1. Are there a handful of books that are useful as a starting point for thinking about world-building?
A mere handful? I will find that somewhat difficult a task, paring down the thousands of books i’ve read to just a few. When I have some books to read, I consume on average, about 300-500 pages a day (double that if it is a lazy day, such as during a vacation). This is relevant because, at it’s core, world-building is about conveying a point of view, a glimpse of emotion, a sense of verisimilitude, evoking wonder and belief (or at least a desire to believe). A world is described though the words used to portray it, be those words written or spoken. Thus any book, literally any book, can become a study in world-building: fiction, non-fiction, DIY, self-help, romance, poetry, travel guides, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery… and so on. This is because a study of the words the author used to portray their story, their ideas, the states of mind and heart prompted and sustained by the flow of meaning… they are describing a world to you, their world. How did they make you feel? What did you think about as you read? Did you get lost in the book? Why? Giving one's self the best quality input you can find, will better enable you to provide quality output. But be mindful of the corollary: GIGO.
Nevertheless, I will pick out five (a literal handful, is it not?) that I personally find valuable. As with all my advice, this worked for me, but your perceptions and experiences may yield a different result even with the same materials.
1: Rolemaster GM Law - This resource contains an excellent framework for starting a world-building project. Usually the first book I reach for whenever a new world commits genesis in my head.
2: Greyhawk Gazetteer - This book is pretty much nothing but world-building notes. Even if you don’t do D&D, it is a great reference.
3: GURPS - GURPS books are widely known for being well written and well researched. Many GMs will own GURPS books simply for the reference value, even if they don’t use the system in game play. (Disclosure: I am a Cell Leader in Steve Jackson Game’s Men In Black volunteer outreach program.) Furthermore, GURPS has managed to obtain the license to produce an RPG for more novels than most other RPGs in the world combined.
4: Roleplaying Bible - An excellent history of roleplaying in general. Oftentimes knowing the context of various events allows one to see how those events shaped the development of rules and mechanics. More of a meta-overview, but nonetheless quite valuable as one should be able to make one’s self aware of the meta-aspects influencing one’s own world-building attempts.
5: Robin’s Laws - As previously mentioned, the art of world-building is inseparable from the art of using words to convey one's concept. As such, this industry standard on how to be a good GM should be mandatory reading for any world-builder. Whether addressing one’s audience via the written word, or via the spoken word, the advice in this book applies handily.
2. Are there any books from fields that at first seem unrelated, but are actually helpful for thinking about world-building?
For example, you mentioned the Japanese Inn book (I read that in college).
1: Sacred and Holy works - I have been greatly influenced by various Holy Books and the Beliefs of multiple faiths throughout my life. One might even say that my entire world view is founded upon the various experiences, mundane, uncanny, sacred, and scary that I’ve had with things related to and/or considered to be holy. Even if we stick mostly to the mundane aspects - such writings are found referenced in most RPGs. Palladium Fantasy has spells, creatures, effects and other references taken directly from the Judaeo-Christian writings, as does D&D, Rolemaster (MERP) and many others. As most such collections are a mix of history and his-story, they serve as a rich source of common building blocks to reference when laying a world-building foundation. Cosmology, the human condition, human beliefs and desires, conflict, the purpose of life, the universe, and everything. I have explored the myths, legends, religions, philosophies, and sacred writ of many cultures: North, Central, and South Americas, Oceania, Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, India, Russia, the Middle East, as well as those of historical cultures that have gone extinct or been absorbed and dissolved over time. Some of my personal favorites were written by the Native Americans. I recommend that you find some works which make you think, ponder deeply, even pray if you feel so inclined. A question or concept worth pondering and meditating upon may just be worth incorporating into and addressing in one’s own works, not to mention real life.
2: Works of Art - In my case, this doesn’t necessarily mean what it means to most other people. I tend to gravitate towards visual and audial works which display some aspect of the fantastical, a touch of surrealism, or an aspect of mystery. Landscapes with paths wandering out of sight, space scenes, alien landscapes, out-of-place-artifacts/people, those Chinese landscape-in-a-glass-box things, psychedelia of the more mild variety (the artwork, not the state inducing substances, mind you - certain relatives of mine and associated friends messed up their lives enough, I’d rather not have anyone else screw up theirs, and definitely not based on misunderstanding my advice, thank you very much!) By way of example, my Dad had some album art from The Who, I believe it was, up on the walls which I would study extensively as a kid. There were a lot of aspects that didn’t make sense, but I would sit there staring at it for hours and hours trying to make sense of it. Exercising the mind in trying to accept or reconcile things that at first don’t make sense or seem contradictory is an excellent work-out for world-building. Artbooks of M. C. Escher and Naohisa Inoue are also good resources for this sort of practice. For myself, I strictly avoid anything and everything containing nudity or eroticism - I have found that it erodes my ability to concentrate, focus, and function creatively; as such, I personally can’t really consider such things seriously as “art”, or even useful.
On the aural side, I find instrumental works best for me. Including but not limited to: electronica, updated versions of classics, the classics themselves (a childhood favorite was Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ - mild by our time but condemned and labeled “disturbing” and “unlistenable” by his contemporaries; a man ahead of his time,) “epic” instrumental tracks (try YouTube for a sampling)… generally any instrumental music which tells a story and is not repetitive-lacking-significant-variation (ie: most forms of trance music). I find most vocals to be distracting and detracting from the music, time and again I’ll be listening to something which has this great lead in, and then the music flattens out to this boring beat and someone starts singing - not to the beat, time, rhythm, melody and/or harmony… very bothersome to me. I even coined a term for some of them: “Virtualoso” (n - a singer whom cannot perform credibly without artificial enhancement… especially when singing the national anthem).
3: Literature - I feel it would be lacking of me to not include at least a few books and/or authors, especially since that was a key component of your questions. As I have previously mentioned, I have read thousands of books up to this point in my life. Of the secular realm, one stands notable in my mind: Patricia A. McKillip. Pick up any of her works, as a wordsmith, she is seldom matched or rivaled.
Other fine examples of world-building include, but are not limited to: Sylvia Louise Engdahl (Enchantress from the Stars, Far Side of Evil, Children of the Star), Louise Cooper (Books of Indigo), Julia E. Czerneda (Web-shifters series), Louis McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan series, of which one of that series is frequently cited as exemplary of the Crowning Moment of Awesome), Beth A. Hilgartner (Dreamweaver’s series), Arthur C. Clarke (Foundation series), Andre Norton (lots to choose from here), Isaac Asimov (his exploration of the laws of robotics is quite fascinating; and he also wrote some rollicking space opera under the pseudonym of Paul French back when it wasn’t good to be Russian in America), Uehashi Nahoko (Moribito series), Garth Nix (Abhorsen series), Anne McCaffrey (the Dragon Lady, though I’m quite fond of her Ship series and Dinosaur Planet series), Gordon R. Dickson (Dragon and George series), Christopher Stasheff (both the Wizard and Warlock series), Randall Garrett & Vicki Ann Heydron (Gandalara Cycle), Resnik’s Santiago Mythos, Stackpole’s Talion Revenant, Sanderson’s Elantris…
Ah, whoops, I started monologuing. Within each of these series or books is found an interesting and unique world worth studying how said world is presented and revealed over the course of the story.
Just start with McKillip, if you would. ^^ It will be worth your time.
4: Other RPGs - Why start from scratch? There are some excellent examples of world-building to be found amongst RPGs already produced. As we are focusing on books, I will skip entire the works of gaming console and computer. Even if one does not intend to play a particular game, seeing how it is put together is a worthwhile study.
The Amber Diceless RPG is considered a classic amongst RPGs, and for good reason. Not only is it a fun companion to the novels, it was one of the early universal systems. It’s unique diceless structure is a fascinating work of rules mechanics, and how it fully enables the game to be role played pretty much just like the novel reads is also worth studying. Rolemaster has some excellent additional resource materials to draw from. In addition to the previously mentioned GM Law, the Treasures book and the Castles book, not to mention the resources on the orient and space/sci-fi are quite handy. Palladium Games’ RIFTS serve as an excellent resource on Post-Apocalyptic, multi-dimensional, and mash-up campaigns, not to mention the TMNT RPG. HERO/Champions is known for it’s erudite handling of the Supers genre. D&D is quite famous for the fantasy genre, and mixing fantasy with other genres (and don’t forget the invaluable Aurora’s Whole Realms Catalogue!) BESM might have claimed the anime slot if it had not been preempted years prior by Teenagers from Outer Space. Traveller and Alternity are frequently cited in the sci-fi realm. Battletech and Mechwarrior pretty much defined the giant robot genre for the West. Ryuutama is a notable Japanese RPG with a unique set of rules designed for ‘emotionally involved play’ and ‘full group’ participation (one of the only RPGs i’m aware of where a DMPC is explicitly part of the game rules), that especially appeals to those who prefer a low-powered role and character emphasizing game style (available in English).
5: SCIENCE! - There is a lot of useful material in the realms of science. I recall studying the nature of sound, vibration, and acoustics for the development of a particular race; books on gemology, geology, and weather for a certain planet; quantum physics for magic systems; the Horrible Histories series (very amusing) and newspaper/newsfeed headlines for plot twists, turns; war histories for tactical combat situations, I recall referring to governmental weather websites for information on how geology affects weather so that my weather systems for various planets could pass a spot check; astrology for ideas on non-repetitive naming systems for months and years; astronomy texts for ideas on how to build and configure solar systems; star indexes for ideas on how local star maps would appear, biology texts for ideas on building flora and fauna; historical fashion and various design books for ideas on clothing and jewelry of various cultures, more history for timelines… the list goes on.
A world-builder is really the modern Renaissance Being, ideally needing a breadth of education that would rival a Master’s degree.
3. Can you give some examples of terrible world-building?
I had to think a fairly long time on this one.
First, establishing world, setting, and/or character premises, and then later contradicting them in a fashion which is not a plot/character reveal, not an intended mystery, and is not ever re-premised. I can think of a certain RPG which is notorious for this sort of thing. (Despite its flaws, I found it fun to play.) Also, blatantly ignoring implied or stated premises is not a sound building strategy. Some may recall the Dragon-in-a-Dungeon Paradox - giant monster in a big dungeon room with no appropriately sized doors or hallways for the monster to get out, no abilities that allow it to somehow get out, no food or water source, and no waste outlet. Using “MAGIC!” as the hand-wave explanation is not (usually, but see reveal and mystery above) a good building strategy either.
Second, using one's world as a presentation of one's beliefs, ideologies, philosophies, why those seem better, and so forth is fine, but using it as a ban-hammer over and over is not. I can think of one author that presents a specific religious ideology as being the only correct universal way in most of their stories, and handles it quite well, making for a very enjoyable read despite my differences with some of the ideological points presented; I can think of another author that ban-hammered their particular ideology so frequently and so offensively throughout all their works, that despite thinking that they had a valid point, and trying to pick them back up multiple times, reading that author become an ever increasingly painful exercise in torture. I no longer read anything that author writes - I figure giving them as many chances as I did was a pretty good effort on my part, and justifies my declining to further read their offerings. (By contrast, I still pick up pretty much anything new I find by the first author.)
Third, the Tucker’s Kobolds’ College of Dungeoneering for Ignorant Monsters always has room for admissions. For those who may not be familiar with Tucker’s Kobolds, I heartily recommend an acquaintance with the
full story. In short, they are the epitome of the concept “it’s the little things, used well, that count”. (Puns intended.) The full story should also be mandatory reading for all aspiring world-builders.
I hope that you’ve found my thoughts and answers useful. If I was unclear or managed to raise more questions than answers, please feel free to ask away.