Brief Summary
This video serves as a guide to world-building, tailored for fantasy authors, game masters, and creative enthusiasts. It covers essential aspects such as defining the purpose of the world, balancing scientific realism with mythology, establishing a premise and themes, map-making tips, and adhering to the three rules of wise world-building: the rule of cool, consistency, and uniqueness. The video emphasizes flexibility, immersion, and originality in creating compelling and believable worlds.
- Defining the purpose of the world for different audiences.
- Balancing scientific realism with mythology.
- Establishing a premise and themes.
- Map-making tips.
- Adhering to the three rules of wise world-building: the rule of cool, consistency, and uniqueness.
World Building Intro
The video introduces world-building as a creative endeavor applicable to fantasy authors, game masters, and anyone interested in flexing their creative muscles. The host shares his extensive experience in world-building, starting from childhood, and positions the video as a guide for those new to the hobby. He encourages viewers to like and subscribe, highlighting the channel's focus on world-building and creative storytelling.
5 Simple Topics
The video outlines five key topics to guide viewers in starting their world-building projects. These include understanding the purposes of world-building and how the world's structure varies for different audiences, balancing science and mythology, establishing a premise and theme, map-making, and adhering to the three rules of wise world-building.
Sandbox World Building
The video discusses three main reasons for creating fantasy worlds: for personal enjoyment as an imaginary sandbox, for writing a book or telling a story, and for game mastering in RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons. Sandbox world-building is described as the easiest, allowing creators to indulge their interests and fantasies. The host advises subtlety in incorporating personal fetishes and power fantasies. J.R.R. Tolkien is mentioned as a sandbox world builder who created Middle Earth to flesh out his constructed languages.
Novel & Storytelling World Building
World-building for fantasy books and novels is presented as more narrowly focused, serving the narrative by setting the scene, background, and culture. The goal is to create an understandable, unique, and immersive world that hints at depth without overwhelming the reader with unnecessary details. The video uses the analogy of a movie set, where only forward-facing facades are needed to create the illusion of a complete environment. The host warns against "worldbuilder's disease," where excessive focus on world-building hinders the actual writing of the story. The world should not overshadow the story's core elements, such as character development and conflict.
D&D and TTRPG World Building
Tabletop RPG world-building is described as complex due to the unpredictability of players. The host advises against writing a linear story and suggests creating pre-existing relationships and tools for players and antagonists. The world should be set up with various elements that players can interact with, leading to consequences that drive the story forward. The host recommends having stock ideas for towns, characters, and encounters to handle unexpected player choices and maintain the illusion of preparedness.
Scientific vs. Mythological World Building
The video addresses the debate between scientific realism and mythological narrative in world-building. It questions whether to create hyperrealistic plate tectonics or attribute geographical features to magical or divine intervention. The host prefers a balance, using scientific accuracy as a base and then adding mythological elements for coolness and appeal. The video emphasizes that personal enjoyment and audience understanding are the most important factors.
Your World's Premise & Themes
The video emphasizes the importance of establishing a premise and themes to guide world-building. Themes set the tone and provide a framework for decision-making, such as determining what a protagonist might encounter on the road between cities. Examples include a barbarian setting with warriors on giant wargs and a high epic medieval fantasy with corruption. A strong theme provides an aesthetic and logic that simplifies the creative process. The host shares his preference for worlds with infrequent high fantasy moments but harsh and gritty local-level life, filled with terrifying spirits and violent cryptids.
Warning About Mapmaking
The video warns against drawing an entire world map too early in the world-building process, as it can lead to "worldbuilder's disease." The host advises starting with one region and leaving the rest vague to maintain flexibility and allow for the incorporation of cool ideas that emerge over time. He uses the example of a project about mouse civilizations using medieval fantasy technology and human trash, which led to the creation of landfill mountains and a trade system revolving around human garbage.
Features on a Great Map
The video provides tips and tricks for creating a good-looking map, covering continental landforms, peninsulas, islands, archipelagos, and isthmuses. It advises varying coastlines, placing mountain ranges near landmass edges, and adding elevation features like plateaus and basins. For biomes, it notes the location of rainforests, deserts, and grasslands, and the importance of rivers flowing into each other rather than splitting. The video also discusses the placement of human cities based on agriculture, water sources, and defensible positions, as well as the representation of different types of human polities on maps.
Rule 1: The Rule of Cool
The video introduces the three rules of wise world-building, starting with the rule of cool. This rule emphasizes that the cooler something is, the better, and the harder it is to break immersion. Fantasy and world-building should provide an escape into fantastical worlds that explore human experiences and emotions. The host suggests starting with a cool idea and then reverse-engineering how it fits into the world's logic and premise.
Rule 2: The Rule of Consistency
The second rule of wise world-building is the rule of consistency. A world should not stray too far from its default tone and themes, as this violates audience expectations and breaks immersion. The host uses the example of a D&D campaign for young cousins where friendship and magic are central themes, and it would be inappropriate to introduce an angry mob scene. The world should have a thematic through-line of why things happen, such as morality, cause and effect, or cosmic justice.
Rule 3 The Rule of Uniqueness
The third rule is the rule of uniqueness. Having unique and original ideas is good, but derivative ideas are not bad unless they are out of place or easily recognizable, which breaks immersion. If taking an idea from somewhere else, it must be changed to fit the world's premise and consistencies. The host warns against leaving ideas unaltered to the point where the audience recognizes the source, as this makes the world builder look cheap and lazy. Stealing from real-life history is considered more acceptable than stealing from other media.
