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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5442069" data-attributes="member: 7006">I DMed a two-year campaign in the Nentir Vale that took the group through the Heroic Tier.  I've since taken about 6 months off to recharge my batteries (and the DM seat was passed to one of the other players to run a short Eberron game), and I will reassume the seat in March to start our campaign off through the Paragon Tier.As I've thought back over the first part of the Nentir campaign... I've realized that I don't believe I ever really used the 'points of light' ideal that the Vale was meant to set up.  I think I basically fell back on my normal methods of running a location for adventure.The whole premise of 'points of light' is that there were small pockets of civilization found amongst a whole heap of dangerous wilderness.  However... I don't believe I ever really treated the "plains" of the Nentir Vale as actually dangerous.  If the party ever went into the forests, or the hills, or the mountains, the rivers, the swamps etc... basically anything on the map that wasn't plain light green... the possibility of danger was real.  But just travelling in the "open" areas of the map?  Not really dangerous at all.  And I wonder if I did myself a disservice in running things that way?I understand why I did it... the whole premise of "wandering monster" attacks has become rather superfluous in 4E when a party has their entire arsenal of abilities at their disposal, and they know they'll usually get a chance to take an extended rest once they arrive at their destination anyway.  So while a trip from Fallcrest to Winterhaven should be fraught with danger... slowing down the plot to have their caravan get attacked to represent that seems kind of useless (knowing full well that even if I did, they'd take the extended rest when they finally arrived in Winterhaven in preparation for the real adventure that would issue out from the town).  And while I could create the occasional reason why they might not be able to take an extended rest... I couldn't go to that well too many time before it just looking a little stupid.In some ways it's a problem of my own design... as my campaign was usually various modules I strung together, meaning that it wasn't the journey from the various towns the party started from that was "real"... it was whatever town was the focal point of the beginning of the adventure.  But I do wonder that perhaps I made the transition between the towns/locations a bit too easy... making the Nentir Vale much more civilized and non-threatening (especially along the roads) like many of the Forgotten Realms lands used to be.  I think I might want to try and reincorporate the 'points of light' ideal when I start back up... I'm just not sure if I'll be able to do it successfully, or if I'll just fall back into my old habits anyway.</blockquote>

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