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Ok so I have to admit I really like the Points of Light concept put forth by the 4e team. It speaks to some 1e gene within me, recalling those early days where danger seemed to be on all sides of the beleaguered characters. I have often tried to recreate that feeling in my homebrew games with varying degrees of success. When I have done so successfully, my worlds were invariably low-magic and low treasure. I had long taken Gary Gygax's words of wisdom regarding the scarcity of magic items and I did my best to apply those thoughts in conjunction with what could be called a pseudo-realistic economic model. When I moved to 3e, I found that my gritty and economically realistic campaigns struggled because of the core rules assumption that characters were being rewarded per the RAW with magic and gold in a manner commensurate with their level. In my homebrew versions of the Points of Light game, trade was difficult and hazardous, gold, goods and services did not move well between economic centers and communities (except the largest ones) had access only to the resources immediately within their reach. Magic items could be found, artifacts of a different, more organized time or a lost civilization, but raw materials to craft items, highly skilled labor, and availability of NPC magic crafters were very highly restricted. It just didn't make sense to me that one of these isolated towns would reliably have the resources or market to make even "mundane" magic items readily available. Eventually, I moved away from this concept; it became too much effort to continue to run a 3e low-magic, low-treasure game in the face of so many assumptions about character power level and gear. I moved my games to the Realms and started running rewards per RAW and things have been much easier for me as a DM and for my players.
Getting back to the Points of Light concept espoused for 4e, what are the designers doing about the economic model behind this sort of approach? Are they still planning a Realms-like economy where there is trade (and a demand for trade), where hundreds or thousands of adventurers in a region drive a market for otherwise exotic goods and if so, how are they explaining this? Or will it be a low-magic, low-spending sort of environment, something closer to medieval Europe? I know that no one can tell me for certain because accurate, solid information is not available from WotC, but I am wondering if there have been any hints in any of the presentations thus far.
I admit that something strikes a chord in what you have said. I enjoy playing (and running) low magic, high magic and paths in-between. I wonder if they will provide better guidelines as to how manage magic item creation, magic item "markets" and just general availability of goods. Maybe how they could be changed and what that would entail for game balance (CR, treasure levels, Wealth by Character Level, etc).
We know they are not going to provide a low magic setting (really why would they everyone would want a homebrew version) but maybe they could look into releasing a low magic supplement in the interest of the points of light idea and the balance of the game.
An example would be a chart that denotes the CR of an encounter if the party has 1/2 or quarter standard treasure available to them.
I guess what it boils down to is that I like choices. I may never play a goblin shaman but I sure enjoy thinking about it. I like being able to give a character a minor artifact (with some serious baggage) so they can take on the BBEG and the nation he runs. So it makes me wonder if they are going to give me more choices or less with 4E?
High, Mid & Low magic? Gritty(fantasy)Realism?
Steam punkish setting? Horror? Optional miniature rules? Guidelines for Uber characters? Guidlines for being the Average Joe? An explaination why half demons (or is it devils) are suddenly as populous as elves?
I know some of that is going to be there, but others not so much.
By the way sorry if this turns into a hijacking.
Joe Wood Rules!
The Points of Light description got me thinking similar thoughts. They have said that 4e will be more about the characters' abilities rather than their gear and they won't need to be carrying so many magic items around any more. This doesn't mean low-magic necessarily, but the magic item economy might be made a bit more believable because magic items will be rarer.
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The Points of Light description got me thinking similar thoughts. They have said that 4e will be more about the characters' abilities rather than their gear and they won't need to be carrying so many magic items around any more. This doesn't mean low-magic necessarily, but the magic item economy might be made a bit more believable because magic items will be rarer.
Except in a campaign setting like Forgotten Realms where magic is relatively commonplace. Oh yeah, same pretty much applies to Eberron, too.
So, the risk here is that WotC will thoroughly screw with campaign settings that groups have grown to know and love?
Seems like playing with dynamite if you ask me.