Saturday, May 16, 2020

Let's read: Nentir Vale

I must preface this: unlike with Dragonlance 1-2e, or Dark Sun 2e, or too-many-to-count 3e products: I didn't ever buy a 4e product. I went straight to Pathfinder, both the mainline Paizo stuff and Kobold's Southlands. So what I'm posting here is 1d4 Chan's take on the Points Of Light.

The Nentir / Points world wasn't supposed to be a campaign world at all. It loosely collects D&D product which had been converted from the first, second, and third editions. Those were predominantly, if not wholly, set in Greyhawk back in the day, because Greyhawk was the "points of light" of THAT day: cobbled from Gary Gygax's tabletop games and a few tournaments.

So Nentir and its surroundings ended up with Tsojcanth, The Temple of Elemental Evil, The Vault of the Drow, White Plume Mountain, and The Tomb of Horrors. Blech.

I did NOT like that this stuff got pulled out of what generations of gamers had called home, and dumped into a wholly new setting, because lawyers. Go get your own princess! as Shrek would say.

That said, the Vault always ended in a transplanar romp, and the Tomb has ended up that way since 2e. So we can allow homages to these classics in whatever setting. When the party is in the Demonweb Pits, they can open a portal to - I guess it would be the Dead Gods iteration of the Vault under the Hellfurnaces. I mean, if that's desired. Again, I'm un-sold on there being two or more Drow Vaults around the multiverse. (And then there's Menzobarranzan. And whatever other drow-ventures be floatin' around the game publishers.) They'd better be original.

Anyway, if you ignored the bookstore-published plagiaries, apparently some fun lore slipped out into Dragon and Dungeon over the years. I think a wargame sparked this creativity. Not so different from ol' Chainmail inspiring Greyhawk and Blackmoor, or from Adlatum these days.

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