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<blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 3740349" data-attributes="member: 1003">Eh. I wouldn't read too much into this.&nbsp; Yeah, Mearls will leave his mark, but I don't think the implied setting is really where it's going to be.&nbsp; IMO, it's the &quot;per encounter&quot; game balance that Mearls first developed for Iron Heroes that is the biggest &quot;stamp&quot; he's got.To me this &quot;points of light in darkness&quot; is a really cool turn of phrase, but it's mostly just a restatement of how the older editions of D&amp;D presented their generic adventures.&nbsp; I like it. I think it's good. I think I could plop B1 or G1-3 down just about anywhere (score!!).&nbsp; But it's not Mearls' baby to take credit for.&nbsp; J.R.R. &quot;Barrowdowns&quot; Tolkien is clear prior art, and he was hardly the first either.On a different note, I think it's a mistake to try to say that &quot;oh, they're making Earth, just in the 8th century instead of the 14th.&quot;&nbsp; No, they're not.&nbsp; They're making the D&amp;D implied setting, and it's misleading to draw too many parallels. Earth (looking at Western history only, since that's what I'm most familiar with) has seen only three cycles of civilization rise and fall.&nbsp; We had the Egyptians (rise, then fall), the Greeks/Romans (rise, then fall), and Christian Europe (rise, no fall yet (knock on wood)).&nbsp; Lots of &quot;stuff&quot; happens in between, but that's the broad outline.&nbsp; Anywho, that's all taken place over a period of ~6,000 years.D&amp;D World is 10's, or 100's of thousands of years old.&nbsp; We've had civilizations of dragons, titans, elves, and maybe even the occasional &quot;ancient kingdom of Men&quot; such as Netheril.&nbsp; There were civilizations that rose, fell, rose, fell, rose, fell, rose, fell, etc. ad infinitum.&nbsp; You have to think of this as something that happens in cycles. It's a wheel of time, not a steady progress towards d20 Modern.&nbsp; There have probably been a dozen Romes, each in turn sacked by a flight of Dragons, Hobgoblin menace, or an accidentally summoned horde of demons (oops).At least, that's how I see the implied setting.&nbsp; That's why there's so many freakin' old dungeons, temples, complexes, crypts, castles, etc. etc., even though no &quot;civilized people&quot; have walked those hills in an Age ...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Irda Ranger, post: 3740349, member: 1003"] Eh. I wouldn't read too much into this. Yeah, Mearls will leave his mark, but I don't think the implied setting is really where it's going to be. IMO, it's the "per encounter" game balance that Mearls first developed for Iron Heroes that is the biggest "stamp" he's got. To me this "points of light in darkness" is a really cool turn of phrase, but it's mostly just a restatement of how the older editions of D&D presented their generic adventures. I like it. I think it's good. I think I could plop B1 or G1-3 down just about anywhere (score!!). But it's not Mearls' baby to take credit for. J.R.R. "Barrowdowns" Tolkien is clear prior art, and he was hardly the first either. On a different note, I think it's a mistake to try to say that "oh, they're making Earth, just in the 8th century instead of the 14th." No, they're not. They're making the D&D implied setting, and it's misleading to draw too many parallels. Earth (looking at Western history only, since that's what I'm most familiar with) has seen only three cycles of civilization rise and fall. We had the Egyptians (rise, then fall), the Greeks/Romans (rise, then fall), and Christian Europe (rise, no fall yet (knock on wood)). Lots of "stuff" happens in between, but that's the broad outline. Anywho, that's all taken place over a period of ~6,000 years. D&D World is 10's, or 100's of thousands of years old. We've had civilizations of dragons, titans, elves, and maybe even the occasional "ancient kingdom of Men" such as Netheril. There were civilizations that rose, fell, rose, fell, rose, fell, rose, fell, etc. ad infinitum. You have to think of this as something that happens in cycles. It's a wheel of time, not a steady progress towards d20 Modern. There have probably been a dozen Romes, each in turn sacked by a flight of Dragons, Hobgoblin menace, or an accidentally summoned horde of demons (oops). At least, that's how I see the implied setting. That's why there's so many freakin' old dungeons, temples, complexes, crypts, castles, etc. etc., even though no "civilized people" have walked those hills in an Age ... [/QUOTE]

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