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<blockquote data-quote="buzz" data-source="post: 3935032" data-attributes="member: 6777">I can't speak for Ryan, but my impression was that he's emphasizing what to prioritize.I'd like to think that he's getting at what I'm getting at, which is moving away from the idea of DM-as-Tolkien. I.e., that world-building is this thing you do alone, compiling reams of data that may or may not be used, with no input from the players, and that is immutable.I think it's a lot more fruitful to use broad strokes for anything not directly related to what players are going to be doing at the outset of the campaign, and then allow details to be filled in as-needed and collaboratively. E.g., if I write my definitive treatise on elvish history, that may prevent me from throwing it out when my buddy playing the ranger comes up with something much better on the fly during a session. This, I think, will get players much more invested than if your setting serves mainly as a periodic info-dump.This also keeps me from spending valuable time writing elvish history when I could instead be designing encounters/situations.But that's just me. Ryan may be saying something totally different.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="buzz, post: 3935032, member: 6777"] I can't speak for Ryan, but my impression was that he's emphasizing what to [I]prioritize[/I]. I'd like to think that he's getting at what I'm getting at, which is moving away from the idea of DM-as-Tolkien. I.e., that world-building is this thing you do alone, compiling reams of data that may or may not be used, with no input from the players, and that is immutable. I think it's a lot more fruitful to use broad strokes for anything not directly related to what players are going to be doing at the outset of the campaign, and then allow details to be filled in as-needed and collaboratively. E.g., if I write my definitive treatise on elvish history, that may prevent me from throwing it out when my buddy playing the ranger comes up with something much better on the fly during a session. This, I think, will get players much more invested than if your setting serves mainly as a periodic info-dump. This also keeps me from spending valuable time writing elvish history when I could instead be designing encounters/situations. But that's just me. Ryan may be saying something totally different. [/QUOTE]

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