I keep meaning to pick up Spire.
So just to be clear - the metagame term for metagame terms is jargon?If you want to use adventure as a metagame term for any events that occur to PCs, that makes sense.
Here's what I get from Oxford Languages via Google:Seems very limited to me.
I don't see the contradiction that you do.Worldbuilding enriches gameplay, it does not limit it.
And to add, what Im speaking to as a problem with the idea that worldbuilding is meant to "limit" gameplay, is that it is missing the point of why constraints are valuable in games, and conflating it with how the world the game exists in is built.
It seems self evident to say that any definition (setting or system) is going to limit gameplay in the sense that we are not (and never have been) talking about a completely unbounded form of play. We knew from the outset, if by context alone, that we were talking about TTRPGs (it is right there next to the title of the thread). Therefore, it seems like a non sequitur at best to have this discussion in this thread.
What might be a valuable discussion is how to use boundaries developed in world building to enhance gameplay by reinforcing the things that the game in question (whatever it may be) does well.
The phrase "limit on gameplay" was used upthread by another poster - maybe @Reynard - and doesn't seem to me to be especially magical. "Constraint" and "restriction" seems like synonyms for "limit in this context."Spire: The City Must Fall" is a game that's about society, inequality, oppression, and revolution and its cost. It's a game about espionage, subterfuge, and resistance.
There are several worldbuilding choices made to reinforce those themes. The game takes place in the eponymous Spire, a mile high city of unknown origin (called an Arcology, of which there are several others in the world) that once belonged to the Drow, but has now been taken over by the high-elves, or Aelfir. The Aelfir rule the city and the Drow, using them for labor, entertainment, and conscripting many to fight in a war against the Gnolls of Far Nujab. Some Gnolls have made their way to Spire, as have many Humans, who are curious by nature and tend to tinker with the Arcologies like Spire and other technological remnants.
Of those racial options, the game requires that all PCs be Drow. This is a choice to help focus the themes of the game by making the players take on the roles of those for whom they're most relevant.
The PCs are also members of a secret cabal devoted to resisting Aelfir rule, the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress. This puts them directly into situations that will require espionage and resistance. They’re meant to actively involve themselves in resisting high-elf rule.
"Constraint" and "restriction" seems like synonyms for "limit in this context.
I have gone back and reviewed the posts.Your confusion stems from you not engaging that we aren't trying to dispute this. We're telling you that constraints are a part of gameplay and that nothing that is a part of gameplay can limit it.
Idk if you're just getting confused because you can't understand how a constraint can exist within a system but not limit that system, which as noted earlier is not intuitive, or if you're just not following the conversation at all.
You keep trying to reiterate whatever point you're trying to make but you're not really engaging with us by doing that; you're just talking at us and not really demonstrating you're trying to understand the points that have been provided.
Then this reply:If all your world is filled in, maybe some people feel that's limiting the direction of gameplay. At a minimum, the stuff that never matters to gameplay doesn't seem as though it's adding to it.
And I explained how it would occur. As best I can tell, @prabe agrees with me at least in broad terms. So I feel I have at least understood his point correctly!I am not sure how this would occur.
There are also free wikis for a lot of stuff like Golarion or the Forgotten Realms or others with a lot of material if you want to go lore heavy and free.It's easy to substitute money for time. You don't have to write up stuff if you don't want to.
You can just buy pre made towns/events/NPCs/etc. until you had enough.
On the higher end, I could spend up to two thousand dollars buying physical stuff on Golarion. Out of all the adventure paths, setting guides, mini books, or whatever, I would have more then enough setting material for PCs no matter where they go.
On the cheaper end, there's humble bundle and other product grab bags. With a hundred dollars and some patience, I could stock pile a life times' worth of setting material.