Post Awed76ZSWmqthO8emW by yora@mastodon.gamedev.place
 (DIR) More posts by yora@mastodon.gamedev.place
 (DIR) Post #AwdIYSN5N0VYHzUvgm by yora@mastodon.gamedev.place
       2025-07-28T20:21:05Z
       
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       With 25 of years running #ttrpg, I have learned that even the biggest and most elaborate campaign setting I could ever develop for actual play still could make use of only a fraction of the detail of a typical setting sourcebook from the 90s.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwdIYTIVvURfA6MnCa by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
       2025-07-29T17:46:14Z
       
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       @yora If it's any comfort, realize that none of the detail of a typical setting sourcebook from the 90s, larger than the space that you could develop for actual play, was ever used in actual play either. In a sense, you can think of them as settings bibles for people to write their own actual play space extractions. You, implicitly, are writing something that you think people will use. They were writing something that they thought people would use to write something that they would use. There's an implicit difference. Frankly, I think you might be on the better course.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwdRIsg0hQ0GpMzuCW by yora@mastodon.gamedev.place
       2025-07-29T19:24:14Z
       
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       @lextenebris I just read a Star Wars d6 sourcebook yesterday, and realized that there was a whole page of backstory on a location that could just have been one sentence. It was all padding that pretty much provided no relevant or useful information that might come up in play. Answers to questions I don't think anyone would ever have asked. Because any possible answer would not have made any difference.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwddMC9nvV5rZ2HQm0 by knbrindle@wandering.shop
       2025-07-29T21:30:24Z
       
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       @yora @lextenebris there’s a frustrating divide between “amount of text useful to play the game” (very little) and “amount of descriptive, evocative material needed to paint an enticing picture for potential players to get them to invest time in a new setting/system/etc” (very, very large amount) 😔
       
 (DIR) Post #AwddMDHHlAfj2Wmv4a by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
       2025-07-29T21:39:14Z
       
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       @knbrindle @yora I'm actually not even sure that's true. It doesn't take a large amount of evocative material to get potential players on board. They need the one right line, the one interesting thing, the one piece that speaks to them. That's it. That's all it takes.Now, you can keep writing piece after piece, bit after bit, in the hope that by using a shotgun, you'll hit somebody's sensitive point and get them interested. But honestly, that's kind of a fool's errand. That is an inefficient use of your time as a creator. You are throwing spaghetti at the walls and trying to hope that it sticks right over the crack and nowhere else.Now, when we're talking about a licensed property, things are a little messier because the licensor generally wants you to put a whole bunch of stuff in it that covers everything because, damn it, it's theirs, and they want you to do every bit. But outside of that, sometimes it's way better to leave the fruitful void.Save your time and sell just the parts that you think are really, really exciting and really, really good to get people on board.
       
 (DIR) Post #Awed76ZSWmqthO8emW by yora@mastodon.gamedev.place
       2025-07-30T09:11:16Z
       
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       @lextenebris I feel pretty certain it's not true.