"Worldbuilding" is probably the most pointless, self indulgent acts that a dungeon master could commit himself to.I should clarify, obviously a DM is going to have to do some worldbuilding if they aren't running a module, since some sort of "skeleton" is necessary for there to be a story layered on top of it. But if the interest of that process moves one to seek more than the common tropes and archetypes that have been discovered and refined for thousands of years, it's safe to assume that DM is more obsessed with making the prettiest "skeleton" rather than telling a satisfying, compelling story.The setting and what happens in a story is far less important than *how* that story is told. Literally every great author understood this. It's why Moby Dick kicks ass when your campaign, where every empire has a rich political and military history and there are over 37 deities, lends your players to phub your game every session.
>>92738736Nah
>>92738736>NOOOO you can't enjoy things!!! You shouldn't be doing anything fur fun!!!Some people love worldbuilding even if they know it will never matter. You're complaining about people wasting their time on frivolities on a forum for games of pretend
>this bait againTiresome.
>>92738736Honestly, yeah. It's good to have a framework and worldbuild to an extent, but once the DM is telling you some shit about the geopolitical situations and genotypal origins of livestock in countries your characters will never see, it's gone too far.
>>92738736The lesson here isn't that worldbuilding is a dumb timewaster for limp-dicked dilletantes, it's that it must always be secondary to the narrative. Worldbuilding is fine, do as much as you want, but only bring it up when necessary. The problems arise from autists who wants their game to be a vehicle they can use to beleaguer their friends with their gay writing project.
>>92738736Creating is still better than mindless consumption, so I give even the most self-indulgent worldbuilders a pass. I can agree that desperately avoiding tropes and archetypes is retarded, but that's a retard problem, not a worldbuilding problem.
>>92738905I'm inclined to agree with this. I've spent a lot of time doing worldbuilding in my campaign. However, the purpose of it is to inform the effects of the players interactions with the world. Likely, they'll not see 90% of it, and that's the point.
>>92738736A skeleton of worldbuilding is still just a skeleton at the end of the day. Unless the DM is good at improvisation, then their world will quickly lose momentum after a couple sessions.For example, a "world" can just be a town in a mountainous region during a terrible winter where the point of the campaign is to endure the winter. There is conversation by npcs, writing within books, paintings on walls, and even hunting trophies to suggest of a world outside this region. Yet that world beyond that is inaccessible, for it creates an illusion of grander scope. The world that is being actually fleshed out is this wintery region and its current plight. Aka "less is more".Like for this piece of art, as according to the artist, the story is: She is a girl who winds up spending time in the frozen arctic with her relative from 500 years ago who has resorted to all sorts of strange magic to keep his body alive. He doesn't speak, he dosen't eat, he does not sleep.
If the world building is shit players will start filling it with headcanon all by themself constantly and you end up with four people playing four worlds which all happen at once being simultaneously overlaying each other with every single plane being top and bottom, interfering and seperating at the same time.From an inside view nothing is consistent, from an outside view its one blob where everything means nothing and nothing means everything. This ends up turning the story into generic slop quickly if the group isnt so well attuned that they manage to work in flawles synchronization since the reference it uses has no meaning. Take Harry Potter. The cunt who wrote it just went full fuck it and only told a story in a near void vacuum and she even fucked it up during that already. One of the most popular fantasy franchises today and no one does anything with it because the world beyond that one gay castle at exactly those ten years or so in time is so nonsensical and incoherent that telling a story in that setting that isnt trash becomes nigh impossible.
>>92738736>Literally every great author understood thisYes, if you're going to put all your focus on story, you should go write a book. Worldbuilding is absolutely essential to avoid your players ending up travelling from one genero-slop theme park ride to the next. Obviously worldbuilding beyond that necessity is masturbatory, but it is still a necessity. Only creatively bankrupt retards whine about worldbuilding because they've burnt out their brains on consuming and can't come up with anything themselves. Or they came up with something shitty, their players told them so, and they decided to blame the entire exercise rather than their own incompetence.
>>92738736Its been tread before, but there are actually good arguments on both sides.There is a certain sweetspot where you've done enough worldbuilding to inform you, as the GM, on whats going on in the world and that helps you improv when the players do unexpected things, like decide to run a tavern or look to get employed as merchant's guards or whatever. This sweetspot will tend to be a bit fuzzy because some GMs are better at improv than others. This can be as detailed as knowing the prevailing wind direction in a region and the specific type of trade goods they deal in, or as loose as how big the town is and who is in charge of them, if anybody.On the other hand, most of the time, that background work will be completely ignored or not matter to the players. It likely wont' even come up at all. So a lot of this work is for the GMs own benefit. Some people enjoy this process and so they do this work for their own pleasure. The danger in worldbuilding is only for the GMs who get very concerned with not having enough details or detailing every little part of the setting before they allow players to set foot in it, or worse yet, don't allow their players to affect any real changes to their carefully crafted setting.So the general advice should be "prep as much as you need to feel comfortable, but don't fall into the trap of doing too much out of fear". Unfortunately you instead get two extremes of advice. One camp that says if you haven't fully fleshed out the wind patterns in a region you need to do more work. The other camp that says just improv everything. Both are wrong, like in most things in life, the area in the middle is usually the correct choice.
You build the world with your player's help over the course of the campaign.
>>92738736>most pointless, self indulgent actNo, it's this.
>>92738736>itt falling for this stale ass pasta>again
>>92738736>It's why Moby Dick kicks ass Nigga, Moby Dick is 2/3rds "World Building". Most of the book is meandering rambling tangents about the author's experiences whaling, the pseudoscientific theories on whale biology, and the cultural impacts of the industry.
I know OP just posted a shitty pasta, but there really are people here who constantly feel the need to signal how "normal" they are to everyone like Patrick Bateman. There really needs to be a term for it.
>>92744897"Termbuilding" is probably the most pointless, self indulgent acts that an insult master could commit himself to.I should clarify, obviously a IM is going to have to do some termbuilding if they aren't running a racist insult, since some form of "nigger" is necessary for there to be an insult layered on top of it. But if the interest of that process moves one to seek more than the common tropes and archetypes that have been discovered and refined for thousands of years, it's safe to assume that IM is more obsessed with making the prettiest "nigger" rather than telling a satisfying, compelling insult.The letters and what is said in a insult is far less important than *how* that insult is told. Literally every great racist understood this. It's why "sand nigger" kicks ass when your insult, where every word has a rich political and military history and there are over 37 uses of "fag", lends your listeners to ignore your insults every time.
>>92744897>I'm so successful >and my friends too, so successful >playing pretend, that's fine, as long as it's pretend being sold to me>successful people don't create that's patheticDo people like this realize how cringey it is?
I’ve found world building to be fairly important when you run games with scenario-first style prep. Having a living, breathing world that the players can understand and interact with is very important for that style of play.
>>92738736Tell that to Tolkien, fag.
>>92744897I know this was written to make people angry, but even knowing that I want to reiterate what other anons have already said:Creation is good. Even making bad things is better than mindlessly using things already made out of either fear or laziness. Cringe is just growth, keep creating. If you don't know where to start, create something new in a setting you like. Add things here and there, cut things out that you don't like as much. Maybe you like mechanics more than settings, create a new mechanic for your players to use. It might suck, but it also could be a lot of fun. Hell, this doesn't have to be exclusive to DMs. Make a magical item fitting for your character, write down their signature spell, write down their family history. Draw your character in MS paint, draw their knight crest, draw their sword. Make things, and don't stop making them, because that's the point of tabletop games.
