World-Builders on World-Building

World-Builders on World-Building

Author: Mark J.P. Wolf

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-12

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 0429516010

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With contributions from a distinguished group of world-builders, including academics, writers, and designers, this anthology of essays describes the process and discusses the nature of subcreation and the construction of worlds. From Oz to MUD, Walden to Rockall, all the worlds featured in this volume share one thing in common: they began in someone’s imagination, grew from there, and became worlds built with the assistance of multiple authors and a variety of different ideas and media, including designs, imagery, sound, music, stories, and more. The book examines this development, with examples and discussions pertaining to the process and the final product of the building of imaginary worlds, including some transmedial worlds. World-Builders on World-Building is a fascinating deep dive into the practical problems of world-building as well as its theoretical aspects. It is ideal for students, scholars, and even practitioners interested in media studies, game studies, subcreation studies, franchise studies, transmedia studies, and pop culture.


Building Imaginary Worlds

Building Imaginary Worlds

Author: Mark J.P. Wolf

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-03-14

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 113622081X

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Mark J.P. Wolf’s study of imaginary worlds theorizes world-building within and across media, including literature, comics, film, radio, television, board games, video games, the Internet, and more. Building Imaginary Worlds departs from prior approaches to imaginary worlds that focused mainly on narrative, medium, or genre, and instead considers imaginary worlds as dynamic entities in and of themselves. Wolf argues that imaginary worlds—which are often transnarrative, transmedial, and transauthorial in nature—are compelling objects of inquiry for Media Studies. Chapters touch on: a theoretical analysis of how world-building extends beyond storytelling, the engagement of the audience, and the way worlds are conceptualized and experienced a history of imaginary worlds that follows their development over three millennia from the fictional islands of Homer’s Odyssey to the present internarrative theory examining how narratives set in the same world can interact and relate to one another an examination of transmedial growth and adaptation, and what happens when worlds make the jump between media an analysis of the transauthorial nature of imaginary worlds, the resulting concentric circles of authorship, and related topics of canonicity, participatory worlds, and subcreation’s relationship with divine Creation Building Imaginary Worlds also provides the scholar of imaginary worlds with a glossary of terms and a detailed timeline that spans three millennia and more than 1,400 imaginary worlds, listing their names, creators, and the works in which they first appeared.


The Infernal City: An Elder Scrolls Novel

The Infernal City: An Elder Scrolls Novel

Author: Greg Keyes

Publisher: Del Rey

Published: 2009-11-24

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0345516974

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Based on the award-winning The Elder Scrolls, The Infernal City is the first of two exhilarating novels following events that continue the story from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, named 2006 Game of the Year. Four decades after the Oblivion Crisis, Tamriel is threatened anew by an ancient and all-consuming evil. It is Umbriel, a floating city that casts a terrifying shadow—for wherever it falls, people die and rise again. And it is in Umbriel’s shadow that a great adventure begins, and a group of unlikely heroes meet. A legendary prince with a secret. A spy on the trail of a vast conspiracy. A mage obsessed with his desire for revenge. And Annaig, a young girl in whose hands the fate of Tamriel may rest . . . .


Gary Gygax's Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Volume 3

Gary Gygax's Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds Volume 3

Author: Gary Gygax

Publisher: Troll Lord Games

Published: 2002-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781931275224

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For the vigilant writer, driven publisher or game designer, Volume 3 of the Gygaxian Fantasy World series drives forward the gathering host of information brought to you by the Gygaxian Fantasy World series. From the encampments of common folk and wanderers to the teeming streets of walled towns, this work brings the fantastic world of magic to life. Game designers captain their own creations when they master knowledge of the high and low, the hamlets and towns, cities and castles and all that accompanies life in a world of our own imagining. More than that, Everyday Life breathes strength into the arms of your imaginings with pirates and palace life, eating and entertainment, villains and vagabonds, communications and commerce. Whatever is found in the daily life of a typical fantasy world is covered herein. Sound the note of world creation with Gary Gygax's Everyday Life.


Wailing Tempest

Wailing Tempest

Author: T.B. Phillips

Publisher: Andalon Press

Published: 2021-04-23

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13:

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Corruption is the Price of Balance, and Realms are Crumbling… Our story begins long after a monster crossed through an open portal – a human filled with greed. His presence wreaked havoc on two lives and left behind a dire war. Blinded by conceit, he set his own world on a path to prosperity but corruption is slowly destroying the other realm. Now the world is stained and hearts are filled with hatred, fear, and vengeance against one another. Only one girl can travel through the portal, and she must journey to the human realm in an attempt to set things right. Alistaria, the daughter of arrogance, must challenge Lord Radviken, the man who stole away balance. Award Winning author T. B. Phillips crafted a fresh tale of warriors, banshees, magic, and thievery! Prepare to meet mythological creatures, thrilling action, and humorous side adventures! With vivid imagery, Wailing Tempest is a fascinating blend of fantasy. Winner of Two eLit Awards in 2022! “Beautifully written, complex and touching story” - Amazon Reviewer "A phenomenally active read, Wailing Tempest is an engrossing story to keep you guessing from beginning to end!" - Manybooks "Wailing Tempest is an amazing story filled with magic, fantasy, and mythical creatures. The world-building is fantastic!" - Kristen Baney (Reedsy Discovery)


Three Californias

Three Californias

Author: Kim Stanley Robinson

Publisher: Tor Books

Published: 2020-02-04

Total Pages: 994

ISBN-13: 1250758955

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From the internationally bestselling author of the Mars Trilogy and New York 2140 Before Kim Stanley Robinson terraformed Mars, he wrote three science fiction novels set in Orange County, California, where he grew up. These alternate futures—one a post-apocalypse, one an if-this-goes-on future reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, and one an ecological utopia—form a whole that illuminates, enchants, and inspires--collected here as Three Californias. What if... there was a limited nuclear war that left the United States blockaded, fragmented, the few survivors living in the ruins of a once-great nation? What if... this goes on, and technology continues to accelerate, and power continues to be consolidated into corporate culture, a developer’s dream world gone mad: an endless sprawl of condos, freeways, and malls, and designer drugs? What if... a revolution happens, and the US addresses climate change in a responsible way. Is a future green Utopia all that great when you’re young and in love? This Tor Essentials edition of Three Californias includes an introduction by Francis Spufford, bestselling author of Golden Hill and Red Plenty. “[Robinson] invites us to share his characters’ intensely personal, intensely local attachment to what they have. The result may shame you into entertaining new hope for the future.” —The New York Times on Pacific Edge At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.


The Wildsea: RPG

The Wildsea: RPG

Author: Felix Isaacs

Publisher:

Published: 2022-08-04

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781736877586

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A POST-FALL FANTASY TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAME SET IN A RAMPANT OCEAN OF VERDANT GREEN. Some three hundred years ago the empires of the world were toppled by a wave of fast growing greenery, a tide of rampant growth spilling from the West known as the Verdancy. Now chainsaw-driven ships cut their way across dense treetop waves, their engines powered by oilfruit, rope-golems, honey and pride.You play a wildsailor, part of a motley crew consisting of humanity's weathered descendants, cactoid gunslingers, centipedal fungi, silk-clothed spiderfolk, and other, stranger things. With your fellow crewmembers, you'll journey across the lingin' tide discovering charts, pursuing drives, and avoiding mires of the deep.The Wildsea hungers and grows, roots sinking deep into the forest floor as the waves above ripple with life. What will you discover in its depths?The Wildsea is a tabletop roleplaying game from Quillhound Studios for 2-6 players inspired by stories like Sunless Sea, Bastion, and the Bas-Lag Trilogy. The Wildsea uses a narrative, fiction-first d6 dicepool system that draws inspiration from games like Belly of the Beast, Blades in the Dark, and 13th Age.


Fantasy World-Building

Fantasy World-Building

Author: Mark Nelson

Publisher: Dover Publications

Published: 2019-02-13

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0486828654

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When artists and designers explore or create a fictional setting, the milieu must be completely fleshed out, explained, and designed. In this book, comic and gaming art veteran Mark A. Nelson explores and demonstrates his methods for fashioning visually stunning, believable environments for fantasy creatures and characters. Scores of images and step-by-step examples illustrate how variation and experimentation lead to fresh, original designs for otherworldly beings, their environments, and their stories. Nelson discusses how to find ideas and borrow from history to add the strength of realism to a fantasy world. In describing the best ways to establish a habitat, he offers specifics about climate, terrain, flora, and wildlife. He shares insights into founding societies in terms of their means of survival, manner of warfare, spiritual practices, style of dress, and levels of technology. All visual creatives who work with imaginative material — illustrators, comic artists, and writers — will take a lively interest in this source of inspiration and practical knowledge. "In sixteen breezy-yet-surprisingly-concise chapters he covers everything from visual problem solving to spirituality to warfare to transportation, not with the idea of giving the reader lessons to copy by rote but rather as prompts to develop their own original concepts. If I were suggesting three books every budding artist should have at their fingertips they would be Figure Drawing for All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis, Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist by James Gurney, and, most definitely, Mark's Fantasy World-Building." — Muddy Colors


The Planet Construction Kit

The Planet Construction Kit

Author: Mark Rosenfelder

Publisher:

Published: 2010-10

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9780984470037

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A companion volume to the Language Construction Kit, this book explains everything you need to know about creating your own world with its own geology, creatures, cultures, religions, technology, and styles of war- plus how to create maps, illustrations and 3-D models. An essential whether you're writing science fiction or fantasy, designing RPGs, creating movies or video games, or remodeling a spare asteroid.