Paperback, 124 pages
Published Dec. 23, 2012 by Open Design LLC.
Some really great and interesting essays on developing worlds for novels, games, or any fantasy setting. Some essays were kinda repetitive but others pulled back the curtain on the writing process and proved to be quite insightful. I’ll definitely be reading the other books in this series.
There's a lot of good ideas and advice in this collection of essays on worldbuilding. The focus is on worldbuilding for fantasy RPGs, either as a gamemaster or a game designer, but much of the advice could also be adapted for other settings or for worldbuilding a setting for fiction.
Some of the included chapters cover map-making, creating and maintaining a world 'bible', creating religions, dealing with the impact of both magic and technology, and several other topics.
My personal favorites were the chapters "Why No Monotheism?" by Steve Winter, and "How to Make a High Magic World" by Keith Baker. The former discusses the reasons why monotheism is uncommon in fantasy settings, and then discusses some ways that it could be used. The latter discusses some of the problems and opportunities of a setting where magic is common enough to impact everyday life.
"Designing a Pantheon" by Wolfgang Bauer …
There's a lot of good ideas and advice in this collection of essays on worldbuilding. The focus is on worldbuilding for fantasy RPGs, either as a gamemaster or a game designer, but much of the advice could also be adapted for other settings or for worldbuilding a setting for fiction.
Some of the included chapters cover map-making, creating and maintaining a world 'bible', creating religions, dealing with the impact of both magic and technology, and several other topics.
My personal favorites were the chapters "Why No Monotheism?" by Steve Winter, and "How to Make a High Magic World" by Keith Baker. The former discusses the reasons why monotheism is uncommon in fantasy settings, and then discusses some ways that it could be used. The latter discusses some of the problems and opportunities of a setting where magic is common enough to impact everyday life.
"Designing a Pantheon" by Wolfgang Bauer and "It's a Mystery: How to Design a Mystery Cult" by David "Zeb" Cook were also full of good ideas for creating fantasy religions. Although both made me wonder why the authors never mentioned the Glorantha setting when it contains many examples of the kinds of things being discussed. The former in particular laments the way that D&D has pantheons of gods worshiped as individuals rather than as pantheons, and then goes on to describe a system that is pretty much identical to the way that pantheons appear in Glorantha.
I have to mention that the chapter on working with licensed properties seemed a bit out of place, seeing as how it dealt solely with the professional aspects of doing so, and is thus useless to anyone looking to use an existing setting as a gamemaster rather than as a game designer.
Otherwise, I thought it was a good book, and deserving of the Ennie it recently won.
