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<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 3460556" data-attributes="member: 3424">Boy, this quote has touched a lot of nerves.Maybe I'm interpreting it wrong, but he may be using the word &quot;worldbuilding&quot; in a different sense from many of the previous posters.His key proposition seems to be: when you are writing, are you telling a story, or describing a world? If you are doing the latter, you're doing it wrong. You're writing an encyclopedia, not a story.While I think he has a point, I wouldn't say he's completely correct. I think it depends on what genre you're writing, and what your readers want. A short story needs to be tighter and can spare fewer words for details not vital to setting, plot or characterization, for example, while a full length novel has more scope for purely descriptive passages.What is the parallel to gaming? Well, when you're DMing, are you running an adventure, or describing your campaign setting? How much time do you spend in game talking about elements of your campaign setting that are not relevant to the adventure? If the party is at an inn and orders ale, do you identify the country that the ale is from, tell them where it is, describe its climate and salient features, and give a short run-down if its recent history, even if the PCs are not going to have anything to do with the country in the foreseeable future? And, either way, do your players like it?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 3460556, member: 3424"] Boy, this quote has touched a lot of nerves. Maybe I'm interpreting it wrong, but he may be using the word "worldbuilding" in a different sense from many of the previous posters. His key proposition seems to be: when you are writing, are you telling a story, or describing a world? If you are doing the latter, you're doing it wrong. You're writing an encyclopedia, not a story. While I think he has a point, I wouldn't say he's completely correct. I think it depends on what genre you're writing, and what your readers want. A short story needs to be tighter and can spare fewer words for details not vital to setting, plot or characterization, for example, while a full length novel has more scope for purely descriptive passages. What is the parallel to gaming? Well, when you're DMing, are you running an adventure, or describing your campaign setting? How much time do you spend in game talking about elements of your campaign setting that are not relevant to the adventure? If the party is at an inn and orders ale, do you identify the country that the ale is from, tell them where it is, describe its climate and salient features, and give a short run-down if its recent history, even if the PCs are not going to have anything to do with the country in the foreseeable future? And, either way, do your players like it? [/QUOTE]

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