Category: World Building

  • The Monsters of Your Fantasy World

    The Monsters of Your Fantasy World

    The monsters you choose to include in your story help define your fantasy world. The overwhelming tide of evil, the dark horror lurking just beyond the reach of your light, perhaps enemies with a uncomfortable familiarity, or do you choose to include everything available?

  • Colleges of Magic For Fantasy Worlds

    Colleges of Magic For Fantasy Worlds

    When you decide your world has magic, you have many more decisions to make. One immediate and tangible choice is where and how magic is learned, which is at the core of the magic-wielding character. As with any other education, good mentorship is incredibly valuable, while bad mentorship can be outright damaging.

  • Dark Heroic Fantasy World Building

    Dark Heroic Fantasy World Building

    Realizing what kind of stories you want to tell is crucial to do it well. I got a sense of what I wanted early but only now taken the time to actually define it, so this is a work in progress. What exactly is a dark heroic fantasy story?

  • Fantasy World Factions

    Fantasy World Factions

    Good stories need conflicts and rivaling factions, so you want to create a solid roster of factions for your fantasy world. Protagonists, antagonists, heroes, antiheroes, alliances, and organizations.

  • Malicious and Unstable Magic: Chaos Taint, Nightmares, Planar Breaches, and Other Afflictions

    Malicious and Unstable Magic: Chaos Taint, Nightmares, Planar Breaches, and Other Afflictions

    Magic is unpredictable and will eventually cause problems and backlash even if the practitioner takes the uttermost care. Chaos magic, shadow taint, dreams gone awry, miscast teleports and planar breaches may all hound your characters.

  • The Heresy of the Faithful

    The Heresy of the Faithful

    The Faithful of the gods walk a challenging path, as a successful cleric must battle heresy, delve into church politics, smite evil and reclaim lost relics. This post presents hooks for your next story or roleplaying adventure for Dungeons and Dragons and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The Faithful serve something greater than themselves, a higher…