Barring the mechanical aspect of gribblies, which needs to be laid out bare & simple, do you prefer the whys and wherefores of their society, legends etc to be left to you to fill in, or do you prefer at least a framework to work from (if not all of it given to you wholesale)?

Same goes for the game world. Do you want reasons for certain aspects of it on the page in front of you (answers) or do you want information with the particulars left out (questions)?

For game worlds, I like broad strokes. There is this terrible forest of evil over there, this is a water spot known for sea serpents. Not so much "Lord Jarden has these plans, and these goals" in fantasy at least.


 For SF it depends on the SF, I think many people see the problem with Transhuman Space, because its not giving you any game focused things to look at, no one specific driving agenda. Just a lot of really cool broad ideas (with a few specifics)


I tend to prefer broad strokes, and a "Do it your way" approach. Hence why in my superhero games, I gave a lot of NPC's most villains--gave their reasons for being evil and for some ways to make them good guys as well, simply because they make good examples of how varied people with the same drives can be (as well as examples of powers)

My preference is to leave the particulars out.  It's easier to add or incorporate stuff from either the player or other sources later.