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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7325554" data-attributes="member: 37579">It's one way, but it's not the only way.The GM can create the setting wholly before play. They can create chunks of the setting before each session, expanding as needed. They can create the broad strokes and flesh it out during play. They can entirely improvise during play. They can tap the players to add locations and places. Or the whole setting can be collaboratively created at the table by the players. I'd use microcosm. It's an environment, which can be part of a larger ecosystem or on it's own. It can be it's own sub-setting or just a quick location. I was actually thinking of Against the Giants where there's a random chance certain changes happen. (Plus the added worldbuilding of creating a new threat—the drow—and expanding the backstory of the world with the inclusion of fallen elves and Lolth, which is also textbook worldbuilding.)Planning is impossible if things are shifting continually. But there's already a chance of uncertainty in random monster encounters, which make planning tricky. By the rules, there's meant to be a chance that plans get derailed due to bad luck. A skilled DM will find a middle ground, having most things feel similar but changing a few details to reflect the actions of the players or passage of time. Some changes due to having a "living world" might be beneficial to the players. For example, if they're watching the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief for 3-4 days from a long distance to observe their patters, they might find raiding parties going out for food every third day, after which there's a larger feasts. The PCs might react to that by attacking after the raids when there are fewer hill giants present or following the feats when the residents are bloated and sleepy. There's no advantage in this game to have everyone in the Steading maintain their book position for several days in a row.I think that increase of verisimilitude is just the effect of people having played more. If I take a new player an introduce them to the game, they're not going to think much of verisimilitude, but they're just focused on the new things they can do in the game, playing the game itself. You need to know the confines of the box before you think outside it...Like monsters sleeping. The modules never account for big NPC monsters sleeping or going to the washroom or the like. They're always found in their throne-room or dining halls. There's no advantage for attacking at noon or midnight. Which is something you'll quickly consider as an experienced player, but might not as a newbie. But the module can't give two complete descriptions of the dungeon for a diurnal and nocturnal attack. When Gygax was writing the 1e books in 1976 to 1977, he'd been DMing for 4 to 6 years. I started playing in 1992 when I was 13. I had 6 years of DMing experience in University. Now I have over two decades of experience running and playing D&D. Gygax was a creative guy, but me right now probably knows more That's a pretty absurd example, but it is a fair point.A better one would be responding to raids by increasing the guards and setting up traps. Which might be unexpected, but isn't unrealistic. And reacting to the unexpected with aplomb is a great demonstration of player skill.I'm amused by how you keep saying "RuneQuest and modern games" when RuneQuest was first published in 1978 and predates the 1e DMG...Which also confuses me as I don't see the game system at play here at all. You can play the DM vs Player dungeon crawl skill game with most modern systems. Conversely, many DMs playing OD&D and 1e D&D created expansive setting. Or, like Ed Greenwood, used D&D to play in an already created fantasy setting. The modules of D&D were added into their worlds, existing as locations as part of the larger setting. Really, I would argue that was the place of worldbuilding in classic D&D: worldbuilding was creating the setting where you could put the published adventure modules and then build a story around them. That's why sites like Grognardia were so hard on Dragonlance: they had their own story, making it harder for DMs to add those modules to their own world or create their own plots around the dungeon.</blockquote>

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