everything outside is unknown and 2) the unknown is scary. (note scary - not necessarily dangerous just sufficiently scary that 'normal' people don't go there)

The players start in a small area where they know a little about the surrounding area. As the progress up the levels they explore more and more / travel further and further and so find new areas.

Each area they find is pretty much self contained and surrounded by more threats. Each 'Point of Light' is safe for travellers and a place to rest up but that doesn't mean that if you dig deeper you wouldn't find all sorts of corruption / threats within the light.


At it's simplist POL is an excuse to run D&D episodicly. When the players hit Level X they hear about temple of Doom Y over in scary forest Z. Because thats the next adventure the DM wants to run and the players didn't hear about it before because 'nobody goes into the forest as its scary'.

POL also scales all the way up so you can define the whole world before you start, you just don't necessarily give the players a full (or correct) overview of the world until they research / explore it.

The 'standard' POL is the ruins of a great empire. In times past there was a world spanning empire of might and magic but it's time is past. All that remains are unconnected villages / outposts / city states built on the ruins. It's up to the DM (and players) about whether the lights are blinking out or whether they are starting to connect back up again.

Thanks for clearing that up.
I think it´s the first time I´ve encountered this expression on enworld - is some new, cool trendy stuff, or has it been used for a while? And where does it come from? Sorry for the threadjack.

 

[RichGreen]

Thanks for clearing that up.
I think it´s the first time I´ve encountered this expression on enworld - is some new, cool trendy stuff, or has it been used for a while? And where does it come from? Sorry for the threadjack.

It was first mentioned by Wizards of the Coast designers when describing the 4e implied setting so I guess it's been around for seven or eight months maybe.

Cheers


Richard