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Kobold Press

Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding

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Description

The Essential Elements for Building a WorldRoleplaying games and fantasy fiction are filled with rich and fascinating worlds: the Forgotten Realms, Glorantha, Narnia, R'lyeh, Middle-Earth, Barsoom, and so many more. It took startling leaps of imagination as well as careful thought and planning to create places like these: places that readers and players want to come back to again and again. Now, eleven of adventure gaming's top designers come together to share their insights into building worlds that gamers will never forget. Learn the secrets of designing a pantheon, creating a setting that provokes conflict, determining which historical details are necessary, and so much more. Take that creative leap, and create dazzling worlds of your own! Essays by Wolfgang Baur, Keith Baker, Monte Cook, Jeff Grubb, Scott Hungerford, David "Zeb" Cook, Chris Pramas, Jonathan Roberts, Michael A. Stackpole, Steve Winter, with an introduction by Ken Scholes. NOMINATED FOR TWO ENNIE AWARDS: Best Writing and Best RPG-Related BookPraise for Prior Kobold Design Guides"Highly recommended for gaming nerds everywhere." --CityBookReview.com "If you're an aspiring pro this book is a must. If you're a rules hacker like me, this stuff is solid gold." --Berin Kinsman, UncleBear Media "A fantastic collection ... A solid 5 star rating." --Joshua Guillion,"An amazing collection ... from some of the best designers and writers creating role-playing game material today." --Brian Fitzpatrick, BlogCritics.org Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Design LLC


Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 23, 2012


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 124 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1936781115


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 19


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.28 x 9 inches


Part of series ‏ : ‎ Kobold Guides


Best Sellers Rank: #635,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #391 in Puzzle & Game Reference (Books)


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • A lot of generalities, a lot of text, but still some info
I would have rated it higher 30-40 years ago (if it had existed then). Back then, before there was a World Wide Web and while I was a newish GM, I would have consumed it eagerly as it showed me things I hadn't considered or didn't understand well. Now, you can find broader or deeper discussions of these same topics online, and other world-building topics as well. You can look at various RPG systems for different approaches to world-building. If there's a target audience now, it's inexperienced world builders who'd like having these essays in one package instead of having to search for these topics separately. The essays mostly engage in generalities and conceptual discussions. The only step-by-step procedure is the chapter "Here Be Dragons: On Mapmaking," which walks you through some general steps for laying down terrain, weather patterns, realms, and so on, at a relatively high level. If you're expecting a "guide to worldbuilding" to have tables where you can roll up governments, cultures, religions, factions, guilds, etc., you'll be sorely disappointed. These are all essay questions, not multiple-choice. The essays often give you anecdotes about the authors' experiences or designer notes on their published works. That might be a plus for some, but for me it's just extraneous material. It's not why I bought the book. There's no integration between essays such that your "output" from one essay is your direct input to another. Off the top of my head, I recall only one essay even mentioning another. One author wrote seven of the 18 essays. Ten authors wrote the other eleven. That's a plus if you want different vantage points, or a minus if you were hoping for an integrated approach to world-building. Unfortunately, I don't think I found anything new (to me) about world-building in these essays. It's all stuff I've found elsewhere. The material I've found elsewhere was of more practical use to me as well. If you're new at this world-building thing and you're trying to wrap your head around it all, these essays could prove helpful to you. However, if you've been at it a while, or if you're diligent about searching the topic online, I'd say this isn't the book for you. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2019 by ITguy
    • Good, practical book for both the authors of books and games as well as across the spectrum of game masters
This is a very well written book from an ensemble of who's who in US role-playing over the last twenty years. The book has nineteen chapters (including the intro), and each takes a slightly different look at the broad topic of world building. There are two clear audiences for the book, and it acknowledges and services the needs of each. First, there are the fantasy and science fiction (mostly fantasy) writers who are looking to create immersive worlds for their readers and computer gamers. The second category is game masters who are either servicing the needs of their own gaming groups, or aspiring game masters who are hoping to write or improve the material they write for consumption by gaming groups in the broader community. Mileage will vary from chapter to chapter, and the layout of the book is both logical and useful. The first chapter by Monte Cook talks through the various types of world builders and how each type has different needs. Good start! The inside out versus outside in approach is a restatement of the "bottom-up versus top-down" approaches to world building, and then the chapter on "how real" to make your worlds is a direct application of the Stafford Principle of world design. The provenance for the chapters is well defined and solid. This is not a book that you should feel compelled to read cover to cover. This is more like a buffet where you nibble at what is interesting to you at the time, and you might be interested in a different chapter or chapters the next time you come back to the book. All in all, this is a very good, practical book for both authors of books and games as well as across the spectrum of game masters. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2018 by Reasonable Reviewer
    • Solid guidance that covers a lot of ground
I really enjoyed this book. Experienced GMs and designers will of course recognize many tips they already apply, but there's something for everyone here. I switched back & forth between book and audiobook, and while listening to the audiobook I had to skip back often because the topics discussed would send my mind wandering into game design mode. The book is more a collection of essays by a group of select designers, and less of a cohesive whole. It's well edited and there are essays that provide callout to others. Just don't expect a conductive thread from beginning to end. You can easily listen to the chapters relevant to what you're looking for, but I myself enjoyed it from beginning to end. Some essays can be a bit light on content, but that's relative on your expectations. Some chapters definitely could be expanded into an entire book, and I'd read it. The book is very focused on fantasy settings and while the advice presented here can be used anywhere, you won't find many relevant examples if you're a sci-fi designer. Another odd note: the audiobook is missing a chapter on "Technology and Magic" by Wolfgang Baur. It's otherwise completely unabridged. The audiobook is well read and the narration is friendly and approachable. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2021 by Nickolas Landry
    • Useful
A wide range of articles from people that have experience in the process and how they themselves handled it. I liked the fact that several of the articles are contradictory, showing that there are different approaches and styles to the worldbuilding process, depending on the intended goal of what you are going to use it for in the long run, There are some subjects I wish were covered a bit more in depth, but may have been too esoteric or needing a wider range of expertise than was available (such as calendar design, language design magic systems) but there are other books that do cover some of these as well as videos from the Kobold series and from other internet sources. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2017 by Kindle Customer

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