Review of Points Of Light By Goodman Games
-== What is it? ==-
Points Of Light is a system free setting book that includes four fantasy realms that can be used in a campaign. It was written by Robert Conley and Dwayne Gillingham. The publisher is Goodman Games. Points Of Light was released in September 2008.
The book has a color cover and an entirely black and white interior. Points Of Light is 8.5? x 11? and is 48 pages in length. There is not a table of contents but there is a 2 page index. There is also a 1 page ad at the end of Points Of Light. I am reviewing a print copy that I purchased. I have not utilized the material in my campaign at this point (i.e. I have only read the book).
-== What I Like ==-
My favorite aspect of Points Of Light was the flavor of the four settings. The settings include:
- Wildland – A setting with barbarian tribes.
- Southlands – A wilderness frontier.
- Borderland – A realm where two factions fight.
- Swamps of Acheron – A romp to to an outer plane.
This setting book is really suited for newbies or experienced GM who are looking for additional material for their games. I liked the level of detail in Point Of Light. The detail is intentionally left a bit sparse so the GM can fill in with their own material.
My favorite of the four setting in Points Of Light is the Swamps Of Acheron. Without giving away too much the pillars seems like they would be ripe for adventure.
The cover art by Craig Maher is vibrant and eye catching. The interior work on Points Of Light by Britt Martin is also evocative. The shading of the interior illustrations give the book a rich feel that I enjoyed. The layout is not too dark and is not distracting.
-== What I Don’t Like ==-
Probably my biggest complaint with Points Of Light is that there is really nothing new or “cool” in the provided settings. In my opinion it provided a lot more of the same stuff that you find in other fantasy setting products.
I found the maps in Points Of Light to be fair at best. They are very simplistic but surprisingly hard to read. Inset maps that are occasionally provided are teeny tiny. The author, Robert Conley, did the maps but maybe he should have had someone else do them. I was also surprised to find no player maps in the product. While researching Points Of Light online I found out that you can download player maps from Goodman Games. 😉
The lack of a table of contents is a slight drawback. To make matters worse the index has repeats and has all of the settings combined in one list. Thus if you want to find something in a particular setting you have to go through a list of entries from all settings. A better approach might have been to have each section have their own smaller index. To put it simply the index in Points Of Light feels like a rushed afterthought.
-== Summary ==-
Points Of Light might be valuable if you are a newer GM looking for inspiration or if you are looking for an area to drop directly into an existing campaign. Frankly I do not see a lot of value in this product. The cover price is great at a low $12.99.
You can get a copy of Points Of Light at Amazon for $12.99 at this
I give it 4 out of 10 paws.
