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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 11264" data-attributes="member: 812">This point is SO important that I want to reiterate it. Plus I like the sound of my own voice. Er, type.YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW EVERYTHING! You just have to convince your players that you do. And we, as DMs, know how easy it is to hoodwink players.Seriously, it is greatly to your advantage to not have everything worked out ahead of time. First off, it lets you get started MUCH sooner. How many people do I know who keep going on about the campaigns they'd run if only they could get all the details written down? (Three, if you're curious) Secondly, if you develop the world all by yourself, in isolation, you only have your ideas. If you start including the players before you've finished every little thing, THEIR input will increase the depth and complexity of your campaign immeasurably. Third, and most important, the less-developed your campaign is, the more room you have to manouever. If everything's already detailed, it becomes very difficult to juggle things when you need to correct for some unanticipated problem.The key to fun and successful DMing is having a canvas to operate on that gives you enough detail to draw the players in, but is vague enough to let you improvise as you need to. It's a fine balance, to be sure, but I think that if you have to weight to one side or the other, pick vague. You can always make up detail, but you can't take back what's already been laid out.</blockquote>

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