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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7398754" data-attributes="member: 42582">Saying that &quot;worldbuilding is bad&quot; is like saying that &lt;insert random sport or game here&gt; is bad. There are various sports and games I don't really care for (eg golf); but I've got no reason to doubt the sincerity of other's enjoyment of them (either as spectator, participant, or both).What we can say is that there are connections between worldbuilding and other aspects of RPGing - especially if we are talking about worldbuilding by the GM, which I think is how it is normally thought of in the RPGing context.For instance, worldbuilding by a GM mean that a certain amount of table time is spent having the GM tell the players stuff about the world that the GM has built - whether &quot;big picture&quot; stuff (about gods, politics, what counts as &quot;normal&quot; behaviour, etc) or &quot;granular&quot; stuff (like whether or not there is a shop of the sort the PC is looking for, or whether or not there is enough hay in the stable to be stacked up to the second-story window).And it also means that some action declarations (&quot;I search for a secret door&quot;, &quot;I travel east until I reach the coast&quot;) have their outcome determined by the GM's worldbuilding (if the GM has decided that there is no secret door at that place, then the first PC can't succeed; if the GM has decided that there is an effectiely impassale range of mountains to the east, then the second PC can't succeed).If the worldbuilding includes conflicts or struggles or drama that the GM (i) determines prior to and.or independently of the players and their PC building, and (ii) makes salient in play, then a further possible consequence is that some PCs are onlookers rather than participants in some of those conflicts or struggles or drama. (Eg this could happpen if the campaign starts in city X, and the big drama in city X as built by the GM is a struggle within a wizard's guild, but none of the PCs is a wizard.)Whether these aspects of RPGing that can follow from extensive GM worldbuilding are good or bad seems like it would be relative to the tastes of particular RPGers.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7398754, member: 42582"] Saying that "worldbuilding is bad" is like saying that <insert random sport or game here> is bad. There are various sports and games I don't really care for (eg golf); but I've got no reason to doubt the sincerity of other's enjoyment of them (either as spectator, participant, or both). What we [I]can [/I]say is that there are connections between worldbuilding and other aspects of RPGing - especially if we are talking about worldbuilding by the GM, which I think is how it is normally thought of in the RPGing context. For instance, worldbuilding by a GM mean that a certain amount of table time is spent having the GM tell the players stuff about the world that the GM has built - whether "big picture" stuff (about gods, politics, what counts as "normal" behaviour, etc) or "granular" stuff (like whether or not there is a shop of the sort the PC is looking for, or whether or not there is enough hay in the stable to be stacked up to the second-story window). And it also means that some action declarations ("I search for a secret door", "I travel east until I reach the coast") have their outcome determined by the GM's worldbuilding (if the GM has decided that there is no secret door at that place, then the first PC can't succeed; if the GM has decided that there is an effectiely impassale range of mountains to the east, then the second PC can't succeed). If the worldbuilding includes conflicts or struggles or drama that the GM (i) determines prior to and.or independently of the players and their PC building, and (ii) makes salient in play, then a further possible consequence is that some PCs are onlookers rather than participants in some of those conflicts or struggles or drama. (Eg this could happpen if the campaign starts in city X, and the big drama in city X as built by the GM is a struggle within a wizard's guild, but none of the PCs is a wizard.) Whether these aspects of RPGing that can follow from extensive GM worldbuilding are good or bad seems like it would be relative to the tastes of particular RPGers. [/QUOTE]

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