I am pleased to announce Points of Light by myself and Goodman Games. Points of Light is a gazetteer for four separate lands. It is 48 pages and retails for $12.99. Each land has a map done in old school style with numbered hexes. Each lands has text describing a series of geographical locations and locales keyed to the numbed hex grid.

The product is system neutral with minimal stats.

Example

Quote0913 Sam's Landing (Hamlet)
This small hamlet of mud huts is the marshalling area for Baron Beldon's raids on the trade caravan passing between Westguard and Bolzak. There are usually several dozen canoes and a handful of barges pulled onto shore at any time. In the center of the hamlet is the Green Frog Inn, where Tom Lodon (Rog6) rules the thugs and pirates of Sam's Landing with an iron fist. Nailed to a post next to his "throne" is the shriveled head of Sam Dalton, the former chief of the hamlet. Over 40 pirates and raiders live in the hamlet, along with a dozen women, and twenty slaves to tend potatoes patches. A good portion of the crop is used to brew Silver Lightning, a type of hard liquor. A dozen wererats (1 HD) live on the outskirts of town and are used as scouts on raids.

Each land is about 125 miles by 100 miles. They are provided with a minimal background to make it easy to add it to any referee's campaign.

The four lands presented are

Wildland: The fall of the Bright Empire left warring factions in its wake. As savage barbarians and wicked humanoids roam the land, the last bastions of civilization cower behind their crumbling city walls. A dark age has come, and none may live to tell the tale.

Southland: On the frontiers of the Great Kingdom, the nations of men, elves and dwarves join together against the wicked elves of Nighportal Keep and the Orcs of the Bloody Fist. A realm is yours for the taking, if you can carve it from the wilderness.

Borderland: Two factions clash over war-torn fields, battling for dominance in a civil war that that has torn a once-mighty empire in two. When brother strives against brother, and blood runs in the streets, who will emerge to unify the broken land -- and at what cost, peace?

The Swamps of Acheron: In the Outer Planes, amid fetid swamplands and ice-choked mountains, the fell god Sarrath holds court. In a realm where gods stalk the earth, will you dare to take a stand, or will you succumb to evil's siren song and take up the Serpent Banner?

http://www.goodman-games.com/4380preview.html

Enjoy

Rob Conley

Sounds cool Rob, and I like the name.  WOTC might not like it, but I do.

Quote from: Jackalope;218356Sounds cool Rob, and I like the name.  WOTC might not like it, but I do.

Surprisingly it was not taken as a trademark. Just remember when you finally get this in August. That I was not a playtester, and didn't know anybody playtesting.

While only one of the lands (the Swamps of Acheron) was directly based off of an adventure I ran in my 25 year old fantasy campaign. The remaining lands used concepts and themes that I used throughout the years. For example I had players carve out new realms but not in Southland, I had a civil war that players were involved with but not Borderland.

The main reason for not making this a write-up of "Rob's Game" was to achieve the goal of making these stuff droppable into any referee campaign. Sure it will take some work before playing but no more than a good generic dungeon like those in the Dungeon Crawl Classic series. And perhaps Points of Light is better suited to just "drop in" because to do a good setting writeup you naturally go light on the stats.

Rob, that sounds awesome. Love the concept, unsurprisingly. One also notes it was playtested by Melan.

One thing, though: That Southland set-up sounds like a Middle Earth-sized mega-epic. Bit too big for a 125 x 100 miles region, no?

Quote from: estar;218357Surprisingly it was not taken as a trademark. Just remember when you finally get this in August. That I was not a playtester, and didn't know anybody playtesting.

That's his story, and he's stickin' to it!

QuoteWhile only one of the lands (the Swamps of Acheron) was directly based off of an adventure I ran in my 25 year old fantasy campaign. The remaining lands used concepts and themes that I used throughout the years. For example I had players carve out new realms but not in Southland, I had a civil war that players were involved with but not Borderland.

The main reason for not making this a write-up of "Rob's Game" was to achieve the goal of making these stuff droppable into any referee campaign. Sure it will take some work before playing but no more than a good generic dungeon like those in the Dungeon Crawl Classic series. And perhaps Points of Light is better suited to just "drop in" because to do a good setting writeup you naturally go light on the stats.

I think this a really great idea.  I really like it when a setting isn't static, where there is something going on.  Collapse, civil war, tyranny, exploration and kingdom building, looks like you've covered the bases.  I've run campaigns set in all of these types of kingdoms, and writing them up is a hassle.  If you did your job right (and I'm sure you did), then these should make it much easier to get right to the action.  I'll definitely pick this up for the next time I decide to run a campaign.  

I have a mini-campaign I want to do based on Super Mario Brothers, but I haven't done it yet because I don't want to set in my canon game-world, and I can't be arsed to write it up.  But Wildland sounds like it would be the perfect setting to drop that adventure right in.

Quote from: Pierce Inverarity;218359Rob, that sounds awesome. Love the concept, unsurprisingly. One also notes it was playtested by Melan.

One thing, though: That Southland set-up sounds like a Middle Earth-sized mega-epic. Bit too big for a 125 x 100 miles region, no?

Ad guys waxed a bit poetic on that one. Basically Southland is designed to be a tribute to Dave Arenson and the Outdoor Survival Map. There are small realms (20 miles or so) for the Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings. An outpost of a much larger offstage human kingdom. A dark elf outpost and a renegade Baron of the human kingdom.

Lots of empty hexes with no civilization where players can form their own realms.  Armies are measured in hundreds. While the threats are real they are on a scale that allows the PCs to have an impact. Instead of continental threats I focused on an area about the size of United States County or an old style English Shire.

I tried for permission to use the Outdoor Survival Map but Wizards said no. That denial lead me to the present Southland. When I presented it to Joesph Goodman he wanted more. So I created Borderland, Wildland, and the Swamps with the help of my long time friends Tim (editing) and Dwayne (writing). Goodman bought the project and now it will be released in two months.

Rob Conley

Cool! I'll check it out.

Seanchai

I got permission to post this preview of a Points of Light Map

I will have to buy this gaming accoutrement the day it's out.

You know what would be neat, Rob? If you could persuade Joe G. to make each of your 4 settings a separate 48-pp. PoL.

It's true that this may reduce pluggability.

Regardless, I desire it.

Quote from: Pierce Inverarity;219023I will have to buy this gaming accoutrement the day it's out.

You know what would be neat, Rob? If you could persuade Joe G. to make each of your 4 settings a separate 48-pp. PoL.

It's true that this may reduce pluggability.

Regardless, I desire it.

I appreciate the compliment, thanks.

In the end Points of Light is an experiment. To see if the format works. My goal is to make settings as common and useful as adventure modules.

There is enormous competition among the different publishers. The setting as a grand campaign with the big info dump some with custom rules have been done numerous times. If I tried to compete head to head with that I would be just one voice among many. By going with the PoL approach hopefully everyone will be catching up to me instead the other way around.

By sticking with 48 pages for four lands it keeps the price down so people will just try it. By keeping within 48 every word has to count, every entry needs to be of value. People like to talk about crunch versus fluff and how action is in the crunch. Well this is going to be fluff that will take down some names and give one hell of a place to adventure. (Four to be accurate)

Quote from: estar;219036In the end Points of Light is an experiment. To see if the format works. My goal is to make settings as common and useful as adventure modules.

I almost never buy setting material as it is useless and often terribly awkward as written. I'd rather write my own bad fiction and stories

But somehow, you have really intrigued me. My biggest objection to settings is the aforementioned info-dump, as well as how bad it usually gets and how little you can customize it.

Your stuff looks to be both refreshing and retaining a classic feel. The format is perfect and I really get a grasp of the the four lands without having to bang my head to figure it out. This stuff looks to be golden, Rob.

And yes, I think people will (or at least should) try to catch up with you. We need more of that and less overly long material. I think I may actually buy it. Plus, I think I may actually get to USE it.

PS: The philosophy sounds a bit like Grubman's Phoenix Barony.

Quote from: Consonant Dude;219040Your stuff looks to be both refreshing and retaining a classic feel. The format is perfect and I really get a grasp of the the four lands without having to bang my head to figure it out. This stuff looks to be golden, Rob.

Appreciate the compliment. We will how it does when August rolls around. Sometime before shipping a preview pdf will posted giving everyone a fuller view of the product.

Quote from: Consonant Dude;219040I think I may actually get to USE it.

That exactly the point. If I wanted people just to read my stuff I can start submitting to Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine or write a novel. This is a Roleplaying Game Product, meant to be used in actual play.

Quote from: Consonant Dude;219040PS: The philosophy sounds a bit like Grubman's Phoenix Barony.

From reading the ebook version t looks good, definitely only inches between our two approaches. I hope he does well with it. I think we need more people writing this kind of stuff.

Nearly all of us old school guys got started or were inspired by the original presentation of Gygax's TSR and Judges Guild especially . For some reason the epic setting with info dump became the norm rather than the Judges Guild approach.

Now go forward 30 years later.  With the old school revival and the 4th edition Points of Light being official, I see a lot of us saying, Hey, there are other things than an adventure module that are useful for a DM. There isn't only one way to do a setting. Let's revisit old TSR and Judges Guild. Update their approach. See how it holds up for today's market.

Thanks
Rob Conley

Quote from: Consonant Dude;219040But somehow, you have really intrigued me. My biggest objection to settings is the aforementioned info-dump, as well as how bad it usually gets and how little you can customize it.

Yeah, you usually end up with Way Too Much Stuff, and have too jettison most of it.

Like Iron Kingdoms has something like 600 pages of fluff.  Try summarizing that for a player who doesn't want to read the book.  You buy 600 pages, you use 50.

Makes a hell of a lot more sense to just give me the 50 and not charge me for 550 pages of stuff that won't get used.

Anything hexcrawl is welcomed. I definitely will have to get this when it comes out.

Regarding the Points of Light and trademarking: given that this was a popular term bandied about by big name politicians quite a few years ago, it is entirely in the public domain by now. It's be like trying to trademark... I dunno... the term 'Anime'.

Though, since MTV was able to enforce trademark on the term Aeon (which is thousands of years old) due to Aeon Flux, and Scott Mcfarlane was able to trademark Spawn (not quite as old, but still...)... or at least force poor wee game companies to cease and desist using said terms (White Wolf and Palladium respectively...) it wouldn't be without precedent... a failure of our legal system where 'justice' can be bought by simply outspending your opponent.