Here's a list of published settings. Which are good for the PoL style?

[smathis]

What are Shadar-Kai, and why won't Clerics (& Paladins etc.) do for Legates? You would need to create Astirax mechanics, of course.

I don't see where the Tieflings and Dragonborn fit in.

But otherwise, yeah - I think Midnight can make a very good POL setting. I don't think the high power-level and magic-level of 4e would do it harm, if properly treated.

Shadar-Kai are a race of (sorta) humans in D&D. In 4e, they allied themselves to the Shadowfell and can do lots of nifty tricks like become incorporeal.

Clerics or Paladins would probably do fine for Legates. But I was thinking of a way to use something in the Monster Manual that wouldn't require a full statting out of an NPC -- 3.x style.

I thought the Shadar-Kai were a decent fit -- at least for my tastes -- of what a human might (or could) be after taking up the vestments of Izrador.

Astiraxes wouldn't be a big deal, IMO. From all accounts, it takes about 15-25 minutes to stat up a monster.

As far as dragonborn or tieflings go, I wouldn't make them standard in a 4e Midnight. There's enough there that they could be used if a player really, really wanted to be one. But I wouldn't shoehorn them into the setting until I reached that point.

Regarding power level... If you ditch Heroic Paths, I don't think 4e Midnight would notice. The Heroic Paths were always just a reason to have PCs not die due to lack of magic items -- for the most part.

Or they could all be converted to their own talent trees in 4e. But that would be a lot of work, IMO.

Re: Dark Sun...

The original boxed set is one of my favorite 2e settings. Definitely a classic. I could see taking the world and doing a "mostly human", Iron Heroes-style campaign with it.

I'm pretty certain that we'll see a 4e revamp of Athas, though, in the not-too-distant future.

 

[breschau]

Agreed. If ever there was a classic PoL setting then Athas was it.

I'd buy a 4e DS Campaign Setting immediately, and I'm not even planning to convert to 4e

It was the first setting I thought of when hearing about PoL and I will be converting it if WotC does not. And I mean WotC, not those other guys.

I've created a poll about WotC doing a 4E Dark Sun book over here.

 

[Gundark]

I'm surprised to see that Iron Kingdoms isn't on the list. While one might define points of light as civilization amongst wilderness...I define PoL as points of goodness amongst the evil of the world.

Under this definetion the Iron Kingdoms is a perfect fit for as a PoL setting.

 

[Klaus]

The War of the Lance is certainly the most popular period to game in or write for. My new novel The Sellsword is set right after it, after the Queen of Darkness was defeated but with the world still messed up from the war and conquered nations still under threat. But I do have to say that it's easy to see why people get tired of that, too—they're sick of the Heroes of the Lance, they constantly tell us (that's us designer folks) how Dragonlance is just one story that has to be played out with the pregens or it's no good, and that the world should keep moving forward. It's no surprise that it did, in the end, and that in order to keep fans happy they eventually killed all the original characters off, brought in their kids, had a couple of other Ansalon-spanning wars, and so forth.

I happen to think the current era, post-War of Souls, the era we cover with most of our products, is the most interesting and fun to play in. But I don't think many people with only a passing familiarity with Dragonlance bother to look that far.

Cheers,
Cam

Oh, believe me, I'm one of those who got sick of the Heroes. But I don't think it was an issue with the RPG side, but with the novels side. I think putting Dragonlance is a "zero hour" state, right after the Chronicles, would do fine (not unlike Eberron, which is set 4 years after the end of a huge war).

But "Second Cataclysm"? Nah.

 

[Cmarco]

Scarred Lands is a very awesome setting. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a 4e conversion of it.

Of course, I also feel that the old Chainmail setting based in western Oerik would be an interesting setting too... after the wars between all the rival factions had been played out, and whatnot. The conclusion of those massive factional battles would have probably been earthshattering, and most of the big heroes would be dead... hmmm... this is giving me some good ideas...

 

[Cam Banks]

Of course, I also feel that the old Chainmail setting based in western Oerik would be an interesting setting too... after the wars between all the rival factions had been played out, and whatnot. The conclusion of those massive factional battles would have probably been earthshattering, and most of the big heroes would be dead... hmmm... this is giving me some good ideas...

The Shattered Lands? With the dead Sky God and the gnolls and necromancers and communist dwarves? Yes, I'd love more on that setting.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[drothgery]

People that think Eberron isn't POI often forget about the map scale.

Eh. Since Hellcow has said that was an error, or at least not what he intended (and makes for an incredibly low population desnity in Khorvaire with the published numbers), I'm kind of hoping that Khorvaire gets retconned in 4e Eberron down to the Europe-sized landmass it was originally intended to be.

 

[Klaus]

The Shattered Lands? With the dead Sky God and the gnolls and necromancers and communist dwarves? Yes, I'd love more on that setting.

Cheers,
Cam

Man, I must say, those communist dwarves are my favorite dwarves EVER!

 

[ruemere]

Awesome ideas, fellas, thank you.

Anyone have any experience with Valus or The Black Company? Both may help me with my "feel" of the gaming world, though I'm looking toward SL or DS for the geography/peoples.

While the Black Company campaign book by Green Ronin is an awesome exercise in detailing of the setting, I must say that there is no real 4E feel to it. Too grim, too personal and too down to earth.

Scarred Lands, on the other hand, with its wilderness always ready to bite your head off, and hundreds of epic level threats hiding in darkness from divine light, seems like an ideal setting.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[Keldryn]

The "Known World" from the BECMI D&D game has a definite Points of Light feel to it. Even with the Gazetteer series stuff taken into consideration, although some areas are certainly more PoL than others. Gaz1 (Grand Duchy of Karameikos) describes the nation as small but covered in forests in which tribes of savage goblins lurk, and evil vampires rule the night.

Most of the nations covered in the Gaz series are geographically small, but are described as being pretty dangerous places. And once you step outside that corner of the continent, either north to Norwold or west into the Sind Desert and beyond, it's a very dark and dangerous place, with few bastions of civilization.

Well, the whole Princess Ark thing may have changed that somewhat... I never really followed much of that.

I would love to see this setting re-imagined. Scale-up the "Known World" section of the continent or spread the countries out a little more, and tone down the silliness present in some of the Gaz entries (*cough* Ierendi *cough*), and it would be a pretty awesome 4e setting.