WotC WotC needs an Elon Musk

[Umbran]

My idea of a worldbuilding guide wouldn't differentiate between new players/DMs and veterans; it would ideally be equally informative to all.

Yes, but a lot of things that are ideal, don't work in practice - especially in writing. Generally speaking, audiences with different levels of familiarity with a topic really call for different presentations.

Consider cookbooks - ideally, the content of a cookbook would be ideally equally informative for all cooks. But, in reality, a new cook lacks a lot of knowledge that an established hobby-cook has, and the professional has yet more techniques at hand.

Which means that a cookbook for a new cook has a lot of information a professional chef doesn't need. And a book targeting a a chef will leave out many things as "understood" that a new chef needs.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I don't accept that. By that argument, nothing should be made for veterans, because they could always find the information they need elsewhere.

New people aren't the only people who play this game.

Sure, new people aren't the only people who play the game. But I'm not talking about "new people", I'm talking about new World-Builders. You could have been a veteran of 20 years as a player, but then you think "huh, I want to build my own world." And then a book that is a World-Building Guide makes sense.

But if you've been building worlds for 20 years... what use is a book that tells you how to build worlds? You've been doing that thing. It would have to be an incredible resource for you to even consider picking it up, and for it not to contain a lot of things you don't need, it would be a terrible product for a new world-builder who needs those basics that you have likely mastered. And it would be an even harder buy for you, unless it provides something that all your other resources lack.

 

[Umbran]

But if you've been building worlds for 20 years... what use is a book that tells you how to build worlds?

You've been doing it for 20 years... means you have nothing more to learn? Other people's approaches can't be informative to you?

Your family doctor may have been doing it for 20 years - but they have a license requirement to engage in continuing education every year.

 

[Vaalingrade]

But if you've been building worlds for 20 years... what use is a book that tells you how to build worlds?

Brandon Sanderson keeps writing masterclasses on it that also come with a plot and characters.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's exactly because of existing products like that that a new product for world building should be aimed at new players. We experienced players have already been catered to long ago.

Yeah, they should just stop making stuff for us altogether.

 

[Bohandas]

Most people seem quite pleased with 5e from where I sit. Anyway, nobody needs an entitled jerk who thinks everyone else is stupid and he has all the answers. I mean, Elon Musk is pretty talented in his narrow niche, but frankly he's a fool who doesn't know where his strengths lie. He's great at process, but not so great at "where do I want to end up?" either. I mean "let's colonize Mars" it just ain't going to happen, not even close. Still, he built a great rocket!

I like how he just skipped entirely past the moon and all the sheeple went along with it.

It's almost like he thinks he's in a sci-fi movie from the 20th century, where of course the moon has already been colonized by 2022, so naturally Mars is next

EDIT:
Actually, it's like he thinks he's in a lot of different sci-fi movies from the 20th century but he can't decide which one. IIRC he also at one point said that the Matrix was real.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

I like how he just skipped entirely past the moon and all the sheeple went along with it.

It's almost like he thinks he's in a sci-fi movie from the 20th century, where of course the moon has already been colonized by 2022, so naturally Mars is next

EDIT:
Actually, it's like he thinks he's in a lot of different sci-fi movies from the 20th century but he can't decide which one. IIRC he also at one point said that the Matrix was real.

There are a lot of actual reasons to skip the moon and go to Mars for colonization.

Yeah the Moon is closer and that has a lot of appeal, it's also very similar geologically to Earth which is another point in its favor. But Mars has a few really good points for it too.

• It's got a gravity closer to Earths than the moon. That is very important for the long term habitation of humanity.
• It's got an atmosphere.
• The soil on Mars (called regolith) is missing organic matter (to be expected), but that can be added. The moon also has a regolith, but with the lack of the aforementioned atmosphere adding needed organic compounds is much harder.
• Mars has the components for making rocket fuel (oxygen and hydrogen) so it's possible to send automated fuel refineries before sending colonists. Any fuel for lunar colonies would have to be either imported or made after the fact, which is prohibitive.
• Mars is much larger with it's own geology, both of which provide significant advantages for long term habitability.

There are a lot of books/articles from scientists explaining the advantages of Mars as a first colonization that I can link if you like, unless you feel that these scientists are "sheeple". I can also recommend some great articles/books on why colonizing Venus is both feasible and a preferred option.

Slight disclosure: While I'm a huge proponent of extraterrestrial colonization I'm not a fan of the idea of Musk (other any other CEO tbh) being the catalyst for this. and I'm not exactly thrilled with his "roadmap" either. I understand that if it happens within my lifetime it'll likely be at the hands of a corporation, but I'm still worried about giving such an entity a colony that's outside the jurisdiction of any current laws.

 

[Staffan]

EDIT:
Actually, it's like he thinks he's in a lot of different sci-fi movies from the 20th century but he can't decide which one. IIRC he also at one point said that the Matrix was real.

Which makes this even funnier:

 

[Azzy]

Yeah, they should just stop making stuff for us altogether.

Ah, yes, absolutely. That's a great takeaway. No, everything should just cater to you and you alone.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

Yeah, they should just stop making stuff for us altogether.

Again, it's not a binary option. They can aim products at newer players while also providing options aimed at experienced players.

Also just because you're an experienced player doesn't mean you're experienced with 100% of the ruleset equally nor does it mean that some aspects of the ruleset won't become less used and therefor less 'second nature'.

Plus I know that sometimes rereading books on subjects I'm familiar with can sometimes lead to new inspiration or revelations on missing knowledge for me. While I know this is a personal anecdote I know others like that and I'm sure there are many I don't know.