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Introduction

Worldbuilding — sometimes called sub-creation or secondary world creation — is the task / art / craft of designing and representing an internally consistent and realistic setting for use in fiction, video or tabletop role playing games, movies, comics, a transmedia experience… really any type of storyworld.

In each concise volume of “Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creators,” and in the omnibus edition, you’ll find explanations, tools and resources to give your setting a level of verisimilitude that inspires the willing suspension of disbelief on the part of your audience.

We’ll work with a “top down” approach both literally and in terms of the subjects we cover. As we select an appropriate star, muse on the size, mass, and orbit of your world, its geography, climate, weather, biomes and habitats for life (including the sentient variety!) and more, I’ll use one of my own storyworld settings, the Shaper’s World, to provide examples.

Since the ultimate goal is to create a fictional representation of an Earth-like planet, we’re going to keep a broad focus by necessity… but you’re strongly encouraged to delve deeply into each topic via Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/ ), Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/ ) and other Internet resources.

Yes, there will be math, but what’s required is more basic than you might expect, and there are lots of tools (hello, again, Internet) to help us in that regard. It’s worth it!

What Is Meant By “Earth-like Planet”

For the purposes of Worldbuilding for Writers, “Earth-like” means the following:

• Size and density close to that of the Earth to allow for a gravity suitable for an ecosystem similar to Earth’s
• Orbiting in the “habitable zone” of a star and having appropriate orbital characteristics to allow for a climate similar to that of Earth
• Having an active, self-replenishing crust to allow for geologic processes similar to Earth
• Having an atmosphere similar in composition and density to the Earth
• Being an age sufficient to allow for the development of complex organisms, including at least one sentient species

If you’re interested in creating a setting that is anything but Earth-like, you’ll still find the information in Worldbuilding for Writers, Gamers and Other Creators useful — it’s important to understand what’s normal before you push beyond!