The default campaign world - new article

[Simia Saturnalia]

Is it? Others have already mentioned this, but this sounds like old school D&D, and the way it is already often played in practice.

BUT, what gets me are some the additional assumptions tacked on to this. In the real world, just because some borders have been drawn on a map, or even if there are people around, does not make it a safe, secure, controlled, etc kinda place. It doesn't mean justice will be done or authorities can be trusted or have all these resources. It doesn't make it easy to get around. Seriously, were is there more room for heriocs, Lebanon or New York city (at least 15 years ago), or some forest in Oregon?

I guess that depends on how many greedy dragons, rapacious orcs, mischievous fey, ambitious bandits, and mad cultists live in that forest and stare at the glittering walls of Portland with malice in their eyes.

Also on whether you have a decree from Ed Koch permitting you to enforce his laws in places his all-volunteer militia cannot tread and claim all treasures located therein.

 

[Belen]

Holy crap. I cannot believe that came back to my style of play. This alone could bring me to 4e.

 

[Cadfan]

I assume people have already noticed this, but when WOTC publishes short adventures, this is already the default setting.

Short adventures in D&D almost invariably involve coming across some small town with a problem that no one else seems willing to handle. The PCs get involved, solve the adventure in a one-off campaign setting, then move on with the larger campaign.

It works fine for me. It seems highly unlikely that anything will happen due to this focus shift that will compel me to alter my game in any way, and I might enjoy it.

 

[McBard]

The rules and tropes of all editions of D&D seem to imply a geography of violence much closer to this Points of Light structure rather than to the Mass of Civilizations (bordering points of violence) one. The MOC approach, in my mind, has always strained credulity much more than the former.

I hope WoTC makes this POL structure even more explicit in future 4e products.

 

[BluWolf]

Doesn't seem to me that this follows. There's no reason that cities wouldn't exist in such a campaign world, and you get political intrigue as soon as the population rises above 1. Wish humanity was such that the latter wasn't so....

My homebrew has basically been run around this concept for quite awhile. The points of light are probably bigger and brighter but still islands in the dark none the less. I know its not a very original Idea, Flash Gordon, Star Wars any Dark ages scenario all were similar but I have felt it was very beneficial for fostering the kind of play we like.

 

[Jer]

That could imply quite a big change to the way generic adventures are structured, though. At the moment, it's usually town-plus-dungeon, with the former serving as a convenient home base for forays to the latter. If it's to be a truly "points-of-light" world, then there shouldn't be lots of towns conveniently located where PCs can do R&R.

Actually, this just sounds like the standard D&D setting to me - stretching back at least to the Basic set. Isoalted villages under assault by orc warlords, nearby cave systems infested with humanoids and other nasties, villages living under the thumb of evil barons and mad wizards ready to loose chaos upon them if they don't bow down lower and pay more taxes. All of which need the assistance of adventurers to step forward and fight on their behalf, because most of the folks in the village are 0-level commoners and the local robber baron is only good for sending thugs around to collect tribute.

When I first started playing D&D the game felt a lot like the "Magnificent Seven meets Lord of the Rings" - and it sounds like the "default setting" is an attempt to go back to that angle. (Interestingly, I'd describe Middle Earth as a setting where you have a small number of "points of light" amid the chaos - maybe not directly the evil of Mordor, but there are vast swaths of country that are uncontrolled by any authority and where a bumbling group of dwarves plus a halfling can run afoul of troll bandits or goblin armies).

 

[Mercule]

Awesomeness. Pure, bottled awesomeness.

I like this as the core assumption. I was actually just coming to the realization that my homebrew setting, which began in 1E, started out very sparse and with large areas that were dangerous and filled with ruins. As things moved on, I've populated almost everything so the the "frontiers" and the wildernesses are far from where the PCs are likely to start (based on cultural assumptions). The 3E balance assumptions, that included set amounts of treasure, mostly magic, only served to push things that way. I very much like what I hear about the 4E assumed setting.

As far as "no city/political adventures".... Hogwash. If you've been reading the Design and Development articles, you know they're working on making social challenges better supported by the system. Plus, you'll still have a few big cities in which you can play. The sparseness just means that when the PCs get involved in politics, they'll actually be significant, rather than just some independant who is about as strong as the captain of the watch.

 

[Rykion]

This is the best thing I've heard about 4th ed so far.

 

[BluWolf]

I wonder if this heralds the return of stronghold rules for high-level characters? In AD&D the culmination of a character's career was when they cleared a region of monsters and built their keep, creating another "point of light".

Look to a company called Earth 1066 for Holdfast options. Most of the work they have done for 3E should be portable into the 4E mechanics. *Maybe.

 

[WizarDru]

I assume people have already noticed this, but when WOTC publishes short adventures, this is already the default setting.

Short adventures in D&D almost invariably involve coming across some small town with a problem that no one else seems willing to handle. The PCs get involved, solve the adventure in a one-off campaign setting, then move on with the larger campaign.

True for low-level modules, at least. Of the original adventure path:

Sunless Citadel: Teeny town and nearby dungeon (day's ride)
Forge of Fury: Small town and nearby dungeon (several day's ride)
Speaker in Dreams: City Adventure
Standing Stones: Small town with several nearby small dungeons (few hours ride)
Heart of Nightfang Spire: No town listed, one big dungeon
Deep Horizon: Underdark exploration, town vaguely implied in back story
Lord of the Iron Fortress: Planar adventure, Outland town listed briefly
Bastion of Broken Souls: Planar adventure, no urban info specified (though possibly implied)

So for the majority of the 3E adventure path, there is no town detailed in the module proper, though in several it is implied or assumed that the players can, if they wish, return to one. The first five modules easily fit into the 'points of light' idea with little change (other than the tone). The last three are too broad and world-travelling to make that assumptions, though "Deep Horizon" doesn't really have anything in it to contradict such a setting. LotIF and BoBS both assume planar travel is a commonplace event, as the players are now high-level...which sort of breaks that 'points of light' assumption, regardless.

By contrast, Paizo's adventure paths prominently feature urban centers: Cauldron for Shackled City, Sasserine for Savage Tide (except when the action relocates to the Isle of Dread, where a town takes over) and first a town (Diamond Lake?) and then 'the Free City' (aka Greyhawk) in Age of Worms.

If 4e's default assumed setting is a more desperate place in need of heroes, good on them. An implied tone in the first few modules is simply that the players are explorers, but they really don't have to do all that much. In the first two modules, they're simply hunting out some nuisances and looking for some missing persons. The towns aren't really all that worried about continued survival or about wandering too far from town. In Citadel, the people foolishy went to the scary temple. In Forge, some orcs are raiding the outlying farms and they'd like it to stop. Now these could be easily tweaked to be much more like the "points of light" idea, and I like that.

I don't really envision any mechanical changes, but more the tone of the fluff. In 3e, there are three zones: settlements that are safe, the untamed wilderness which is effectively neutral ground and the far-off dark places of the world. 4e sounds more like that second zone is effectively shrinking to a few miles away from civilization, as opposed to everywhere except the evil temple and great city.