How would you like to create the next Forgotten Realms, or Glorantha? To design a world as rich, fascinating and enduring as Narnia, Middle-Earth, Nehwon or Barsoom?
Building a world doesn’t require supernatural power. The designers and authors who created those famous settings did so through imagination, careful thought and planning. The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding brings together eleven of adventure gaming’s top designers to share their insights and expertise.
Wolfgang Baur, Keith Baker, Monte Cook, David “Zeb” Cook, Jeff Grubb, Scott Hungerford, Chris Pramas, Jonathan Roberts, Michael A. Stackpole and Steve Winter reveal the secrets of designing a pantheon, creating a setting that provokes conflict, determining which historical details are necessary, and so much more. Get a deeper appreciation of how your favorite settings work, or take that creative leap and create dazzling worlds of your own.
Full table of contents after the jump:
- What is Setting Design? – Wolfgang Baur
- Different Kinds of Worldbuilding – Monte Cook
- Worldbuilding Inside Out and Outside In – Chris Pramas
- How Real is Your World? On History and Setting – Wolfgang Baur
- Bringing History to Life – Keith Baker
- Apocalypso: Gaming After the Fall – Jeff Grubb
- Here Be Dragons: On Mapmaking – Jonathan Roberts
- How to Design a City State, Tribe, or Nation – Wolfgang Baur
- They Do What, Now? On Creating Societies and Cultures – Michael A. Stackpole
- How to Make a High-Magic World- Keith Baker
- Worlds and Technology – Wolfgang Baur
- Why No Monotheism? – Steve Winter
- Designing a Pantheon – Wolfgang Baur
- It’s a Mystery! Designing Mystery Cults – David “Zeb” Cook
- How to Design a Guild – Wolfgang Baur
- How to Write a World Bible – Scott Hungerford
- Playing in Someone Else’s Backyard – Janna Silverstein
- The Limits of Design: Kitchen Sink Design – Wolfgang Baur
Get The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding at the Kobold Store! (Or in PDF at DriveThru or at the Paizo Store.)
Our other best-selling guides to game design:
- Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design (Print+PDF)
- Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design (PDF only)
- Kobold Guide to Board Game Design (Print+PDF)
- Kobold Guide to Board Game Design (PDF only)
Is this book available in its entirety in PDF as well? (or will it be?)
PS. I am halfway through Kobold guide to game design: A truly compelling read.
Hi Frank, it’s available in PDF format at DriveThru. I updated the post with a link.
Thanks Wade! Much appreciated.
This is great. Thanks for another tool in my GM toolbox.
Sweet! Will there be an ePub release?