How important is a setting's lore?
Personally, I'm kind of a minimalist. I enjoy tidbits of lore which add flavor to the overall setting, but don't distract from the campaign/narrative with volumes of unnecessary information. Not that I don't appreciate well-constructed lore, but I much prefer having things left to the imagination rather than having an explanation for everything.
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Loremaster here, not the GM. I try to make it concise, with images and full of plothooks. Also believable with the ocasional "wait, what?" to make sure the players don't get too used to it. Also got it into a blog that everyone can read when and if interested.
I have explanations for almost everything but don't always put them there. Me and the GM also get make reunions where we integrate however we can, the stuff players did, past PCs becoming NPCs etc. The best character I played once became emperor! Players like to interact with their past characters.
Honestly? I've found that, in 90% of cases, I have much more fun reading through an exploring a setting's lore than I do playing whatever game is set in it. I haven't enjoyed actually playing in years.
I tend to be pretty lore-light in my games as well. I might have ideas for how certain things work but those will be extra things for the players to find if they go looking, rather than things I shove in their faces.
In established settings, it's odd. I like having enough lore to strongly convey the themes of the setting, giving me examples and ideas I can improvise off of, without filling in all the blank spaces and giving me nowhere to work.
In particularly lore heavy settings I'll often just straight up tell my players I will freely remix everything outside of a few specific core concepts, as it's just kinda dull for me otherwise.
If you give yourself more lore and more of an idea of what your setting is, improv is not only easier, but feels more cohesive during the game. It allows you to pull from other more mysterious elements more often, and there will always be these background things going on that the players don't really know about, but occasionally get a taste of that makes the world feel more life like. Of course, if your party is a bunch of murderhobos who live only to "be adventurers" then of course there's not much of a need for a taste of the setting, but the benefits of having a deeper setting outweigh the cons (and I don't think there really are any cons to having a deeper setting).
Yes very important, I prefer to play in quality written, professionally published, established settings that convey the sense above and beyond generic adventure location as opposed to some home brew garbage the dm pulled out his ass thinking it's some cool shit when in reality general consensus shows it's god awful doggerel.
man aren't you straight out of the last century, i bet you'd like to gobble up the nepotistic cocks of the nearest publishing company right now eh?
I'm a bit of both worlds.
I have really extensive lore but my players only start with the barebones of what they need to get the tone and basics of the setting. Players who's characters tend to know more about certain subjects are personally told so they can do explanations or expositions when it comes up. Makes the world feel more natural when they can explain parts of it to each other.
I expose them to stuff as they experience it and get interested. I don't want them to get swamped, so I hold the information back and reveal it at a pace I think they can handle.
Depending on the setting or game they get more or less interested over time.
Lore is for setting tone, and getting people on the same page about what's going on. To that end, lore should include enough detail to give an impression the GM or designer wants to portray, without being so long that it becomes homework.
Which setting has the best lore?
Which setting has the deepest (most detailed) lore?