The impossibility of Point of Light settings

[Malmuria]

The “Dark Ages” is just a term that refers to an bit of time where we have few useful records, because those records were lost. Even Italia wasn’t all that “dark” for very long, and the rest of Europe mostly went about their business.

But as to the OP, the cantrip Mold Earth exists, as does Shape Water. Medieval European irrigation doesn’t exist, the irrigation is vastly better than that.

Control Flame helps with smelting and other heat-reliant tasks. D&D has common magic items, that can do cantrips 1/day or more, or mimic effects of cantrips.

And that’s just to start.

When I run a Points Of Light game, the points of light are wonders. They are the bastions of a lost world or the first great wonders of what will someday be the early history of a world, so things like hanging gardens growing much of the food, supplemented by semi-domesticated fowl, hunting parties bringing home the deconstructed carcasses of megafauna, fishing boats, and trade with the small farming villages close enough to be protected by regular patrols, where every able bodied person is a trained combatant.

Yep. 5e is very much the "don't think about it too much edition," exacerbated by forgotten realms (in which massive cities, rather than straggling towns, are the "points of light").

 

[aco175]

I did like the 4e Nentir Vale as a setting place. Did not really think about the peoples and commerce other than how it affected the PCs, but would guess that there would still be some trade off the map to the neighboring places and the old kingdom that is fading away.

 

[Yora]

Yep. 5e is very much the "don't think about it too much edition," exacerbated by forgotten realms (in which massive cities, rather than straggling towns, are the "points of light").

Forgotten Realms started out as a setting of prosperous merchant citiy states. Monsters were never a real threat to civilization. Even orcs were an issue only in the most remote borderlands.
All the major villains were evil human organizations.

Maybe they tried to change that with whatever they tried in 4th edition, where they blew up all kinds of cities and kingdoms, and who knows what it's supposed to be in 5th edition.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Goodman games put out a couple of good sourcebooks called Points of Light and Points of Light 2: The Sunrise Sea. They were basically hexcrawl settings. The rpg Forbidden Lands by Free League games is similarly a points of light hexcrawl. I've found all of these great inspiration for Points of Light campaigns.

The important take away from these sources was in HOW and WHY the safe havens are so isolated and cut off.
Yes, as the OP points out, from a historical context the roman legion would take a huge infrastructure to support. But that isn't what makes a PoL setting interesting. Take the same roman legion and ship them off to a distant colony. Now you have a PoL campaign where they are just trying to hold out against the darkness with the tiny lifeline of occasional shipments of supplies. They have to put in extra care for their tools and weapons as they aren't easily replaced. And thus, you have a more interesting campaign. Just think about the how and why and let them guide you in setting up the foundation for a good story.

This is one reason I always loved the setting for the original Twilight: 2000.

At first, it seems ridiculous the amount of loot and gear, ammo, cool guns you get... but then you start realizing that every time you use any of it, you're depleting a resource that will be very hard to replenish, if you're able to at all.

Combined with the rules they put in for foraging and how great - you got 1000kg of raw food, but once it's prepared... 250-500

 

[pogre]

OP - you are probably correct.

I love history. I teach history. If you reflect on the consequences of magic and more it will drive you mad.

I learned a long time ago not to worry about it too much unless it makes game prep more fun for me. Very, very few players care about this stuff IME. The background and internal logic of the world are pretty much things that bug GMs only.

My big hang up is mass combat. I love fantasy mass combat, but it really makes zero sense to have medieval-style battles in a fantasy setting. Does not stop me from doing it though

 

[Yaarel]

Points of Light as a setting idea always crops up from time to time and D&D 4E heavily advertised with it. But what always bugged me with that is how it ignores how much interconnected infrastructure

I see Points of Light as "fill in the blanks" design space, or as a "coloring book".

It isnt that the setting has gaps. Its that the DM and players decide how to fill out these gaps as they explore them.

Same goes for leaving quadrants of a city empty. When they adventure there, their interests decide what things they will find there.



Heh, it is like a "Shroedingers Cat" game design.

 

[reelo]

Here it is (in part) for those of you with Comprehend Languages:

View attachment 139685

Nice example of the insular minuscule script!

 

[pemerton]

I think spending time on the realism of social processes in FRPG settings is not much more profitable than worrying about the physics of dragon flight and giant spider respiration.

JRRT did not create realistic economies for his world; he relied on clear and evocative tropes. I think this is the way to approach FRPG settings.

 

[aramis erak]

I think spending time on the realism of social processes in FRPG settings is not much more profitable than worrying about the physics of dragon flight and giant spider respiration.

JRRT did not create realistic economies for his world; he relied on clear and evocative tropes. I think this is the way to approach FRPG settings.

And yet, weren't you praising just that kind of digging on race issues?

As for spider respiration? Book Lungs exist in Arachnids already. They are relatively scalable. The scale issue is the exoskeleton and the square/cube law.

 

[Fenris-77]

There's nothing impossible about Points of Light settings. I'll see myself out....