Implicit setting

This is a translation of a post originally published in 2015. More posts in English here.

RPGs, like most games and probably other types of media, have explicit and implicit setting.

Explicit setting is the stuff that they tell you well, explicitly. In the setting chapter or scattered through the core or sourcebook. If at any point they tell you "orcs are really tough", that's explicit setting.

On the other hand, implicit setting is the one that comes out from the mechanics without being expressed. The fact that orcs have twice as many hitpoints as a human points out to the fact that orcs are really tough without anyone having to say it.

Or there can also be implicit setting that emerges from explicitly stablished elements. If you say that orcs live in volcanos, trying to push each other into lava to solve conflicts, you can assume they are really tough.

Often a game without much explicity setting can have a lot of charisma thanks to it's implicit setting. And also due to the fact that implicit setting is usually transmited by involving the players. Discovering that orcs are really tough via actual play is usually much better than finding out because you read it on the corebook or the DM explains it to you.

A type of "RPG genre" that is usually the best at this implicit setting thing are monster manuals. That's why usually bestiaries that tell you less about the creatures but give you more tools to make them playable are considered better.

Something like that is what I sought in Criaturas del Vacío Celeste. I started from some ideas of how I wanted the implicit setting of the book and it started growing while I developed it, so much so that in many case I couldn't keep it from becoming explicit.

On the other hand, having that synergy between implicit and explicit setting is really important to get a great game experience. Can you imagine that we are given the fact that orcs are really tough, but fighting them is a picnic? Of course it isn't hard, it's sad, but it happens often and it is a trap that is better left avoided to keep the illusion of the game from collapsing.

Thanks for reading. Valmar Cerenor!