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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7431512" data-attributes="member: 6696971">@<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=42582" target="_blank">pemerton</a> , I'll check out your thread at some point in the future and post some comments.&nbsp; I haven't played In a Wicked Age, so that is very interesting (and obviously VB is my favorite designer).I just logged on briefly because I had a thought and this seemed like a decent enough repository for a game premise.In a Points of Light sort of world where humanoidkind (I guess that would be the word?) is pressed on all sides by an encroaching darkness (a la 4e or Beyond the Wall or Torchbearer or Blades in the Dark), a despotic power-broker and apex predator of the magnitude of an Elder/Ancient Dragons demanding monthly tribute (or something not too overwhelmingly punitive) becomes a stabilizing force for a region.&nbsp; It is by no means &quot;the perfect good&quot;, but its &quot;good enough&quot; in light of the alternative.Its slaying (by adventurers perhaps) or disappearance (perhaps a pilgrimage, perhaps ascendance) creates a vacuum of power and profound destabilization to the local ecosystem.&nbsp; The disorderly, insidious darkness begins its encroach anew.Blades in the Dark PCs depends upon this paradigm (because you're looking to climb the ladder and destabilization is inevitable collateral...and mostly good).&nbsp; Meanwhile, PCs in other games may (for the sake of the greatest good), prefer for the status quo to persist.I guess I was just thinking that a Points of Light game like default 4e, Torchbearer, and Beyond the Wall depends on this &quot;local stabilization through protection racket by overwhelmingly powerful agent&quot; paradigm being untenable.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 7431512, member: 6696971"] @[I][B][U][URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=42582"]pemerton[/URL][/U][/B][/I] , I'll check out your thread at some point in the future and post some comments. I haven't played In a Wicked Age, so that is very interesting (and obviously VB is my favorite designer). I just logged on briefly because I had a thought and this seemed like a decent enough repository for a game premise. In a Points of Light sort of world where humanoidkind (I guess that would be the word?) is pressed on all sides by an encroaching darkness (a la 4e or Beyond the Wall or Torchbearer or Blades in the Dark), a despotic power-broker and apex predator of the magnitude of an Elder/Ancient Dragons demanding monthly tribute (or something not too overwhelmingly punitive) becomes a stabilizing force for a region. It is by no means "the perfect good", but its "good enough" in light of the alternative. Its slaying (by adventurers perhaps) or disappearance (perhaps a pilgrimage, perhaps ascendance) creates a vacuum of power and profound destabilization to the local ecosystem. The disorderly, insidious darkness begins its encroach anew. Blades in the Dark PCs depends upon this paradigm (because you're looking to climb the ladder and destabilization is inevitable collateral...and mostly good). Meanwhile, PCs in other games may (for the sake of the greatest good), prefer for the status quo to persist. I guess I was just thinking that a Points of Light game like default 4e, Torchbearer, and Beyond the Wall depends on this "local stabilization through protection racket by overwhelmingly powerful agent" paradigm being untenable. [/QUOTE]

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