The Wizard's Inkwell

3 Essential Elements for Fantasy Worldbuilding: Institutions, Nations, and Monsters

It’s time for another post on fantasy worldbuilding in both novels and pen and paper RPG games. Nothing too earth-shattering just me rambling as I always do.

In my last post, we discussed several topics and ideas most often incorporated in the fantasy worldbuilding of novels and pen and paper RPG games. As noted in that post, many of the ideas involved are shared, but many also differ in subtle, nuanced ways.

As before we will discuss three general topics subdividing each one into separate subtopics on fantasy novels and pen and paper RPG games.

Fantasy Worldbuilding and Institutions

I’m not sure if there is a precise technical definition of the term “institution” but what I mean when I use the term is, roughly, “A collection of people of indeterminate number gathered together for a common purpose.” On modern Earth the FBI and the UN would be examples of institutions.

In a fantasy setting, an institution might be a Wizards’ College, a Sages’ Library, or a Thieves Guild. That last, of course, is likely only known in the “underworld” but that’s fine. There is no reason why an institution need be officially sanctioned by a government.

Pen and Paper RPG’s

When developing an institution for a pen and paper RPG the level of detail needed is determined, to a certain extent, by the expected level of interaction the institution will have with the party of player characters.

For example, one probably wouldn’t need details of the spell capabilities of the head wizard of a Wizards’ College unless the players were going to be pitted against said college and likely come to blows. Failing such, you can probably get away with just the head wizard is powerful or a 20^th level wizard or what-have-you.

A Thieves Guild, on the other hand, would probably require details down to the most granular level. You will likely need all the stats on all the thieves.

Novels

Institutions in novels are another area where the level of detail is completely determined by the author and the story’s needs. Generally speaking, the interaction between the “party” and the institution happens at a more qualitative level instead of quantitative. You won’t need to know the Thief Lord’s stats in a novel as dice-controlled combat never comes into play.

In all likelihood, the “party’s” level of interaction with a Wizard College and a Thieves Guild would be the same: incomplete because it is controlled entirely by the needs of the story. A minor thief henchman who has no role in story need never be developed.

Fantasy Worldbuilding and Nations

In a lot of ways, fantasy worldbuilding for nations is very similar to fantasy worldbuilding for cultures (described in the previous post) as most nations are either an entire culture themselves, subdivided into a number of distinct cultures, or a part of a larger multi-national culture. The point is that, like a culture, certain geographical considerations come into play.

At a certain level, there may be a great deal of interplay between a nation being developed and the culture/s present within its confines. Each may influence the other sometimes in mundane ways, other times in a quite startling fashion.

Pen and Paper RPGs

Nations in pen and paper RPGs are usually developed only superficially just because the massive scope of such a thing makes granular development a monumental task. The worldbuilder will probably list the nation in question, describe its major cities, the races that populate it, the cultural influences, and provide a few other details.

Unless it’s a commercial product it will probably be only a handful of pages. Adventures in cities of that nation will probably be run by gamemasters who largely “wing it” using the information from worldbuilding as mere guidelines.

Novels

Again, development of a nation in a novel will be as detailed and as granular as the story requires. The worldbuilder may wind up writing fifty pages on one nation and only two on another because the characters in the story may spend a large amount of time in the first nation and merely pass through the second.

Knowing this as he or she writes the book, the author need only develop the material that he or she needs to complete the story. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Monsters

Monsters are the bread and butter of a fantasy world. No fantasy worldbuilding is complete without some effort being put into the development of a cast of monsters be they orcs or goblins, trolls or ogres, or, perhaps even, the mighty dragon.

As the fantasy genre matures, the number of monsters that worldbuilders have produced has exploded. Naturally. There are many fantasy enthusiasts these days each with their own collection of self-developed critters they like to throw at their characters.

Pen and Paper RPG

Worldbuilding for fantasy pen and paper RPGs usually involve the development of a vast number of monsters. The more, the merrier. This is because pitting different monsters with different abilities against the characters in session after session is a great way to add novelty and excitement to each gaming session.

But in an RPG the monsters must be fully developed. You can’t get away with a three sentence description because unlike most of the other aspects of the fantasy world, monsters usually require stats because encounters with them form the backbone of the game.

Novels

Developing monsters for fantasy novels is profoundly different than it is for pen and paper RPGs. This is because there are no dice in a normal novel so there is no need to create stats. The monster sheet consists of a purely literary description. It is as powerful or as weak as the author wishes it to be.

A lucky puny goblin could slay the most powerful knight if such was the author’s whim. There is another difference as well: quantity. It is, in my opinion, a bad idea to develop a large number of monsters for any single given novel, particularly if the monsters are fantastical and magical. Why? Because it might be too difficult for the reader to keep track of them if there are too many.

I would recommend limiting the population of new monsters to maybe five per novel, certainly no more than ten—unless you want your precious monsters forgotten within twenty minutes of having the book put down. This, of course, does not hold true with RPGs.

Conclusion

Well, there you go. We discussed, in brief, fantasy worldbuilding of institutions, nations, and monsters. Most of the information I gave is readily evident with a little bit of thought but I hope you derived some benefit. Until next time. Ta ta.

3 Critical Ideas for Fantasy Worldbuilding: Races, Cultures, and Religions

I wanted to post this quite some time ago, but life intervened. New job. That sort of thing. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

We were discussing the topics and ideas that are most often incorporated in the fantasy worldbuilding of novels and pen and paper RPG games. As noted in the prior post, many of the ideas are shared, but many also differ in subtle, nuanced ways.

So, let’s discuss three more critical ideas for fantasy worldbuilding.

Fantasy Worldbuilding and Races

The first thing to realize regarding race in fantasy is that it is a different concept than the one used in the modern world. You must try to “suspend” or “suppress” your modern notions of race, racism, and such when dealing with a fantasy world.

In a fantasy world, race is often closer in meaning to the term “species” we use in real life. There is a much larger difference between orcs and elves than you would find between Caucasians and Asians here on Earth. There is also a rich history of alignment differences based on race in a fantasy world that has no realistic counterpart here on Earth.

For example, orcs are usually regarded as an “evil” race in fantasy. Elves are usually “good.” Obviously, you can reverse that if you want to be creative or mix things up a bit in other ways, but categorizing Asians as “evil” and Caucasians as “good” or vice versa is hopelessly naive.

Anyway, I just want to say that it is probably silly to accuse J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth of being racist because the norm for his totally imaginary race of orcs is savagery and cruelty. And his elves are elegant and noble. However, his Haradrim might be a different story.

Pen and Paper RPG

So, what are the Pen and Paper RPG differences? I think the most notable one is the alignment issue we touched on in the preceding paragraph. Having entire races of “evil” creatures is almost a necessity in an RPG, at least in the ones I’ve played. Indeed, almost every session involves someone saying, “Let’s go kill something and take it’s stuff.”

Obviously, that is morally questionable at best, unless you can reasonably categorize the thing killed as “evil.”

No, we are not trying to discuss and ruminate upon complex political or social issues when gaming. There may be some influence, but really, I think even more than in a novel, the point of a pen and paper RPG fantasy game is pure escapism. Why ruin that by dwelling on serious cultural and political issues?

Novels

On the other hand, novels of all kinds have been used to make complex social and political points for serious discussion. The aforementioned J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” is often used as a metaphor for the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

As a result of this, the expectations for a novel are different. Indeed, novels that don’t try to make “deep” points are usually dismissed for that very reason. Similarly, the control the novelist has over the development of the story in a novel allows him/her to make metaphors and analogies with deeper meanings in a manner that is not available to a gamemaster.

Okay, that was less about race and more about political commentary in the two fantasy worldbuilding genres than I intended. Oh, well.

Fantasy Worldbuilding and Cultures

Cultures are an integral part of any world. They can be tied to a particular race, but usually, it’s more than that. Specific cultures usually revolve around specific geographic locations and even historical contexts as well as race.

The worldbuilder must set up customs, traditions, legends, and a myriad other aspects of every culture he/she designs.

Pen and Paper RPG

Cultures in Pen and Paper RPG’s are usually not as “deep” as they are in novels. That’s because, at least in my experience, the players usually only scratch the surface of a particular culture in a RPG. They might, perhaps, slide through more cultures over a certain period of time, but I think the nature of gaming is such, that there just isn’t a need for serious depth.

The gamemaster will likely have a few paragraphs outlining a culture with a few unique traditions and institutions, but when it comes down to it, RPG’s usually involve, as noted previously, a lot of “let’s kill it, and take its stuff.”

Novels

I would say a fantasy novel is a far more likely genre to develop a culture “deeply”, if that makes sense. A particular culture might dominate several chapters, or even an entire book or books. As a result, the fantasy novelist must really stretch the creative muscles in such situations. The more he/she develops the culture in question, the richer and more rewarding the reader’s experience will be.

Indeed, if well done, the reader may remember the culture described in a book years after having read said book. That is an achievement for an author: to get that kind of mindshare in another person’s brain. It is remarkable.

Fantasy Worldbuilding and Religions

The last aspect of fantasy worldbuilding we will discuss today is religion. Religions are important if for no other reason than that they are nearly ubiquitous. Religions influence both cultures and characters. They are an aspect of an individual that is responsible for the core elements of their personality and belief structure.

A dominant religion makes its influence felt throughout an entire culture. What would ancient Rome be, if Christianity had never held sway over it? History, I think, would be a much different tale.

Pen and Paper RPG’s

The first thing I think of on the topic of religion in pen and paper fantasy RPG’s is the priest or cleric class that many a player might play. They usually provide a source of healing for a party of characters. But they shouldn’t be regarded as strictly healing bots. No, their influence can be much richer.

The development of such, though, like any other character type, is dependent upon both the gamemaster and the player that plays that character. The gamemaster provides the skeleton of the priest’s personality. The player provides the flesh and skin.

Like any other character type, a well-played priest can have a powerful impact on an RPG game and make the gaming sessions that much more fun. Indeed, the influence of the player as opposed to the worldbuilding gamemaster is quite pronounced here. However, the player uses what the gamemaster has developed for race and culture as well as religion.

Novels

The difference for incorporating religion in novels is that the entirety of the development of a religion, even more so than race or culture, rests on the worldbuilder’s shoulders. The novelist does everything. There is no player to take over and flesh out diaphanous details.

This makes the task of developing a religion in a novel that much more difficult. As in the RPG, the impact of a religion can be felt in a culture or a character or even a nation. Empires have gone to war over religion. It is a powerful tool for a storyteller.

Conclusion

All right, we touched on three more worldbuilding topics in this post. Hopefully, the next post won’t be so long in coming. But until next time … ta ta!

3 Fantasy Worldbuilding Tips: Time, Place, and The Magic/Science Distinction

Okay, so you’ve decided you want to build a fantasy world. You’re just not sure where to begin. You know you need to brainstorm a few ideas and topics relevant to the world, but that’s it.

As we said in our previous post, when you are worldbuilding, all the topics and ideas involved are usually interrelated. The world is like a spiderweb of factors. So, let’s discuss a few of the basic ideas we listed in the previous post.

RPG Game vs. Novel

You probably made this decision before you even decided to worldbuild, but in case you didn’t, you must choose between worldbuilding for a fantasy RPG game or a fantasy novel.

That distinction may seem small, but it has several specific subtle consequences. Writing a fantasy novel is usually more focused in some respects, and yet broader in others. You will ask several similar questions whichever path you follow.

The most obvious distinction between the two tasks is that you usually know what you’ll need for the novel. In a game world, you have to prepare for the unexpected actions of the players.

As a result, you need a more complete world, if you wish to avoid “winging it.” For now, though, we will leave the discussion of that issue to a future post. Let’s move on to the next worldbuilding topic.

Timekeeping

How long is a year? Is time actually even measured in years? Here on Earth, some calendars use segments of time both longer than the year (the Mayan calendar) and shorter than the year (Jewish and Arabic).

For example, you could base a calendar on a year consisting of thirteen months that were 28 days long apiece. This would give you a year of 364 days in length. Pretty close to our Earth year which makes timekeeping somewhat comfortable.

Or, you could do a year of twelve months each 30 days in length. This gives a year that lasts 360 days. If you add in 5 inter-month holidays you get a 365 day year. Again very comfortable and familiar to our Western Civilization.

–Pen and Paper RPG:

In an RPG, timekeeping is usually done in the background. Characters in the game may travel from city to city, from dungeon to dungeon, or what-have-you. On a macro-temporal scale, this is rarely noted by the actual players.

Whether the journey takes five days or fifteen days isn’t too important. What matters is the encounters the characters have along the way. At least, I’ve never been in an RPG campaign where we actually tracked our ages as the time passed. I find that tedious and unnecessary.

Instead of the macro-temporal scale, the RPG focuses on the micro-temporal scale. Characters remember the battles or the clever encounters that last only a few minutes of game time but may take as long as an hour or more of real-life time. That’s the reality of the RPG structure.

–Novel

In the novel, the relationship between macro-time and micro-time is more nuanced. Most often, like the RPG, important encounters don’t occur in macro-time. Rather, macro-time advances setting, plot, tone, or character arc. Micro-time is where the results of such work become manifest.

Macro-time develops the potential; micro-time develops the actual. You’ll see subtle changes in the character from scene to scene (micro-time). You’ll feel the tension build in micro-time. Finally, the most dramatic events of the story are usually resolved in micro-time.

Physical World

Unless you are writing a really bizarre story, or creating a really bizarre game, the task of worldbuilding involves physical and geographical considerations.

First, is the universe in which this world exists like ours? Are there stars in the sky? Is the world a sphere like Earth? Or is it, as the ancients once thought, flat? Are there even stars in your universe? Or is it completely alien?

Those are some of the questions you’ll have to answer.

–Pen and Paper RPG

The importance of the structure of a physical world in the RPG setting is similar to the significance such plays in the novel. In the RPG setting, though, the structure of the world may influence or be influenced by the game mechanics of the system.

If it is a flat world, how does gravity operate? What happens when a character falls in a pit? It’s easy to take the commonplace of everyday life for granted. It can be difficult to think beyond such and build a whole world working from different assumptions.

–Novel

In the novel, the author has somewhat more freedom. In the above case with a pit, the author can come up with an answer that doesn’t influence a system of structured rules. He doesn’t have to worry about things like falling damage—except in terms of language as opposed to numbers.

He just has to work the event into the story for that one time. To some extent, he’s got to worry about consistency, but only in a more conceptual sense. He doesn’t have to incorporate numerical information at all. He doesn’t have to pore through a series of rules that may change.

He’s in control of everything. Most ideas need only be addressed qualitatively as opposed to quantitatively.

Magic, Science, or Both

Generally speaking, most fantasy endeavors involve magic in some form or other. If it does not, and instead relies exclusively on science, then it probably more properly falls in the genre of sci-fi (science fiction). So, I would assume most fantasy gamers and novelists are more interested in magic. But not always. You might use both in your world.

–Pen and Paper RPG

Using both magic and science will be very challenging whichever task you choose. The difficulty with the RPG is the game mechanics. If you need game mechanics for both science and magic, developing such will be a bear.

It can be done, but it won’t be easy. There is always a certain level of assumed science in the background of most fantasy games. A crossbow involves at least a little bit of physics even if it was designed merely by trial and error (or however). You can remove such assumptions, if you wish, but the result will likely be difficult to play in.

–Novel

Using science and magic in a novel is a little easier than in an RPG setting. This is because you focus on those aspects of each feature that you actually use and ignore the ones you don’t.

For example, if you use laser weapons, you need to know a little about the behavior of light and physics. Geology, on the other hand, you may not need at all–unless you choose to incorporate that science as well. Magic, of course, is entirely a product of your imagination.

Okay, we’ll leave it there for now. Next time, we’ll discuss a few more topics.

12 Tips and Ideas for Fantasy Worldbuilding in Novels and RPG Games

So, you want to build a fantasy world. Where do you begin?

Well, you can start by reading this blog and adding this site to your “Favorites.” This whole site is devoted to the fantasy genre.

My name is Matthew D. Ryan, fantasy author and fantasy game designer. By “game,” I mean pen and paper RPG games like “Dungeons and Dragons” or “Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.” I do not mean computer RPG games.

I’ve never designed a computer RPG game. Still, I think there would be a lot of carryover from pen and paper RPG games. I have designed, though never published, several different pen and paper RPG games.

I’ve, also, self-published several fantasy novels, novellas, and short stories. Both endeavors require considerable worldbuilding. And that brings me to the subject of this, my second blog post on this site. Fantasy worldbuilding. What is it? How do you do it? And where do you begin?

What is Fantasy Worldbuilding?

First, let’s start with “fantasy”. As far as the fantasy aspect of the discussion goes, that denotes the genre of the story. Note, I am using the term “story” to refer to games as well as novels. After all, playing an RPG is very much like participating in a story. So, keep that in mind as you read this blog.

Anyway, back to defining fantasy. Fantasy stories incorporate magic, the supernatural (or preternatural), or something, perhaps, equally bizarre. Fantasy worldbuilding is worldbuilding for such stories.

Now, let’s turn our attention to worldbuilding. If you’ve taken high school English, you’ve probably learned about “settings.” That is, the time and location in which a story takes place. In a novel, the author develops the setting; in an RPG, the gamemaster does it.

The setting is an integral part to any story. It can influence the development of the story in many ways. It can affect tone, character development, and much more. Worldbuilding is basically the art of developing a setting but on a large scale. London, England could be a setting. Planet Earth, on the other hand, is a world.

If a story embraced the bulk of the planet in its telling, that story would require worldbuilding. In other words, worldbuilding is large-scale setting development. Or, perhaps, you could define it as the unification of multiple settings into a single cohesive whole.

Earth has London, England and New York City. Both cities can serve as settings, but neither is as expansive as an entire world. If you were worldbuilding planet Earth, you might require both settings. Therefore, you would have to develop both of them. But you wouldn’t stop there. You’d, likely, develop many other settings within the larger framework of the planet.

How Do You Worldbuild?

It’s a lot of work. The task differs depending upon whether you are worldbuilding for an RPG game or for a novel. Unfortunately, I will not address that issue here, but leave it for a later post.

Whether RPG or novel, you have to develop multiple smaller-scale settings. Then, you must unify them into that single thing you call your world. Typically, the task involves developing different nations, religions, governmental systems, and such. But that’s only part of it.

You also need to make decisions on things like timekeeping, magic systems, and the physical nature of your world. You begin by brainstorming—again, something you learned about in school. You go through topic after topic and write down the various ideas that apply to your world.

It isn’t necessarily difficult work. People who want to worldbuild, generally have a lot of ideas on the matter, but it is time consuming and even tedious (I have to develop another culture?).

Where Do You Begin Worldbuilding?

There really isn’t a specific topic or idea you should start on. In fact, you don’t even have to exhaustively develop each topic or idea all at once. That is, you don’t have to follow a linear order or a series of sequential steps.

Rather, you can jump around from one aspect to the next. I would even recommend that, as a world consists of a giant web of related topics and ideas. As you add information in one aspect, it may likely cause you to make changes in another. The result is a complicated evolving web of interrelated aspects to your world. Here is an incomplete list of worldbuilding topics and ideas you’ll likely need to address:

RPG Game or Novel
Timekeeping
Physical Nature of Your World
Magic, Science, or Both
Races of Beings
Cultures
Religions
Institutions
Nations
Monsters
Influences from Earth
Moral Concerns

Okay. We’ll leave our post there for the day. Next time, we’ll start discussing the various topics and ideas in the list above. You may not need them all. But we will proceed as if you do. Until next time. Ta-ta!

Dragon head silhouette wreathed in flames.

Introduction

Greetings all! It’s me, Matthew D. Ryan, author of “Drasmyr” and the series “From the Ashes of Ruin.” Once upon a time, I had a website and a blog entitled “A Toast to Dragons.” I closed that down a while back, for a variety of reasons.

I am starting this new site and christening this blog, “A Toast to Dragons Revisited: The Art of Fantasy Worldbuilding for RPG’s and Novels.” It’s still focused on fantasy, obviously, but primarily fantasy worldbuilding … although I may throw in a few oddball posts here and there. So, without further adieu, here we go….