NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 9133883" data-attributes="member: 16586">Outside of Microscope I'm not aware of any game that uses a collaborative worldbuilding process that involves players defining setting elements their character would not be aware of. The vast majority of time they call upon GMs to build on those details.I am a big proponent of what John Harper calls the line when speaking of custom move design in Apocalypse World (wherein a player can speak to the things their character has experienced, but not outside of that). I am also in favor of this coming either from game prompts at setup or prompts during play by the GM. I view setting design and situation framing as primarily the GM's responsibility, but that doesn't mean they like own it any more than players own their character. Once play begins these things are part of the shared fiction.For me personally some degree of collaboration on setting details (if only on things like organizations player characters might be part of, mentors, allies, rivals, family, lovers, etc.) is necessary for the setting to feel like a real place and avoid what I call the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isekai" target="_blank">isekai</a> effect (wherein you feel like your character might as well have been transported to a different world they have no connection to).Usually for more traditional games I prefer to do this during setup and between sessions as needed. I like the at the table experience in such cases to be largely oriented around playing out the scenario. We do sometimes need to establish details in motion though.</blockquote>

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