Points of light with high magic

[tomBitonti]

Hi,

Borrowing an idea from 4E (but not intending this to be a 4E discussion): Points-of-light. My question is what would a region look like assuming points-of-light and assuming that high magic is available.

I'm imagining that with access to high magic, low level individuals simply have no chance in the wilderness, hence they are forced to band together into well defended cities / citadels. These are internally supplied (think large magically lit greenhouses: with perpetual power sources, self-contained communities become very possible), with strong magical barriers and equally strong city walls, and connected with other citadels via portals and teleport circles. Transport between cities that does not use the portal network would be by large, slow moving and well armored convoy, or by fast, magically stealthed, courier. The political environment of a particular city would be highly dependent on the source of power for the city (for example, one city could be led by a powerful half-celestial, and another by a powerful half-demon). And finally, the lands between the cities would be half-wilderness, half magical wastelands filled with all sorts of beasts and wild tribes.

(A foundational question: How would a civilization survive if at any time in a given region there could be a spontaneous incursion of powerful teleport capable demons?)

Citadels would be constantly fending off attacks, while launching their own raids, while sending foraging parties out to obtain rare resources.

 

[Ry]

If I was doing points of light with high magic, I'd think of the players as wasps.

You have a lot of mobility, a lot of power, but there's a lot of other things out there that can kill you.

How do wasps survive when big nasty humans can come by and destroy the nest at any time? Because there's a lot of them. How do they still know to build the cities again? Well, if there's a lot of magic, maybe it just comes naturally as a result of humans + magic + danger = humans build cities.

 

[Phlebas]

Sounds similar to the Earthdawn backgraound - at times when magic levels rise, to the stage when unspeakable horrors roam the country at will, the free races secure themselves in Cairns - self contained mini-cities - until the magic drops and they can safely walk outside again. I've flicked through a few of the source books and they have some nifty ideas for cairns.

Alternatively think of the judge dredd background of mega cities and cursed earth for an idea of what it might feel like. (or even Logans Run if the outside is not quite as terrifying as the city rulers would have you believe....)

As to your question about teleporting demons you can go either way - either assume that the citadels are near impregnable due to artifact level items built into the walls or assume that they regularly do get taken over by demons, populations enslaved / eaten, and then retaken by the paladin brotherhood, population free'd / healed / ressurected.

Might explain why there are so many tieflings / half-celestials around as well.......

sounds like an interesting campaign setting - would work on so many levels from closing the gates to hell, (and heaven) to just surviving the downing of your skyboat by an angry dragon and making your way home .....

The risk would be it would end up feeling like a bad post-apocalypse sci-fi movie if the magic is played as technology - but thats always the challenge of high magic settings....

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Depending on how you view it, the Exalted setting could easily be construed as PoL. And that's a reasonably high magic setting, with ruins and leftovers from an even higher age of magic.

Certain parts are pretty much all light (the Blessed Isle), but things get rather rough the farther you go out into the Threshold, between barbarian tribes (many no longer human), undead, rampaging demons and behemoths, bandits...yeah.

Brad

 

[Tonguez]

I always thought standard DnD was points of light high magic

1. You have huge stretches of monster-infested wilderness
2. You have lots of magical badlands/wastes
3. You have lots of ancient towers, ruins and dungeons
4. You have a few really powerful figures (PCs and named NPCs)
5. commoners cluster together under the protection of '4' in a feudal structure

Add in a bit of tech, snakemen and a mystical Castle called Greyskull and you too can fight the evil forces of Skeletor!

Rampaging demon hordes are controlled by the PCs and the intervention of Celestials

 

[tomBitonti]

The risk would be it would end up feeling like a bad post-apocalypse sci-fi movie if the magic is played as technology - but thats always the challenge of high magic settings....

In my original post I found myself wanting to write vault instead of citadel.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

In my original post I found myself wanting to write vault instead of citadel.

fallout is an awesome game.

 

[Squire James]

Fallout, except with magic rather than technology... hmm...

 

[Nadaka]

Fallout with technology, mutants and psionics... oh thats just regular fallout.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I like the sound of it.

Can we have zeppelins, too? Big magic powered zeppelins taking people from one city to another, fighting off sky pirates and attacking aerial forces?

I'd also assume that a outside invasion would be a major problem - as such, they have to be extremely rare. Less rare, but very dangerous, would be seige type battles, with hordes of monsters attacking one city repeatedly, trying to wear down the magical protection before reinforcements can arrive.

The PC's, having access to teleportation, might quickly become experts at this sort of rescue mission. But of course, if you don't have the right 'teleport key' you can't teleport directly into a city - you have to arrive nearby, perhaps in a special 'outside the zone of protection' area that is normally heavily guarded.

When the city is under attack, the same area is still heavily guarded - but more in terms of an ambush by the evil types!

This idea just goes on giving!