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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4742094" data-attributes="member: 40961">I don't think that's necessarily the case.  Yes, many have a lot of experience, but I think that's just ENWorld for you.  Many of the advocates of world building as a vocation are also extensively experienced DMs.Well, yeah.  Actually a lot of them might benefit, but I do agree, the DMG should serve novices first.  That doesn't necessarily mean that it should advise novices to world build.  It should advise them on HOW to world build, since that advice should be somewhere since its a thing that some DMs do.  But that doesn't imply that novices should be using it.Absolutely!  I think world building, as its commonly discussed on this forum, is campaign suicide for the new DM! The biggest, hands down biggest flaw in world building is that you are looking forwards in time, anticipating what would be fun and interesting for the players to encounter, and putting it into place.  If you lack experience on what is interesting for players, what's balanced, what enhances player freedom instead of just providing them with artfully disguised walls, what bits of flavor will hook a player versus which ones will be ignored or even turn them off, what should be excluded from the setting versus what will be missed... its almost inevitable that you'll choose poorly at least some of the time, if not most of the time. Its far better to wait, write something short and simple, and then grow the campaign world as the game progresses.  This allows you to get to know your players, your player's characters, and to see what works and what doesn't before you emotionally wed yourself (some world builders seem to ethically wed themselves to a "no changes" ethos...) to a world building idea that you may later regret. Seriously, new DMs should go in for the "points of light" ethos.  Write a nice adventure for some PCs in or around a small town.  Let them kick around there for a while.  Then expand when they outgrow it.  Write the next city when they get to it.  Let things grow organically based on immediate need.  Its true that you might eventually write yourself into a corner, but that's better than writing yourself into a corner before you even begin. Preserve for yourself the freedom to change things without feeling like you're betraying your vision.  For all you know, what you write might suck!  Preserve the freedom to tear up the entire setting without feeling like you wasted all kinds of work!  If you are an author, your first writing shouldn't be a trilogy.  If you are a composer your first piece shouldn't be a symphony.   Never start with your magnum opus.</blockquote>

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