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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7416661" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think so. [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] doesn't count this as worldbuilding, though - I think because in and of itself it implicates nothing beyond the actual situation currently in play.I don't quite agree - I'll explain why below.This seems pretty plausible. Eg if you read that hobgoblins hate orcs, you may well be prompted to make a hobgoblin/elf conflict part of your setting.But you don't have to. You can use hobgoblins and just ignore the bits about elves. I think [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s concern (at least as I understand it) is that the more the account of what an X is presupposes Ys as well (kobolds as dragon-slaves is, again, an example of this) the harder it becomes to use the game element but ignore/strip away the lore. Expectations are also part of this: if you use hobgoblins then players expect them to be hostile to any elves that turn up; but maybe no elves do. The fact that hobgoblins are said to hate elves doesn't mean that the use of hobgoblins in play signals, in and of itself, the use of elves. Whereas if you use kobolds, players start wondering when the dragon is going to show up.I think it is these different ways lore can be used, and these different ways it affects expectations, that tend to make it unhelpful just to group it all together as worldbuilding.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7416661, member: 42582"] I think so. [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] doesn't count this as worldbuilding, though - I think because in and of itself it implicates nothing beyond the actual situation currently in play. I don't quite agree - I'll explain why below. This seems pretty plausible. Eg if you read that hobgoblins hate orcs, you may well be prompted to make a hobgoblin/elf conflict part of your setting. But you don't [I]have[/I] to. You can use hobgoblins and just ignore the bits about elves. I think [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s concern (at least as I understand it) is that the more the account of what an X is presupposes Ys as well (kobolds as dragon-slaves is, again, an example of this) the harder it becomes to use the game element but ignore/strip away the lore. Expectations are also part of this: if you use hobgoblins then players expect them to be hostile to any elves that turn up; but maybe no elves do. The fact that hobgoblins are said to hate elves doesn't mean that the use of hobgoblins in play signals, in and of itself, the use of elves. Whereas if you use kobolds, players start wondering when the dragon is going to show up. I think it is these different ways lore can be used, and these different ways it affects expectations, that tend to make it unhelpful just to group it all together as worldbuilding. [/QUOTE]

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