D&D General "In My General Experience Playing D&D, DMs Care More About Setting Lore Than Players Do" (a poll)

[el-remmen]

Here is another poll bound to dissatisfy some folks because it is asking about a feeling or general sense based on experience rather than any actually quantifiable data. . . my favorite!

True or False: "In My General Experience Playing D&D, DMs Care More About Setting Lore Than Players Do"

 

[iserith]

I would say that DMs care more in general because they have to in some sense, but for my part, I don't actually care about setting lore unless it's an actual published setting in which case I will try to cleave to the canon as much as possible. I just think that's part of what you're signing up for when you explore a published setting. When I'm not running in a published setting though, nothing is set in stone except which was already established before or during play. Over time, the details build upon themselves to create the world.

 

[Umbran]

IME, players care about setting lore if it directly impacts their activities, and otherwise don't usually give a hoot.

 

[RuinousPowers]

I always say, worldbuilding is the gift the DM gives himself.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

I'll admit I'm kinda spoiled in that the core of my group is very exploration-centric and love to devour lore.

 

[delericho]

Yep. Which was one of the hardest lessons I had to learn, but which was quite liberating when I did: it meant that I was free to do as much or as little worldbuilding as I liked, and also that I was free to focus on those areas that I found of interest.

 

[Retreater]

Unless I'm misunderstanding the question, this is disturbing that so many DMs seem to focus on "their" world than the other participants of the game. These are DMs who should be writing fantasy novels or scripting TV shows and have missed the most important part of the hobby - that it's a social experience with friends.

 

[RuinousPowers]

Unless I'm misunderstanding the question, this is disturbing that so many DMs seem to focus on "their" world than the other participants of the game. These are DMs who should be writing fantasy novels or scripting TV shows and have missed the most important part of the hobby - that it's a social experience with friends.

I think you are misunderstanding the question. DMs are the ones who would buy books with setting details, but no player-facing mechanics. DMs are the ones who buy GURPS books, or research obscure topics like medieval beekeeping because they want to present it authentically.

Players tend to show up, say "that's cool" and say things like "what was that name of the king that we have lived under for the past 30 years that we talked to yesterday?"

 

[Stalker0]

IME, players care about setting lore if it directly impacts their activities, and otherwise don't usually give a hoot.

nailed it.

 

[tetrasodium]

In my experience players other than novelists really only care about the setting as far as they need to on order to get something from it.... Of course they care much more/less depending on how much room the system grants the gm to fill with things for the players to want for their pcs. The gm needs to use the setting both as a structural framework to hand the world around the players and as a thingto aid them in adventure & story support.

Novelists who are a gm rarely have players willing to return as long as they expect to remain novelists making them something of a self excluding group of gns. Novelist players who roll in with a bsckstory pre-written in isolation pretty much never care about the setting one iota because they tend to bring a toxic expectation that it will conform exactly as they wrote.