Best fantasy world creation supplement

[Mercurius]

I can think of only two:

A Magical Society: Ecology & Culture by Expeditious Retreat Press
World Builder's Guidebook by TSR (AD&D 2ed)

Anything else? What has been the most useful to you? And why didn't Wizards release a comprehensive world creation supplement for 3ed? (Or did they?).

 

[Jorunkun]

To me, the World Builder's Guidebook that TSR put out in the mid 90s still stands alone as the most comprehensive and fun to read title on the subject. It really works with any edition of D&D which is probably why WotC didn't release a new installment.

There's also a few pertinent chapters in the 2nd ed "Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide" and the "Creative Campaigning" book from the same series.

A newer title from a 3rd party publisher I like is "Toolbox" by AEG, a collection of tables on just about any aspect of a campaign world you might want to roll or look up.

And then there's Ray Winninger's misleadingly titled "Dungeoncraft" series of articles from "Dragon" on campaign design, which is also excellent and, best of all, available for free here.

I wish there was more material on homebrewing and campaign design out, but I guess it's kind of counterproductive from a publisher's point of view, who want to sell their own settings.

 

[Dan Bell]

HarnManor: http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/zoom.cfg?product_id=4751 Rules, info & economics on how to create a realistic fantasy medieval village.

 

[jdrakeh]

HarnManor: http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/zoom.cfg?product_id=4751 Rules, info & economics on how to create a realistic fantasy medieval village.

This is definitely next on my 'Must Buy' list, along with Tashal. After that, I think that I'll have all of the official CGI Kaldor stuff (although I suppose that Manors isn't Kaldor specific so much as it is a general, all around, fief-building resource).

 

[jdrakeh]

A newer title from a 3rd party publisher I like is "Toolbox" by AEG, a collection of tables on just about any aspect of a campaign world you might want to roll or look up.

I just wanted to second this recommendation. I'm not typically big on books of random charts but it's because most such products are crap in terms of utility, presentation, or value (and, often, all three). While "Toolbox" takes much the same tack as most other random charts and tables books, it seems that great pains were taken by the editors to eliminate tables dedicated to useless things such as '100 Ways to Say X in Overly Flowery Language' (such tables are freely availble via the magic of Google) and, instead, provide tables of things that might actually be worth the cover price (pages full of quick NPC stats being a great example).

 

[SPoD]

It's not a complete resource, but OOTS creator Rich Burlew posted a series of articles on his site when it was new about developing a campaign world. Scroll to the bottom of this page and check out the nine articles titled, "The New World".

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

GURPS Fantasy is very good for this. It's not d20, but most of the book is rules-less, and easily adaptable to any system.

 

[DMH]

Troll Lord has several books and the one I suggest the most is Nation Builder. Unlike Living Fantasy and EGG's World Builder, it is much more than lists. Theories and examples abound on how to create nations.

But as for the best for any rpg, if you don't mind headaches, Aria. Yes, it is difficult to read, but there is so much good information in both books on how to create worlds, I consider it one of my best resources.

 

[Turjan]

Troll Lord has several books and the one I suggest the most is Nation Builder.

I guess I'm not the right target for books like this, but I always ask myself "Who doesn't know this stuff?" when I look at titles like that one. I have it (it came as a freebie with some other stuff), but didn't find it useful.

A newer title from a 3rd party publisher I like is "Toolbox" by AEG, a collection of tables on just about any aspect of a campaign world you might want to roll or look up.

Here I wholeheartedly agree. A very useful book. Just looking through it is good for inspiration.

FFG also produced some more specific "world-building" supplements, and I especially recommend "Portals & Planes" if it comes to a ride through the otherworlds.

 

[Dan Bell]

This is definitely next on my 'Must Buy' list, along with Tashal. After that, I think that I'll have all of the official CGI Kaldor stuff (although I suppose that Manors isn't Kaldor specific so much as it is a general, all around, fief-building resource).

I found it to be useful with almost any sudo-fantasy type setting. I used HarnManor in three D&D games (1 set in FR, 1 a Birthright game, 1 a generic homebrew). Harnmanor does include 4 sample offical manors for Harn that can be also used in other settings. One of these manors is set in Kaldor.