Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7417722" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I'll start this off by saying that I personally try to keep my worldbuilding not necessarily to a minimum, but at least focused on what I think is relevant. And I do tend to agree that I think most GMs probably could do less worldbuilding than they think they need to do. I wouldn't go so far as to label it as inherently bad, though....mostly because all of the concerns you mention, and all those brought up in this thread are only possibilities, not certainties.* It doesn't necessarily do that.* This is possible, yes, but seems to be more of a DM problem.* Again, possible but more of a DM issue. * I agree with this. I tend to think of restrictions on such options as being a last resort. I would need a very, very strong reason to ban a race or something else from the game. Most reasons that are typically sited when this topic comes up fall far short in my opinion. Now these bits about published work I find to be even more subjective because when one uses a published work, very often they actually want many details to be decided for them. So it seems a bit odd to go to a published work and then expect for things to not be created with a setting in mind. Sure, things can be kept general enough so that they're usable by anyone...and I do think that WotC's recent offerings have been exactly that....but I think you have to expect at least some specificity of setting in a published book. * This varies by product. Some will be almost entirely flavor material. Others will be far more utilitarian. I mentioned "Vornheim, The Complete City Guide" a few posts ago. It's a 64 page book that is designed to help create city details on the fly. It's incredibly utilitarian, designed to be used at the table during a game. I think it's great, and I would agree that we can use more products like that. But I also like products that are more flavor based. I very much design adventures or come up with story ideas based on these. So I think there's very clearly a place for both kinds of products, and everything in between.* I disagree. It's incredibly easy to only use what I'd like for a particular game element. Sometimes the abundance of material about a given topic can be a bit of an obstacle to finding the things you may like, I agree with you on that, but chances are you aren't going to wade through all that info when a summary is likely available, or unless you're not willing to dive into the lore and check things out, and then decide what you like. * This seems more a player issue. If you have a player who loves Greyhawk, and you plan on setting your game there, but with keeping it lore-light and making up your own stuff as needed, then you just need to work that out ahead of time. If you don't, and it comes up in play, then you work it out then. I don't blame you for your preferences, and I'm sure they've formed as a result of your actual experiences, but I don't think they are universal enough to consider worldbuilding as bad. I just don't think it's all that different from any other tool the DM can use....they can be used effectively, or they can be abused.</blockquote>

Verification