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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3560162" data-attributes="member: 18280">Can we make the same assumption when the DM is doing worldbuilding?   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Yes.  Regularly.How is this not worldbuilding?This strikes me as odd.  The answer to the DM's question is obvious....because the player would enjoy role-playing his character talking to the cleric of the town.  You could just as easily have said:ME: Ok, are there any dungeons near the town? DM: Just one. ME: Ok, I go there. I'm going to kill monsters and take their stuff. DM: Umm, I gotta ask, why? Me: Well I want to get into my character. DM: No, I mean, why are you messing about with this dungeon? It's not important, and you're never likely to see it again. Why are you wasting the entire table's time with this? What do you want to get out of it? ME: Ummm....It is, IMHO, up to the players to decide what is important to their characters.  If the DM wants his plot hook to be important, it is up to the DM to make it relevant and engaging.  The player, in wanting to talk to the town cleric, is attempting to give the DM the opportunity to engage him in the setting.  This is a perfect opportunity to drop in plot hooks that the player will actually care about.  The DM, who hasn't done his homework, instead attempts to imply that there is something wrong with the player for trying to engage in a setting which (unfortunately) is non-existent.IMHO, this is the clearest problem related to approach in worldbuilding that has yet to surface in this thread.I agree with this.However, your above example -- telling the players what is, and what is not, important to them -- is classical railroading.You can do wonderful worldbuilding and railroad....DragonLance is the classic example.  You can do minimal worldbuilding and avoid railroading.  The odds are good, though, that the more prepared you are for actions outside your session plans, the less likely you are to railroad.DM:  Is there anything you need to do in town besides supplies shopping? Players:  Nope, we're good.  Just gotta buy that hard tack and oats for the horses. DM:  You stand in awe in front of the entrance of X.  Vast stone columns lie broken like toys in front of a massive cave... Players:  Huh?  What's going on? DM:  Look, when you watched Raiders of the Lost Arc, how much time did Indie spend in a shop getting food and stuff. Players:  Can't really remember. DM:  Right.  Told you this was going to be different.  You're in front of X. Dave:  Wait a second.  My character is a druid.  If we don't do the wilderness journey, then half my schtick is gone. Bob:  Hey!  I'm a bard.  Half my schtick is interacting with people. DM:  That's right.  Straight to the action.  Just like a Conan novel.  Just like Star Trek.  Dave:  Hrmm.  You don't read much Conan, do you?** I just reread the first Conan story, and there is tremendous amout of worldbuilding in it.  In one scene, Conan is drawing a map and discusses the layout of the world to the north in a fair amount of detail, although it has nothing to do with the story.  In another early Conan story, Conan needs magical help to cover a vast distance quickly -- while we don't see the actual travelling, we are told what happened in the intervening time.  Certainly travel time is part of Conan's world.Maybe.  But I wouldn't enjoy the game you're describing.  (I realize that others might, however.)QFT.That struck me as odd, too.As a DM, I love the answer, "You don't know, do you?" or "Who are you asking?"   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Without world building the setting is completely dependent on the whim of the DM at the time.  That seems to follow to me.  Can you explain why it doesn't?  Um...RC's assertion is that good adventure design should NOT kowtow to the players.</blockquote>

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