D&D 4E A Change I'd Like to see in 4E Campaign Guides

[MerricB]

Well, they're certainly doing a FRCS... and it's coming out soon after the PHB!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I strongly disagree.

From a DM / Player perspective this can be frustrating. In FR for example, if I buy the Cormyr campaign book, I'm left with a peasants-eye view of the world where Cormyr is the only thing that affects Cormyr, which even in a POL situation is not true. Change travels, just more slowly.

Have you read any of the old Mystara GAZ? Regional information, where applicable, was referenced.

I think that as a DM, I want a clearer sense of what the world is and isn't so that the choices I make are made from knowledge rather than ignorance. Heck, I'm more powerful that the gods in the game, why would I know less about it than they do?

You're more powerful than the gods: If you want to use a sourcebook and something's not covered in it, make it up.

 

[Uzzy]

The Campaign Setting book should cover as much as possible, and give a general overview of the setting. One should be able to play a game that covers the entire setting with that one book. Frankly, that should be the only book needed by a DM to run a game covering the entire setting.

I'd also not want to wait a couple of years before they get around to doing the supplement for my area, either, if they get around to it at all.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I think there has been some misunderstanding...

I'd like a series of inexpensive softcover books that details a "town" and the surrounding countryside. It is vitally important that they not be setting specific. They'd be very much like a cross between Freeport and Volo's Guide to Waterdeep. They'd be like Freeport in that they aren't setting specific and like the VGtW in the level of detailed information. I loved the Volo's Guide because the bulk of the book is fluff. It gives plenty of "rumors" that the individual DM can develop into something more. When discussing various inns and taverns you learn a bit about the owner and the history of the inn or tavern. You learn what it looks like inside and anything odd about it.

I'd also like to see them labeled by alignment. If I've got a "good" settlement supplement for use as my heroes' home base I can just go out and purchase an "evil" town/city to be the seat of power for the villain.

 

[Aristotle]

I love the "points of light" concept as the implied setting for the core books, but I am a bit distressed at the idea (and the support for it) that all campaign settings be built around the concept. I'm torn on the issue a bit.

I think 3rd party publishers will definately put out points of light for 4E. Freeport and Bluffside were ahead of their time, and the exampled to which many points of light will have to live up to. I'm personally working on one that I'd love to release online, along with a series of companion adventures, if I can wrap my head around the business side of it all... so I suppose I am banking on gamers just like you that will be looking for easily dropped in campaign elements. But...

I think overuse of the concept in established campaign worlds can kill the unique flavor of those worlds, and the line between some of them is already thin enough. A drop-in here or there will be fine, but if whole worlds are made modular, the distinctive qualities that have give them each a fan base will dissolve.

If this is how it goes down, I suspect in 18 months or so you would see some radically different settings coming out of the 3rd party publishers with radically different elements that make them more distinctive, and less susceptible to being broken up and tossed into other settings.

All of this is imho of course.

I prefer campaign setting guides to be the primary resource for the entire campaign setting. I want as few supplements as are necessary, as I want my setting guide to cover the whole setting in broad strokes and then drill down to cover points of interest in additional detail.

 

[vagabundo]

As the DM I'll develop the world around the town/city... it would just really help to have detailed information about the starting point. All of this information could take the space of your typical D&D softcover module and could be marketed between $10-$15. By making the guides non-setting specific you could pick and choose the guides you want to provide detailed info on your own home-brew setting.

I actually really like this Idea, however I would still like a hardback book (20-30) with some setting specific stuff and a general overview of the continent and then small fleshed out supplements(10-15).

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I actually really like this Idea, however I would still like a hardback book (20-30) with some setting specific stuff and a general overview of the continent and then small fleshed out supplements(10-15).

Yeah... maybe to flesh out cosmology and a broad overview of the history. However, if some of the material was shunted to the smaller "town setting" guides the main campaign setting guide could be smaller and hopefully less expensive.

 

[vagabundo]

Yeah... maybe to flesh out cosmology and a broad overview of the history. However, if some of the material was shunted to the smaller "town setting" guides the main campaign setting guide could be smaller and hopefully less expensive.

Or something I though about earlier is have the points of light campaign like ravenloft domains, where each point of light is detailed in a softcover book and the DM can pick and choose which ones go where and there is no POL world map.

It would help with us time constrained DMs who want to do homebrew as a lot of the grunt work is done. Maybe each POL adventure should come with a full fleshed out setting.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Or something I though about earlier is have the points of light campaign like ravenloft domains, where each point of light is detailed in a softcover book and the DM can pick and choose which ones go where and there is no POL world map.

It would help with us time constrained DMs who want to do homebrew as a lot of the grunt work is done. Maybe each POL adventure should come with a full fleshed out setting.

You hit the nail right on the head!

 

[howandwhy99]

My suspicion is PoL is about aiding Homebrew DMs, the most common kind.