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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darth Shoju" data-source="post: 3559253" data-attributes="member: 11397">OK, well then let's use a statement by Hussar as the basis, since it represents what I would suspect to be a lack of depth (it really depends what Hussar means by "the barest threads of setting", but for the hypothetical example lets assume the worst):Let's say the adventure is to go into a dungeon and recover a relic of some sort. The party starts in a nearby village and has to travel to the dungeon. The DM has done no worldbuilding beyond what is present in the adventure. He is also not gifted at improv. I as a player have some questions:ME: Ok what nations are there? Where can my character be from?DM: There are nations for all of the races in the PHB.ME: Ok...what are the human nations like?DM: I don't know...what kind of nation do you want to be from?ME: Well, can I be from one that is kind of like ancient China?DM: Sure.ME: How does my nation get along with the other nations?DM: That isn't important in the adventure.ME: Ok. So I make a human priest and do what I can to make him represent a culture based on ancient China. We start the session in the town. Again, I have some questions:ME: Is there a branch of my church in this town?DM: The adventure doesn't say...I'll say no. It's too far away.ME: Ok, are there any churches in the town?DM: Just one.ME: Ok, I go there. I'm going to talk to the priest to get a feel for his religion.DM: It just says his name, level, and that he is a priest of an agricultural deity. ME: Ok, my religion venerates nature spirits so we should get along well.DM: Sure.ME: Is the town facing any problems that I could help with before we head to the dungeon?DM: It doesn't say...so, no.ME: OkAs the party prepares to head to the dungeon, we ask what the trip there will entail.DM: You have to go east through the Forest of Endless Death.ME: That sounds unpleasant. Can we go around the forest to the south?DM: The map doesn't show what is there. So I'll say no.ME: Why not?DM: Because there is an impassable desert there, ok? ME: What about to the north?DM: More desert.ME: The forest is in the middle of the desert?DM: Yup. ME: Ok...After a perilous journey through the forest and a decent little dungeon crawl, the party finds the relic. The DM's next adventure that he purchased features finding an island where some pirates hid some treasure. The DM decides to drop the hook for that one in the dungeon. He says that we find a clue that indicates some pirates took some treasure from the dungeon and hid it.ME: What kind of clue is it?DM: Ummm...a journal.ME: Who wrote it?DM: A pirate.ME: What was his name?DM: Blackbeard.ME: Really? Why did he leave his journal behind?DM: He dropped it.ME: Ok. What else does it say?DM: It says where to find the island where they are hiding the treasure.ME: Ok. I guess we have to go back through the Forest of Horrible Dying and back to town before we can get to the coast.DM: It's the Forest of Endless Death and no, that would take too long. You can just go south to the town that starts the next adventure. It is on the coast.ME: I thought there was an impassable desert to the south?DM: Oh. Well, no that is too inconvenient. It is just some grassy hills.ME: Ok....Now, that dungeon could have been pretty fun. The pirate adventure could be a blast. In the above example the DM had enough setting to run the adventure, and he certainly did well to ensure the players had something to do that session. But I just don't feel that campaign is as deep as one where the DM did some worldbuilding beforehand.  If he had (or had used a published setting), he could have answered many of the questions raised during the session that didn't directly pertain to the adventure. He could have had enough info to give my priest something interesting to do while the party is prepping for the journey. He could have let us go around the forest. He could have setup the hook for the next adventure in a better way. Now this is certainly a fairly extreme example, but to me it illustrates how worldbuilding can add depth.</blockquote>

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