WorldCraft Club

I think Arcane surprised everyone. Video game adaptations are seldom well received but this one exceeded all expectations and told a heartfelt story filled with interesting characters and fascinating world-building. I can count on one hand the people I know who didn't actively love this show. Let's break down what it did well, what may have missed the mark, and (most importantly) what we can learn...

Worldbuilding is a long process that can feel overwhelming when you're dealing with just one primary planetary location let alone the universe at large. Today's interview with Ross Buzzell explores some techniques at developing unique races to populate your settings as we discuss his planned 16 part series (of which he is currently writing book 8 with book 7 available on preorder). We touch on not...

What happens in your setting when someone dies? Are there gods? Are they deeply concerned with the comings and goings of people or are they aloof and indifferent? The Coats Brothers creators of the DinoBeasts Comic create some of the tightest worldbuilding on myth that I’ve seen in some time. Their setting seems to have...

Holy Cow! It’s been a minute. Seth and I owe you an explanation for our absence. To that end, let’s appraise you of all we’ve been up to. The Worldbuilder’s Journal Kickstarter is now fully complete and delivered and reviews are coming back raving. Our Discord is in full swing and growing and now we’re...

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with the process of worldbuilding? There’s just so much to learn and do, you’re building a whole world after all! But don’t sweat it. James and Seth dive into the process of getting yourself started worldbuilding focusing on the major factors that contribute to a well written world. The practice is focused on meaning rather than detail with the understanding that even...

Every GM is trying to creating a world with collaborators whether they like it or not. Authors are now embracing methodologies that include fans in their worldbuilding and story telling. How do you work well with others to create powerful settings and why might this be the best way to work? Long time collaborator and friend of the show Jog Brogzin has been busy. Like, really busy. Not just making...

Is breaking your rules because a particular scene needs a little extra oomph a good thing to do? The rule of cool is where your story starts to strain the expectations and rules that are created and there’s always a cost to it in the form of your visitant’s trust. Will you simply bend/break your rules again when it’s convenient? Marcos and James discuss where the limits of this rule are, jumping t...

Fish don’t know they’re wet. We all have a culture whether we know it or not. We tend to see it clearly in others and recognize that it’s a pivotal part of worldbuilding. We all remember a particular race or culture in our favorite media’s world-building that set our imaginations on fire whether it’s the Necrons of Warhammer, the Protoss of StarCraft, or the Sylvan elves of Lord of the Rings a div...

Everyone’s afraid of being unoriginal. I mean, it’s understandable that we want to stand out. We don’t want our world-building to be hum drum filled with the same junk that we see day to day. But we needn’t fear the humble trope because it’s like salt. Too much and it’s poison but just the right amount can really pull the dish together. Tropes serve as a short hand for your players and readers. Th...

It’s hard to kill your darlings. To let go of something that you spent hours (days/weeks/years) creating but that’s what we do when we engage on any creative endeavor. It’s especially true with tabletop roleplaying games where the visitants tend to want a hand in the creative process. They’re not passive observers of the story but active participants. RJD20 and James discuss how to hold your writi...

It’s a bug bear isn’t it? Exposition. I mean, in one sense we’re told to show and not tell but we also need our visitants to understand your worldbuilding, to feel like they can anticipate outcomes so they’re not caught flat footed (or we don’t fail to catch them flat footed when we need to). How do you go about telling your visitant about the world you’re creating? Seth and Marcos uncover some re...

But, what is the secret sauce!? Peter Chiykowski is all about it. He’s an award winning author, cartoonist, dog enthusiast and maker of awesome kickstarters and we get to pick his brains! We talk about it some of the key components to good worlds and how a creator can build such depth into their own settings. Take a second here to listen in on some of this solid wisdom. Peter’s Links The Deck of W...

Isn’t it great when your players are obsessed? When they form massive cork boards with twine and string connecting images of different characters and phenomena in your world. How do you bottle this, though? How does a GM drive player engagement with worldbuilding? James and Seth break down how to drive player excitement and engagement. Hang out with us! Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they...

Well!? The Empire is obviously evil, I mean, obviously. However, we reckon most folks in the galaxy far far away were pretty ambivalent about it and might not have even noticed the change of the guard. Marcos and James discuss the Mandolorian and how the show depicts the regular folks in the margins of galactic society and how they might’ve seen the Empire and the experiences they might have had a...

Happy Star Wars day everyone! May the Fourth be with you! The Jedi are a staple in everyone’s worldbuilding imagination, most everyone wanted to be one at one time or another. Seth and I are gonna tell you why they’re terrible and not just cause they indoctrinate kids in their hokey religion or have a weird attachment to political power. The problems lie a little deeper, their philosophy presents...

There’s one thing that unites us all, one thing that is totally and indisputably common to the human experience. We eat (and breath, and probably whole bunch of other stuff but mostly that first thing). Every people has unique food and that food is informed by thousands (if not millions) of years of history, necessity, preference, resources and who knows what else. Baked into every element of food...

We spoil the crap out of this show so if you haven’t seen it yet and you want to see it and you don’t like spoilers then we recommend you give this a miss till you catch WandaVision. As for the rest of you. What happens when a deity grieves? This episode Marcos and James dive into WandaVision to talk about a world that is entirely under the control of one person and what the implications are for w...

If you were to strip your story from your setting leaving just the world you made behind would people still want to be there? If you take Rocky out of Philadelphia you just have, well, Philadelphia, Will Smith out of Bel Air and… you get the idea. Some worlds are just saturated with potential even if their stories suck (lookin’ at you Jupiter Ascending). Today Marcos and James discuss a Film Coura...

Let’s be honest, GameLit is cheating at worldbuilding. Our very own Seth Ring is joining us today to talk about worldbuilding in his fantastical world of Nova Terra. Seth goes into the nuts and bolts of his collaborative writing style gives away some of his best secrets on how to write and keep writing even when you experience criticism. You won’t want to miss this great interview with this talent...

Horror holds a grim fascination for millions of people but it can be elusive at times. The things that you’d think would draw out the biggest screams sometimes fall flat because they’re too obvious or gratuitous. Real horror lies in subtlety and the unknown. What if the best horror is in the margins, just outside of your eyeline. Watching, waiting. This is exactly what Zack Goings and the team at...

Remember when we looked up into the night sky and saw endless potential in that little red dot out among the stars. Was it a god looking down upon us? Aliens perhaps? Scantily clad space women from pulp fiction? I mean, c’mon, there were roads up there, I’m pretty sure once we found a face carved into the rock and at least one space pyramid. Alas, the adventure and promise of Mars has changed much...

Ferror, the world of DinoBeasts, is merciless. Only the strong survive, the ones who pass the frequent testing of her savage jungles filled with deadly beasts. DinoBeasts is an action packed comic about a barbarian, the last of his species, on a desperate race against to the clock to recover a salamander princess who was kidnapped by ruthless adversaries but finds himself pitted, not only against...

As worldbuilders we constantly desire more detail in our settings but is it possible that we’re writing checks that can’t be cashed? When an object is placed in the world it’s inevitable that at least some your audience will place significance on it but the very act of worldbuilding is making things that exist, at times, only to facilitate a sense of place. This idea flies in the face of the princ...

Why do people keep honking at James’ bike? How come no one cares that Marcos is streaking? Why can’t Seth get free burritos? Gameplay mechanics are where the game you’re making intersects with the world you were hoping to create. The truth is that almost any gameplay mechanic be it gunplay, stealth, inventory or crafting swipes against immersion in some way once you scratch the surface. No matter...

Well, we finally played it. We had high expectations for this game, did they pan out? Seth, Marcos and James dive deep into the worldbuilding of cyberpunk and discover the truest core of the wordbuilding ethos that surrounds the game and its genre. We discuss how we approached the game, some of their general impressions, and what really drew us in to the dark future. There's a lot more coming down...