Wrote a review of Kingmaker:Stolen Lands here
Gives my view based on my experience writing for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy and Goodman Game's Points of Light series.
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Yes, technically. What few stats there are a edition neutral D&D. The reason for this approach that there very little room for crunch. We opted to pack more setting rather than worrying about providing full stat blocks. Each setting has dozens of related entries. Quite of bit of work is done for a GM even without statblocks.
For those who are interested I got permission to post this excerpt from a Points of Light map.
Very much so. This is a typical entry (with stats)
While nothing was copied directly from any edition, the magic items and effects (like drinking from the River Acheron) are also described in edition neutral terms. Any saves are given in new and old format like vs poison or fortitude. For example
All good here, it understand where you are coming from. Your line gave me an opportunity to explain more about the product. Being able to use Points of Light is just plain good luck rather than defiance. In fact I am glad that Rich Baker wrote about it because before it was hard to describe the themes I used in my writing. My big concern is that people won't "get it" about what PoL is about. Not the concept by Rich Baker but the product itself. It not a setting like Greyhawk, Eberron, Pathfinder, that requires a decision to buy into. Neither it is as ready to run as a dungeon module would be. It occupies a middle ground that I think can be exploited to every benefit.
You will find that the lands share common concepts (the god Sarrath, Delaquain, Bright Empire, etc). Because of limited space each land uses common concepts in a limited way suitable for that land. But if you read the whole product then you get a bigger picture. So even if you only use it for Wildland you will still benefit by having the other three lands in there.
Joseph Goodman is a great guy to work with however he is clear that marketing is his area of expertise. I could say that I am just the author and he is the boss; but when he proposed it I agreed wholeheartedly. The term doesn't appear to be protected in any form. I will say that the lands I created for PoL had their origins long before Rich Baker wrote his article. His article is almost a perfect description of Judges Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy which is the world that I started with back in the early 80's. I appreciate Rich Baker putting it all together under a snazzy title. But the concept is not original. Many of us old timers were running Points of Light before the term was coined. Wizards however was partly responsible for PoL. Last winter I threw up a fantasy version of the Outdoor Survival Map over on the Original D&D Discussion Board. One of the posters worked at Wizards and put me into contact with the right person to ask formal permission so I can publish it. While they were nice about it, I didn't get permission. My intent was to make a mini-setting where high-level character can go and carve out their own barony. So I created a new Southland map. and made a pitch to Joesph Goodman for a product focused on mini-settings. It was accepted. When it came time to decide on a title and how to market it, Points of Lights fit the description of the lands I was creating and wasn't protected. Writing a mini-setting means that it is so stat light that it is effectively systemless. Which was good because it was written in April when we had no idea what would publishers be allowed to do. Also if you look at the DMG they describe their setting like a Points of Light but nowhere they use it as a formal title of their setting "Nentir Vale", "Fallcrest", etc.
I don't think anyone posted this. One of Goodman Games products is 'Points of Light'. It is a collection of generic campign settings. I found it funny. It is four unrelated lands, each with a different theme. Each land is has a map with numbered hexes along with locales keyed to a hex. The background for each are kept light and with an eye towards making it easy for a referee to drop it in her campaign. The lands are roughly 125 by 100 miles. Entries have minimal stats that are useful for most RPGs especially the various editions of AD&D/D&D. If you have a need for a frontier where players can carve out baronies then Southlands will help. If you have a frontier overrun by humaniods or barbarians than look at Wildlands. A war torn land split between two empires or factions then look at Borderlands. Finally the Swamp of Acheron is an realm set in the Outer Planes. Rob Conley
Throwing more fuel on the implications bonfire. The license intent is that you don't redefine any of the licensed terms. So what is a Demon defined as? If you look at page 52 you will see there are a couple of paragraph before any Demon entries that explain what Demons are. So does this means that if you write about Demons for a 4th edition product it has to be under that SPECIFIC cosmology? If you are say writing a old testament or babylonian product that you can't call their evil supernatural beings Demons because those two cultures have a different definition (but similar) for Demons. The same for Devils? You can't even EXPLAIN the default cosmology because that would result in a violation of the prohibition of copying any text. Like the OGL the reality will come out in the months to come as Wizards and the 3rd party publishers interact. It could be that Wizards wants keep up all in lock step with the marketing of fourth edition default world and all. It could be Wizards doesn't really care as long as publishers limit themselves to expansions, settings and modules and not try to recreate the rulebook. |