fantasy

Lets Build a World with AD&D 2ed World Builder’s Guidebook: Part One

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Amongst my many flaws is that I’m a gamer.  One of the old school style.  As in pen and paper RPG gamer.

I’ve played many different systems over the years – and own even more.

One of my favourite was AD&D 2ed.  Yes, the one with THAC0.  I much preferred it to 3ed, but more of that on another day.  AD&D 2ed had one of my favourite world settings of all time, that being Dark Sun.  Again, something that I will discuss in more detail at another time.

Among the many accessories that were released for 2ed was the World Builder’s Guidebook.  Pretty much anyone who has DMed an RPG has thought about designing their own world and setting at some stage, and this book was designed to help that.

World_Builder's_Guidebook

My copy of it has seen so much use over the years that it has become rather worn.  One of these days I am going to have to get a replacement that is in a little bit better condition.

The book goes through a step by step approach as to how to build a world, starting at the top and working down, or starting at the bottom and working up.  Or either starting in the middle and working in either direction.  There is no right or wrong way to do it – the book simply provides the tools for you to do what you want.

It is also crammed full of many handy charts that you can roll on to generator all manner of information for the world, for anything from cultures and religions, to racial make up of the world and even the type of world and the cosmology it inhabits.

The book is split into six main chapters.

Chapter One deals with approaches to designing your world – and the all important world hooks that make it up.  Are you designing from a character driven approach, a sociological approach, a macroscopic or microscopic approach or even a mix of then and others.

Chapter Two covers the Worlds and Planetology – designing the whole world, its size and shape, hydrography, tectonics, climatology and basic look.

Chapter Three covers Continents and Geography.  Starting with a continental sized region of the world, you fill in its landforms, its climate and weather, terrain, waterways, and where the main races of the region live.

Chapter Four is Kingdoms and Sociologies.  Starting with a single kingdom or region, you work out who the inhabitants are and their culture, their government and technology, the physical cartography of the region, such as cities and towns and roads, its population and resources and settlement patterns.

Chapter Five is Cities and Provinces.  There you start with a single city or major population centre, and its surrounding region, more details on its cartography, the populations and services available, and the monsters and ecology of the region, as well as any sites of interests for adventures.

Chapter Six is History and Mythology.  Here you can design the pantheons of the setting, the cosmology the world inhabits and the history of the world.  it isn’t quite to Dwarf Fortress level, but it is good for a starting point.

You can jump in at any of these chapters and design a world.

And that is what we are going to do over the coming weeks and months (though hopefully not years.)

In Part Two we deal with World Hooks.

What I Write – Nobledark

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So what do I write?

It is a mix of things, of fantasy and urban fantasy, a little bit of sci fi, and others along those lines and sub-genres of them. Some short stories, some novels, some webfiction.

Also some RPG related material.

Well, there will be when it gets finished.

There are a few projects that have been started, and more with notes and ideas that have been made.

In style, it is what I would call nobledark.

If you haven’t heard of that name before, it may not be surprising, as it is fairly recent.

It all grew out of the grimdark descriptor, the origins of which comes from Warhammer 40K, and its tagline – ‘In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.’

As one can imagine, it was not a pleasant setting.

But some people began to wonder what the polar opposite of WH40K would look like, a noblebright version of it as it was called.

And that in turn spawned a spectrum made of two axis – the noble/grim axis and the dark/bright axis.  The gave us four descriptors – grimdark, nobledark, grimbright and noblebright.

The Noble/Grim Axis

The noble/grim axis describes how much agency characters have upon the world and how much they can change it.  This refers not just to heroes, but villains as well.

A noble world is one where the actions of a single person can change it, for good or for woe.  A hero can save the world or a villain may destroy it.

A grim world is one where, no matter what you do, you have little to no impact upon it.  The world keeps right on going, ignoring your efforts.

The Dark/Bright Axis

The dark/bright axis describes the state of the world, the tone of it.

A dark world is a horrible place of misery and death, of schemes and backstabbing and often a big bad lurking in the wings waiting to wipe out all life.

A bright world isn’t one where bad things and death don’t happen, but it is one where people go adventuring for the thrill of it, to see the Crystal Caves, to explore the Elven Forests, to visit the Dwarven Holds, to see the wonders of the world.

Putting it all together

By combining the two axis, you come p with the four types of settings.

Grimdark worlds are places of death, destruction, despair and misery that will never change, no matter what anyone does or tries.  The universe will just chew you up and spit you out and roll on without noticing.  Warhammer 40K is the perfect example of it, though not the only one.  Game of Thrones is often considered to be it as well.

Nobledark takes place in worlds that, while a nasty and brutish place at times, there is a glimmer of hope, where people can make a difference, to make the world a better (or worse) place, but it takes much blood, sweat and tears, not to mention sacrifice, to do so.  If they fail then the world falls.  The Lord of the Rings is actually a good example of this.  If Frodo fails in his quest, then Sauron takes over the world and brings in an age of darkness.  As does the work of one of my favourite authors, David Gemmell.

Grimbright world are an interesting, and rare ones, where there are amazing vistas and people to see and meet but that your action have no impact on the world.  The best example of this would be Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.  

And lastly, Noblebright, worlds of wonder and high adventure, where heroes abound and perform great deeds, where good triumphs over evil.  Think Star Trek, Narnia, the Belgariad and the like.

So my work falls into the nobledark side of thing.  Hard worlds to live in, harder to change, but it can be done.

At least, that is the way I see things.  Others may have slightly different views on how to categorise things or the descriptions of the various categories.

A Beginning….

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Welcome to my corner of the world.  Or worlds as it may be.

I am a reader, a writer, a gamer, a geek and more.

What do I write?

Mostly along the fantasy/sci fi lines, and mostly ones that touch on the darker and more macabre side without being totally grimdark.  More along the lines of nobledark.

In coming days and weeks and years I plan to start sharing some of it.  Or inflicting it on the unsuspecting depending on your point of view.

When I am not writing or reading, I tend to be gaming, of a wide variety of sorts.  Expect to see plenty of that mentioned and posted about on the blog as well.  I enjoy poking around with many different systems, to see how they work, to explore their mechanics and more.  Given I have more systems than I can play, and indeed, many that I have never played, I plan on exploring some of them, making sample characters and maybe even showing them off a bit on here.