Dev Diary - Entry 7, 26th February 2018

CAUTION: Spoilers will abound in this dev diary regarding Final Fantasy XX/Final Fantasy 20XX. If you believe yourself to be involved in playing this game, please exercise due caution. If symptoms persist, see your White Mage.
Another week, another draft of the world map. It's the same broad strokes as the previous map, but I was unhappy with how... well, how generic the land edges were, so I started from scratch and redid it with some different settings. This one, I'm happy with. No doubt I'll be unhappy with something or another later on down the line, but for now, this is most pleasing to me.
Link here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1ljbq155xz47ae/Final%20Fantasy%20World%20Map%20-%202nd%20Draft.jpg?dl=0
Now then... what to discuss this week? Well, something that has stuck out to me in my research on GMing techniques is where the GM needs to stop when it comes to worldbuilding. This may seem counterintuitive, but a GM needs to not only be flexible in worldbuilding, but there needs to be gaps left for the PCs to fit. This goes a lot further than simply leaving a space for the PCs in the story - this means possibly leaving towns undefined, leaving space for orders or organizations that the PCs may create for their backstory, or even going so far as to leaving countries open so as to allow cultures and traditions that fit the PC's can (possibly inadvertently) shape and make their own home countries. Were I a more skeptical sort, I might think that the entirety of Nibelheim was created when a player came to the GM with an idea of a lonely child wanting to join the elite military of the world, thus creating both SOLDIER and Nibelheim in one fell swoop.
Now this leaves a very interesting question - how much does a GM make before they let the PCs loose on the world? Well, since this is Final Fantasy, it's difficult to extricate the idea of the players being necessary to the devising of the main villain, the Empire they need to face down and the nature of the Summons. That said, the GM has to start somewhere. In my experience, at the very least one should leave half as many towns for the players to fill out. Countries are probably a little bit of overkill, but a good GM should be listening when the PCs bandy about their character ideas and be able to shape at least individual adventures within the larger scope of the whole story to their wishes. Also: this doesn't mean they get everything they want. Adversity and shade makes the bright points all the sweeter.
Next week, I hope to have some development on the cultural shape of the world I'm creating - cities, caves, ruins etc. It should be an intriguing time. I hope to see you then!