Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Unless it's a railroad by definition a world must consist of more than the party interacts with. Because otherwise there is never the possibility of options not taken and choices offered and turned down.
But it doesn't need to be a lot more, and I am a big fan of fleshing out the world as we go - the more blank spots on the map, the more places I can fit to need and/or expand on player narrative needs.
In my current Masks of the Imperium campaign I've worked out broad strokes on a number of potential hooks that the players haven't taken up. Heck, the first few levels were options of various settlements on the new continent that had issues they could solve, and I needed to flesh them out enough to create hooks, do briefings by their superior, let them gather information from various sources, and then decide which to handle. They got to maybe 20% of that material.
During the campaign there have been plenty of spots where they need to decide "do we go after X or Y" - both of these need have been developed enough plot and worldwise that they have information and can make meaningful choices. There's currently a war brewing thanks to the newly installed Regent over the Child-Empress the party is agents of. I need to have that fleshed out and information coming back even though the party has never chosen to go there.
So yes, there needs to be enough that the world feels rich, dynamic and not just exclusively focused on the PCs. There needs to be options that the characters could have interacted with but chose to do something else. All of those can likely be done in broad strokes without the fine detail, but they do need to exist for a well formed and non-static (outside the PCs) setting.
But it doesn't need to be a lot more, and I am a big fan of fleshing out the world as we go - the more blank spots on the map, the more places I can fit to need and/or expand on player narrative needs.
In my current Masks of the Imperium campaign I've worked out broad strokes on a number of potential hooks that the players haven't taken up. Heck, the first few levels were options of various settlements on the new continent that had issues they could solve, and I needed to flesh them out enough to create hooks, do briefings by their superior, let them gather information from various sources, and then decide which to handle. They got to maybe 20% of that material.
During the campaign there have been plenty of spots where they need to decide "do we go after X or Y" - both of these need have been developed enough plot and worldwise that they have information and can make meaningful choices. There's currently a war brewing thanks to the newly installed Regent over the Child-Empress the party is agents of. I need to have that fleshed out and information coming back even though the party has never chosen to go there.
So yes, there needs to be enough that the world feels rich, dynamic and not just exclusively focused on the PCs. There needs to be options that the characters could have interacted with but chose to do something else. All of those can likely be done in broad strokes without the fine detail, but they do need to exist for a well formed and non-static (outside the PCs) setting.