Points-of-light is not just for post-apocalyptic fantasy

[GlassJaw]

It also fits the "colonial" or "frontier" style of setting... American Wild West, the Age of Exploration, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Far Flung British Empire. Any time you've got an area that is far removed (either through time or by physical distance) from the centers of "civilization", you can find a "points of light" paradigm.

This is what I thought of as well, except placed in a medieval/European setting.

Depending on the proliferation and abundance of "evil" separating the points of light, it seems to me that forming and maintaining any large centralized government would be very difficult. How do you collect taxes when you can't travel between towns safely?

I envision each town would be almost entirely responsible for their own safety. People would band together out of necessity and have to provide for themselves.

I keep going back to the same thought I originally had when I heard the points of light concept : Ravenloft.

 

[T. Foster]

I'm honestly surprised that apparently lots of folks have been running campaigns that aren't based on the points-of-light model. Even in campaign-settings where there are large settled regions of benign civilization, I've always assumed that actual game-activity would be occuring almost entirely outside (or at least at the border/hinterlands of) those regions.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

I'm honestly surprised that apparently lots of folks have been running campaigns that aren't based on the points-of-light model. Even in campaign-settings where there are large settled regions of benign civilization, I've always assumed that actual game-activity would be occuring almost entirely outside (or at least at the border/hinterlands of) those regions.

That's been ingrained in me since Keep on the.........y'know...the, uh...Borderlands. With campaigns in more settled regions, the tone of adventure style changes considerably. All are good with me.

 

[Dragonblade]

The US government was clearly the aggressor and clearly in the wrong when it seized the land of Native Americans living in the West.

That is a gross oversimplification of historical events. And the Apaches were in the right when they seized their land from the tribes that came before? And then when that tribe seized the land from the tribe before them?

Try to view historical events in perspective without politically correct groupthink.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I know that lots of Realms fans don´t want to hear this, but for me some parts of FR are perfect PoL environs. Especially the western heartlands and the area around Phlan always screamed such a flavor to me.

Oh, and kudos to the OP for a very good post.

 

[Kunimatyu]

That is a gross oversimplification of historical events. And the Apaches were in the right when they seized their land from the tribes that came before? And then when that tribe seized the land from the tribe before them?

Try to view historical events in perspective without politically correct groupthink.

Or we could leave the political events out of this entirely, and just accept that the OP wasn't intentionally trying to tick anyone off?

 

[GreatLemur]

It also fits the "colonial" or "frontier" style of setting...

Yep, that's where I went with it. (...But then my frontier was a continent of uninhabited ruins, so I guess I've still got some post-apocalypse in there.)

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Yep. You don't have to have howling wilderness filled with ruins and scattered villages on the cusp of being overrun by howling barbarian hordes. You can, and those are perfectly acceptable, but scenarios such as presented by the OP are perfectly viable.

It works very well in Eberron. Yes, Breland covers a huge swath of territory, and it does have some lightning rail lines...but not many, and communications aren't guaranteed everywhere. Many parts of Breland are presumably days or even weeks away from Crown intervention, even assuming that the forces are available, and that the Crown knows to intervene. Yes, that kobold infestation may be easily solved by throwing the army at it, but after the Thronehold demobilizations you've got only so many regiments, and even if they didn't have commitments on the border, it'd still take weeks and be horrifically expensive to get them there.

That's why adventurers are so useful. Not only are they easier to move (5 people move faster than 5000), but they'll happily work for salvage, and if you do need to pay them, that's still cheaper.

Brad

 

[GreatLemur]

That is a gross oversimplification of historical events. And the Apaches were in the right when they seized their land from the tribes that came before? And then when that tribe seized the land from the tribe before them?

Wait, so is your assertion that it's okay to steal land from anybody whose ancestors stole that land previously?

 

[WayneLigon]

I'm honestly surprised that apparently lots of folks have been running campaigns that aren't based on the points-of-light model. Even in campaign-settings where there are large settled regions of benign civilization, I've always assumed that actual game-activity would be occuring almost entirely outside (or at least at the border/hinterlands of) those regions.

Almost never; I love city adventures and most campaigns I've done have been set in large cities in the middle of very well-tamed lands. Villages spaced a half-day apart, regular coaching roads with inns at the 1-day mark, towns with no walls and space for gardens, etc. Most of the time when they 'go camping' it's because they are running down some clue or another.

Most of our game activity occurs in the city streets, and under them. Crazed noblemen, merchants with too much money, foul crime lords, shapeshifters, cults, etc are the normal things they encounter in most of my games. The Eberron game I'm doing now is very different in that they travel at the drop of a hat and hie off to the remotest parts of the world.