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<blockquote data-quote="Banshee16" data-source="post: 3459961" data-attributes="member: 7883">I'd suspect it's a mix....I think as a GM, overarching details are important...you should know what the local kingdoms are, in the area where the PCs are active...who are the rulers?&nbsp; How do people dress?&nbsp; Are they nice?&nbsp; Tyrants?&nbsp; Repressed?&nbsp; Those details give players enough information to start building an opinion, and knowing how to act.&nbsp; Do they need to know exactly what people eat, or how many cobblers are in this town, or how much money the king has in his stash?&nbsp; Likely not.....unless they want to kill the king, and take his stuff.I think the point the author was making was to not lose sight of the forest for the trees.&nbsp; As a writer, you can't be so focused on the details of an imaginary world that you forget that you're trying to tell a good story.&nbsp; But as a GM, you need to have consistent details so that you're not just making things up as you go, without any form of internal consistency........ie. it's a bad idea to have one adventure where the PCs are acting against an evil king, because you want them to be the resistance for a few modules....and then turn around and have the king be an old, benevolent ruler who's about to die, 5 adventures later.....that's a lack of consistency.&nbsp; What happened to the evil overlord?&nbsp; The two are somewhat mutually exclusive.At the same time, it's no sense making the family tree of the last 10 generations of that king's family, unless you want to interact with him.....ie. have some long lost relative try to kill him, in order to take the throne.....or maybe have a PC be related to him.Banshee</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Banshee16, post: 3459961, member: 7883"] I'd suspect it's a mix....I think as a GM, overarching details are important...you should know what the local kingdoms are, in the area where the PCs are active...who are the rulers? How do people dress? Are they nice? Tyrants? Repressed? Those details give players enough information to start building an opinion, and knowing how to act. Do they need to know exactly what people eat, or how many cobblers are in this town, or how much money the king has in his stash? Likely not.....unless they want to kill the king, and take his stuff. I think the point the author was making was to not lose sight of the forest for the trees. As a writer, you can't be so focused on the details of an imaginary world that you forget that you're trying to tell a good story. But as a GM, you need to have consistent details so that you're not just making things up as you go, without any form of internal consistency........ie. it's a bad idea to have one adventure where the PCs are acting against an evil king, because you want them to be the resistance for a few modules....and then turn around and have the king be an old, benevolent ruler who's about to die, 5 adventures later.....that's a lack of consistency. What happened to the evil overlord? The two are somewhat mutually exclusive. At the same time, it's no sense making the family tree of the last 10 generations of that king's family, unless you want to interact with him.....ie. have some long lost relative try to kill him, in order to take the throne.....or maybe have a PC be related to him. Banshee [/QUOTE]

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