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*TTRPGs General
What is *worldbuilding* for?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7323056" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Well, I'm including writing up the dungeon as an instance of worldbuilding. It's part of the (imaginary) world, after all, and is "built" by the GM. </p><p></p><p>The answer to the first question is surely "it depends"..</p><p></p><p>I've played interesting sessions of Marvel Heroic RP and Cortex+ Fantasy Hack where the backstory was pretty basic. It's all about <em>these characters</em>, <em>here and now</em>, <em>doing this thing</em> eg Nightcrawler, Ice Man and War Machine go out to a bar in DC, and chat up some women who happen (it turns out) to be the B.A.D. Girls trying to extract Stark intelligence from Rhodey; in the ensuing action (mostly emotional/mental conflict) Nightcrawler seduces one of them, while War Machine leaves another hanging from the top of the Washington Monument until Bobby builds some ice steps so she can get down - and then, at the dramatic moment when everyone coalesces at the Smithsonian to try and steal the Stark shuttle on display, rides in on an ice slide and carries her off into the sunset.</p><p></p><p>It's not exactly great literature, even by the standards of Marvel; the characters are shallow and broad-brush in their depictions, and the backstory is the barest of geographic and established character tropes (eg Rhodes works for Stark Industries, and evil people want to steal Stark's clever inventions). But it was fun enough as a RPG session.</p><p></p><p>I would think of other campaigns that I run as having a bit more depth, but even then the emotional stakes can be established by one or two key details: thinking back 20+ years ago to a Rolemaster game, one of the players established (at PC creation) that his wizard character was from a little village outside Greyhawk (Five Oaks) and had been tutored by a powerful mage who was on the run from enemies and lived in a hollow tree outside the village. That mentor, and his tree, were the focus of a number of episodes of play (the PCs seeking help; the mentor disappearing; etc - all the stuff you'd expect) - but it didn't depend on knowing who the mentor's enemies were, let alone mapping out that hollow tree.</p><p></p><p>I don't know if you disagree with any of the above - maybe you think it's an elaboration of your point? I'd be interested to learn. I think it does put some pressure on your claim about context being necessary for a character to matter. I don't think that has to be true. And I think people can very quickly identify with a character if that character is portrayed with a degree of vividness (in RPGing, that can mean tapping into recognised and enjoyable tropes rather than great acting, obviously), even if the context is pretty thin, and suggested mostly by the portrayal of the character.</p><p></p><p>That's not to say there's anything wrong with rich context. But I don't think it's essential.</p><p></p><p>When there is context underpinning a character, how do you see participant roles relating to that? Eg if the character is meant to matter to X, and the worldbuilding is done by Y, is that a problem? Or not?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7323056, member: 42582"] Well, I'm including writing up the dungeon as an instance of worldbuilding. It's part of the (imaginary) world, after all, and is "built" by the GM. The answer to the first question is surely "it depends".. I've played interesting sessions of Marvel Heroic RP and Cortex+ Fantasy Hack where the backstory was pretty basic. It's all about [I]these characters[/I], [I]here and now[/I], [I]doing this thing[/I] eg Nightcrawler, Ice Man and War Machine go out to a bar in DC, and chat up some women who happen (it turns out) to be the B.A.D. Girls trying to extract Stark intelligence from Rhodey; in the ensuing action (mostly emotional/mental conflict) Nightcrawler seduces one of them, while War Machine leaves another hanging from the top of the Washington Monument until Bobby builds some ice steps so she can get down - and then, at the dramatic moment when everyone coalesces at the Smithsonian to try and steal the Stark shuttle on display, rides in on an ice slide and carries her off into the sunset. It's not exactly great literature, even by the standards of Marvel; the characters are shallow and broad-brush in their depictions, and the backstory is the barest of geographic and established character tropes (eg Rhodes works for Stark Industries, and evil people want to steal Stark's clever inventions). But it was fun enough as a RPG session. I would think of other campaigns that I run as having a bit more depth, but even then the emotional stakes can be established by one or two key details: thinking back 20+ years ago to a Rolemaster game, one of the players established (at PC creation) that his wizard character was from a little village outside Greyhawk (Five Oaks) and had been tutored by a powerful mage who was on the run from enemies and lived in a hollow tree outside the village. That mentor, and his tree, were the focus of a number of episodes of play (the PCs seeking help; the mentor disappearing; etc - all the stuff you'd expect) - but it didn't depend on knowing who the mentor's enemies were, let alone mapping out that hollow tree. I don't know if you disagree with any of the above - maybe you think it's an elaboration of your point? I'd be interested to learn. I think it does put some pressure on your claim about context being necessary for a character to matter. I don't think that has to be true. And I think people can very quickly identify with a character if that character is portrayed with a degree of vividness (in RPGing, that can mean tapping into recognised and enjoyable tropes rather than great acting, obviously), even if the context is pretty thin, and suggested mostly by the portrayal of the character. That's not to say there's anything wrong with rich context. But I don't think it's essential. When there is context underpinning a character, how do you see participant roles relating to that? Eg if the character is meant to matter to X, and the worldbuilding is done by Y, is that a problem? Or not? [/QUOTE]
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