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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Baron Opal" data-source="post: 3523040" data-attributes="member: 10433">Allow me to clarify: Worldbuilding can lead to railroading.Improv can lead to "beer and pretzels" gaming. (Sorry, vocabularly failure.)I think I see where my disconnect is with your position. Developing the adventures and the campaign arc is worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is the generation of the "why" and the "what" of the world. Why are the orcs in the tower? How old is the tower? Did the orcs take the tower from someone else or build it themselves? These are all questions that require some forethought about the world around the PCs rather than simply determining "Room 1: 4 orcs with bows. 25% chance of being asleep." Finding the letter with the seal of Lord Timberlake on the orc chief begs the question of who the seal belongs to. What is the seal? Do all nobles have seals, or is there something special about this one?The wasted effort you call "worldbuilding" is what ties the adventures together in a meaningful manner. There's noting wrong with pulling a Dungeon magazine off the shelf and running the level appropriate adventure. But if you want a meaningful campaign rather than a string of adventures there needs to be consistency and context. This is what worldbuilding provides."Worldbuilding" is not a pejorative term. It is the process of determining what exists for the PCs to interact with. In designing my campaign it let me determine that the city-states of Beryl and Spicegate would war. It gave me an idea of their resources and temperment. And, since the PCs chose not to involve themselves, wouldbuilding tells me who the victor will probably be.When it comes right down to it, I disagree with the OP's definition more than the assertion. Yes, if you define all aspects of the world down to the names of all the innkeeper's children you are spending far more effort than you need. If you are enjoying yourself, it is arguable whether or not the effort is wasted. Yes, more than a little effort needs to be devoted to the creation of the adventures, plot and theme. But, the process of worldbuilding provides the plot hooks, motivations, locales and potential rewards of the PCs directed mayhem.</blockquote>

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