this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Worldbuilding
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That's the crux of it for me, is that I am not much of an improviser. I can run great games when I know everything in advance, so the tendency is to write for years and run for months. I like to let people run free as well, so I can't put up too many Potemkin kingdoms that look adequately detailed from afar.
Oh so, this is for a roleplaying campaign setting? Mhm, that's tricky then.
I guess you could add names and locations, set the general vibe. And once your players/characters investigate something or someone you flesh it out depending on your info you gathered and or can derive from what you already wrote.
Thing about players and Gamemasters: You may have the most detailed and rich developed world you can imagine, wrote and worked on it for years and your players just pass through or just scratch the surface. You will be disappointed when you look back at what you wrote, which now you can throw in the bin.
It's all about smoke and mirrors.
It's complicated. I started writing my setting for a tabletop game, but as I added more and came to enjoy telling stories in it, I am moving towards wanting to use it for my own fiction. I don't aspire to create a legendarium with the depth and poetry of Tolkien, but I am learning to delight in realizing a world in great detail for its own sake. I might still run games in it, but I do think there's a book in there somewhere, as well.
Sure, in most worlds one build you can tell stories that isn't played at the table. But the same things still apply. Does the reader need to know an intrinsic detail of the given country to enjoy and follow the story? If so, add it to your notes and develop it, then continue your writing. That way you constantly add to your setting while also tell stories for others to consume, those may even give you feedback regarding missing facets that you then can use to make your world building even more robust.