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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8325078" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think it is helpful to consider whether worldbuilding is (1) an element of play, (2) a resource for play, or (3) an activity that is fun for the worldbuilder but largely independent of play.An example of (3): the details of the Oeridian and Sueloise migrations described in the World of Greyhawk. This information does not generate consequences for play. It does not support scene-framing or otherwise developing situations for play. It's role in D&D play is similar to speculating, in LotR, who exactly was Queen Beruthiel and what was up with her cats?An example of (2): the relationship between the Assassin's Guild and the Thieve's Guild in a classic D&D city like the City of Greyhawk. This provides material for developing situations for play. In some contexts, a GM might use it to determine consequences for action declarations.An example of (1): there is not too much of this in D&D play, but it can be an important part of other systems. Eg in a Cortex+ Heroic/MHRP game, a player spends a plot point to establish a Resource which, in the fiction, is a piece of information or a contact. Now we have a bit more of the world built.A different example of (1): a player fails a check, and the GM establishes some new element of the world to establish the nature/reason/context of the failure in the fiction. Eg in a Burning Wheel game I GMed, a player failed a check to identify a useful trait on a magical item, and I narrated that instead the character noticed the item was cursed. Given the context of the item and the check this established further backstory about the item's origins in the Bright Desert.I think most of the action in RPG worldbuilding is in the interplay of (1) and (2) - that is, in the interplay between what are typically GM roles (framing, establishing situations, narrating failures for consequences) and player roles (declaring actions, establishing what happens next if the PCs get their way).</blockquote>

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