Okay, this whole "points of light" thing . . .

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Civilization and darkness are not incompatible

I don't disagree -- I was just talking about the default. Indeed, my campaign, set in Ptolus' world of Praemal, features a crumbling continent-spanning empire. It's nominally all connected together, and in much of the continent, the spider web still holds together OK. And then there are other areas that have dropped out, or have forces cutting them off, sometimes with a very conscious effort to return the world to the grip of primordial chaos.

My player characters keep skirting the really bad wastelands, but later on in the campaign, their road to their goal will take them straight through the belly of the beast, and I intend to liberally lift from every good idea on the various Points of Lights threads to have them twitching and jumping at shadows in real life by the very end.

You could easily have a points of light setting in a heavily civilized world, though, indeed, I'm sure we'll see such a thing from a 3rd-party publisher sooner or later, you just have a very grim civilization, a few parts of which are decent, and few areas safe for "good", and the rest either dangerous or oppressive or the like.

Midnight and the City State of the Invincible Overlord are arguably settings just like this, available right now. The revised Freeport might also qualify.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Firestorm

With archendale and mithrildale and featherdale and daledale and daleydaleydale

There it is again!

(ty GiantITP)

It seems so vague that it could be applied to virtually every other setting out there.

I remember hearing somewhere that the most popular D&D setting (regardless of version) was "Homebrew." Points of light idea is generic enough to work with every setting (at least the basic concept of it, not sure about the implimentation).

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

"Points of light" reverses this. The world is a dangerous place. There are settlements, but in between those areas, there is little control by "civilization." The maps will have a large area that says nothing more that "Here be Dragons."

Oh, "points of light" is a code-phrase for "The Wilderlands of High Fantasy..."

 

[Doug McCrae]

Points of light means that civilisation, the PC races, are being hard pressed by monsterism. So much so that the vast majority of the world is monsters, wilderness or evil nations. Communication between settlements has broken down as travel is so dangerous. Most of the map is blank.

This isn't the case with any of the mainstream worlds. The maps of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Mystara and Eberron are mostly covered by non-evil human and demihuman nations.

The only 'points of light' D&D settings I know are Ravenloft, Dark Sun and Midnight.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

The only 'points of light' D&D settings I know are Ravenloft, Dark Sun and Midnight.

I would agree with all of these, adding in DCC 35: The Known Realms and the Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

It's possible they'll go too far, I think, the real world hasn't been "points of light" since about 500BC, but maybe that sort of "mythic era", albeit with very much un-mythic technology and thinking, is the right place.

It depends on the area and time; the American West up to the late 1890s, for example, easily qualifies, as does the common perception of Western Europe after the fall of Rome.

The concept does not specifically require that the entire world be a howling wilderness (which you do acknowledge); it is perfectly acceptable to have civilized areas where the authority does make some effort at ensuring the safety of travelers outside of bowshot range. You just won't be adventuring there, most likely.

Brad

 

[Imaro]

Oh, "points of light" is a code-phrase for "The Wilderlands of High Fantasy..."

Pssst, actually it's a code-phrase for "Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying".

 

[frankthedm]

POL also mean that if players ignore an problem, it will Not be going away.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Pssst, actually it's a code-phrase for "Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying".

That's a Johnny-come-lately, innit?

 

[Patlin]

In my experience, villagers will view highly armed adventurers with suspicion no matter how much help they've been. Maybe with points of light, someone will finally say thank you?

Nah, never happen. "No good deed goes unpunished."