sam “ludonarrative disinterest” sorensen @samsorensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026one of the big challenges of capital-L Lore in tabletop RPGs is that often getting the lore “correct”—making it tangible for the players—requires a bucket of very careful prep and work, but getting the lore “incorrect”—introducing some element that contradicts the Established Canon—is trivial 7736 73
Velocitree @velocitree.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I used to write tons of Lore and try to work it in. But now I keep it to <2 pages. It informs who and what the evils of the works are doing, rumored world events. The players encounter it as their actions hit against it. For the world to feel real, lore can’t smack them in the face. It’s friction. 110 1
Yves-Claude Arem @yves-claude-arem.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Same asymmetry runs through catalogues raisonnés. An entry can take years of comparison and letters to build, and one surviving shipping note with the wrong date unpicks it. Establishing costs years, contradicting costs an afternoon in a reading room. 100 1
UnturnedLeaves @unturnedleaves.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I feel like this is why I'm drawn to middle-ground setting scope. We get nice broad themes and overviews, good setting information, archetypes and ways of being with a smattering of concrete examples following the paradigm But overall enough is left fuzzy for the table to make it truly their ownstatic.klipy.comJudge Dredd: I Am The LORE!Alt: Judge Dredd: I Am The LORE! 120 2
sam “ludonarrative disinterest” sorensen @samsorensen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026like because most RPGs, especially kitchen-sink fantasy RPGs, start from "anything is possible," a lot of lore-writing is mostly about negation. when you say "dragons are born from fallen meteorites" that means finding a dragon egg is now impossible, and if that does happen in your game it's Wrong 1392 39
Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 06/10/2026"When a poet speaks of truth to another poet, what hope has truth? Will the measure of greatness be weighed solely in the details? Perhaps so, if details make up the full weft of the world, if themes are nothing more than the composite of lists perfectly ordered and unerringly rendered" 120 2
Uzumaki no Lactone - θ∆ @licoricetick.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026And figuring out how something that sounds off actually works fine within your canon after all feels joyous 130 3
La Mancha @la-mancha.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Have you checked out stonetop? I think it has a great “best of both worlds” approach to this. It details key things, juicy things, in the world. But it also asks for player input at many spots. So there’s a mix of true facts and anti-canon going on. 110 1