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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gargoyle" data-source="post: 4101210" data-attributes="member: 529">Ironically, my last 3.5 campaign could have been considered a 'points of light' campaign.  It featured large tracts of wilderness that isolated safe havens, most of them city-states.  I've always tried to represent the PC's as heroes, and have always implied that they are simply better than most people around them.  I've done that with the rules by giving them action points and maximum hit points instead of rolling (very 4e now that I think about it) but I've also done it by making them well known and respected. I try to have most NPCs in the world give PC's a bit of respect and/or fear.  The PC's are recognized if they've done heroic deeds nearby, despite the isolation of the towns, or perhaps because of it the tales of their daring are inflated.  They often enjoy hearing about how they slew an army of ogres when they really just defended the neighboring village from a band of goblins.Because of my distaste for the powerful NPCs prevalent in Forgotten Realms, I make high level NPC's rare, or at least not necessarily famous.  For instance, the overlord of a mighty city might have great political skill, but also might only be a 5th level noble.   The guards loyal to him would be much higher level.Points of Light doesn't automatically exclude magic items for sale or high level NPC's I don't think....it just puts them where they belong.  A safe haven might indeed have a magical wal-mart and some high level NPC's, but these stores won't be everywhere.  High level NPCs should exist...it only makes sense and they are useful in certain situations.  A patron NPC can give out quests and (very rarely) save the PC's from something.  I don't see anything wrong with a high level priest coming in and ressurecting the party when there is a total party kill, particularly if the DM made a mistake balancing the encounter or there was a lot of bad luck.  You just can't do it often, or it takes away some tension.  And if a mysterious wizard is reputed to be able to cast a ritual that changes the weather over the entire world, then perhaps he should be high level.  Just don't have people showing up to save them often and do everything you can to make them look powerful.  Basically I'm not sure I agree that a 4e campaign needs to make the player characters the most powerful characters in the world...it wouldn't make sense at lower levels anyway.  At the highest levels I'm sure I'd still have reason to have a few other 30 level characaters running around.The way to explain why 1st level characters are powerful is to give them a bit of a backstory or make the players create one.  I do the latter, but I tell them "You are not strangers. Despite any disagreements you may have, you can depend on each other for your very lives.  You are friends...for the most part you respect and trust each other."  Other than that, they're relationship to each other and their lives up to that point is up to them.  They can still be very new to adventuring without being completely green, and my proviso's about trust and respect prevents a lot of unnecessary backstabbing.  They are still able to disagree and even betray each other, but it starts them off in a relationship that works well to explain why these people are adventuring together.Anyway, not sure my campaign truly qualified as a points of light campaign in the same way that 4e will be, but it did have safe havens isolated by dangerous wilderness, and powerful PC's at the forefront, so it seems to fit the bill.  I'd say for atmosphere, the best thing to do is maintain a lot of mystery.  For instance, one town may refer to goblins as "devil men" and the next might call them "beast men".  Changing the names of common monsters isn't always great, because it can be confusing, but the idea is that they don't know what they'll be facing. There should be a lot of mystery and some false information about what is out there.  It's really up to them to find out, and that bravery is what makes them heroes and separates them from the commoners too afraid to go past the windmill into the forest.  Make it so that there are few NPC's like that, and they'll feel special.  That's my take on it.</blockquote>

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