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While powerful spells and gadgets are fun to imagine, they can do serious harm to a story. Once you add a transporter or summon giant eagles, it becomes too easy for the protagonists to overcome challenges. Luckily, there are many ways to reduce the impact of … read more »
Forests, tundras, deserts and plains don’t appear arbitrarily. These biomes are located where they are on Earth due to the way air and water circulate in the atmosphere – and any Earth-like world should follow the same basic rules for its atmosphere that Earth does. Read more »
The culture of your kingdom, moon, or giant soap bucket isn’t fully developed until you’ve given it one or more belief systems. But that doesn’t mean you should rename the Catholic Church and stick it in there. Religions and other belief systems come in a huge variety of flavors. Read more »
Worldbuilding is a time-consuming process. There’s all of those governments to decide on, flora and fauna to develop, architecture to design… and when you have to do it for planet after planet in your spacefaring adventure, well, who has the time? Certainly not the writers … read more »
Fantasy worldbuilders usually start with an extensive foundation – the Earth. They then add geographical, cultural and magical details on top. Most fantasy worlds have fantastical elements made possible by the presence of magic, but are still basically Earth underneath. Read more »
I’ve spoken before about how to go about running a game where the PCs never stray too far from home, and now it’s time to talk about the exact opposite. This is the sort of game where the PCs bounce all over the map, perhaps … read more »
Within every organization there is disagreement, both inconsequential and monumental. Sometimes the people who have these disagreements come together to form sub groups within their organization and work towards their own agenda. These sub groups are called factions. Read more »
Chris, Oren and Mike discuss the unique challenges urban fantasy writers face when worldbuilding, and their share favorite solutions from books, shows and movies. They dissect tropes that are common in urban fantasy worlds and compare them from one world to the next. Read more »
What do the Borg from Star Trek, the Formians from Ender’s Game, and Gaia from Foundation have in common? They’re all group minds. What is a group mind? Essentially, a group mind is the connected consciousness of at least two individuals. There are lots of … read more »
Any good fantasy setting should be true to its name: fantastic. A dash of dragons, a sprinkling of flying castles, and a few sentient forests can really improve a world’s flavor. But some stories just aren’t compatible with obvious, physics-violating quirks. You may need to … read more »