Nentir Vale: Is it official?

[Hendil]

Does anyone know if this will be the somewhat official 4e world? Just wondering if there is word about future supplements and the like. If anyone has heard, please respond.

 

[timbannock]

It's official in that WOTC supports it through the "generic" a.k.a. "world-neutral-ish" adventures and some DDI stuff. I believe the idea is that they will not support it in any other fashion at this time.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Nentir Vale sounds like a location in FR, to me. But my FR geogaphy is a bit weak at the moment.

 

[Remathilis]

Nentir Vale sounds like a location in FR, to me. But my FR geogaphy is a bit weak at the moment.

Nentir Vale is the generic area around Keep of the Shadowfell and Fallcrest.

Gray Vale is where Loudwater, the default city for Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.

I wonder what Vale setting will be in the Eberron book

 

[Remathilis]

In answer to the OP, its part of the D&D world as much as anything else the DM wants to be.

 

[malraux]

Does anyone know if this will be the somewhat official 4e world?

The best way to think about this is that the answer to the question is no, but not because of the official or 4e, but because there's not a world as such. I think a lot of the WotC material released so far is about interesting individual locations, but not entire worlds. I think they are trying to provide stuff such that the DM or PCs can start expanding outward.

 

[JackSmithIV]

The best way to think about this is that the answer to the question is no, but not because of the official or 4e, but because there's not a world as such. I think a lot of the WotC material released so far is about interesting individual locations, but not entire worlds. I think they are trying to provide stuff such that the DM or PCs can start expanding outward.

Best answer.

It's part of what is sometimes deemed innappropriately the "Points of Light Setting". It's not a campaign setting, so much as a design framework provided to DMs who'd might like to craft their own world, but need a canvas to paint on. It's supported by the world design info in the DMG and the Nentir Vale area where the current core adventure path take place. Some people, however, mistakenly lump this in with the entire canon of core D&D fluff for 4th Edition and call it the "Points of Light Setting".

For a while, people were calling for a campaign guide. This will, of course, never happen, because it is not a campaign setting. As for it's stance as the official world, there's no such thing. Wizards has stated that there is no official 4th Edition campaign setting.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

That said, you can get a long way towards creating a campaign world by using the published material so far - ie the Dragon articles, DMG information and info pulled from H1, H2 & H3.

Admittedly you won't have an overall campaign map, nor a deep and immersive history, nor will you have everything you'd want if you'd written it yourself. But you will have a lot of great locations that can be planted wherever you want, you'll have a lot of history (although you might need to put it all together in a way that makes sense) and you've got plot hooks galore for your own games.

So, no, there's no official '4e campaign setting'. There is, however, a vast amount of information available that you can build one from.

 

[malraux]

That said, you can get a long way towards creating a campaign world by using the published material so far - ie the Dragon articles, DMG information and info pulled from H1, H2 & H3.

Admittedly you won't have an overall campaign map, nor a deep and immersive history, nor will you have everything you'd want if you'd written it yourself. But you will have a lot of great locations that can be planted wherever you want, you'll have a lot of history (although you might need to put it all together in a way that makes sense) and you've got plot hooks galore for your own games.

So, no, there's no official '4e campaign setting'. There is, however, a vast amount of information available that you can build one from.

What's nice about it in some ways is that I can create one setting using the disparate locations and stories and you can create another, and they both will be unique. I dunno if the individual pieces model of a campaign world that 4e uses is better or worse than than the large frame that you had to fill in your details that at least 3e followed, but I find that it works for me.

 

[Ethalias]

To add to the above, which is all nicely put, it's a take-it-or-leave-it starting point for creating your own, fairly generic, D&D campaign world. And further to what's been said about points-of-light, it's an example of a points-of-light setting. Points-of-light is a concept more than a specific setting.

I'll stop now before I tread any further into well-covered ground..