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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7322657" data-attributes="member: 29398">If there's no game world for the PCs to inhabit then when you go to characterize and-or play those PCs you're doing so in a vacuum.  It's the DM's job to describe what the PCs already know, and see now, and learn later; meaning the DM is going to have a game world or setting in mind even if she hasn't made notes on any of it. Having it pre-designed even if just in broad strokes makes the describing so much easier.Particularly at the start of the campaign when the players in theory know much less about the game world than their PCs do (canon lawyers for pre-fab settings notwithstanding) the DM has a lot of describing to do and as a side effect of that description is going to drop the PCs into a particular setting be it a steamy jungle, a city based on ancient Athens, a snowy Viking camp, or a pleasant sunny farm village.  You'd probably call this railroading, but how else can it work?Of course, that's just the start; if the PCs in the Viking camp immediately decide to go someplace warmer then the DM has to react to that. (one hopes she has a broad-strokes regional or continental map showing areas beyond a short radius around the camp!)   [MENTION=40176]MarkB[/MENTION] might see it differently, but for my part it's much easier to figure out a character's motivations, beliefs, goals, etc. when there's a culture (or cultures) and common history to fit into.  If, say, the setting history shows that our starting town was devastated by a war ten years ago and since rebuilt, that's going to influence my character and what she thinks; and probably influence other characters as well.But if the starting history shows no such war it's not our place as players to just add it in.  We have no right to, as world design is not in our purview.And if there's no pre-designed history then what's the point?  What happened before our PCs became PCs?  What major events shaped their lives? (it should be obvious but I'd better mention: the DM sets the event but the player chooses what influence it had on her character, if any).Lanefan</blockquote>

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