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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 3792212" data-attributes="member: 18">Precisely.It should be noted, too, that FR is far from the only campaign setting which was more &quot;points of darkness&quot; than anything else. Many campaign settings, by studiously neglecting to mention anything unpleasant, or hand-waving it, yet covering &quot;good guy&quot; areas in detail, manage to convey the general impression that only a few certain areas are seriously dangerous, and that most of the world is happy-happy.It's possible they'll go too far, I think, the real world hasn't been &quot;points of light&quot; since about 500BC, but maybe that sort of &quot;mythic era&quot;, albeit with very much un-mythic technology and thinking, is the right place.It's quite possible to have a great campaign setting that isn't &quot;points of light&quot; (Planescape comes to mind), but it's a good default state/assumption for Dungeons and Dragons.Civilization and darkness are not incompatible, though, as Sarlona in Eberron clearly illustrates. Indeed, one of the few things to dislike about Eberron is that some of the areas seem so civilized in a &quot;good&quot; way, that it's hard to believe people get away with behaving the way they do, or indeed want to behave in such a fashion (the halfling dinosaur riders come to mind).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 &quot;good&quot;, and the rest either dangerous or oppressive or the like.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 3792212, member: 18"] Precisely. It should be noted, too, that FR is far from the only campaign setting which was more "points of darkness" than anything else. Many campaign settings, by studiously neglecting to mention anything unpleasant, or hand-waving it, yet covering "good guy" areas in detail, manage to convey the general impression that only a few certain areas are seriously dangerous, and that most of the world is happy-happy. 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's quite possible to have a great campaign setting that isn't "points of light" (Planescape comes to mind), but it's a good default state/assumption for Dungeons and Dragons. Civilization and darkness are not incompatible, though, as Sarlona in Eberron clearly illustrates. Indeed, one of the few things to dislike about Eberron is that some of the areas seem so civilized in a "good" way, that it's hard to believe people get away with behaving the way they do, or indeed want to behave in such a fashion (the halfling dinosaur riders come to mind). 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. [/QUOTE]

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