Essential books for world building

[jgbrowning]

best thing is to just stare a lot at real world maps. get familiar with topography and the way various parts of the world are "put together."

one thing about most published fantasy worlds is that the geography usually makes me teeth grate... but i'm just a nutjob for realistic landforms.

(not that i'm the greatest at making realistic maps, but i'm trying...)

Heh, it looks like we're going to have over 20+ pages about mapping a new world. The funny thing is that "stare a lot at real world maps" is part of our advice. Seriously. Look and learn and notice patterns. Then read about tectonics, weather, and land wasting and then look and learn again.

We've culled it down to several fairly easy steps along with much of the most important pertinant data for each section, but part of making a good map is just looking at what we've already got.

Actually, if things go as planned. I'll write the end of the mapping section tomorrow! and then Done!

joe b.

 

[Nightfall]

I'd have to also vote for Book of the Righteous as one of the best ways to make a cohesive religious thought/cosmology.

 

[Kichwas]

Every gamer should own Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. Even if not using that sort of setting.

I'm also getting good use out of Gary Gygax's Living Fantasy and FFG's Cityworks.

 

[johnsemlak]

I'm also getting good use out of Gary Gygax's Living Fantasy and FFG's Cityworks.

What does EGG's Living Fantasy cover? How does it compare with Gygax's World Builder or MMS:WE?

 

[Kweezil]

The most useful one I've found was the old World Builder's Guide from TSR (1996 or so, I think). Very good for building a world that takes into account of real-world topographics and geology, and the random generators for historical events (properly graded so there are lots of recent events, with fewer and fewer "big" events that are still remembered the further back you go), and pantheons, both of which have been essential to the making of my own world.

 

[WanderingMonster]

I'm also getting good use out of Gary Gygax's Living Fantasy and FFG's Cityworks.

I'd like to hear more about Cityworks. I read the review, but I guess I need more opinions. Cities are my downfall. I find them incredibly tedious, and I have trouble making them logical.

 

[Psion]

The book I find singularly most useful in world creation:

The 2e World Builder's Guide. Still immensely useful to this day.