Fanfare

This has been kicking around a fair amount, and it pains me because it's very much connected to the other debate about world building. Power scaling and world building are literally the same thing, and they are necessary when you are trying to figure out what the stakes of any particular conflict within the frame of your story actually are. It's not like we haven't known about this since the beginning of time, nor do we have a particularly succinct way of explaining why it's good writing. youtube.com/watch?v=yIKIOJ… Without understanding world building and thus inherently power scaling within the context of your story, all you have is a series of events which are connected by "and then." In order to understand how to use "therefore" and "but," you must understand causality. To understand causality, you need to understand that there are things beyond the immediate frame of the story which have caused things which are perceived within it by the characters. That's the world. Why is power scaling part of this? Because the power of a character is informed by their place within the world, within the framework of things that they have accomplished and experienced. If I put Spider-Man into a story which involves Orion and the Beyonder, I need to understand that Spider-Man is of an entirely different class of hero, lower than the cosmic levels that we are talking about with the other two characters. That's not necessarily a reason not to include him, but I have to understand the world enough so that I can say, "Spider-Man is involved, but he is grossly outpowered by Orion and the Beyonder. Therefore, he concerns himself with protecting the inhabitants of the alien world at a street level." Now we have stakes on the table. We know that there needs to be a threat to the people that Spider-Man can protect at a level that he can interact with while Orion is throwing thunderbolt punches and popping open boom tubes. Spider-Man is swinging in to protect a family from falling debris or dealing with the insect invasion. The fight is triggered because they disturb the nest. All of those elements come from "but and therefore," and all of them are born from understanding what the world must have in order for there to be stakes and consequence. WWhen someone tells you that writing doesn't need world building, you know they are shitty writers. When they tell you that power scaling is unnecessary, just write the events however you want them, you know they are shitty writers. We have three decades of the US comics industry being infected by people who are shitty writers and the sales numbers to prove it. Why? Because they don't believe in consequence or stakes and increasingly don't understand world building, forget believe in it. This is happening all over the American entertainment industry and is in part responsible for why it sucks. Do you want to be a good writer? Do you want to play good role-playing games? Do you want to experience stories in a better way? Then pay attention to world building. Think about power scaling. Embrace "therefore" and "but." Avoid "and then." It won't guarantee that you're great, but it'll at least give you a leg up so that you start mediocre and then work can carry you the rest of the way.