Points of Light vs. Evil PCs

One of the most interesting concepts codified in D&D 4 was the concept of world narrative. This is the whole idea of the "points of light" narrative of the world's situation. Put simply, the world is full of evil, and only a few outposts of good remain as the last holdouts of goodness in the world.

There were a number of assumptions that went with the Points of Light concept, including:

• Good does not fight Good
• Evil does not fight Evil
• Monsters are everywhere
• Most good races get along with each other
• The world is dangerous!

Okay, granted, this makes for a default fun and action-oriented world. It is a lot like an MMO in fact, where if you step outside of the towns, all bets are off. Keeping the races friendly makes it easy for everybody to find groups and to pair up Drow and Dragonborn - if the Dark Elves are fighting the demonic Orcs too, why not team up?

Now look at the above and think, what does the Points of Light model do? For the most part, good gets along with good, and evil gets along with evil. The world is a battleground, and heroes are needed, especially the good guys. There is a built-in bias to the world that presupposes a giant good vs. evil fight.

It feels difficult to play a neutral or evil PC in this world model. It is like an MMO, it assumes you are good guy. It feels like attempting to roleplay an "evil PC" on an online game with two factions that can't intermingle, you can stand around saying you're evil all you want, but the world isn't setup to support being evil at all. In fact, an evil PC in a points of light game is more a monster and disruptive to play in a party full of people trying to save the world.

Mind you, I still love points of light, it is an 'instant action' and classic world model, but it does have some interesting quirks that I'd like to explore. Also, place aside the problems of playing an evil PC for a while, I just want to think about the question, "Does the world model support diverse play styles?"

Take a normal, typical non Points of Light world. This place has your typical Medieval Europe farms and hamlets scattered about, rolling hills, dark forests, and snow-capped mountains painted in the background. Monsters are not the norm, they are the exception. This is not Points of Light, it is more a "Farms and Hamlets" setup, where the average piece of countryside is safe and normally Dark Ages. You may have a bandit or two lurking out there, or the occasional war between kingdoms, but on the average, nothing happens out there in the vast wilderness.

It feels like the world Paizo is building for Pathfinder. This may not be how every referee runs Pathfinder, but when I see maps with scattered farms and small hamlets in some kingdoms, I am going to assume there aren't a lot of wandering monsters out there in the countryside to gnaw on peasants. There are some dangerous places, but it feels like many of the kingdoms are by default mirror their inspirations, if a place is based on Medieval France, it is just like Medieval France. For some areas of the world, demon scars and vampire lands, this probably does not apply, but there are "safe zones" in the world.

If feels easier to play an evil PC in a normal or semi-normal world, since there is no default assumption of how the world expects you to act. There are more opportunities to choose evil or choose good in a world that isn't under siege, and thus more player freedom. In a way, Paizo's adventure paths typically leave it up to the group for how their characters get along, and I have never really had a problem running evil PCs through them - everyone has their own motivations to participate, and even "personal gain" is an evil-friendly and acceptable motivation for participation in an adventure path, even with a group of good characters.

I haven't got my D&D 5 PHB or DMG yet, so the jury is still out on the default world assumptions. With the lower power levels of the game, it could go either way in my eyes. Low-level monsters are still dangerous to high-level PCs, so this may make the world a more dangerous place. But, a mass of low level villagers can beat off high-level monsters, so the mass of people may push the world towards a more normal place. I need to read the default assumptions about the world to make up my mind about it, and see what view of the world they adopted for the game.