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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7418383" data-attributes="member: 42582">If this is worldbuilding, then B2 doesn't have it. There is no coherent history, geography or ecology in that module - I mean, there are dozens of powerful warriors (many superior to their human opponents) living a hour or two's walk away from a modestly defended keep. And with no obvious food supply for either side. And no coherent history either.It's a framing for play, not something that answers the description you've quoted.Building a fence often involves the hammering of nails into wood. It doesn't follow that every time someone hammers a nail into some wood they're building a fence. Not all creating of maps is worldbuilding in the sense you yourself quoted.Again, worldbuiding may have the goal of creating context. It doesn't follow that all context is worldubilding. And nor does it follow that all RPGing even has some context. There is no context to B1 other than "Let's earn some XP by exploring a dungeon." The context for S1 (Tomb of Horrors) is similar.The context in B2 is marginally thicker, but only marginally. Likewise S2 (White Plume Mountain), which is - by the way - another single-building adventure.Going back to Tomb of Horrors, contrast S1 with the Return to . . .  version, which (I understand by reputation - I've never read it) does engage in a whole lot of worldbuilding, establishing all this backstory to try and make the dungeon actually make sense in the context of a consistent, coherent world. This seems to me to be exactly the sort of distinction  [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] is drawing, between adventure design and worldbuilding.Let's take it, for the sake of argument, that  [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s comments are grounded primarily in personal preference grounded in personal experience.Are  [MENTION=6785785]hawkeyefan[/MENTION]'s grounded in anything more robust or objective? I doubt it.In other words, the claims worldbuilding is not bad is not grounded more firmly than the claim that worldbuilding is bad. So what's the objection to Hussar that doesn't apply to hawkeyefan? That he's hurting feelings?EDIT:Here we have Lanefan saying that a reason in favour of worldbuilding is to avoid something of a hodge-podge game world.Are all the posters who are outraged by [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] expressing a strong opinion about the problems with worldbuilding now going to attack [MENTION=29398]Lanefan[/MENTION] for putting forward this reason (which clearly is nothing more than a preference grounded in his experience) as objective in some fashion? Or is it only those who dislike worldbuilding who get held to that standard?</blockquote>

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