The default campaign world - new article

[Irda Ranger]

Maybe I missed it somewhere, but it seems like no one's mentioned the most interesting part about this:

1) Mearls writes a book (IRON HEROES) where the PCs live in a default setting that suggest civilizations are surrounded by dark wilderness.
2) Mearls starts working for Wotc, and, later, the 4e development process.
3) Suddenly, the default setting for D&D is very similar to that of Iron Heroes.

Personally, I think this new implied setting is the biggest sign of who is involved in the game's creation. It's almost like Mike left his own personal stamp on it.

Eh. I wouldn't read too much into this. Yeah, Mearls will leave his mark, but I don't think the implied setting is really where it's going to be. IMO, it's the "per encounter" game balance that Mearls first developed for Iron Heroes that is the biggest "stamp" he's got.

To me this "points of light in darkness" is a really cool turn of phrase, but it's mostly just a restatement of how the older editions of D&D presented their generic adventures. I like it. I think it's good. I think I could plop B1 or G1-3 down just about anywhere (score!!). But it's not Mearls' baby to take credit for. J.R.R. "Barrowdowns" Tolkien is clear prior art, and he was hardly the first either.

On a different note, I think it's a mistake to try to say that "oh, they're making Earth, just in the 8th century instead of the 14th." No, they're not. They're making the D&D implied setting, and it's misleading to draw too many parallels.

Earth (looking at Western history only, since that's what I'm most familiar with) has seen only three cycles of civilization rise and fall. We had the Egyptians (rise, then fall), the Greeks/Romans (rise, then fall), and Christian Europe (rise, no fall yet (knock on wood)). Lots of "stuff" happens in between, but that's the broad outline. Anywho, that's all taken place over a period of ~6,000 years.

D&D World is 10's, or 100's of thousands of years old. We've had civilizations of dragons, titans, elves, and maybe even the occasional "ancient kingdom of Men" such as Netheril. There were civilizations that rose, fell, rose, fell, rose, fell, rose, fell, etc. ad infinitum. You have to think of this as something that happens in cycles. It's a wheel of time, not a steady progress towards d20 Modern. There have probably been a dozen Romes, each in turn sacked by a flight of Dragons, Hobgoblin menace, or an accidentally summoned horde of demons (oops).

At least, that's how I see the implied setting. That's why there's so many freakin' old dungeons, temples, complexes, crypts, castles, etc. etc., even though no "civilized people" have walked those hills in an Age ...

 

[Crazy Jerome]

To me this "points of light in darkness" is a really cool turn of phrase, but it's mostly just a restatement of how the older editions of D&D presented their generic adventures. I like it. I think it's good. I think I could plop B1 or G1-3 down just about anywhere (score!!). But it's not Mearls' baby to take credit for. J.R.R. "Barrowdowns" Tolkien is clear prior art, and he was hardly the first either.

Yeah. The best part to me is that "Points of Light" sounds like the part of the "vision statement". As much as I mock vision statements as what the pointy-haired boss gives, I have to admit they are compelling for this kind of thing. When one of the staff is trying to decide whether Widget X or Whatchamacallit Z is a good addition to the game, the question to ask is would it be neat in such a setting.

 

[Scribble]

Also I think it works for adding new elements or changing things without having a :"that's not in Greyhawk!!!" moment...

 

[Zulgyan]

This is looking like THE WILDERLANDS OF HIGH FANTASY a lot

 

[Aristotle]

I love this setting concept.

This is basically the setting of my youth where we enjoyed running adventures regardless of the world they were written for. I think that is key here. This fast and loose "campaign setting" will allow 3rd party publishers to produce one-off adventures in random points of light (i.e. many of the generic adventures that were released shortly after 3E was released), or to develop mini-campaign settings centered on a wider point of light where many adventures or campaigns can play out (i.e. Freeport or Bluffside).

Each point of light is it's own self contained campaign setting, and the only consistency that it needs to adhere to is the D&D core. Brilliant!

I'm already brainstorming my own point of light in the hopes of maybe producing some adventures to be used within it or any other fitting point of light the DM chooses.

 

[Felon]

World of Warcraft is very much a 'points of light' setting too. Step outside town and it's pretty much wall-to-wall monsters.

That's been a staple of MMO"s and CROPG's since time immemorial. Man, in Asheron's call, there would be some you standing a stone's throw from some guy's house.

Of course, in a MMORPG, this is the only way to go. Who wants to design sprawling, fully-realized cities that players will just complain about it taking forever to get around in? They aren't offering a living world with interesting NPC's to interact with, they're just a place to sell loot and buy stuff.

That's one of the things that computer games don't have over a tabletop game DM'ed by a person...in theory anyway.

 

[Felon]

Each point of light is it's own self contained campaign setting, and the only consistency that it needs to adhere to is the D&D core. Brilliant!

You can love or hate the idea, but c'mon..."brilliant"? It's pretty much the path of least resistance, and as others have pointed out, it's not all that novel. The wheel has not been invented just now.

 

[Henry]

Exactly like I thought. Only Altdorf is a long way away...


Howndawg

If the Warhammer Fantasy Setting is a good example, there's still plenty of room for urban and city intrigues - and heck, there's even room for more social advancement than there usually is in D&D! The one big difference between this and a "Warhammer"-like world, though, is a near-complete distrust of wizardry and magic, All magic being essentially fueled by Chaos and Evil, but harnessed by their users, who must be ever-vigilant that THEY don't fall to the same.

Damn, now I want to play some more Warhammer....

 

[WayneLigon]

I think the 'points of light' default setting has been a large part of D&D since the very beginning, as far as assumptions that people make about at least a large part of most campaign worlds. Outside of sight of a major city, 'law' as we think of it might as well not exist, and what will save that poor village beset by bandits? Not the fat king who sits admiring his latest harem addition, not the corrupt captain of the guard, but you guys. You few, you happy few, you band of brothers.

For people who say D&D is like a superhero game.. in this sense it is. Cops handle muggers, carjackers and people who play their music too loud. Batman handles the Joker and the Penquin because the cops can't. Mr. 1st level Warrior (or, I bet in 4E, minion-level) isn't paid enough to take on Drakun the Eldrich, the mad necromancer that holds the city in a grip of fear. Your heroes are the ones to deal with him.

I've done this type of scenario in full, in fact. In Arcana Unearthed, the human kingdoms told the giants 'Thank you but we'll govern ourselves'. So the giants pulled back into their own lands. Within 20 years, there were effectively no human 'kingdoms' left because of the multi-way wars they fought. Just city states. A day's ride from the city was fine. After that, one player described it as a fantasy post-apocalyptic setting. You'd see ogres, trolls, walking undead, etc. There was virtually no trade or communication between the city states except for a couple of guarded roads, and that was it.

 

[Vigilance]

Obviously, though such an environment on first glance has much to be attracted to, on a closer inspection, fully embracing such campaign assumptions would cause a whole lot of internal campaign inconsistencies and larger campaign problems that would not, at the end of the day, be enjoyable, or fully capable of being ready and useful for a Dungeon Master to run a broad campaign of great depth.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Actually, it sounds like Hyboria to me.

A world undergoing a long dark age? Check.

But still with coinage? Check.

Forgotten tombs and roving bands of marauders? Check.

Oh, and Hyboria had LOTS of interesing cities to adventure in.

Seriously, the two worlds that blog post most reminded me of are Hyboria and Middle Earth, the two worlds that had the most direct influence on D&D.

Sounds like a good thing to me.