I think world-building is a GM style. You have playing styles like the hack-and-slash, narrative, role-player, et al. GMs can be tweakers, world-builders, and graduated players (among other things). IOW, some GMs dig it. Others do not.

I would hastily add, though, that assuming you’re not good at it is probably the wrong conclusion. It’s not about creativity so much as available time. I’d suggest that those who prefer to use what’s already available are probably more pressed for time (or have a better sense of priorities…

A lot of times I feel that building your own world is akin to building your own game. For me, that’s more work than it’s worth. I can always have an idea of what I feel is something better, but in the end, I’m one person, and Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, etc… have a lot of writers tweaking and fine-tuning them. Me? If I were to do that, I’d spend so much time on wasted effort.

In retro, perhaps it’s just that I’m not that good at it.

-Tourq

should be:

Not every game master builds *his* own world …