WorldCraft Club

Join Seth Ring, a worldbuilder and creative guru, as he explores the art of weeding your creative projects. He likens worldbuilding to gardening, discussing how to identify and remove distracting 'weeds' from your narrative. Seth emphasizes the importance of focusing on your core concept, using examples like Dune to illustrate how eliminating unnecessary elements can enhance storytelling. He highlights the value of community feedback and maintaining a notebook for strong ideas, encouraging creators to trim distractions for a cohesive vision.

Steel Stash, co-founder of the Black Dragon Dungeon Company and host of the Lonely TTRPG podcast, dives deep into ASCOPE/PAMISI as powerful worldbuilding tools. He emphasizes the importance of defining your area to avoid scope creep and discusses how organizations can overlap in narrative influence. Steel explores how to visualize control on maps and document demographics for storytelling. The duo shares tips on turning ASCOPE/PAMISI into a versatile note-taking tool while warning against distractions. They conclude with key takeaways on flexibility and iterative discovery.

In this discussion, writer and worldbuilding commentator Seth Ring delves into Isaac Asimov's influence on science fiction, particularly through his compelling short story, Nightfall. Seth highlights Asimov's bold approach to worldbuilding, urging writers to focus on what resonates with their audience. The conversation touches on evolving reader expectations and the balance between alien concepts and human-centered storytelling. They explore examples like The Three-Body Problem and Ender's Game, showcasing different takes on alien interactions and the essence of sci-fi.

Steel Stash, co-founder of the Black Dragon Dungeon Company and host of the Lonely TTRPG podcast, shares his military-guided insights on the ASCOPE/PMESII framework. This powerful tool helps worldbuilders succinctly outline key details of their settings. Stash discusses how to prioritize components, the importance of starting with 'areas,' and how to adapt existing modules for deeper personalization. He also introduces useful strategies for organizing notes and expanding narrative depth, ensuring your worldbuilding is both structured and creative.

In this engaging discussion, Peter Chiykowski, an author and illustrator renowned for his storytelling tools like the Deck of Worlds, shares insights on creating rich lore. He introduces the Lore Master's Deck, designed to help writers and worldbuilders weave interconnected lore webs. Key topics include the importance of gaps in storytelling, the power of multiple perspectives, and how visitor interpretations enhance worldbuilding. Peter emphasizes that lore should be open-ended and adaptable, encouraging creativity and exploration in narrative development.

April Fools! Normally you get insightful worldbuilding commentary. Today you get the server hosting a roundtable about a children’s TV show, Bluey. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a panel of adults thinking way too hard about a kid’s show. Our LinkTree, this has the link to the  Discord on it along with just about everything else. Definitely check it out!

Andor hit different. As far as Star Wars stories go this show fell on the 'grittier' side of things. Much like Rogue One, where we first met Cassian Andor. It also told a story which was more focused on the million small stories that took place around the major Skywalker narrative present in the main trilogy based movies. While the show made a splash on our discord server leading to several gushing reviews, the response was not altogether positive with some members of the community wondering where Star Wars was headed in the future. Per usual - spoilers abound. Key Takeaways: Convey your setting with confidence - this is a WorldCraft Club bingo entry for sure. Andor throws you into the middle of the setting and doesn't stick around to explain much of the 'whys and wherefores' of it. You're just there in the moment. Ferrix was a great example of this. The culture of Ferrix plays an important role in the story but little of it is explained or developed for the audience. We're just placed there. Let your setting communicate your story's themes - several characters are developed by the settings they inhabit, from Mon Mothma's ritzy apartment to Luthen's brutal concrete antiquities store these elements say something about the characters that inhabit them and the ideas the story is trying to communicate. If you major on the majors a lot of peripheral sins can be forgiven - the gang weren't without some criticisms for the series, particularly the lack of alien life found on the prison planet but these doubts were quickly forgotten because of the setting's bold committment to its themes and narrative. The result was that the fans of the show quickly found a way to make the lagging details fit and participated in the growth of the setting.   Links and Sundry: The only link you'll ever need - our LinkTree! The one stop shop to find the Worldbuilder's Journal (our disc bound notebook to lead you through the process of immersive worldbuilding), an invite to our Discord Server (where you can join in on discussions like these), and a slack handful of links to our various social media outlets.

Do you ever stop to ask yourself why? At the WorldCraft Club that’s a yearly tradition. In order to perfect the craft of building exceptional worlds we hold the practice of pausing to reflect. We consider the definitions of our terms and look at how our understanding has changed. In this episode Seth and James discuss the meaning of Worldbuilding and, more importantly, what good worldbuilding is. Key Takeaways: Worldbuilding vs. Story - There’s an ongoing question in creative spaces about the value of worldbuilding and there are markets emerging where having an exciting world is a big part of the value of the property. This is where the rub is with traditionally published authors like Stephen King and something we’d do well to think about in our own creative endeavors. Humility is worldbuilding currency - Participation is about your visitants creating their own head canon for the setting. It requires humility as a worldbuilder to let control of your creation go, at least a little bit, in order to see it flourish in the hands of your audience. This is how you know you’ve completed your path as a worldbuilding and, with the right mindset, can be thrilling to watch. Your world is ultimately a collection of unfinished, unresolved conflicts - Leaving these elements open ended is not only realistic (as life seldom resolves) but is incredibly enticing. “I wonder what happened to that guy?” “Did those two nations ever find peace?” Links and Sundry: The Infamous Stephen King Tweet - What are your thoughts on this? Go ahead and buzz us using our LinkTree below. Where to find Seth’s stuff: Seth’s nifty website - Find out the latest about Seth’s comings and goings on this site as well as catching up on his latest books. Seth’s Newsletter - To make sure you always know what he’s up to. How to reach us: The only link you'll ever need - This is our LinkTree, from here you can get access to our Discord Community (which you definitely need to join) as well as everything else we make including the Worldbuilder's Journal.

Sometimes the process of worldbuilding can drag and steal your sense of excitement about a setting you’ve been crafting. The antidote? A good story, preferably a short one, set in your world that you can finish and share. Daniel McCormack talks with us about this powerful, instructive process that will make your worldbuilding richer, clearer and more fun than you dared to imagine. Key takeaways: You have a limited reservoir of wonder and excitement for your setting and short stories help fan this affection into flame rather than quenching it. In completing short stories you actually finish projects. Finishing means you have something complete to share and get feedback on, you get the psychic satisfaction of completing a task, and you’re forced to practice skills that can only be practiced with a completed work (satisfying character arcs, understanding the reader experience) Short stories can crystalize your ideas by causing you to interrogate your worldbuilding both adding to it as well as pruning elements that are unneeded, they can also help you determine types of stories that suit your setting and your goals as a storyteller and worldbuilder. Writing about what you love or what you hate can be incredibly powerful as you have a deep well of passion to draw from. Don’t be afraid to major on that major. Where you can find Daniel He wrote a blog on his medium about this topic that you can check out. Here’s his Facebook page. Come hang out with the WorldCraft Club Our Linktree has got everything you need to reach out to use including our Discord server, our Instagram, Facebook, and web store where you can buy the incredible Worldbuilder’s Journal to supercharge your worldbuilding.

Plotter or pantser? Do you take the time to write extensive outlines or do you find that you tend to create on the fly? It’s never really been a true dichotomy but rather a spectrum. The analogy of a garden or the process of cultivation with its pruning, grafting, and tilling earth seems apt. Seth and James talk about the process of gardening your worlds to life. Key Takeaways Don’t get caught up in your identity as a plotter or pantser but embrace the  idea that you’re more likely on the garden spectrum. You may have an organized and well trimmed garden or you may have a wild one, but most worldbuilders will find themselves with a little pantsing in their plans or a planning in their pants. It’s not a bad thing to find that your world surprises you, in fact we’d argue that it’s a very good thing. Your characters and setting have begun to take on a life of their own. Where to find Seth’s stuff. Seth’s nifty website - Find out the latest about Seth’s comings and goings on this site as well as catching up on his latest books. Seth’s Newsletter - To make sure you always know what he’s up to. How to reach us: The only link you'll ever need - This is our LinkTree, from here you can get access to our Discord Community (which you definitely need to join) as well as everything else we make including the Worldbuilder's Journal.