What are your thoughts on system-less worldbuilding/setting books?

[Lanefan]

I say again: none of these are worldbuilding books. They're pre-made setting books.

As such, they have little to offer on how to build your own other than their one finished example. You get to see the end result but you don't really get to see how it got there.

What I'd like to see are books that give tips and pointers and multiple system-agnostic examples on how to build your own world/setting from scratch to finished product. Are there any out there?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have always liked the Citybook Series published by Flying Buffalo.
Different businesses you can drop into your own cities if you need something and fairly easy to modify.

Flying Buffalo is obviously very happy to be extremely low key at this point (I get the idea that it's a one man operation and said man is elderly at this point), but the Citybook Series is one that really cries out to be dusted off, given an updated art and design pass (and maybe a sensitivity read -- I don't recall anything, but it was very much a late 1970s/early 1980s series of books) and brought back into the mainstream conversation, especially with how much more popular urban adventuring is now.

This would be a great brand for Goodman Games to acquire, given that they've already done some stuff with Grimtooth's Traps.

EDIT: Holy crap, they updated their early 1990s website finally! Now it's an early 2000s website!

EDIT 2: OK, said elderly founder, Rick Loomis, died in 2019. That explains a lot.

 

[Voadam]

I say again: none of these are worldbuilding books. They're pre-made setting books.

As such, they have little to offer on how to build your own other than their one finished example. You get to see the end result but you don't really get to see how it got there.

Which is fine. The thread is about "system-less worldbuilding/setting books" so a number of people are talking about the system-less setting books that interest them.

What I'd like to see are books that give tips and pointers and multiple system-agnostic examples on how to build your own world/setting from scratch to finished product. Are there any out there?

There are a number of worldbuilding books out there that are systemless.

I believe Kobold, Expeditious Retreat Press, Troll Lords (Gygax's from the d20 era to the extent they were systemless) and others have put out a number, as well as there being some non-RPG books on advice for building fantasy worlds for novels and such. I think TSR had some advice type books about making D&D campaign worlds that might or might not have been rule set specific.

I have no real interest in them.

Things like The Art of Magic The Gathering Innistrad though looks like it would be a great art and lorebook for use as inspiration or a setting if you are running a D&D fantasy gothic horror game.

And even from the OP the Dinotopia stuff I remember seeing in passing and they could be great.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I say again: none of these are worldbuilding books. They're pre-made setting books.

As such, they have little to offer on how to build your own other than their one finished example. You get to see the end result but you don't really get to see how it got there.

What I'd like to see are books that give tips and pointers and multiple system-agnostic examples on how to build your own world/setting from scratch to finished product. Are there any out there?

These, and they are wonderful. I used the Western Europe book to build my campaign setting. You will know more than you probably ever wanted to about how your campaign world works (and how most campaign worlds don't) after using these books.

 

[Voadam]

These, and they are wonderful. I used the Western Europe book to build my campaign setting. You will know more than you probably ever wanted to about how your campaign world works (and how most campaign worlds don't) after using these books.

When I saw the concepts I thought they would be right up my alley. Factors and thinking about conditions that magic would affect in European fantasy medieval worlds, magical ecology, fantasy spice roads, etc. I found out they are really not.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

When I saw the concepts I thought they would be right up my alley. Factors and thinking about conditions that magic would affect in European fantasy medieval worlds, magical ecology, fantasy spice roads, etc. I found out they are really not.

It is very much like saying you'd like someone with a history degree to take a look at your campaign notes and finding yourself reading their PhD thesis instead. It's very hardcore. But for the folks who want that, there's nothing else like it out there, as far as I know.

 

[aramis erak]

Flying Buffalo is obviously very happy to be extremely low key at this point (I get the idea that it's a one man operation and said man is elderly at this point), but the Citybook Series is one that really cries out to be dusted off, given an updated art and design pass (and maybe a sensitivity read -- I don't recall anything, but it was very much a late 1970s/early 1980s series of books) and brought back into the mainstream conversation, especially with how much more popular urban adventuring is now.

This would be a great brand for Goodman Games to acquire, given that they've already done some stuff with Grimtooth's Traps.

EDIT: Holy crap, they updated their early 1990s website finally! Now it's an early 2000s website!

EDIT 2: OK, said elderly founder, Rick Loomis, died in 2019. That explains a lot.

FBI was acquired in Q4 2021 by Webbed Sphere.
Monsters! Monsters! was transferred back to Ken St. Andre; Webbed Sphere retains most everything else. The contact person from Webbed Sphere seems like a real fan of T&T.

 

[delericho]

In all honesty, I don't think I'll ever make use of a systemless setting, or indeed will ever use a setting in a system other than the one it was designed for. Even using one in a different edition is looking increasingly unlikely.

World-building is different - that's largely game, system, and edition independent, so I would have no qualms using such a book.

 

[aramis erak]

It is very much like saying you'd like someone with a history degree to take a look at your campaign notes and finding yourself reading their PhD thesis instead. It's very hardcore. But for the folks who want that, there's nothing else like it out there, as far as I know.

A guy I know used his campaign notes for his senior seminar paper...
Me, I just picked something easy... Trotski and the Soviet Army...

Likewise, any good historical degree paper is going to have enough detail to be useful for historical gaming in the covered material.