Help me improve my worldbuilding

December 19, 2015 12:44 PM

As my Pathfinder gaming group just came to an abrupt end due to lack of time on the GM's end (an anthropologist who created a truly AWESOME world), I'm getting the itch to step up and create my own world to possibly GM through a campaign in the future. However, the spirit is willing, but the flesh (or mind?) is weak. I'd like some tips on reading material (either direct how-to stuff or fantasy stories with particularly fantastic worldbuilding) that will deepen my resources on which to draw from in creating my own worlds. A bit more detail within.

I just came across this page last night that details Robert Jordan's influences in his creation of the different lands and peoples of the Wheel of Time books. For those who aren't familiar, Jordan did a great job on the world building end and fell flat on his face in terms of plotting and character development. I'm still annoyed by how much of my life I spent on those. Great world though! Anyway, this is exactly the sort of thing that I could use more of.

I like to think of myself as fairly well-read, but the shameful truth is that I've really slacked off on my reading in the age of the internet and amazing television shows, so my pool fantasy lands and real life history is not as deep as I would like. I hear that Brandon Sanderson's books are pretty great in this area. I plan on starting the Mistborn series as soon as I drag myself through The Name of the Wind.

But yeah, what else should I be reading? Or playing! Video games are good too. The Dragon Age games have a deeply great world. I love what they did making the elves a displaced minority and making the magic users an oppressed class under the rule of the militant arm of the church.

Also, are there any podcasts that would be a good resource? I kind of want to become a podcast person. Anyway, suggestions are welcome!

posted by JimBJ9 to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (10 answers total)

Best answer: /r/worldbuilding has lots of info and resources.
posted by quaking fajita at 1:16 PM on December 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Err, this is the Wheel of Time page to which I was referring.
posted by JimBJ9 at 1:49 PM on December 19, 2015

Rather than take on the burden of doing this yourself I'd heartily suggest you get the group together and play the rpg Microscope by Ben Robbins.

Reasons this is a good idea:
1 It is a great game and you'll have fun
2 Your players will be more knowledgeable and invested in the setting
3 What you end up will be very unexpected like the Dragon Age thing you point out

You can still of course spend a lot of time writing setting fiction if you'd like. But Microscope is an excellent jumping off point if you feel stuck.
posted by Erberus at 1:52 PM on December 19, 2015

Patricia C. Wrede's fantasy worldbuilding questions are great.
posted by cheesegrater at 2:22 PM on December 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

But yeah, what else should I be reading? Or playing! Video games are good too.

Maybe nonfiction, like the Economy of Renaissance Florence. Get a sense of of the relationships, money, and power flow around? Viking-Age Law, etc.

Also good historical fiction/games like Assassin's Creed, and so on? Everything I've seen about how to write sci-fi/fantasy say to read outside of the genre.

That and all of Steven Erikson fantasy by a anthropologist/archaeologist.

GM's end (an anthropologist who created a truly AWESOME world)
You've got a domain expert on anthropology, gaming/storytelling. You may want to ask them for a reading list.
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:43 PM on December 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Keep in mind though, just like Jordan, you can build a wonderful world, but fall flat on character and plot. A great RPG game, I'd argue, is largely about those two. End goal is did everyone have fun, feel they had cool interactions with the other characters and the world. An amazing world can definitely bolster those two, but won't get there on its own.
posted by canine epigram at 7:35 PM on December 19, 2015

Brandon Sanderson is another great writer who is known for his world building, and particularly in regards to magic systems. He also writes a lot about his processes, for example, here is the first in a series of posts about building a magic system: http://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/ .
posted by nalyd at 9:23 PM on December 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Go the other way, and have a generic fantasy world. Give each generic fantasy race a quirk - the Dwarfs live in flying catacombs! The elves are all about steampunk! The halflings can fly! Now think of three non player characters, each from a different race, who want to drastically change this world and are likely to be able to achieve that, in a way that will inevitably impact the players, and ask yourself the five whys about why that is.

That's honestly all you need.
posted by Sebmojo at 10:34 PM on December 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Souls games and Bloodborne are top notch in terms of video game worldbuilding. The approach is that very little is spelled out in terms of characters talking at you (and a good half of them are severely untrustworthy) or cutscenes (generally a vague expository cutscene and a handful of other short ones), and instead the player gleans what information there is about the story through reading the descriptions of items, the environment, and enemies. It gives playing the games a side effect of feeling like an explorer, uncovering an ancient and long gone civilization. Especially so in Bloodborne, which has the player uncovering a horrific civilization that's (on the surface level) Victorian London, but is in actuality something much, much more horrific.

You mention that your previous GM is an anthropologist, and I feel like *Souls games take on an anthropological stance as well.

They have a reputation for being difficult, and they are indeed challenging, but anyone can become good at them with practice. However, if you'd prefer not to play and don't mind spoilers, you can get an idea of how the world is built through YouTube lore videos.

Dark Souls is cross platform, and does a lot of the same stuff, so that might be a better starting point if you don't have a PS4.
posted by codacorolla at 6:02 PM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Worldbuilding can be a bit of a trap for a GM, as I've experienced. It's like building this huge mansion, making each room's decor elaborate and unique, and then when you invite people over to party, they end up staying in two rooms or decide to, you know, go to the run-down caretaker's shack in the back yard that you tried to cover up. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's fun to decide the history of the church of the god of pinochle, Zoopflagin, in the city of Blarp, but you're probably amusing no one but yourself.

As you probably know, the players will do what they will and even if you don't give them explicit tools to help build the world, their actions will contribute to it, implicitly, as you fumble to keep up with them.

So build something very loose and fill it in as you go, is my advice, and don't get too attached to anything. Do the worldbuilding as the game progresses, make it adaptable and serve the story and characters.

Also, non-fiction historical works are a great source for inspiration. Honestly, actual history makes even fantasy books look pretty tame and boring by comparison. Humanity is nuts.
posted by picea at 7:14 AM on December 22, 2015 [1 favorite]