World building resources

[Portland Barbie]

It seems that with the advent of the d20 OGL, there was a flood of sourcebooks geared towards world building. While many of them are geared specifically towards the d20 system, there are those that were designed, or are at least loose enough, to be used for any FRPG system. I'm curious as to what specific books you guys use when designing new settings, and what you find useful about them.

 

My own "go-to" list includes:

Gary Gygax's Living Fantasy (Troll Lord Games) - a very in-depth look at how the many aspects of a world/culture fit together, although it tends to have a very High Fantasy approach to everything.

 

Gary Gygax's World Builder (Troll Lord Games) - lists and many descriptions on archaic terms, measurements, equipment, and titles

 

Gary Gygax's Insidiae (Troll Lord Games) - Many helpful ideas and guidelines on adventure design

 

Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names (Troll Lord Games) - Nothing but list after list of names, organized by the real-world cultures they were culled from, including surnames, fantasy names, and "otherworldly" names.

 

World Builder's Guidebook (TSR) - My "bible" when it comes to maps, this addresses everything from plate tectonics, water and wind currents to settlement patterns, with enough detail to make a very believable map, with many different approaches, from "top-down" to "local area outward". Note: while part of the TSR product line, it does not reference too many AD&D 2nd rules, and those are mainly in regards to the cosmology design section, and easily ignored/adapted.

 

Vornheim () - full of much useless info, but does contain many ideas and helpful guides when it comes to city design, especially those "giant decadent metropoli"

 

Cities of Mystery (TSR) - another extremely useful source of city/region design. High Fantasy in concept, but many of the more mundane aspects can be used to any setting with decent sized cities. Note: this was part of the Forgotten Realms product line, but really doesn't reference that setting at all.

[tkdguy]

Re: World building resources

 

A Magic Society: Ecology and Culture by Expedition Retreat Press

 

This book talks about building game worlds from scratch, from creating maps to detailing cultures. It's listed as a d20 product, but is mostly generic with respect to game systems.

[Barwickian]

Re: World building resources

 

Shall I plug my medieval farming calendar again in yet another bit of shameless self-aggrandisment? I shall.

 

This'll tell you what's happening when (and sometimes why) in a north-western European setting with High Medieval agrarian technology. Value diminishes as you move geographic region or technology (no early modern watermeadows or breaj crops, for instance, nor viniculture, olive-growing, transhumance or irrigation).

 

www.penultimateharn.com/history/medievalfarmingyear.html

 

My medieval history page contains some authentic farming treatises and a couple of other goodies.

 

www.penultimateharn.com/history.html

[gojira]

Re: World building resources

 

Then there's just doing a Google search for "medieval demographics".

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=medieval+demographics

 

But a lot of research for gaming comes from fiction books, frankly. It's more often that folks want to play as Conan, or Galadriel, or Elric of Melnibone, or The Grey Mouser, or Gyro Gearloose rather than a historically accurate character medieval world. Most stuff about weather and plate tectonics and crops I can just make up. If there's too much detail about those latter things in your game, you may be doing it wrong.

[tkdguy]

Re: World building resources

 

Shall I plug my medieval farming calendar again in yet another bit of shameless self-aggrandisment? I shall.

 

This'll tell you what's happening when (and sometimes why) in a north-western European setting with High Medieval agrarian technology. Value diminishes as you move geographic region or technology (no early modern watermeadows or breaj crops, for instance, nor viniculture, olive-growing, transhumance or irrigation).

 

www.penultimateharn.com/history/medievalfarmingyear.html

 

My medieval history page contains some authentic farming treatises and a couple of other goodies.

 

www.penultimateharn.com/history.html

 

I have bookmarked your works, and I will use them for my campaign. Thanks for sharing!

[Barwickian]

Re: World building resources

 

But a lot of research for gaming comes from fiction books' date=' frankly. It's more often that folks want to play as Conan, or Galadriel, or Elric of Melnibone, or The Grey Mouser, or Gyro Gearloose rather than a historically accurate character medieval world. Most stuff about weather and plate tectonics and crops I can just make up. If there's too much detail about those latter things in your game, you may be doing it wrong.[/quote']

 

That's true and perfectly valid; I enjoy such games immensely - the game's the thing.

 

But some people like the verisimilitude that comes with solid research. I wrote the farming calendar after several occasions when players asked me what the peasants were doing when they rode into the village and I didn't know. At that time I was surveying deserted medieval villages at the weekends and the odd abbey at the weekends, and my players expected me to come up with something a little more than "uh, working in the fields".

 

This kind of stuff has never played in the foreground of my games, but it does make for a good background.

[Portland Barbie]

Re: World building resources

 

But some people like the verisimilitude that comes with solid research. . . This kind of stuff has never played in the foreground of my games' date=' but it does make for a good background.[/quote']

 

Exactly, I'm not talking about rules on how and when to determine if there's an earthquake, or anything to that extent. The Worldbuilder's Guidebook only discusses plate tectonics as they apply to geographical features, allowing you to build a world that is more "believable" geographically. But, like most sourcebooks, you don't have to use them if you don't want. I was simply mentioning a source for those who wanted a bit of knowledge without having to take some college course on geography.

[tkdguy]

Re: World building resources

 

I like a fair amount of realistic detail in my games as well. They don't play a major part of the game, but these little details go a long way in putting in some flavor in the campaign.

[Portland Barbie]

Re: World building resources

 

I like a fair amount of realistic detail in my games as well.

 

I think it's a necessity, to be honest, and doesn't just add to the flavor, but helps with the immersion into the setting. The more the world seems believable, the more the players can place themselves in it. And this goes for not following real-world guidelines as well, since knowing what isn't typical, and coming up with a reason for why it exists works just as well as simply following the "standards."