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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 9784719" data-attributes="member: 710">I'd say it's pessimistic to say they all tear it all down. It's a setback, but there is still a "net advancement", so to speak. It still sucks. For that reasons ,I didn't really feel like D&D 4E Points-Of-Light approach wasn't really a "despair" setting to me. I mean, there was presumably despair when Nerath fell. But... enclaves of civilizations remain. And now our heroes can reconnect the points of light and possibly start nationbuilding (that was a theme of my 4E campaign). But maybe I am just misinterpreting Remalithis understanding of Setting of Hope or Despair. Despair to me sounds like there nothing good in the future waiting or possible. But from a sci-fi view ,I guess a galaxy ruled by facist empire or Earth after some nuclear holocaust might feel pessimistic, because really bad things are in this imagined future of ours, and it's clearly a step back from what we have now. But if you're working to fight to rebuild it, I see hope. But it is less optimistic or hopeful than, say Star Trek, that posits that humanity finds aliens and builds a community with them, and you're now just exploring the world for curiosity ,not because the people at home need you to find a cure for their ailments or the allies to fight for freedom? I would say that Star Trek and its optimistic future was created after the end of a world war, but also during an uneasy time of cold war. Was its optimism a welcome counter-response to the bad things we had seen in the world and the unease on its future, or was it just continuing a theme, that things were getting better? Mind you that some setting details, like the 3rd World War or the Eugenic Wars were introduced later in the show, some even when the Cold War had ended, so it might never be clearly definable what aspects of the Zeitgeist influenced which part, and what positive or negative feedback loops might exist.</blockquote>

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