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<blockquote data-quote="jmartkdr2" data-source="post: 8219954" data-attributes="member: 7017304">I think you're underestimating the cumulative effect of random/unstructured/on-the-fly content generation. If everything is made up on the fly, it's a rare dm indeed who can keep the world constant, believable and integrated - in other words, 'living' as opposed to 'moving.' My best evidence of this is that you tend to get the same effect from entirely random settings that were generated long before the game begins. It's still a mess of unconnected nonsense. (plus a reliance on random tables will lead to repeated encounters)Put another way: the first time the gm either checks notes or makes something up on the spot, I probably can't tell which. But if they're always making it up on the spot, I'll see through that by the end of the first session.A well-thought out setting where all the bits are thought of in terms of how they relate to the other bits is a different, and generally better experience for everyone involved. The whole game just flows better and build up to more, because the elements build on each other. This creates more meaning to all the details, and thus more 'weight' to the game overall. The stakes are higher. It is, of course, a lot more work, and not the end-all of having fun at the table - but as a player I can tell pretty quickly if the dm is thinking ahead or not, and the ones that aren't are not as much fun to play with (all else being equal).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jmartkdr2, post: 8219954, member: 7017304"] I think you're underestimating the cumulative effect of random/unstructured/on-the-fly content generation. If everything is made up on the fly, it's a rare dm indeed who can keep the world constant, believable and integrated - in other words, 'living' as opposed to 'moving.' My best evidence of this is that you tend to get the same effect from entirely random settings that were generated long before the game begins. It's still a mess of unconnected nonsense. (plus a reliance on random tables will lead to repeated encounters) Put another way: the [I]first[/I] time the gm either checks notes or makes something up on the spot, I probably can't tell which. But if they're always making it up on the spot, I'll see through that by the end of the first session. A well-thought out setting where all the bits are thought of in terms of how they relate to the other bits is a different, and generally better experience for everyone involved. The whole game just flows better and build up to more, because the elements build on each other. This creates more meaning to all the details, and thus more 'weight' to the game overall. The stakes are higher. It is, of course, a lot more work, and not the end-all of having fun at the table - but as a player I can tell pretty quickly if the dm is thinking ahead or not, and the ones that aren't are not as much fun to play with (all else being equal). [/QUOTE]

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