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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kichwas" data-source="post: 4700786" data-attributes="member: 891">First approach: setting exists for the characters.Second approach: characters exist for the setting.The first approach assumes a gamist approach. You are there for the game experience, and the setting and story are secondary or tertiary (in varying orders and degrees of importance).The second approach assumes a simulationist approach. You are there for the roleplay, either based around story creation or setting simulation, and gamist concerns are tertiary.(There's a third model in here somewhere obviously - as story driven and simulation driven are very different, but neither fits your first model. Rather your second model is the 'more or less fit' for them.)Good roleplay can happen in the first approach, but its not the key driving force. The first approach is better suited to a group who's driving concern is the game. The setting is a backdrop, but they're really there to experience the mechanics of the game engine. If that's your group, you want the first approach. If that's not your group, you should avoid the first approach.If your group is there for the story, or the setting (and setting groups are not so common as GM egos like to pretend they are), you want some version of the second approach. This is the group that, in its extreme form, could just as well go diceless or systemless. They want to engage in spinning a yarn, experiencing drama, story, romance and tension.It might seem like you want the setting to be made for the characters in that second group... to meet their every demand... but that's actually the opposite of what you want. The setting needs to be there, and uncaring, because the tension they desire is the tension of fitting into it, of becoming 'real people in a world' and living the lives of those people. The setting, not the game engine, becomes the challenge. Giving them a setting that exist to serve their characters would be like giving a group of gamists a game engine that always rolled the die result that led to success. It defeats the challenge they are there for.</blockquote>

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