Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 7785264" data-attributes="member: 32740">My game worlds - even if they are taken from published settings - have as much history as I want and need them to.&nbsp; They are NOT stagnant.&nbsp; Almost always they will have multiple civilizations that no longer exist for one reason or another.&nbsp; Civilizations that do exist for the PC's to see will either be growing at some rate, or collapsing.&nbsp; However, if they are growing they are never growing terribly rapidly unless by direct conquest of neighbors.&nbsp; PC's seldom get more than a few hundred years of recent history and mostly concerned with the area where the campaign begins.&nbsp; If a civilization HAS existed in the game world for millennia it has almost certainly gone unnoticed while doing so, and even then is NOT going to be in the same relative state as when it began.There's really just one reason for all that - it makes it easier for me as DM to start and run any game world.&nbsp; If I want more history in the game I'll introduce it, and it will almost always have little if any compatibility with what any setting authors wrote for it.&nbsp; It will be stuff _I_ wrote that fits what I want.&nbsp; If the already published deep history fits what I want that's great, but it isn't what I invest in any setting for.&nbsp; Anyway, until any of it affects them directly players and their characters really don't much care, nor would I expect them to.&nbsp; But, that then means that even if the civilizations around them HAVE existed in a largely static state for centuries it doesn't matter.&nbsp; Just as it doesn't matter that a dungeon remains in a static state until PC's show up to clean it out.&nbsp; What matters is how the setting changes (or doesn't change) when the PC's interact with it.It doesn't matter to me or my players if the history of a setting isn't &quot;realistic&quot; and doesn't make sense (assuming THEY are even paying attention to it).&nbsp; If it means that when the PC's stomp around in it with their size 12's it reacts in fun, dangerous, and interesting ways, all is well.&nbsp; Its state 500 years ago is irrelevant.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 7785264, member: 32740"] My game worlds - even if they are taken from published settings - have as much history as I want and need them to. They are NOT stagnant. Almost always they will have multiple civilizations that no longer exist for one reason or another. Civilizations that do exist for the PC's to see will either be growing at some rate, or collapsing. However, if they are growing they are never growing terribly rapidly unless by direct conquest of neighbors. PC's seldom get more than a few hundred years of recent history and mostly concerned with the area where the campaign begins. If a civilization HAS existed in the game world for millennia it has almost certainly gone unnoticed while doing so, and even then is NOT going to be in the same relative state as when it began. There's really just one reason for all that - it makes it easier for me as DM to start and run any game world. If I want more history in the game I'll introduce it, and it will almost always have little if any compatibility with what any setting authors wrote for it. It will be stuff _I_ wrote that fits what I want. If the already published deep history fits what I want that's great, but it isn't what I invest in any setting for. Anyway, until any of it affects them directly players and their characters really don't much care, nor would I expect them to. But, that then means that even if the civilizations around them HAVE existed in a largely static state for centuries [I]it doesn't matter[/I]. Just as it doesn't matter that a dungeon remains in a static state until PC's show up to clean it out. What matters is how the setting changes (or doesn't change) when the PC's interact with it. It doesn't matter to me or my players if the history of a setting isn't "realistic" and doesn't make sense (assuming THEY are even paying attention to it). If it means that when the PC's stomp around in it with their size 12's it reacts in fun, dangerous, and interesting ways, all is well. Its state 500 years ago is irrelevant. [/QUOTE]

Verification