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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7355367" data-attributes="member: 16586">I want to go back and address the OP.I do not think it is helpful to frame every incidence of GM created backstory or even all prepared material as world building. To me the connotation behind world building implies that the setting has value beyond providing a play space for the game we are playing. For me when I hear most more traditionally leaning GMs talk about world building it's almost always focused on creating something to show off to the players later, not setting up a situation for them to respond to.I contrast it with dungeon design, scenario design or something like Apocalypse World style fronts which are designed fiction meant to provide the players with opportunities to play a game, make meaningful decisions and mess about in the fiction. I do not mean to demean color here. I think it can be important  to breathe life into the game. I just consider it the spice and not the main ingredient. I am not here to express my individual creativity or consume anyone else's individual creativity. I'm here for what we do together.For a long time I personally held off running games because I had no interest in world building or planning out narrative arcs. The games I did run I did not enjoy because I felt like I had to do all this extraneous crap. I also became increasingly frustrated with games I played in where I felt like a bystander or audience member rather than an active participant. I am not knocking the enjoyment some people get from this sort of experience. I just find serial world exploration for its own sake incredibly boring.I know I am not going to make many friends here by saying this, but I really think the role of world building really is about players as consumers of content rather than active contributors. Players are expected to enjoy the world building for its own sake, and make what I feel are relatively modest contributions through play. This isn't like a bad thing. It's just a thing.</blockquote>

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