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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5081805" data-attributes="member: 18253">I cringe when I read advice like that. The "build a setting then let the players roll" approach can work but it takes the right players and referee for this to work well and honestly, it's far from the only way to run a successful game. In my own decades of gaming, after an early munchkin phase I went for the "define a huge world" and let the players go where they wanted. I love to build settings and that let me unleash that aspect. And it worked pretty well when my gaming groups could meet every week and there were at least 2 or so players in the group who would really get into the setting, understand the world and help drive things. But once real-life hit and gaming sessions fell to every 2-3 weeks and people had other things going on in their lives, this way of playing became very unsatisfactory. It is hard to know enough about a world to meaningfull drive things as players without a lot of time in it and a certain amount of out-of-game investment. While I consider my players to be good, engaged players, getting them to be proactive about what and where they are going is difficult to say the least. So, after a few less than satisfactory campaigns some time ago I moved to games with less of an open, well defined setting and games with more referee driven plot and more detail in support of that plot. It seems to work well for what my players are willing to put into the game and it is not to say players do not have choices. It does mean as a referee I intervene more in the flow of events. But this is rarely a black-and-white decision for the referee and players. There's a spectrum from "all setting, no referee direction" to "executing a script" and you can move along that spectrum as needed. I certainly don't see anything superior to one style of play over another in most cases. Even a tightly scripted campaign (within reason) can be fun in the right hands.</blockquote>

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