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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 4449884" data-attributes="member: 3649">There's several reasons to do the things you're talking about. If you've never worked for a place that suddenly gets new management, then you may not be aware that 'putting your stamp on the place' is a real phenomenon. The new management always wants something big to say 'we did this'. The how and what of things doesn't much matter but they know that they have to make a big dramatic change to be remembered. Destruction rather than creation is a cheap and easy way to make your mark, and it's lazy as well. It requires very little work other than picking an appropriate target.The powers that be decide that things are 'too good', or that audiences have gotten too comfortable, so they decide to shake things up. Also, it's a way of getting out of painting yourself into a corner, story-wise. I'm sure that several times in  FR history the designers have said to themselves 'I wish I could just junk the whole thing and start out fresh' which would be the best thing to do, but they know they can't. They have to figure out a way to introduce change, though, and an apocalyptic event is about the best way to do that.As far as 'the PCs can't affect the setting', well... how often does that actually occur? I mean, really? I'd think the answer would be 'not often' save perhaps at the end of a campaign where you save the world. And that usually involved saving it, ie, really stopping change from happening.There is also an interesting psychological thing I've noticed: when things are going good, people seem to need a certain amount of tragedy, in the theatrical sense. The better things are for people, the more they seek out tragedy in entertainment settings. Cyberpunk came about in an era of great prosperity. Conversely, in times of genuine stress, people tend to seek out happy endings and lighter escapist settings; look at the late 60's TV shows that were aired amid all the cultural turmoil of the time.</blockquote>

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