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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 3512895" data-attributes="member: 1106">This has been stitched up pretty tight earlier in this thread.  Macro-level wishy washy stuff isn't productive game prep until magnified under the lens of an actual adventure (if you've spent time on Hurindian sword dances and elven migrations, you put the Hurindian dancing swords in a dungeon, or involve the ancient elven migrations in an adventure hook).  The problem is, a lot of people spend so much time and effort on a lot of macro-level stuff that they don't even really intend to put in an adventure except "one day", and leave the actual adventure creation as an afterthought "if time permits", that a lot of D&D campaigns just plain out suck.  Or better yet, they leave all the background stuff in the equivalent of a "DM's Background" section in Dungeon magazine, and don't bother to let the players somehow ever find out that this whole thing was because of those elven migrations and that those are Hurindian dancing swords, because the worldbuilding isn't really integral to the adventure; the DM just wants to show off his world somehow.  I say change the emphasis, tie your ego to a stronger moor than a world - instead of "Look at my epic and fantastic world, isn't it clever?" say, "Look at my epic and adventure-packed campaign arc, isn't it clever?"  Instead of starting every campaign by choosing or building a setting, start with the encounters you want to run, the adventures you want to run, the campaign you want to run....and let the world go hang as the afterthought to support that campaign that it should be.If this thread proves anything, it's that worldbuilding is a HUGE d&d sacred cow, and basically a good deal of the metahobby that keeps people playing D&D.  I'm just suggesting a slight tweak: tie your ego and metahobby to the adventures and campaign arc, not the worldbuilding.It does detract from fun had at the table, because it sucks away time and effort from actual game prep.  DMs think their worldbuilding is game prep, but a lot of it never gets to the table.  This is rarely the case with adventure prep, and adventure prep creates the setting it needs along the way.  If there's time, maybe you can extrapolate on that setting for bonus verisimilitude, but that's just icing on the cake - it's not the main event.</blockquote>

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