Nathan Paoletta all good examples! But definitely not civilization. Maybe a D&D points-of-light kind of thing if it’s straight fantasy, rules and laws and tradition where folks can see you but get out a ways and shit falls apart.

This stuff is also on my mind because it’s a constant conceptual struggle as I work through my Misfortune game about the American West. Mostly when tradition and law fell apart, it’s because everyone kind of agreed to it: indigenous traders intermarried for centuries with Europeans suddenly getting hunted for fun/profit. To my mind that also qualifies as a failed state.