Every GM does better if they've got someone to discuss and ping ideas off of

Nigga there's a world of difference between letting other people dictate your setting and getting feedback. If you think you can't "own" your setting when you seek out critique you're dead wrong.

Part of that experience you're harping on comes from sharing your stuff with people who may not tell you what you expected.

>__Everyone__ does better if they've got someone to discuss and ping ideas off of
It is called cooperation, and it is the only reason that humanity has had any chance to survive.

For me it's the player's hat help build the setting.
>So you're a halfling? What are halflings like?
>>Umm. They're the primary sailors, fishermen, and shipbuilders of the setting. Etc.

That's how half-giants got into my setting.

>Half-giants are murderous, violent goofs with an improper command of common. They have a tradition of rogues and ninjas despite their size, because as much as they like violence and killing, they don't like fair fights.

>Books aren't written with a bunch of wannabe critics peering over your shoulder and telling their opinion on every line.
Actually pretty much any author will sing of the importance of having someone to talk through ideas with. I don't know what the fuck you're smoking.

The first setting I made I did this, basically co-oping with a friend to make the whole world. It's still my favorite setting, but made me realize how differently we develop campaigns. He did more of the world building, but most of it was completely useless and too obtuse to use.

He's still a great sounding board for my current campaigns, because trying to explain something to someone else makes you realize the flaws in it yourself anyway.

> (OP)
>Books aren't written with a bunch of wannabe critics peering over your shoulder and telling their opinion on every line. Eventually, you will learn from experience what's cool and what's retarded.
What are editors

You don't even need feedback, though it's good. Just expressing your ideas is better than keeping them cooped up in your head.

I can't remember how many times in school I'd be stuck on a problem, find someone to ask for help, and then figure out the solution while explaining the problem to them. Putting ideas in a format that someone else can understand is a limiting factor that forces creativity.

No shit.

I talk things over with a ST friend of mine all the time and we help each other think of stuff.

It's amazing how often, when learning, asking about an issue to someone else immediately makes the error I made apparent to me.

Of course it would, I guess. Speaking requires you to linearize concepts into some cogent.

>Books aren't written with a bunch of wannabe critics peering over your shoulder and telling their opinion on every line.
Good ones are.

This is exactly who it should not be.

It ruins the suprise and kills the magic when the audience is let backstage.

Not at the table to do a script reading or for a book club meeting for the DM's unpublished novel. I bail on "youre in my world" DMs.

It's good to run basic stuff by players, like the premise of the game (you're astronauts/outlaws/secret agents) and some of the minutia behind it to see if what you're selling works as a game.

You don't have to tell them "oh and this mysterious planet your gonna get sent to actually got Skynet-ed ten years ago but no one knows that yet".

Take a look at the Starwars prequels and Legend of Korra and tell me if it's not better to have a creative team.

Players are not supposed to be the audience though. Players are co creators. The story is mainly theirs.
As a GM you are ultimately serving your players, so taking them in on the creative process can get everyone more invested and it does the thing where you get some fresh ideas.

Even with that there is still infinite amount of room for moment to moment surprises.
You don't need to secretly decide that all elves are horrible cannibals, but instead decide that this particular tribe that characters found are horrible cannibals.

Yup

In every group there is a turncoat whom the GM talks with. They discuss things and gauge the party off of them. Sometimes the turncoat knows this, sometimes they don't.

If you're not that turncoat in your group....then who is?

Are you actually trying to say that other people's critique of your work, communication between peers and friends, and collaboration on creative endeavour is stifling your creativity?

Feedback from your players on your game is a good idea. But so is running your idea past other people first.