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<blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8135890" data-attributes="member: 5142">I sometimes suspect that TTRPG world-builders underestimate the importance of plot hooks and campaign premises when it comes to their settings. There are a fair number of interesting and well-constructed TTRPG settings (from the perspective of pure world-building) that I have encountered, whether published or home-brewed, that seem to suffer from a relative absence of thought about what PCs actually are meant to do in their cool setting. I have been involved in conversations several times that involve iterations of &quot;It's great that you (hypothetical GM/writer) constructed this neat world in great detail, but I'm unclear what PCs are meant to do here. What's the hook? Why adventure at all here? What drives the setting and how do PCs fit in that?&quot; only to get absent looks from creators who had not considered why/how PCs adventure or offended replies back from people who thought the only appropriate response to their creation was meant to be &quot;It's perfect.&quot; IME, this is less of a problem of TTRPGs built with a clear premise in mind. Sitting down to run/play Blades in the Dark, for example, I know immediately that the PCs are a gang in Duskvol trying to expand their territory. So the premise and hook are readily apparent. This is not as clear, for example, when sitting down for a game of D&amp;D as the hooks/premises are often more GM dependent. Some regard this as a feature and not a bug, as it affords a tremendous degree of open-ended flexibility to the GM for making the premises of their game/campaign, though one presumes some degree of killing monsters, delving dungeons, and acquiring treasure. But IME, this sometimes means that the quality of the game can fluctuate between GMs as their &quot;cool settings&quot; may not have much meat for the PCs to sink their own hooks into. But what makes for a good setting premise as it relates to the PCs? And how/why do setting creators seemingly forget that the setting exists as a place for player roleplay/PC adventure?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Aldarc, post: 8135890, member: 5142"] I sometimes suspect that TTRPG world-builders underestimate the importance of plot hooks and campaign premises when it comes to their settings. There are a fair number of interesting and well-constructed TTRPG settings (from the perspective of pure world-building) that I have encountered, whether published or home-brewed, that seem to suffer from a relative absence of thought about what PCs actually are meant to do in their cool setting. I have been involved in conversations several times that involve iterations of "It's great that you (hypothetical GM/writer) constructed this neat world in great detail, but I'm unclear what PCs are meant to do here. What's the hook? Why adventure at all here? What drives the setting and how do PCs fit in that?" only to get absent looks from creators who had not considered why/how PCs adventure or offended replies back from people who thought the only appropriate response to their creation was meant to be "It's perfect." IME, this is less of a problem of TTRPGs built with a clear premise in mind. Sitting down to run/play Blades in the Dark, for example, I know immediately that the PCs are a gang in Duskvol trying to expand their territory. So the premise and hook are readily apparent. This is not as clear, for example, when sitting down for a game of D&D as the hooks/premises are often more GM dependent. Some regard this as a feature and not a bug, as it affords a tremendous degree of open-ended flexibility to the GM for making the premises of their game/campaign, though one presumes some degree of killing monsters, delving dungeons, and acquiring treasure. But IME, this sometimes means that the quality of the game can fluctuate between GMs as their "cool settings" may not have much meat for the PCs to sink their own hooks into. But what makes for a good setting premise as it relates to the PCs? And how/why do setting creators seemingly forget that the setting exists as a place for player roleplay/PC adventure? [/QUOTE]

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