World Building Resources?

[Mulsiphix]

I have just learned that Gygaxian Fantasy is no longer available via PDF. I considered these to be amongst the most complete set of books on the subject of world building (1400 to 1500 pages across 7 books). I doubt I will ever be able to acquire these so I'm now wondering what other tomes might exist on the subject of world building. What other kinds of products are out there? Any world builders out there?



For Reference: Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds
1. Gygaxian Fantasy Vol I: The Canting Crew
2. Gygaxian Fantasy Vol II: World Builder
3. Gygaxian Fantasy Vol III: Living Fantasy
4. Gygaxian Fantasy Vol IV: Extraordinary Book of Names
5. Gygaxian Fantasy Vol V: Insidiae
6. Gygaxian Fantasy Vol VI: Nation Builder
7. Gygaxian Fantasy Vol VII: Cosmos Builder

 

[Hand of Evil]

Okay, first see the DM Advice link in my sig. Now for some other links:

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions

 

[Jhaelen]

I quite liked the following: ARIA Worldbuilding.

 

[knightofround]

For core world building, I'd *highly* recommend TSR's 2nd edition "World Builder's Guidebook". It is the only pre-3E book I still use the crap out of today. I'd recommend getting it new off of amazon instead of getting it used, because the book-specific graph paper is invaluable.

On the other hand, for nation building, I definitely recommend One Bad Egg's "Hard Boiled Ideas: Culture" and "Hard Boiled Ideas: Armies". Those are the only two places where the World Builder's Guidebook is lacking.

 

[Argyle King]

Even if you don't play the system, GURPS Religions is an awesome resource which details how various types of religions and belief systems evolve. It's for 3rd Edition too, so it's fairly cheap. I think I bought my copy for somewhere around 10 dollars. I highly recommend it as a resource for anyone who wants to put some thought into the cultures of their game world. Most of the book is fluff which is great because it's mostly a system independent book due to the lack of game rules involved in the product.

GURPS Religion



This article is a good place to help you brainstorm: Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions



plenty of stuff here: World Builder Projects



edit: I will also add that one of the best tools for World Building is an Atlas. Most of them have a section at the front of the book which talks about why terrain forms the way it does, and what sort of impact terrain can have on things like weather. It's great information for getting a good idea about how to create believable land masses. Even if you don't want to get that in depth, sometimes it helps to stimulate the brain just to look at maps of how Earth is arranged; an easy trick is to just flip a map of the Earth upside-down or move some of the continents around to different places. Even the basic information about Earth can be helpful; such as how big the Earth is and things of that nature.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Does anyone know why the Gygax Worldbuilding books are no longer available as PDF's?

Olaf the Stout

 

[DMH]

Does anyone know why the Gygax Worldbuilding books are no longer available as PDF's?

Gary's wife pulled the plug.

I second Worldbuilder's Guidebook and Aria, though I do warn that Aria is difficult for many people to read (it is the most pretentious rpg I have read and I own Sorcerer).

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Gary's wife pulled the plug.

Any reason given as to why? It seems odd to turn down free money.

Olaf the Stout

 

[arthurhoneyhill]

Wow, these links are great. Thanks guys! (even though I'm not OP)

 

[Connorsrpg]

Gotta back up the call of 2E dnd 'World-Builder's Guide'. Love that book.

If going for smaller areas, I have developed a complete realms development doc (well several actually) that references several charts from the above book (or expands them)...as well as several random charts from AEG's 'Ultimate Toolkit'.

(Started as 3E where realms were created like PCs and played, but is now just a bunch of charts to provide flavour and bg for DM - used for anything from an organisation, goblin tribe, to forest, town or empire).

Anyway, I digress. For smaller areas ray Winniger's 'Dungeoncraft' articles were excellent and often cited. I think I have the PDFs somewhere.

I simply love putting stuff together randomly