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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 3518303" data-attributes="member: 22779">Honestly?  Probably 90% of it is never used.  I know that in my Scarred Lands collection, despite running campaigns there for a few years, most of my books sat gathering dust on my shelves.  And I know that I'm not alone in that.  Setting books are perfect example of what I'm talking about with indulgence.  We don't need them.  A two page setting background would probably suffice for most campaigns out there.  Books like setting gazateers, players guides, etc. are just fluffy extras.  Ask yourself this, of the setting guides that you own, what percentage of them has seen the light of day in your campaigns?  Most people haven't even used more than a third of the Monster Manual if polling on En World is to be believed.  And this should be one of the most used books in the game after the PHB.  If I may, can I answer your question with a question?  You asked, "was the information I used (in the Greyhawk Gazeteer) useless "worldbuilding" until I decided to use it to create my character?"  Could you have created a believable character without using that information?  See, I've seen far too many character sheets cross my table with backgrounds of varying lengths.  After the background is created, it's never referred to again.  It sits like a dead leech at the back of the player's character folder and slowly yellows with age.Again, I doubt I'm alone in this.Personally, I would much prefer a brief synopsis of the character's personality.  Background is what you have when you're about 7th level.  Background is what you do for the first six levels of your character.  That pretty bit of prose in the back of your character folder is nice and all, but, how much does it really inform your gameplay at the table?  How often do you refer to the fact that you are from Town X in Country Y?  In other words, I find nearly all character backgrounds to be needless indulgences.  It's gotten to the point where I don't even ask for them from my players.  If they want to bring them up at the table, bloody fantastic.  Otherwise, I'm not going to waste my time reading something that really doesn't matter.</blockquote>

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