The Art of World Building: Creating Breakout Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds In Stories and Gaming

In every episode of The Art of World Building podcast, host Randy Ellefson discusses how authors, screenwriters, game designers, gamers, and hobbyists can do world building better, faster, and have more fun doing it. Popular topics include creating gods, species, animals, plants, races, monsters, undead, continents, settlements, kingdoms, star systems, time, history, cultures, magic systems, religions, the supernatural, naming everything, and travel estimates for land, sea, and space.

EP 33: World Building Strategies

The podcast presents approaches to world building, how to organize files and folders, ideas on partnering with others, and more. 

10-20
38:40

EP 32: Other Systems

Explore how to create other systems, including legal, health, IT, education, and more.             

10-06
45:56

EP 31.2: Magic Systems

Explore how to create magic systems, including a brief look at types of magic (brief), the principles of creating a good systems, creating limits, how to invent spells, and more.

09-22
38:32

EP 31.1: Magic Systems

Explore how to create magic systems, including whether we need to create them, sources of magic, whether spells are needed, a look at the life of wizards, and more.

09-08
33:55

EP 30: Creating Items

Explore how to create items. This includes regular ones, supernatural ones, and technological elements, like an AI, and more.

08-25
36:46

EP 29: Creating the Supernatural

Explore how to create the supernatural. This includes supernatural energy, magic paths, alternate realities, supernatural beings, and more

08-11
19:55

EP 28: Creating Languages

Explore how to create languages, including whether we should, what’s involved, how to hire someone, and more.

07-28
28:34

EP 27.4: Creating Culture

Explore how to create cultures, including rituals, pastimes, daily life considerations, and more.

07-14
33:53

EP 27.3: Creating Culture

Explore how to create cultures, including greetings, farewells, language issues, and more.

06-30
26:59

EP 27.2: Creating Culture

Explore how to create cultures, including how the body is part of culture, from clothing to hairstyles, body modifications, and more.

06-16
32:40

EP 27.1: Creating Culture

Explore how to create cultures, including defining what culture is and is not, how to develop a cultural vision, and the types of cultural depictions we’ll likely need.

06-02
32:21

EP 26: Creating Religions

Explore how to create religions, including its all important history, beliefs, worship practices, and traits of those who belong to a religion.

05-19
27:00

EP 25: Creating Armed Forces

Explore how to create armed forces like the army, navy, and air force. This includes how to become a member of one, their ranks, and how they’re viewed by society.

05-05
33:32

EP 24: Creating Organizations

Explore how to create organizations. This includes forces for good and evil, what they have in common, and how someone joins or get expelled.

04-21
30:12

EP 23: Creating Names

Explore how to create fantasy and science fiction names using easy techniques that make it fun and uniquely yours.

04-07
28:47

EP 22: Assign Senses to Your Species

Explore how to create your species' senses, from the five basics to other real senses humans and animals have, to sixth senses (second sight).

01-08
33:33

EP 21: How to Draw Maps

Explore how to create maps like continents, settlements, and dungeon maps, and learn whether you should create any of this and why.

11-20
37:20

EP 20: Places of Interest

Explore how to create places of interest, including catacombs, interstellar sites, ruins, monuments, and more. Learn how easy these are to create and how they can improve interest in your setting and story.

11-06
27:50

EP 19: Time and History

Explore how to create time and history, including why we should usually keep timekeeping like minutes, hours, weeks, and more similar to Earth, and how to create historical events.

10-23
27:27

EP 18: Travel in Space

Learn about travel in space. This includes the different types of engines, what to include inside a ship, and why we have a lot of freedom to decide how long it really takes to get anywhere.

10-09
27:42

Reign

Thank you for great advices! Your podcast is really helpful.

10-25 Reply

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