WorldCraft Club

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 is the very richness of a culture and a ton of embedded knowledge. So why doesn’t everyone use it? Today Seth and James break down not just the history of some foods (why English food is so gross, why Eastern food has so many delicious spices and why American food tends toward the meaty middle) but how we help your audience connect with the foods you’re discussing. So, grab yourself a plate of delicious food and wash it down with some drink (goes great with food) while you git learnt.

• A Phenomenal Guide to Great Food Words – Well, dang. This sucker is a useful link. Take some time to read this, you won’t regret it if you want to include solid food descriptions in your settings.

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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 worldbuilding. It leads into a bit of a deep dive into the whys and wherefores of worldbuilding with powerful people. You won’t want to miss this.

• The Ship of Theseus from Malcom Gladwell – This is actually a great episode of a podcast that has little to do with worldbuilding but a lot to do with the Ship of Theseus… and golf.
• Here’s that aspect ratio thing Marcos was talking about – It’s trippy. Like, really trippy. It speaks to the loving level of detail in this show.

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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 Courage video featuring Houston Howard where they discuss what makes a world marketable and usable. The tools of the trade for making great worlds are more accessible and basic to the human experience than you might have imagined. You won’t want to miss this great discussion on how to put awesome story worlds together.

• Film Courage: Houston Howard on Story Worlds – this is the video we based this discussion on.
• Intro to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – okay there wasn’t a reason for this it’s just a great jingle. For some reason there’s also, like, a 10-hour version of this that someone put together.
• The trailer from Jupiter Ascending – I defy you to not want to watch this.

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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 talented author.

• Nova Terra: Earthshaper (Book 6) on Amazon US
• Nova Terra: Earthshaper (Book 6) on Amazon UK
• The Whole Nova Terra Series
• Nova Terra: Kingbreaker (Book 3) on Audible
• Get in on the ground floor at Seth’s Patreon

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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 STONEworks Gaming have imbued into their recent kickstarter ‘Winthrop Manor’, a ZineQuest contribution and introduction to their broader setting ‘Dreadlands’. We find out a little more about exactly what they’re making while also learning some solid worldbuilding and dungeon mastering advice for the aspiring horrific creator.

• The Lights of Winthrop Manor – Jump in and help these guys while you can. Even if it’s only a few dollars to help keep their project at the top of the algorithm would be helpful. This is a great way to support independent creators who you like but also to bolster the community and let folks know that this kind of work is loved by so many.
• STONEworks Gaming can be found on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, their website and, of course, they’ve got a Patreon where you can lend them support.

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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. We’ve seen it now, landed a probe on its surface and that probe sings ‘happy birthday’ to itself every year. It’s a little like a young man leaving the promise of youth only to find that he’s not the man he expected he would become. The questions surrounding Mars are not really questions about who might be up there but how we might survive if we lived up there. The questions we have now aren’t inspired by wonder the practicality of life on an inhospitable planet. The fine work done in The Expanse does a great job with this with the Martian Colonial Republic is a key player in solar politics. So what’s going on in the heavens of your worlds? What mysteries do the nearest astronomical neighbors hold? Maybe it’s time for Mars to reclaim its youth in our fiction.

• Have I talked about the Expanse enough? You should watch it. Did I say that? I think I said that. Why aren’t you watching now? Well, if you want convinced check out our YouTube playlist. It’s small as of this writing but it’ll grow. James’ love of this show is boundless. We are also taking recommendations for curated lists and such so if you sniff anything rad and worldbuildy on YouTube hit us up.

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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 foes of flesh and blood, but the very world itself. Today on the WorldCraft Club we talk with the Coats Brothers, creators of this comic, and find out how they convey this savage world to their readers. From the color palette, the line work and visual style to the pace of stories that are so often constrained and tricky with the comic book medium as the power of visuals is balanced against page real estate. How do you create a world where death is the norm and communicate danger from every pore? Find out in this fantastic discussion.

• DinoBeasts Website!
• John Coats – Colors and Story
• James Coats – Art and Linework
• DinoBeasts Facebook Page

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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 principle of Chekhov’s Gun and setting expectations with your audience. How then do we reconcile this with worldbuilding especially with TTRPG where your ‘audience’ is also creating the world and their gaze can’t be focused wherever the narrator desires. Join Seth and Marcos as they dive into this idea and explore how Chekhov’s Gun can help your audience make sense of your world.

We’re super stoked to talk to you, it’s not called a club for nothing. Drop us a line at any of the below:

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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 how well you pull your mechanics together you’re always going to find this but the best mechanics slot smoothly into the world by jiving with the feel and aesthetic that the creator is looking to make. Let’s dive into the specifics of how gameplay makes or breaks a world as we continue a brand new PunkCember episode of The WorldCraft Club.

• Can Doomguy really hold 10 guns while effectively running around and shooting demons? Yes. If he’s a body builder.
• James wrote a thing about this.

Seth is the only one of us that bites, and we’ve already had him tested so there’s almost no risk in reaching out:

• Join the Club – We love our Patrons and they make this world(crafting club) go round, join us for early episodes, memes and a say in the direction of the pod
• Facebook Page – Our community here is rapidly growing and super fun, it’s also a great way to find out more about what we’re up to
• Discord – Well, color yourself invited to our Discord channel where you can jaw with us about worldbuilding or help us with a collaborative project
• The Website – Oh yeah! We’ve got one of these too, check it out if you want to keep track of the blog where numerous authors talk all things worldbuilding. It’s updated weeklyish.

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 the pipe too, including a stream we recorded the day after release, a part II to this discussion going into techniques and an episode about gameplay mechanics and their impact on worldbuilding. I hope you’ll join us on this ride.

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