Have you ever fallen prey to worldbuilder’s disease? Or perhaps you’ve stared blankly at a page wondering how to get started worldbuilding. Either way, this episode and this podcast are for you! Not only will I give a step-by-step guide to worldbuilding, but also, strategies to ensure that you get to the most important part: the story!
Hello and welcome to Worldbuilding Blueprints season one: how to world build! My name is Marie Mullany and I am your guide to Just In Time Worldbuilding.
In today's episode we are going to explore the most important aspect of worldbuilding: how to find the north star to steer your worldbuilding by. Before we plunge into the detail of how you determine what this north star guide is, let's talk about why you need to know what your north star is.
The north star, or core, of your story or campaign is a critical reference point that you measure everything else against. Before you add a piece of magic to your world, before you create the strange monster, you measure it against this north star and determine if it truly fits your world.
But why is this so import? It’s because of my strategy to combat world builders’ disease. What is world builder’s disease? It’s when the storyteller gets trapped in an endless cycle of building their world and never actually write their story or run their campaign. This is a very easy trap to fall into and it can happen to anyone.
So what is my strategy? It’s to world build what you need, when you need it, rather than front loading everything at once. However, this strategy does come with its own risks. You could end up with a hodgepodge world, a world that feels as though it’s pasted together rather than being a cohesive whole. To avoid that, you need to know what you’re aiming for, so that what you build fits with your vision for you world.
And that is what this first season but also this first episode is all about! Finding the north star, the core of your world. We’ll focus on that in this episode and in the following episodes of this season, we’ll explore magic, cultures, geography, technology and more, but all at a high enough level that you don’t get bogged down in building minutiae that you just don’t need.
I know that finding your north star can seem daunting right at the outset. After all it sounds like you have to define a whole world! But you don't. At the beginning you might just have a very simple upfront statement something like a world around the time of the Roman Republic in technology and cultures. Perhaps you want to head further into the past and have a bronze age world or perhaps you want to head into the future and have a Star Wars type galactic civilization or a solar system level civilization like Firefly.
And as a starting point, that’s enough.
But even more important than understanding your world is understanding the story you want to tell. Why? Because the worlds that work best, the worlds that are most immersive, are worlds built to support the plot. In these worlds, rather than just shoehorning in the plot or the fantasy elements, the world and the plot are inseparable.
A great example of this is in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. When you first see that all of the buildings have these metallic spikes on them you don't know what they're for, but in the end, they're used by the allomancers to almost fly through the city! A great example of not having a world that supports your plot is in Harry Potter in the time devices. Time-turners suddenly appear in book three and then have to disappear just as fast to make the rest of the plot work.
And that’s what your north star or your world core is and why it's important. You need to understand what your story is and you need to understand the base of your world, because it is what are going to measure everything else against. But how do you find this core?
Let's plunge into that now.
There are three components to finding the north star of your world. The first is to understand your stories core, the second is to understand the scope of your world, and the third is to understand the initial big picture of your world.
We're going to address each of those in this podcast. While I am going to address them in order from story to big picture, you don't have to follow this order. You can define your core in any order you like, and to any level of detail that you like. I do it in this order because it works best for me, but for each world builder it is important that you find what works best for your creative process. So, make this process your own and find what works best for you.
All right what is the core of your story and how do you find it? The core of your story is the central conflict of your plot, the characters that are going to need to overcome that conflict, and the key challenges that they will face. This sounds a little abstract and vague so let's unpack that with some examples.
First up, let’s talk about "Mistborn" by Brandon Sanderson. I have heard Brandon Sanderson himself describe Mistborn as a cross between My fair lady and a bank heist, which is a marvelous encapsulation of the story he wants to write and serves as a great touchstone quick reference. But let’s expand it a little.
The central conflict of Mistborn is the struggle against the oppressive regime of the Lord Ruler, who has subjugated the skaa people and created a society of stark class divisions.
The core characters are Kelsier, a Mistborn with the ability to draw powers from metals, who leads a heist to overthrow the Lord Ruler; Vin, another Mistborn who joins Kelsier's crew and learns to use her powers to infiltrate the nobility. Going back to our touchstone, Kelsier is the mentor whose taking the street urchin Vin and educating her to be noble, much like My Fair Lady.
The key challenges lies in Kelsier and Vin’s navigation of a world of political intrigue and rebellion while mastering the complex magic of Allomancy to challenge the Lord Ruler's tyranny.
And that’s it. You don’t need details here, you just need a quick to sum up what is the story about. Let’s take a look at another classic example, this time "Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. For a touchstone for Game of Thrones, I’d go with a cross between The Zombie Apocalypse is coming and the War of the Roses.
The central conflict is the political and moral turmoil following the death of the Hand of the King, leading to a struggle for power among noble families in the Seven Kingdoms. There is also the threat of Others, but in the first book this is a minor threat. If I was doing this for the series, I’d change the central conflict to: The threat of the Others, which is exacerbated by the enormous political turmoil of the Seven Kingdoms. But for this example, I’m just focusing on the first book, so back to that!
The main characters are Eddard "Ned" Stark, who becomes the new Hand of the King; his children Sansa and Arya; Jon Snow, Ned's bastard son; and Daenerys Targaryen, an exiled princess.
Key Challenges: Ned Stark's investigation into the previous Hand's death reveals a web of deceit that endangers his life and the stability of the kingdom. Jon Snow must navigate the harsh realities of the Night's Watch, and Daenerys has to find a way to assert her power in a world made for men.
And that’s it. Obviously there’s a lot of devil in the details, but this early on, you only need the highest of high levels, the 50 thousand foot view as it were.
When I was doing this for my first book, my touchstone was: A Medieval James Bond redemption tale
My core conflict is: An assassin is sent on a mission to destroy a family and needs to confront his unwillingness to carry out his orders to the final degree and kill a child.
My characters are: Louis, an assassin, Roul, his foil
My key challenges are: Destroying the reputation of the Baron of Somfaux, a town that Louis has not operated in before.
For a RPG campaign, you put a little less focus on the characters, because you can’t control that. But you do control the villains your characters will face, so list those for your characters.
Your first exercise from today is:
1. Find a touch stone for your story or campaign. Something like, my fair lady x a bank heist or zombies and the war of roses or an assassin confronted by a line he won’t cross. Just a brief one line encapsulation of the story you want to write.
2. Identify the main conflict of your story. What is the central issue that will drive your narrative? What has gone wrong for the protagonist and what do they need to overcome?
3. List your primary characters, both villains and heroes. Try to keep this list short, you’re looking for 3 to 4 at most. If you don’t know their names at this point, that’s fine, just list their role in the story and what quirks they have if any.
4. Describe the key challenges the characters will face in achieving their goals. Will they get married off to a warlord and need to find a way to use him? Will they have to learn alomancy and how to navigate the complexities of noble politics? Will they have to destroy a man’s reputation and then kill him in a well-guarded castle? Just a very brief high-level look at key challenges that will face your characters.
If you’ve enjoyed thinking about your story’s core, hit the thumbs up button and let’s talk about the Scope of your World. The scope of your world is what you need to tell your story. You don't want to build out a Galaxy spanning empire if all you're going to use is one backwater town. This section is about practicality and focus. It helps you invest your time and creative energy where it will impact your story the most.
If you're a game master think of the scope of your world like a fog of war in a strategy game. Reveal the terrain as your players navigate it, always staying one step ahead of them. Generally I would recommend knowing the lay of the land within a day's journey for your adventurers, so that you're prepared for their next move.
Bear in mind that scope is not a ball and chain. It's meant to be flexible. It grows and shrinks as your narrative grows and shrinks. Your world's horizons can expand as required by your story or your campaign.
So how do you define the scope of your world without knowing your story in detail? Well think of where your story is going to begin. Will it be a bustling city? Or perhaps a ship drifting through space? Or a remote farm on a desert planet? What is the starting point of your story for each of your characters.
Then consider where your story might end for each character. Perhaps a space station hovering over a rebel planet, or a metropole where your characters pull off a heist, or the city of King’s Landing where Ned’s story comes to an end.
Once you have the start and end, consider at what scale you need to world build. Do need multiple nations or perhaps only a single kingdom? Perhaps you only actually need a single city. My first book plays off almost entirely in the city of Somfaux and I have a very light touch world building on the rest of the Empire that contains Somfaux because it is the only city that I need to define in detail.
By taking the time to sketch out the scope scale, you're creating a map for yourself, a reference to keep your story's journey cohesive and coherent. And that is your second exercise for this podcast. For each character, map out their beginning and ending location and then decide at what scale you actually need to world build.
What scope do you need for your world? Let me know in the comments below!
And finally what is the big picture of your world? What is your initial world concept? We're trying to capture the essence of your world. Think of it as setting the mood of your world with broad brush strokes before diving into the detailed world. Eventually you'll be adding magic systems and technology and culture but all of them have to fit into this broad brush strokes, this mood of your world.
So what goes into this broad base this broad definition of your world? First, your environment. Jot down the first impressions of your world's environment. Is it a verdant land teeming with life or is it a stark landscape where survival is a daily struggle? Think about your climate and geography here. Is it a place torn apart by storms like in Brandon Sanderson's way of kings? Or perhaps it’s an earth-like world but magic is real. You don’t need detail, we're looking for high level here!
Then describe the general level of technology and magic. Is this a kind of steampunk world with clanking gears? Or perhaps it's a high fantasy role with a lot of magic? Or maybe it's a post-apocalyptic wasteland with scattered forgotten tech that is explored by the characters and which they need to gain mastery of. Also think about the role of technology and magic in your world. Are these things rare arts or are they common convenience?
And then finally consider the dominant cultures and their interrelations. How do cultures within your world interact? Are they in a state of peace or tense coexistence? In Brandon Sanderson's world we can see the skaa are suppressed by the Lord Ruler and the nobles. It's a feudal society and those are our two big dominant cultures. In the world of ice and fire, we have the seven kingdoms that is a feudal society but across the narrow sea we have a step nomad culture that is enforcing tribute on every other culture that they come across. We have the Bravosi freed slaves culture that is against slavery, and so on.
For a starting list, I’d recommend just listing what you will need to tell the story, probably the cultures that your main characters come from. You don’t need the rest to get going.
Like with the other sections, this conceptualization of your world is not meant to box you in. It is here to provide a framework for your world's grand picture and as you develop your story this framework will guide you ensuring that the new details that you build still fit into the greater vision of your world. Also, don’t be afraid to change this greater vision as you develop your story.
Remember it's only final when it's published!
These three exercises together will give you your north star, the core of your world. The next step of world building is to slowly start coloring in the details. Next month, we'll start exploring how you add those details, and we'll kick off with putting the fantasy into the genre so how do you add fantastical elements to your world, but for this episode, I think you have enough to think about!
Remember that our goal is to build what we need when we need it so you might even think that right now you are ready to start writing. If you feel like that by all means start writing and if you are listening to the complete podcast, reference the chapters that you need in order to build what you need for your story.
If you are a member of the Just in Time Worlds channel, the worksheet and notes accompanying this podcast are available for download on my site www.mariemullany.com If you are not a member but would like to be, on YouTube there is a join button for the channel. Once you are a member, you will be able to create a login on my site and gain access to all of the worksheets included in this podcast. You will also be able to watch my members only videos and you will be able to download the worksheets associated with those videos.
I very much appreciate all the support of my members. It is a labor of love for me to do these videos and podcasts but your help is enormously appreciated.
If you're interested in seeing how I world build, you can also buy my books links to those are in the description. I have an epic fantasy series and a science fantasy series both on the go.
And other than that I will see you soon for another episode! Do remember: Build what you need, when you need it! Happy worldbuilding!
