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<blockquote data-quote="Nobby-W" data-source="post: 8177679" data-attributes="member: 7017291">World building is useful if it produces things your players will interact with.&nbsp; I've seen plenty of settings - including some famous ones you've probably heard of - that have a whole load of lore, history, military dispositions and other background that's several degrees of separation removed from anything your players will actually touch. If it's had 20 years to marinate and mature it might read well, but often it feels quite sterile.Some big picture is needed to hang everything together.&nbsp; You do have to come up with the basic setting conceits and overall layout and major parts of your world, but this gets into diminishing returns pretty quickly.&nbsp; Once you have the big picture, the mid-level stuff beloved of world builders is mostly a waste of time.After that, It's better to drive your world building off what's needed for adventures.&nbsp; You can build your factions, NPCs, locations and other artifacts based on need, which also means that you're doing stuff that will probably get used.&nbsp; It will also get done at a useful level of detail and tends to be a lot less sterile.You can add in mid-level stuff as needed to support the high level and low-level items.&nbsp; Produce events as needed to explain the world as-is.&nbsp; You don't need a comprehensive historical timeline, and pre-building that sort of stuff is as likely to paint you into a corner as it is to provide any useful inspiration.&nbsp; A small chunk of your world built in enough detail to run adventures in is more useful than a grand sweeping history.TL;DR: You need a big picture to hang everything off, but that gets into diminishing returns pretty quickly and it's better to drive subsequent world building off what you need for your adventures.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Nobby-W, post: 8177679, member: 7017291"] World building is useful if it produces things your players will interact with. I've seen plenty of settings - including some famous ones you've probably heard of - that have a whole load of lore, history, military dispositions and other background that's several degrees of separation removed from anything your players will actually touch. If it's had 20 years to marinate and mature it might read well, but often it feels quite sterile. Some big picture is needed to hang everything together. You do have to come up with the basic setting conceits and overall layout and major parts of your world, but this gets into diminishing returns pretty quickly. Once you have the big picture, the mid-level stuff beloved of world builders is mostly a waste of time. After that, It's better to drive your world building off what's needed for adventures. You can build your factions, NPCs, locations and other artifacts based on need, which also means that you're doing stuff that will probably get used. It will also get done at a useful level of detail and tends to be a lot less sterile. You can add in mid-level stuff as needed to support the high level and low-level items. Produce events as needed to explain the world as-is. You don't need a comprehensive historical timeline, and pre-building that sort of stuff is as likely to paint you into a corner as it is to provide any useful inspiration. A small chunk of your world built in enough detail to run adventures in is more useful than a grand sweeping history. [B]TL;DR: [/B]You need a big picture to hang everything off, but that gets into diminishing returns pretty quickly and it's better to drive subsequent world building off what you need for your adventures. [/QUOTE]

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