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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TwinBahamut" data-source="post: 4147013" data-attributes="member: 32536">I think the original post overstates the danger of the Points of Light setting a bit.Points of Light is not based on the idea that every town is besieged by monsters, and that civilization requires the constant efforts of heroes in order to exist. Instead, PoL is based on the idea that every town is isolated, so that if the heroes encounter a town that is in trouble, then the only people who even have a chance at saving the day are the heroes. PoL means that, if there is trouble, there is no cavalry that is guaranteed to come and save the day. It does not necessarily mean that there is always trouble.Certainly, the fact that Points of Light are relatively isolated means that there are things like monsters in the surrounding countryside. For the most part, this kind of danger can be explained by low-level dangers like goblins that can threaten small groups of travelers (even if only through an ambush at night), but not whole communities, or perhaps by more powerful monsters that are not particularly interested in hurting humans (such as unintelligent animal-like monsters only interested in hunting food for themselves). You don't need to explain this danger as an omnipresent threat of the annihilation of civilization. Normal towns and villages can exist like they always have in D&D, they just are probably a little more paranoid than they used to be.Beyond that, yes, larger and more powerful kinds of monsters can certainly threaten to wipe out a whole community without any problem. But since this is D&D, this is true whether it is a PoL setting or not. No village in any version of D&D will be able to resist a vampire who wants to march in and rule the town. The difference with a PoL setting is that no one outside of such a dominated town will know that anything has happened, and no one can rescue such a town unless heroes show up.</blockquote>

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