Letter from the editor

Dear Readers,

I am proud to announce that the seventh issue has finally arrived! During
these past few months our team has been hard at work writing, editing, and
compiling articles into a magazine about gaming that I truly hope you will enjoy.

We will continually strive to provide the community with content that is

useful and entertaining. With that in mind, our next issue revolves around
nitty-gritty details!

In this issue, we have an interview with the creators of World Anvil, a new
online worldbuilding tool that is extremely easy to use and free! The Magazine
is partnering with World Anvil to help all worldbuilders brainstorm and to
create a collaborative and supportive worldbuilding community! Don’t forget
to check out our website to see all of our issues!

We are always happy to meet new creators who are part of this community;
if you are interested in worldbuilding, or want to help out in any way, contact
us on reddit or at [email protected].

Cheers,

u/UNoahGuy

2 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
Contents
4 World Showcase - Teeteegone’s Takiraah
Adam Bassett

10 The Art of Collaboration: The Game Master and the Players

Hexarch

13 Made Up Rules for Made Up Words in

Made Up Fantasy/Sci-Fi Worlds
MNBrian

16 Intro to Game Design for the Worldbuilder

PsychoRomeo

24 WBSPN: In-world sports

UNoahGuy

26 Featured Artist: xanth the wizard

29 Featured short fiction: THE WIZARD AND THE SOLDIER

StronglyOPlatypus

32 Featured short fiction: Stories of the American Civil War 1

Adam Bassett

38 A Universe in Constant Flux: Building the World of Warcraft

Casparata

41 World Anvil Interview

UNoahGuy

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 3
 World Showcase - Teeteegone’s Takiraah
Adam Bassett

"T hese tales aren't always happy ones; the

Takiruun and the beings surrounding them
undergo much hardship and suffering, but I find
The Takiruun lived on Takiraah for thousands of
years—building a civilization of their own entirely
from the ground up. A few hundred years ago
something beautiful in their strife." - Teeteegone they developed interstellar travel of their own
and began to expand once again unto the stars.
Teeteegone and I discussed the nature of his Shortly afterwards, in an event they call the Exiling,
world and its inhabitants, the Takiruun, as well Takiraah was ravaged into a cold and withered
as their abilities, competing ideologies, and wasteland. The Takiruun have not returned to their
their interest in what Humanity left behind. homeworld since, instead becoming very protec-
We spoke for over a period of more than ninety tive of their interstellar colonies.
minutes during which Teeteegone shared some
interesting worldbuilding tactics, details about Takiraah has been abandoned for hundreds of
using this world as an anthology, and an in- years, and the Exiling is a dark event that hangs
depth chart on how he structures supernatural over their culture. The Takiruun have no idea that
abilities. This month’s world showcase will look Earth exists, nor that Takiraah is not their true
into Teeteegone’s artfully depicted stories; wel- home. The Takiruun are remnants of humanity,
come to the world of Takiraah! but exactly how, why, or when they were separated
from the greater empire and were able to survive
"The canon of Takiraah is best described as a remains a mystery.
collection of stories set across the stars, spanning
thousands of years of history. Each one deals with So humanity - our kind - had been exploring
a different cast of characters, locations, and events, space and colonizing before the collapse?
but all follow the same overall conflict between
two opposing ideologies. Although many of the We had almost a thousand years of exploring and
central characters are machines and non-human conquering the stars before our fall. Thousands
lifeforms the narrative is ultimately about humanity." of worlds and stars under a grand, united banner;
- Teeteegone that of an empire vast and immeasurable. The
world that the Takiruun found themselves upon,
Takiraah, was remarkably similar to Earth but very
distant.
Before this interview I saw you mention a “hard
reboot” for humanity. Could you go into more You mentioned supernatural abilities.
detail on that?
The only true difference [from us] is their potential
Right, that's a basic way of explaining it. Before for possessing supernatural abilities, which can
much of the story takes place, human civilization sometimes cause distinctively colored markings
has collapsed almost entirely. Few remnants of the to appear on the body. The true reason [for this]
Old World—our world*, so to speak, remain. The ties into the greater narrative of the world—all
humans that exist were reborn on another world, Takiruun are naturally born with the potential to
some gifted with the potential for supernatural wield these abilities, but their origin is artificial
abilities. These are the Takiruun, humanity's pres- somewhere down the line. The type of ability one
ent form, who are completely unaware of those will possess, such as pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, or
that came before them. photokinesis, to name a few, is determined by one's
genetics.

4
* Editor's Note: Earth, in this universe Teeteegone has created, has been abandoned.
No humans have lived there for a long time. What remains lives on through the Takiruun.

WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
 Artist: Teeteegone
Very few are ever able to perform anything
substantial with their powers, but through a
lifetime of intensive training and focus one
can achieve mastery.

At the start you mentioned there were two

competing ideologies.

Ah, this is where the real meat of the world lies.

Since the Exiling [many of] the Takiruun

have a deep, tightly-held fear of Old World
[human] ruins. They believe that messing
with them was part of what caused the event
to happen—so they choose to avoid them as
much as possible.

Despite the massive timeframes in between

individual stories, each story follows a con-
flict that has raged for centuries in many
different forms. One side, [the Followers,]
believes that the Takiruun should live to
reclaim the glory of the old world before
its collapse—to restore their artifacts,
reverse-engineer their technology, and
uncover the mysteries of those that came
before them. They believe that the Takiruun
are flawed but display great potential. With
proper guidance they could become worthy
successors to the vast empire that collapsed.

This faction tends to be much more subtle

and has many ways of attempting to reach
their goals. Takiruun loyal to them are called
Followers and carry out the will of a high-
er-order entity they call the Light. Followers
Artist: Teeteegone

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 5
 Artist: Teeteegone

are many things—everyday folks, politicians, mili- Care to explain that cryptic note about the
tary leaders, researchers, even political extremists Guardians’ leader?
and terrorists.
The leader was a being called an Architect—
The other side, [the Guardians,] believes that the ancient creatures of immeasurable power. Little
Takiruun should forge their own future; one inde- was known about him or his exact motivations,
pendent of the Old World that predated them. They but I can tell you that his true goal was to defend
believe that, while human, the Takiruun don't have the Takiruun from Followers and other foreign
any obligation to inherit the civilization of their influences.
ancestors. Instead they must learn to survive in the
harsh universe in their own way. But what he didn't tell the Guardians was exactly
how he intended to do this. The Guardians’
Their ways of working are more blatant than those heightened abilities and the Order's military-like
of the Followers. They organize themselves almost organization all were part of a grand scale plan
exclusively as an Order of warrior-monks. Guard- to assemble the Takiruun into a strong, powerful
ians all possess an incredible potential for using race of warriors. They would be mighty enough
the Takiruun's abilities—called Takitrics—and are to defend their history, culture, and plans for the
excellent warriors as a result. They were much future from any threat, but would, in turn, be
more active during the Takiruun's early history, denied any true accomplishments of their own
but, in order to maintain their guise, have become as everything they've ever done was all, in part,
much more subtle and secretive as time passes. orchestrated by the Order's influence.
Their work is centered around opposing the Fol-
lower’s influence. Unbeknownst to them the leader They don't know this, of course. The Takiruun
of this faction has sinister goals that, if revealed, remain blissfully unaware of the millennia-old
would make the Guardians seem hypocritical. battle over their destiny that is raging around and
amongst them.
[Their] power has largely dwindled for the past
few centuries to the point where, for a lot of the Would the Architect use the Takiruun to fight
story, only one individual continues to support it: against other Architects?
Sirius—a survivor and the last of his kind and an
old machine from times long past. Not necessarily. Just anything that isn't the
Takiruun - mostly Old World influences and

6 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
remnants. This isn’t about desire for power - more about a
desire to protect the Takiruun, though with the wrong way of
going about it.

The Architect itself died during the Exiling. Prior to that it

likely resided somewhere hidden amongst the stars.

What exactly is Sirius?

Sirius is completely artificial; an Old World combat machine,

a Sentinel. He lives largely in secret and away from big pop-
ulation centres—after all he's still a Guardian, and his work
requires less-than-legal activities.

Are Sentinels like him empathic?

Depends which one you ask. Four major Sentinels are pres-
ent in the story, each with a different view on this. Sirius
does exhibit feelings and deep thought as a human would,
but centuries of combat and isolation have left him largely
apathetic and distant.

What do you think inspired Takiraah?

Destiny is a big inspiration artistically; the almost-mythical

feel everything has is exactly the kind of vibe I'm going for. If
I had to name a few [others] it'd be Titanfall, Metal Gear, the
works of Talros and Kuldar Leement, and the music of Porter
Robinson.
Artist: Teeteegone
Oh, and Star Wars too, just for good measure.

Artist: Teeteegone

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 7
 Of course. Now, let's talk about what the end-
game is for this project. What do you hope it
will become? At what point will you look at it
and say "I think I've done what I set out to do."

My biggest dream would be for Takiraah to be

realised as some big-name game or film project,
but given how difficult and expensive this would
be it's little more than just a dream. More real-
istically, I'd like to make a webcomic series at
some point, or something similar. Whatever it is,
it'd be very visual-based. For now, it's just a few
snippets of writing, artwork, and passion. If peo-
ple like whatever I do then that's all I can ask for.

[Takiraah has] changed a lot over the years,

since I could never quite figure out what I
wanted to make a story about, and it'll continue
to change. For now, however, I feel like I've found
what [it] is meant to be.

And that's a story that spans many locations,

exploring the struggle between those two ide-
ologies?

[Yes]—each story is more about the characters

in it than anything else, but I love this way of
connecting them all together. These tales aren't
always happy ones; the Takiruun and the beings
surrounding them undergo much hardship and
suffering, but I find something beautiful in their
strife.

Worldbuilding Magazine and I would like to

thank Teeteegone for spending a morning
talking with me about Takiraah. If you would like
to apply for a chance to have your world show-
cased in an upcoming issue please fill out this
form:
Artist: Teeteegone
If you would like to see more of Teeteegone’s
work, or to reach out and ask more about
Takiraah, you can visit the following websites:

• Tumblr Art Blog

• Takiraah Wiki
• Reddit

8 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
 Artist: Teeteegone

Artist: Teeteegone

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 9
 Artist: Tristen Fekete
10 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
The Art of Collaboration:
The Game Master and the Players
Hexarch

A t first glance, worldbuilding and running a

tabletop game seem to go hand in hand. If your
players are making fantastical characters what
won’t care much for the ancient history and social
etiquette you spent so much time on. Before you
build the world for a game, know what parts will
better thing to do than make a highly detailed give players the most enjoyment.
setting with deep lore for them to play in? This is a
trap a fair amount of new game masters (GMs) fall Once a GM knows their players they can start
into, along with trying to tell an epic story that the to build the world for the game. This will be done
player characters (PCs) are spectators to and not in two steps, the Broad Strokes and the Minutiae.
the driving force of. Tabletop games are an exercise The Broad Strokes are what one decides on before
in collaborative storytelling, so your players will bringing the idea to the players. Is this going to a
need to make their mark on the game's world as globe-trotting, planes-spanning adventure? Or is it
much as on the game's story. A world made for a going to be confined to the borders of a single city?
tabletop game needs to be engaging, flexible, and Are there undead armies rising from the earth or
above all else conducive to the story. To make this are aliens sweeping in from the stars? Will they
kind of setting, a worldbuilder must know their spend most of their time delving into dungeons or
players and craft the world to their tastes. The true dancing at royal balls? Once you know the Broad
challenge is that every gaming group is unique and Strokes, give them to the players and tell them to
wants different things out of a world. Fortunately, start making their PCs and backstories.
there are strategies a GM can apply no matter what
type of game they are running. I’m going to stray from worldbuilding advice
here and stray into general GM advice for a
When building a world for a game one must moment, because it meshes well with this stage of
first take into consideration what the players want. building a setting for a tabletop game. Never, ever,
When gaming with a group of friends that one has tell players that they can do or be anything. If you
known each other for years this is easier; if a GM do someone is going to be that guy and try to play
has new players that they don’t know very well this as the color orange. This is why the Broad Strokes
is harder. Players, luckily, fall under three arche- are important, it forces PCs into having common
types based around what they enjoy most about themes that makes the next stage much easier.
gaming. The first type is the Thespian, who draws When players are making characters ask them to
most enjoyment from being part of story. A game include a few plot hooks in their backstories for
with lots of social intrigue and well-developed you to work with. This will be easy with Thespi-
non-player characters (NPCs) is their bread and ans, but you might have to work a little harder to
butter. The second is the Tactician, who loves the get useful ideas out of Tacticians and Comedians.
martial aspect of gaming. Give them unique and Once you have these backstories you can delve into
dynamic combat encounters and they’ll be happy. the second stage: Minutiae. Using the backstories
Third is the Comedian, who’s at the table for good and plot hooks that player’s have provided start
times and wacky hijinks. You won’t have to intro- working on the smaller scale aspects of the world.
duce humor and mirth into your game because One character has a powerful thirst for knowledge?
they’ll do it for you. It’s important to remember Looks like there’s going to be an order of scholars
that not every player is purely one type or another, in this world. One character’s family was killed by
most are an uneven mix of three with one partially demons? Time to make demon-worship a rising
dominant aspect. The same goes for the overall trend in society. It is vitally important to use your
group. If one is a deep worldbuilder a party full of player characters as a central building block when
pure Thespians would be perfect, but there’s going creating an effective world for a game.
to be a Tactician and a Comedian in there that

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 11
 By now, you’re ready to start the first session. Afterwards you look at your future plans and real-
There’s a world and a story, the players are eager ize that down the road they were going to meet a
to start, and now you come to the hard part. As a plot-important golem maker. In response you could
GM it is one’s job to make sure everyone has fun substitute the unmet golem maker with the Corn
and to keep them engaged in the world and story. Elder and get all kinds of benefits from it: a future
Even though each group is different there are session that instantly grabs the attention of your
fortunately three ways to keep the PCs interested; players, and the Comedian gets the satisfaction of
play to their type, incorporate their story and use have made his mark on the game and the world.
their input. Say that, for example, there is a festival Making your players care about the world is a chal-
with importance to the plot that you want to make lenge, but using these strategies will make it easier
sure the players pay attention to. To do so a GM to pave the way for fun and memorable sessions.
has to make sure that the festival has events that
will play to their players’ types. Give the Thespian Worldbuilding as a GM is not an easy job—
a subplot of feuding families using the festival to building a world of one’s own is a challenging
one-up each other, have feats of strength that the endeavor, but when the wants and desires of four
Tactician can use to show off their perfectly-built or five gamers are thrown in the task becomes
character, tell the Comedian the festival is there to nearly impossible. A GM must remember that the
celebrate belly flops. It can be a challenge to play world is not built by them alone, but that it is a
to all their strengths at once but realistically you’re collaborative effort between everyone sitting at
going to have to focus on one player over the oth- the table. Build the setting with the needs of your
ers sometimes. players in mind and above all else learn to think
on your feet, this is the most valuable skill a GM
We already touched on using their backstories can have. Your players are going to have ideas you
to build the world, but one can use them to draw never would have thought of; use them. If a Thes-
the PCs into it as well. Suppose that the party pian manages to talk down two opposing factions
needs to care about a company of mercenaries; if a you were planning on having go to war, let them
character thirsts for glory one could make it a leg- be talked down and advance other plot points. If a
endary company who admit only the best among Tactician rips apart an enemy you expected would
their ranks. Maybe a character has a missing father force them to flee, give them an in-game trophy
who is either a current, or former, member. Baking and start working on new monsters. If a Comedian
backstories into the groundwork of the setting like wants to go lard-sledding, then lard sledding is
this will ensure that a player will be invested in now the national sport of the Kydonian Republic.
aspects of the world. Your group is made up of more than players, they
are contributors. Use them well and together you’ll
We finally come to using player input, an aspect come up with something incredible.
of running a game which can be difficult for GMs
who are overly invested in their world. Flexibility
is key to making a dynamic game world; you have
to be ready and willing to change things based on
player action or requests. For example, suppose
your players seek out a druid for advice and your
Comedian suggests that the druid’s name is “the
Corn Elder”. You adopt a funny voice and after
having the druid give them special items based
on corn you’ve all had a very memorable session.

12 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
Made Up Rules for Made Up Words in
Made Up Fantasy/Sci-Fi Worlds
MNBrian

W henever I open a science fiction or fantasy

novel, I begin reading with a certain sense of
apprehension. It’s not because I don’t like fantasy
forgotten. And when we forget to expose the basics
of the world, the core, by focusing on all the wrong
things first we make everything too convoluted for
or science fiction—the last four novels I purchased our readers.
were written by Patrick Rothfuss, Marie Lu, Hugh
Howey, and Pierce Brown—but regardless of the This happens all too often. We toss a reader into
particular subgenre the apprehension persists, the midst of a battle scene, or of a conflict dripping
and on occasion I will find myself completely lost with depth and in-world meaning, and yet that
in a new world. And no, I don’t mean the fun kind isn’t exactly where we began falling in love with
of lost where reality melts away. I mean the kind our idea. Our reader misses all the romance and
of lost where I put down the book because I do not the feeling of newness, instead going right into the
understand what a humdrum is or why the Flang meat and potatoes—the fleshed-out details and
are attempting to destroy the world of Elderon minutiae of the idea that came so much later. You
with the great Omen. As a writer I often want to can tell, usually, when a writer is heading down
know what exactly makes me set down a book like this path. If you ask the writer falling into this trap
that, a book that some writer has clearly spent a lot about their book they can talk about it for hours.
of time creating, that They'll tell you details
just doesn’t make that aren't yet relevant
me feel “the magic”. to the plot, and when

The problem, For a writer, long before words they’re done explain-
ing their world you’ll
in my opinion, has hit a page, an idea is floating still have no clue what
a lot more to do the book is actually
with a particular around in our head. about, or why you
disconnect that should care.
exists in between
when the idea is created and when the idea is Say, for instance, you have this core idea: a
presented to the reader. For a writer, long before medieval retelling of Cain and Abel. You open with
words hit a page, an idea is floating around in two brothers, then one kills the other. But there's
our head. We daydream about our idea. We think a problem; what is the context of the murder?
about it when we should be working, or when we Jealousy, sure, but how can we make it deeper?
can’t sleep, or when we should be listening to our Perhaps you decide the brothers aren’t fraternal,
co-worker tell us this super awesome story about maybe they’re step-brothers instead. Perhaps the
her cats. Because of this, when it comes time to brothers come from rivaling lands. But why do
actually start writing, our idea isn’t new to us at all. these two cultures, on the whole, not get along?
Yet when we share that work with a new reader You need a history and a reason for these cultures
they’re experiencing it all for the first time. to hate each other, so you develop one: The king
of culture A stole the princess from culture B a
Sometimes when we write we forget this. We hundred years prior. But your story has nothing to
forget that we are perpetually ahead of our read- do with this backstory, it only influences parts of
ers, and that being ahead can give us wonderful characters interactions. Do you see the rabbit hole?
insight into how we can lead a reader by the hand Now, if someone asked me what this book was
and make them fall in love with a setting. Other about I could tell them all about what happened a
times the insight on the world results in the core hundred years before my book began. But that's
of the idea, the part that made us fall in love, being not really what my book is about. At that point my

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 13
 conversation is going to end swiftly,most likely out and under the order of Kaldrobian, they were the
of pure confusion. This prospective reader is not first to be ritualistically sacrificed."
asking me how I solved all the various intricate
problems in my book, or how I added depth to a I'm overdoing it, I know. That's five made up
story that was much simpler; they're asking me words in two sentences but you get the idea. If
what my book is about. And it's about a guy who the point of reading a high fantasy book or a sci-fi
kills his step-brother and incites a civil war. book is to escape the real world, then adding a
bunch of words that you've made up in a short
Now, I’ll be the first to admit, sometimes this period of time is a good way to remind your reader
level of depth is what our readers want. I know they're reading a book—and you don't want them
I enjoy it. But no one, I repeat, no one will get to to remember that. You want them to read, to get
that depth if they don’t first fall in love with the caught up in the story, to not be confused or strug-
thing that got you excited about in the first place. gle to follow what is happening.
No one will eat the best tasting cake in the world
if it’s covered by a thick layer of garbage. And that Listen, we'll get to where Eldorath is, talk about
process, the process of discovering a world, can be a therapin and inquire about the order of Kaldro-
so beautiful and enchanting for a reader. But it only bian and how they ritualistically sacrifice kids into
happens when you enchant them first;when you volcanoes to serve the god Plogbar later. But for
show them something simple, something primal, now, let's stick to simplicity. Remember that all of
a thread of an idea that is interesting and then you these names came after you fell in love with your
let them slowly dig deeper. idea, and only when you realized you needed to
name all these things. What got you to love your
In light of these revelations I have created a idea first? Don't confuse us in the first few pages.
how-to guide for writers who create such rich
landscapes, deep histories, and uncharted worlds. Perhaps a better way to convey only the essen-
And this is it, these are my made up rules for made tial pieces of the above information would be
up words in made up fantasy and sci-fi worlds. to say this: “In a small city at the base of a large
volcano there lived a therapin who had twelve
Rule Number 1: children. Due to circumstances outside this poor
You Get 3 Made Up Words Per 20 Pages father’s control, the two youngest and most devas-
tatingly beautiful of his children were the next in
Okay, so maybe I don't actually count. But if your line to be ritualistically sacrificed.”
story sounds like this—I'm out.
Give us clarity. Establish your setting and why
"In the city of Eldorath there was a therapin we should relate to it in language we understand.
who had twelve children. The one with the mark of And then throw us out of the plane. When reading
Hoxy and another with the mark of Moxy were the a book becomes work, when I have to write down
two most devastatingly beautiful of the children, the definitions of things just to follow what is hap-
pening, then you've lost me.

14 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
Rule Number 2: the explanation comes later. In those cases less
If It Isn’t New Or Important, Don't Explain It is more: Game of Thrones did it brilliantly in Old
Nan's stories. Spiders the size of horses? Giants?
So you've got a group of space explorers who Zombies but they're called White Walkers? Oh
use thera-fuel made out of asteroid bits and water? dang, this is gonna be good. Kingkiller did it in an
And they put their thera-fuel into a Hydrogodroid excellent way as well. You’ve got these dark shad-
engine? And then they can travel faster than the owy things called the Chandrian? Cool, Chandrian
speed of light? Great! Tell me all about it, but ONLY equal bad. Got it.
if it is central to your plot.
You want to leave your reader with half-an-un-
If you're just developing your own names for derstanding about the stuff that is coming later.
things that already have names, and that people Give them a simple explanation that doesn't really
already conceptually understand then don't tell me fully explain it, leave them wanting more. But when
all about it. For example, my Hydrogodroid engine it comes to the things that are goal-driven, like the
is essentially just a warp drive, or a teleporter, hydro-fuel with asteroid bits that I talked about
or a time machine. Just create a scene where the above, only go into it when you need to explain
engineer of the Hydrogodroid breaks it down in or drive character actions. A writer doesn’t need
Layman's terms for that idiot newbie engineer— to tell us everything about thera-fuel; it doesn't
need to be all in one place and it doesn't need to
"It's a warp drive, idiot. Okay? Are we done? You be extensive, but tell me what it is and why it's
put the go-go juice in the warp drive and it goes." important. And tell me why only certain asteroid
dust works, that way when the protagonists fly into
If you’re not being overwhelming with made up the Z-sector, where there are a lot of juicy asteroids
words you have to give the reader the benefit of the with mountain landscapes and space-alien Hum-
doubt. Let them figure out what a Hydrogodroid drums I'll know why they don't just go somewhere
engine is and what it does from context clues; heck, safer. And I'll know why Esteban regrettably got his
if you call it a Hydrogodroid Engine, the reader helmet torn off and his brains eaten.
won’t even care. It’s an engine, they’re with you.
Let’s move on to space battles and explosions. Made up words in fantasy and science fiction
novels are wonderful, glorious things. Just make
Rule Number 3: sure you aren’t dumping them on a reader all at
Assume Your Reader Will Catch Some, Not All, once in the first chapter. Give the reader time,
Of Your Context Clues space, and a hefty helping of breathing room. Give
them explanations slowly, along with something to
When it comes to new words a lot of it comes remember. Make them fall in love with your idea
down to feel. You need to choose your battles. before you bury them in depth, history, and made
Using a new word to describe the main enemy can up words. And, as always, beware the Humdrums.
be cool to just throw in and not explain—because

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 15
 Intro to Game Design for the Worldbuilder
PsychoRomeo

C reating a world that is robust enough to be fea-

tured as the setting of a game could be consid-
ered the greatest crowning achievement for many
a combination of complementary notes, having fun
involves experiencing a combination of comple-
mentary emotions. This arrangement is called
a worldbuilder. It’s one thing to merely observe a cognitive flow, and is the most important element
world through text or some other less interactive to a well designed game.
medium, but when an external actor is allowed to
interact with a world, it takes on a whole new level How exactly does cognitive flow translate into
of palpability. “fun?”

But a well crafted world and a well designed Every aspiring game designer will at multiple
game are two different things entirely—to marry points in their career be asked to study and dissect
the two, we’ll be embarking on an introductory a graph on cognitive flow. There are many ways to
crash course in GAME DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS. represent this data, however the following is my
favorite:
One of the most important elements of
game design is to understand the concept
of “fun” and how it’s actually used in a well
designed game. On the surface it seems like
a simple relationship—shooting aliens with
powerful weapons absolutely sounds fun, so
shooting twice as many aliens with twice as
powerful weapons will be twice as fun. And
while it may briefly hold true, this mindset is
ultimately destructive to a game.

To understand this, we must first abolish

the idea that “fun” is some kind of static emo-
tional state like “happy” or “sad.” Rather, “fun”
is a living process or experience. You can give
a subject some candy, and they will be happy
they received candy. If you turn the act of
receiving a candy into a well designed game,
the subject will begin to have fun. But the
mere act of receiving candy is not fun in and
of itself. So the trick is to create a game
that brings the player into the fun zone.

So how do we bring the player into the fun

zone? Consider music—you can play a high
pitched note and call that “happy,” and you
can call a low pitched note and call it “sad.” We
can add to and keeping playing these notes as
much as we want, but it’s probably not going
to become a very good song. It is only after
these notes are put into a sequence that toys
with our expectations and engages us in its
form that they ultimately become an experi-
ence we enjoy: music. Just as music is Artist: Adam Basset

16 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
 Let’s consider the the vertical axis, “intensity” point, then suddenly gains speed and does crazy
(left). High intensity represents stress, anxiety, or loops and what not. Roller coasters are designed
challenge. A high intensity situation will exhaust to bombard their riders with a wave of psycho-
the player mentally, and test their skill with the logical experiences. The rider anticipates what’s
game. When intensity is at maximum, the player is coming next as they roll over the top. They fear the
very prone to burning out from frustration, throw- (apparent) danger as they rush to the ground or go
ing the controller, and rage quitting. Conversely, upside down. They get a momentary relief as the
low intensity represents a lull in gameplay, monot- roller coaster slows down again, and then the pro-
ony, or ease. A low intensity situation will provide cess repeats. The roller coaster combines a variety
very little stimulus, and when it reaches rock bot- of emotions in a very intentional arrangement. Just
tom, the player loses interest and stops playing. like games, this flow is the process that makes the
experience fun (and terrifying). These feelings of
Along the horizontal axis (bottom) is “progres- anticipation, fear, and relief draw the player into
sion.” Simply put, this represents the time the the moment and get them invested in the experi-
player spends in the game, the player’s completion ence they’re having. They become intoxicated by
of the game, or the player’s mastery of the game the flow, and have a hard time turning away or
mechanics. putting the controller down.

The lines on the graph represents a game’s ideal But how does this theory of fun end up as
relationship with intensity and progression. First, something I can play?
consider the blue lines. As the player progresses
through the game and spends more time with the Now that we understand “fun,” our lesson
game’s mechanics, their skill level will increase. turns to game mechanics and game features. These
As a response to this, the game’s intensity and the are the building blocks for all games and outline
challenges the player faces should increase as well. the rules by which the game operates. Differ-
This boils down to a very simple concept: keep ent mechanics are combined in various ways to
testing the player with bigger challenges. become our game’s features. Alongside elements
like story and art, mechanics and features make up
However, intensity should not just steadily rise the body of our game.
as the player progresses through the game. This
would be the musical equivalent of a straightfor- Mechanics can be broken down into the fol-
ward ascending scale. Rather, a game’s overall lowing components: rewards, obstacles, and con-
intensity as well as the intensity of individual parts sequences. Rewards motivate us to do something.
(missions, levels, chapters, etc.) within the game Obstacles make doing this thing difficult. And
should rise and fall many times. This motion is rep- finally consequences make our attempt to do this
resented by the red line on the graph. Maybe your thing meaningful. All game mechanics will bring
game is an adventure game, and between each high some amount of rewards, obstacles, or conse-
intensity dungeon there’s some opportunity for quences to whatever feature they end up being a
low intensity shopping or upgrading. Maybe your part of. Consider the simplified breakdown of a
game is a survival game, and after doing some low crafting feature on the following page.
intensity material gathering you have to complete
a higher intensity timed minigame in order to craft This crafting feature is built out of a plant
something. Or maybe in one of the shooter levels growth mechanic, a plant harvesting mechanic,
of your game there are open areas with high inten- and an item combination mechanic. We can see
sity gunfights followed by low intensity hallways that this feature has some danger, time investment,
where you can reevaluate your supplies and plan inventory management, skill level requirements,
your next move. The rise and fall of intensity is an and item rewards. Breaking down mechanics and
important step in making sure that our game is features into their smaller parts like this helps
engaging, and ensures that the gameplay does not keeps us objective and objective.
start feeling predictable, stale, or stagnant.
Earlier I used an example of how handing some-
Consider the roller coaster. They’re not very one candy makes them happy, but isn’t innately
interesting if they sit at their highest or lowest fun. That’s because there are no obstacles to test
point for the entire ride. Rather, what’s fun is them, and there are no consequences to make
when the roller coaster slowly builds up to a high this activity meaningful—there’s no game, just a

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 17
 Artist: Adam Basset

reward. It’s an incomplete experience with only I really want to stress how important it is to be
one emotion, a song with only one note, or a roll- an evil, sadistic villain when designing games. If
ercoaster that only goes in one direction. To turn it you ever find yourself drawing a blank, if some-
into a game, we’re going to throw some mechanics thing doesn’t seem fun, or the player is asking
in here. To do that, we’ll need to become a little themselves, “Why am I doing this?” the first thing
sadistic. We’re going to say things like “the candy you should do is reevaluate the consequences
will be in a tightly sealed box hanging in the air.” behind your features. It’s very easy to forget to
We’re going to add limitations and say “the only subject your player to negative emotions, but this
way you’re allowed to touch the box is with a long, is without a doubt the most powerful driving factor
heavy stick” and “you’ll be blinded and disori- in a game. Nobody walks away from a memorable
ented.” We’ll scare them by saying “if you fail to fight and says, “Wow, that fight was so crazy, I came
open the box, you lose your chance.”Now tell me that close to losing nothing of value.” While there
what sounds more fun—having candy put on a plate definitely is such a thing as too much consequence,
in front of you, or beating it out of a stuffed piñata? this is generally much easier to spot and avoid than
insufficient consequence. Too much consequence
A game designer must get very hands on with is known as “fake difficulty” and is where conse-
the emotions their players are experiencing. Nega- quences start overpowering your obstacles when it
tive emotions such as loss, fear, or anxiety are just comes to game challenge. Some examples include
as vital as positive emotions like joy, relief, and blatantly cheating AI, insufficient checkpoints, or
excitement for creating a full and rewarding expe- situations that are impossible to overcome without
rience. This often means being a sadistic emotional getting lucky.
terrorist. I’ll share my favorite quote from one of
the most successful emotional terrorists of all time: Enough lecture, when can we get started?!

“Always make the audience suffer as Now that we understand some of the underlying
much as possible." - Alfred Hitchcock fundamentals of game design, we’ll break down the
actual process of designing our game. This is the

18 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
creative process and there is not one right way to
go about this. The following four steps are how I

2
2) Identify your game’s core mechanics and
features, and how they’ll be used.

1
approach the task.

Many worlds are robust enough to already have

1) Define the game’s high concept. How would very prominent and easily identifiable features and
you write its elevator pitch? mechanics. For example, maybe your world has
a magic system that uses spirit energy to create
fire. Or maybe your world has the technology to
travel to distant planets in a few minutes. To begin
creating a game within your world, you should
This step essentially boils down to “what kind identify your world’s core mechanics and features
of game do I want to make?” For those familiar and work outward from there. While doing so, it’s
with games, it’s very easy to say “I want it to be like important to remember that each game design
Diablo II but with guns” or “what if Wii Sports was decision should bring you a step closer to realizing
a life-or-death gladiatorial competition?” This is a your high concept. As a worldbuilder, it may be
great place to start. However, eventually we’ll want very tempting to pursue errant, wandering ideas.
to define our game without referencing others. While building up a nation’s political structure, you
Consider the following examples: can sometimes lose yourself in a story from a poli-
tician’s childhood. For a worldbuilder, this is a very
An action adventure game where you effective way to organically create content. But as a
shoot a path through a sea of demons game designer, this can become a very counterpro-
and battle with the great evils of the ductive force called feature creep.
world.
Let’s look at an example: say I have a rather
A gruesome competitive card game normal world, except aggressive hypnosis and
where you train gladiators and have other forms of subconscious extortion is about as
them compete in lethal sports for the common as knife related violence. Say my game’s
crowd’s entertainment. high concept is “a mystery game where you solve
puzzles and investigate crimes using advanced
psychological abilities.” My game’s mechanics
Ideally, a high concept should outline what
might include cool mind control abilities, switches
about the game is going to be fun (such as shooting
and levers that open doors or move platforms,
demons or lethal sports). It will briefly mention
and maybe a truth/bluff/coerce kind of charisma
the game’s genre or structure (for example, action
minigame. After identifying these (and other)
adventure or gladiatorial themed competitive card
mechanics, I can shape them into puzzle room lev-
game). It might also make a reference to the game’s
els like in the Zelda series, platforming levels like
overall goal (battle the great evils of the world).
the Uncharted series, and non-linear dialogue trees
However, it doesn’t need to be comprehensive and
like in the Neverwinter series. All of these features
shouldn’t be longer than one or very rarely two sen-
and mechanics are relevant to the idea of “mystery
tences. Consider it a succinct summary of the game.
puzzle game.”
Reevaluation of a game’s high concept mid-de-
On the other hand, regardless of how awe-
velopment isn’t unheard of, but it should be taken
some and unique my world’s airplane technology
very seriously. No progress should be made in
is, pursuing this topic is probably not going to
step two until you have 1000% confidence in your
bring me any closer to realizing my high concept.
high concept, what it means to you, and how it will
There’s absolutely no need for me to invest time
become a game.
and energy designing plane flying features and
mechanics (though it’d probably make for really
cool backstory!). Since my game isn’t about flying

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 19
 planes, this would be an incarnation of feature the cultists’ underground labyrinth. They
creep. Feature creep will not always be this obvi- open the door to the next room and find

3
ous, so if in doubt you should probably cut it out! a floor switch, a locked door, and a lever
behind a gate.

Testing the switch, our protagonist finds

that the gate opens while the switch is
3) Arrange your mechanics and features into depressed. Finding this challenge almost
fun game content. too simple, they grab some rock debris
from a corner and use it to hold down the
switch.

The gate retracts into the ceiling. Con-

fident, our protagonist walks over and
Now we apply our newfound knowledge of
pulls the lever. They hear a click. Was
game design fundamentals to the mechanics and
that the door unlocking? But something’s
features we’ve identified in the previous step.
not right—there’s a low rumble, and
This is the part halfway between “magic system
suddenly the floor gives way!
that uses spirit energy to create fire” and “spend 3
SP to inflict 7 fire damage.” We’ll begin to dial in Reacting quickly, our protagonist scram-
the details and get hands-on with the rewards, bles to cling on to any stable surface they
obstacles, and consequences of the various parts of can, but to no avail. As they fall into a
our game. It’s where we begin to give form to our seemingly bottomless abyss, they slow
game’s level design. This step is probably the most their descent by nimbly grasping onto
difficult and time consuming, especially for those outcroppings and roots that protrude
newer to game design. from the walls of the pit.

First, let’s recap. We understand that “fun” Finally, our protagonist manages to grab
comes from well-designed cognitive flow. We also hold of a vine and watches as rocks and
understand that well designed cognitive flow bricks fall past them and into the abyss.
comes from bouncing our game’s intensity level They can see a faint light coming from a
between boredom and frustration. By getting a window across the way, and a small ledge
good rhythm going, we draw the player into the they can carefully navigate to get there.
game. The tools we’ll use to create this rhythm
are mechanics and features. We know that we’ll
Now that we’ve outlined this moment, we evalu-
be able to identify and play with the rewards,
ate it using our game design fundamentals.
obstacles, and consequences of our mechanics and
features to fine tune how our cognitive flow plays out.
• What do our intensity levels look like through-
out this moment? Are we achieving ideal cogni-
To approach this part of the design process,
tive flow?
imagine what kind of awesome “movie moments”
• What mechanics can we leverage into creating
your game will have, evaluate them against
this moment? What are some of the rewards,
our game design fundamentals, and then work
obstacles, and consequences they can bring to
backwards to recreate them. Maybe your movie
the table?
moment is turning the tables of a difficult battle
• What other tools can we use to enhance or mod-
by using your game’s signature counterattacking
ify the moment’s cognitive flow?
mechanic. Or maybe it’s a special aerial skill that
the player used with perfect timing as a shortcut
Let’s go through our example moment and pick
through a difficult platforming level. As an exam-
it apart.
ple, let’s go back to our psychological mystery puz-
zle game and define one of its “movie moments.”
Our protagonist’s face glimmers faintly
from a dim torch. They’ve spent hours
Our protagonist’s face glimmers faintly
underground and are lost deep within
from a dim torch. They’ve spent hours
the cultists’ underground labyrinth. They
underground and are lost deep within
open the door to the next room and find

20 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
 a floor switch, a locked door, and a lever association by making this lever unique (adding
behind a gate. the consequence only to the “pull unique lever”
mechanic), or explicitly attributing the cave in to
some external factor (such as a malfunction in the
Our atmosphere here is a perfect setup for the
mechanisms, or age).
feeling of anticipation. We can capitalize on an
activity as simple as opening a door to pan the
camera and communicate exactly what the player Reacting quickly, our protagonist scram-
should be finding significant in the next area. By bles to cling on to any stable surface they
doing this, we can limit unintended spikes in frus- can, but to no avail. As they fall into a
tration due to the player missing a critical piece of seemingly bottomless abyss, they slow
the puzzle. This is important considering the next bit. their descent by nimbly grasping onto
outcroppings and roots that protrude
from the walls of the pit.
Testing the switch, our protagonist finds
that the gate opens while the switch is
depressed. Finding this challenge almost
too simple, they use some rock debris In this moment we can use something like a
from a corner to hold it down. quick time event to add interactivity and allow the
player to influence how this sequence plays out. A
quick time event is a series of button presses that
Since we’ll soon be pulling the rug from under
the player has to execute within a time constraint.
the player’s feet, we’ll want to lure them into a
We can add consequences like “the player takes
false sense of security. Our intensity level should be
damage with every failure” or “if the player doesn’t
pretty low and stable to maximize our trick’s effec-
succeed on enough button presses they get a game
tiveness. Consider how the player will feel as they
over screen” or “the better the player performs, the
approach the switch. Have there often been conse-
less climbing they have to do afterward.” We can
quences to pressing switches, and will the player
use the natural intensity of the situation to create
be apprehensive to do so? If so, we may need to
obstacles, such as obscuring the button the player
bring in an element that reinforces the safety of
has to press with a shaking camera or requiring
this particular situation—maybe the player has
complex, simultaneous button combinations.
some way to see its mechanisms in the wall, or
has some other way to ascertain the switch’s pur-
pose. Also, consider the debris pile. We don’t want Finally, our protagonist manages to grab
to shake up our intensity too much yet, so make hold of a vine and watches as rocks and
sure there are not a lot of obstacles getting in the bricks fall past them and into the abyss.
player’s way of completing this part. We only need They can see a faint light coming from a
enough to keep the player from becoming suspi- window across the way, and a small ledge
cious of the whole event - for example, having to they can carefully navigate to get there.
jump and throw the debris over a small hole.
Here we start dropping our intensity levels back
The gate retracts into the ceiling. Con- down from maximum. The player is not completely
fident, our protagonist walks over and safe yet as they still have this perilous ledge to
pulls the lever. They hear a click. Was cross, and this will serve as a good transition down
that the door unlocking? But something’s from the high we just had earlier. Our ledge climb-
not right - there’s a low rumble, and sud- ing mechanics might have obvious consequences
denly the floor gives way! such as “you can fall to your death” but remember
that our intense moment was the collapse, not this
part. We want to make sure we don’t steal too much
Our big moment has arrived. Intensity is going
of that part’s light by making this one too intense.
to spike to maximum as the player realizes they’ve
been bamboozled and the action picks up after a
This evalualuation is by no means complete, but
satisfying lull. Keep in mind that this event could
it does illustrate many of the ways a game designer
add the “might be a trick” consequence to our “pull
has to think about the different parts of their game
lever” mechanic, which will absolutely affect future
as it comes together.
parts of our game. We may need to deflect this

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 21
 4
4) Execute, reevaluate, refine, repeat!

An idea is just an idea - the part that turns your

idea into something playable is called execution or
implementation. This article won’t go into heavy
detail about actual development; that you’ll need
Let’s say that our game features combat abilities
as a mechanic, and one of the abilities is called
bash. To figure out how much damage bash should
deal, we simply ask ourselves, “How do we want
this ability to change our TTK?” If we want bash to
be rather rewarding to use, maybe we would want
it to cut our TTK from six attacks to three - so it
would deal about 50 damage (half the TTK and so
half slime’s health). If we want bash to not be so
prominent, then maybe its use would only reduce
to research on your own. But I do want to take a
moment to talk about prototyping, playtesting, and our TTK by one attack—so it would deal 34~38
the process of refining and balancing your game. damage (twice that of a normal attack).
These are absolutely vital elements and is also
some of the more intimidating and painful parts of Say we want to add a defensive stance mechanic
game development. that reduces incoming damage by an amount. But
by how much should this stance reduce incoming
Let’s presume you get some sort of playable damage by? We again ask ourselves: “How do we
prototype of your game made. Maybe you’ve made want this to change our TTK?” However, maybe our
crude mockups of your card game on index cards, answer isn’t as simple as “three attacks” or “one
or maybe you scripted out a quick feature demo attack” this time around. Maybe it’s something
in your programming language of choice. Most more dynamic and complex, such as “a smaller
people’s approach to testing their game is to plug amount at lower current health values but a larger
numbers into their mechanics that sound some- amount at higher current health values.” We might
what reasonable and hope for the best as they test land on a ridiculous formula like “(currentHealth
it out. Don’t be like most people! We’re going to / maxHealth + 1) * currentHealth0.6 ”—but nobody
take a much more methodical approach. can look at this and immediately see what this
means for our slime. Instead, we can crunch the
First we’ll need to establish our initial time to numbers (good luck) and see if this formula has
kill, or TTK. This is a number that represents the a good relationship with our TTKs. Finally, we
typical amount of unit of measurement it will take define the defensive stance mechanic as increasing
to overcome a controlled obstacle in the game. Our our TTK by “approximately one and a half times”.
unit of measurement can be turns, resources, or This is much easier to digest than the algebra we
money, but most often it’s a unit of time, usually started with.
seconds. Our obstacle can be things such as an
enemy, a quest item the player has to retrieve, or a Using TTKs to measure things is effective
platforming segment. Once we establish our base- because it keeps us grounded. It’s easier to com-
line TTK, we’ll use it as a standard against other prehend “I want another enemy that’s twice as
elements of our game. hard to defeat as the basic slime” than “I want
another enemy with 163 health.” This becomes
As an example, let’s say that we want our basic especially true when non-linear mechanics (such
hero with a basic weapon to defeat the basic slime as our defense stance mechanic) start getting
in 6 attacks—in other words, our basic slime’s TTK thrown into the mix and complicating these rela-
is 6 attacks. If we decide on a good starting health tionships. It’s a powerful tool to keep track of how
value for this slime—say, 100—then to achieve this our game is playing out as things change. As our
TTK our basic weapon will need to deal between game grows in scope, we may end up defining sev-
17~19 damage per attack. Any other value would eral baseline TTKs—for example, a “basic” enemy
be more or fewer than 6 attacks. We can calculate of each level can serve as the standard TTK which
how long it takes to do 6 attacks and also get our every other enemy of that level gets measured
TTK measured in seconds, if we wanted to create a against. We can calculate a recommended charac-
standard with that metric instead. ter level for each game level based on that level’s
“basic” enemy and our intended TTK.

22 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
 Some other things to consider as your game So where do I begin my anime themed open
becomes more playable: world PvP survival MMO with crafting and base
building?
• Is your game successfully passing its intended
intensity levels to the player? Congratulations, you’ve completed an introduc-
• Do your game mechanics have interesting and tory crash course in game design fundamentals.
meaningful relationships? For example, can Don’t worry, there’s only four years, five dozen
a defensive stance actually change the out- employees, and a ten million dollar crowdfunding
come of a scenario or does it merely delay the campaign separating you and your dream game.
inevitable? But that’s nothing a little determination and effort
• Are there any instances of dissonance between can’t overcome, right?
your mechanics? Do mechanics that are sup-
posed to fight each other or work together do so You’re now armed with enough knowledge to
as expected? begin designing games out of the worlds you’ve
• Are the obvious parts of your game obvious created as a worldbuilder. But don’t expect to
enough and are the obscure parts obscure become the next millionaire indie developer! Like
enough? Do things progress smoothly and all things, developing this skill will take lots of
according to plan, or is the player stumbling? practice, and being successful in this field requires
no small amount of luck. Not to mention that many
And most importantly... games have other requirements, such as program-
ming knowledge or the ability to fabricate game
• Is the game actually fun? pieces.
For most worldbuilders, one of the easiest ways
Having sound game design fundamentals does to create a game out of their world is to make
not automatically make people care about what’s a homebrew tabletop RPG. Worldbuilders are
happening within your game world. It doesn’t already storytellers, which is the half the job of a
magically mean your mechanics are interesting. GM in a tabletop RPG. The other half is marrying
And the experience you deliver isn’t going to be this story with fun and engaging mechanics that
immersive just because your game is perfectly bal- suck the players into the world you’ve created.
anced. Areas of your game that you thought might Tabletop RPGs require few pieces beyond sheets
be huge hits might turn out to be awkward or unin- that outline characters, simple maps that can be
tuitive. Parts that you think are really cool might drawn on paper or a whiteboard, and little figures
need to be cut out. Some mechanics might end up that can represent different characters. Thanks to
clashing in way that can’t be rectified without large the magic of the internet, these things don’t even
sacrifices. And when that happens, reevaluate. need to be physical anymore. I’d like to give a shout
Add some new mechanics or change existing ones. out to Tabletop Simulator, GMForge (made by /u/
Maybe using a wealth stat to determine a nation’s noobulater!), and roll20.net.
attack power ended up not being the best idea,
and you decide you need to add a military stat (but For those wanting to make a video game,
be mindful of feature creep!). Don’t think of these remember that you might need art and sound
things as signs you have a bad game, this is just the assets in addition to programming skills. Consider
process. As they say: game software such GameMaker, Godot, and Unity.
These tools have great communities behind them
“No plan survives contact with reality." and are very useful to both novices and vets.

In the end, remember that game design is an art

form not unlike worldbuilding. Like all art forms,
they can be their most powerful when you break
their established rules. So be creative—as long as
it’s fun, you’re doing a good job!

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 23
 WBSPN: In-world sports
UNoahGuy

H ello and welcome to the first airing of WBSPN!

The Worldbuilding Sports Network is dedicated
to the creation and maintenance of the wacky, or
version. On the other hand, cultures that value
individual achievement might have more personal
based sports where each person is their own team.
otherwise unusual, sports seen throughout the However, this does not mean a collectivist culture
worldbuilding community! will not enjoy these types of sports.

In most worlds, including this one, sports fre- Rules determining the pace of, and amount of
quently develop from ancient military practices or effort required in, each game might also change
from children messing around. In the real world depending on the larger culture. Take the United
sports such as sprinting, wrestling, archery, and States for example. As the culture becomes more
boxing seem to come directly from the military connected and concerned with fast-paced excite-
traditions in the ancient Near-East. Other ancient ment slow sports lose their popularity. Take the
sports such as lacrosse and the mesoamerican continual rise of fast paced hockey compared to
ball game rely heavily on team building elements, baseball. Baseball was once considered America’s
also necessary in battle. Later sports built off of Pastime, but faster paced sports have begun to
elements of earlier games to change them up or eclipse it.
improve on them, as can be seen in the divergence
in between rugby and American football. Sports also have the effect of changing the cul-
tures that play them. The sheer economic effects
Think about your own worlds’ histories: what of the Superbowl and the World Cup cannot be
military activities did early armies have to train understated. 1.25 billion chicken wings are eaten
for? Dragon-riding? Tree-climbing? Rock-throw- on Superbowl Sunday in the US alone. Sub-cultures
ing? No matter what the activity is, try to use it as of soccer fans, such as hooligans, can form around
a base for your future sport. Sports are a product certain teams and cause much trouble. Sports can
of not only history, but also anatomy and biology. be so universal in a culture that everything else
Maybe some of your races have special appendages could cease operating on a major gameday.
that can help them do certain things like hang from
trees with a tail. Think of these possibilities when Think about how it will be played and how it
coming up with your sport! In settings with multi- is won. Is there a point system? If not, how does
ple sentient species consider that different species a team consider themselves to be the victors?
might play different, specialized, roles. Then again, How often are points scored and how long are
one of more of the species do not even have to be the games are intended to last? These can also be
sentient for the game to be enjoyable. An example important factors to decide on. In high scoring
in the real world would be horse racing, as the games, like basketball or football, the audience
sport tests both the human jockey’s and the horse's does not erupt into the same kind of madness as
natural racing ability. Also, if you have a multi-race when a soccer star scores what may be the only
world, some sports might be exclusively played by goal of the entire game. Also, will you allow ties?
one race. Making every game a fight for victory, even beyond
a regulated end time, is fun but can be tiring on the
Perhaps one of the leading factors in how sports players and fans alike.
become popular is if the rules, play, and type of
game is compatible with the culture it was cre- There are some games that are terrifying for the
ated in. Cultures that value communication and players and amusing to the audience. Gladiatorial
teamwork will tend to have sports that reflect games or other “blood sports” can also exist in a
those characteristics. For example, soccer is an culture. Maybe the people that originated the sport
easy-to-play team sport played by most of the are particularly bellicose, or their religion requires
world. Americans for the most part have shunned unique and exorbitant sacrifices. These sports can
one game of football for another more bellicose develop from religious rituals or act as a cruel form

24 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
PICTURE

Photo: Marvin Ronsdorf on Unsplash

of execution for prisoners. Fighting to the death Lastly, look up different rules for major sports
could be a way of determining a winner in many in the real world and take inspiration. You must be
high-stakes games. prepared to write down the rules, so hypothetically
you and your friends could play it after perusing
If your world is set within the fantasy or sci-fi the rulebook and not get confused. People always
genre be prepared to go wild. Sports that involve love to play games, why should your world be an
magical or fantasy elements will always have a exception? But then again, exceptions are kind of
unique flair to them. Think of Quidditch, for exam- the rule when it comes to worldbuilding.
ple—however fun it sounds, Quidditch is a poorly
designed game relying too heavily on two players
and one ball. However, you must always make sure
your sport makes sense within your world; a high
fantasy world with curling as their favorite past
time might turn some heads, but as long as there is
proper reasoning and it just feels right, you’ll be fine.

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 25
 featured artist: xanth the wizard
My name’s Logan and I’m a third-year student craft my own world, it gives me the freedom to
in Illustration. I run a tabletop and fantasy inspired push my imagination and be silly. I love to surprise
blog on Tumblr where I discuss a variety of topics and delight my players, while also breaking the
I and post my own custom content twice a week. I serious fantasy conventions set by media like Lord
consider myself a storyteller and have been draw- of the Rings.
ing and writing since I was young. I’ve always loved
fantasy and got my first chance to play Dungeons Often my inspirations for designing custom
& Dragons in college; I’ve been hooked ever since. magic items or monsters comes from art that I
I’ve even started running my own campaign. Most find online or from my spontaneous thoughts. But
of my work is digital and has a fun cartoony look, when I’m out of ideas I often use random word
inspired by animated films and shows. I’m most generators and force myself to come up with a way
interested in drawing fantasy characters, monsters, to put the words/ideas together, no matter how
and magical items. awful. After a few rounds of having done that I look
at what I’ve got and throw away the bad stuff. It’s a
Despite having a serious and developed D&D lot of fun and will impress your players.
campaign, my world can be completely ridiculous.
A psychic squid that can only be activated by slap- See more work at:
ping someone? Sure. A magic talking mushroom
that lives in a log? Why not? I love being able to • Tumblr

Digital.

26 FEATURED ARTIST
Digital.

Cake the Wizard, Digital.

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 27
 Prompts
I t's easy to get stuck, hit writer's block, or overlook small
details. We would like to try and combat these troubles by
asking questions about your world that you may not have
thought of, as well as by offering writing prompts. If you would
like to write a short story based on one of the writing prompts,
or have a prompt you would like to share with us, please submit
it to us at [email protected] or social media.
Submitted stories must be based on the following prompts in
order to be eligible for reproduction in the next issue.

File Requirements:

• The file must be no longer than 5,000 words

• The file must include title and author(s)

Worldbuilding Prompts:

• What games do people in your world play?

• What festivals exist in your world?
• How advanced are the basic systems of infrastructure?
(Roads, sewers, water systems, etc)

Writing Prompts:

• It was a whistling sound, echoing, drawing nearer...

• The minstrel plucked her lute and her words drew tears to
the eyes of drunken men, all the while her companion had his
fingers deep in the pockets of a lord.
• At the edge of the shore he signed off on a package marked
only with a purple eye—no other address or names were
necessary.

28 FEATURED SHORT FICTION

The wizard and the soldier
StronglyOPlatypus

O stovios stretched a feeble hand out to grab

one of the bars. The cold metal on his skin felt
almost soothing compared to what he knew he was
the illusion his senses fed him. He was glad to
rid himself of the taste of blood in his mouth, to
shed the smells he had from his days in the cage,
about to endure. He rapped his ring against the smells that he would rather wash away and leave
steel as hard as he could, then held onto the bar for to the death flies for their vile sustenance. Finally,
dear life. Soon enough, the cart stopped, the cage Ostovios forced out the pain from his ribs. If he
shook, the lock opened, and a guard stood inside had not already numbed his senses, he thought, he
the cage before the wizard. Just like clockwork. might’ve felt a relieved sigh escape his mouth. He
Ostovios pretended to claw at the young sentinel’s muttered a small prayer to draw out the spiritual
shin and the man instinctively kicked. Then he essence of the leather, then abandoned the chill of
kicked again. And again, more uneasy this time, but the wind, the gentle droop of his skin on his old
no less painful. Over and over the ornate iron boot bones, any hint of the corporeal world that limited
struck the old scholar’s chest, over and over the his abilities until only the Void remained. Every-
guard mouthed “I’m sorry,” to Ostovios’s deaf ears, thing except his mind. His mind, and the leather he
and over and over Ostovios prayed to make it stop, had taken from the pitiable boy.
briefly regretting the choice he had made. But like
he always did, he endured it. No one truly knew what the Void was. What pri-
mal gods had created it, or why it remained even
When the onslaught was over Ostovios lay on after Reality was created. There was no direction
the floor, still holding the bar, coughing up blood. in the Void, no space or time. Ostovios and every-
His features contorted in pain. That face was one thing else in the accursed place, if you could call it
he did not have to fake. He released the bar he had a place at all, existed as a single point. This made
clung so tightly to and waited for the soldier to it very easy to find what he came for. Powerful
leave. When he was sure there was no one watch- magic, like the spell he was about to perform, came
ing him, that the door was locked and the cart at a price. Ostovios had once paid with his ears,
was moving again, Ostovios inspected the leather decades ago. He banished his sense of hearing to
strap he had pulled from the guard’s greave. That the soundless Void, severing his ears in a profane
was all he needed: an anchor to his soon-to-be ritual so that the sensation would have no con-
ally. The guard was a boy, really, couldn’t be more nection to his body in Reality. Now he had come
than twenty-five in age. He was a baby compared to retrieve his hearing. He willed it to him, to join
to Ostovios’s two hundred and sixty-four, unused with his disembodied mind and that of the leather
to war or keeping prisoners. One day, under dif- strap. The spirit of his ears in tow, he returned to
ferent circumstances, the boy might have learned the real world.
to follow his superiors’ orders blindly. But now,
with a young mind harboring ideals, scruples, and Ostovios rushed back to Reality, but stopped
misgivings, the sentry had his doubts. Or, that was short of returning to his body. His body contained
what Ostovios was counting on. Hopefully the his eyes and skin and nose, his muscles and bones.
guilt would delay the next beating long enough for If he entered it, again he would be a mere old man
Ostovios to win his freedom. at anyone’s mercy. So long as he was ethereal the
universe was his body, and it was malleable to him.
With the child gone, Ostovios began the spell. He could see nothing and feel nothing, but he could
First he closed his eyes. Sight was always the most hear. This was enough; the world tended to cater
powerful sense, and even with the lids closed to one’s senses, and what could be sensed could
tightly little glimpses of light peeked through. be changed. What Ostovios would have seen, felt,
He buried his head in his arms until everything and smelt under normal circumstances he now
was black, until even the blackness turned to a heard. And so it was that the trees around him, the
complete lack of any color at all. The wizard felt
his mind begin to wander, begin to free itself from

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 29
 hills, the horses pulling the cart, the cage and the Raloh thought back to the maxims he’d learned
wood, they all began to sing. It was a cacophony, an as a child, that the noble teachers would preach to
endless sea of noise. Very good. Now all that was him, that his caregivers would repeat whenever
needed was to find the noise he wanted. he did something wrong. “Never take that which is
not yours.” “Spill another’s blood only when they
The leather was emitting a small hum, plain as have spilt yours.” “Make true your promises, and
day to Ostovios. The leather, after all, was bound to hold others to their word.” The list went on and on.
his soul through magic. It was child’s play to tune He wondered how many of them they’d failed to
in to it, just as it was child’s play to hear the louder honor with their capture of this prisoner. Raloh’s
yet similar hum being emitted from, presumably, veins were still shut, so that was one. He could
the guard. Yes this would do; Ostovios set to work. only imagine how much had been stolen from the
He willed a melody into existence, replacing the captive, on top of his freedom and his home, of
hum: the soldier boy would dance to the wiz- course. And promises, he could only guess… No, he
ard’s tune now, not his own. A crescendo there, a shouldn’t think about the wizard. The sun had gone
decrescendo here; the guard’s feet would march down and the stars emerged in the time Raloh
to Ostovios’s beat, the speed of the song would was pondering the wizard. The wizard! It was past
decouple his age, the notes would chisel the young time to break Ostovios’s concentration again, but
man’s face, and Ostovios would be free. Satisfied for some reason Raloh’s feet didn’t let him stand.
with his master composition, only to be heard by Instead, a tear rolled down his face.
himself and his thrall, the wizard returned to his
physical form awaiting liberty. “What’s paining you, Ral?” Fayel turned and
asked. “I see it on your face, you’re not still think-
ing about the battle are you? There was nothing
you could have done.”
Raloh stared at the blood on his shoe, gripping
the reins of his horse in one hand and scratching “No, it’s not that, just…”
his chin with the other. It didn’t feel good, kicking
an old man like that. The guilt came over him in “What is it? Tell me, that’s an order.”
cycles. First he saw the blood; it always took a
moment for him to process that. Then he walked “The prisoner! He’s an old man and we’re send-
away; it would be too much to look the prisoner in ing him to die, if what we’re doing doesn’t kill him
the eyes as he suffered, to stare at his bloody stom- beforehand! I doubt he’s even of tactical importance;
ach, the glistening tears, and the rough, blackish Jiryg probably just has a grudge against the guy.”
scars that sat where ears should. Then he would
try to forget about it, and like any time one tries “Did you forget what they told us? He’s a wizard,
not to think about something the wizard would be dangerous, useful, he could win or lose us this war.
the sole thought in his mind. His contemplations I’m going to ignore that last part and remind you
would fester in his brain, breeding guilt and anger that even though we’re friends, I’m still your supe-
and something resembling remorse, but before rior, and should have you dismissed for any hint of
Raloh could determine exactly what he felt the insubordination.”
prisoner would make too much noise. Or make too
little. Or something would rub Fayel the wrong way
and it would be time to beat the breath out of a
helpless old man and begin the cycle anew. He won-
dered whether their guest would break first, or him.

30 FEATURED SHORT FICTION

 “Doesn’t seem like a magician to me. They’re as he stood and approached the cage behind him,
supposed to be able to bend stone, freeze fire, his foot falling to the beat of the drums. The music
make reality shift to fit their whims. Have you seen was almost solid now, it weighed heavy on his face
him do any of that?” Ral’s face felt hot, though like lead. He could feel it—feel the wrinkles appear
whether it was the summer sun, his fiery words, or on his face, the whitening hairs disappearing from
both, he could not tell. atop his head and appearing on his chin like weeds.
The soft strings fatigued him like nothing ever had
“How do you expect him to when we-” before, robbing the muscle from his bones. Slowly
the song faded away, imbuing him only with the
“Wait. Do you hear that?” strength and the overwhelming urge to open the
cage door, wake the sleeping prisoner, usher him
Fayel made a quizzical expression. A soft melody out of the door, lock himself inside it, and weakly
began to fill the air from the direction of the cage, throw the key at the feet of the terrified Fayel. His
Raloh could hear it plain as day. For whatever rea- eyes shut and the world went dark.
son Fayel didn’t seem to notice it at all. She didn’t
give any sign of hearing it, even as the music grew When Raloh awoke, he was in a different cage.
louder and faster with each passing moment, as This one was wider, made of stone, and had a pud-
instruments joined the invisible symphony, as a dle in the corner. A soldier stood watch, a familiar
strange feeling came over Raloh like he never felt face, but one Raloh could not quite recall the name
before. of. She saw his tired eyes and said something.
Raloh heard nothing, and brought his finger up to
The music was beautiful, and sad, and happy, clear his ear. He felt a scab where cartilage should
and angry, and calm, and every other emotion have been. Panic rose in his stomach, a fluttering
rolled into one. The music drowned out all other mess of bile and worry. The woman spoke again.
sound, all other sensation. Raloh felt nothing This time Raloh could see her lips form a word.
as his hand reached down to the blade by his “Wizard,” they spelt.
waist. There was no pain, and not the slightest
recognition of Fayel’s abject horror as the music
inexplicably drove him to sever his ears and twist
the point until it pierced the eardrums. Neither
did the music stop, even when Raloh had nothing
left to hear it with. It just grew louder and faster

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 31
 Stories of the American Civil War 1
Adam Bassett

J ust North of the City of Richmond, KY.

August 30th, 1862.
knife in his pocket and gave the man a nod, notic-
ing the blood on his leg. The stranger’s mouth
opened, he grumbled something incoherent, and
Horace whittled a lump of chestnut oak in a then tumbled ungracefully from the saddle. It
white wicker chair, contemplating the wheat field spooked the horse, which whinnied and danced
that swayed in the storm while listening to the dis- away from its fallen rider.
tant thundering. Then he noticed the rider in black “Shit,” Horace said.
approaching his home. The man wore a long coat Ed held tightly onto the rifle and pointed it at
and a short-brimmed cap, which appeared heavy the stranger while Robert and Horace dragged the
with the weight of stormwater glowing under the drenched and bloody man up the steps. Horace’s
fading light of dusk. It couldn’t have been anyone back and legs strained under the exertion. Rob was
he knew, Horace reasoned. He was no good com- not very strong yet, but he didn’t dare let that boy
pany, attested by the lack of visitors since his wife’s hold a rifle. At six no boy was smart enough to han-
passing. Besides, this weather would make even dle that sort of responsibility. Ed probably couldn’t
the dumbest folk stay indoors to comfort their fam- pull the trigger if he had to, but at least he would
ilies amid the booming cannons around Richmond. be careful. Once the stranger regained conscious-
No, this man had to be a stranger. His riding was ness he would be wary in the presence of a rifle
erratic and rushed—he nearly fell off the damn pointed at his skull.
horse when while rounding the path that lead to He lay on Horace’s porch, belly-up, making all
the porch which Horace sat upon. of his ugly features known to the three who stared
“Ed,” he said sternly, knowing the boy would at him. His cap was still out in the rain, having
hear through the open window. “Get the rifle. Make fallen during the struggle to lift him up the stairs.
sure it’s loaded.” Horace had no desire to go fetch it. Where it had
He heard Ed move around in the family room. rested upon his head there was instead a small
The rider lead his horse through a winding road mess of brown hair, mostly dry at the top but
that lined the wheat and around a hill, the tall dripping everywhere else. The dark coat, upon
stalks almost completely obscuring him in the further examination, was in fact dark blue before
storm. Horace strained his eyes but they were not the storm. Rows of brass buttons were sewn across
as keen as they used to be; once or twice he lost his belly and chest, and yellow-lined bars were on
the man’s position among the fields. Had he been each shoulder. Blood leaked from a hole in his left
able to harvest when he wanted this year, and had leg, a few inches above his knee, and a scar split his
the rains not come so often, he would have had no lip. The man’s chin was wide and his nose looked
such trouble. But alas, here he was with a field full broken, but there was no sign of blood around it.
of aging wheat, a whittling knife, and old eyes that Horace stood over the tall stranger, grunted, and
made it hard to even see the stranger who lurched told Ed to keep an eye out for any others.
toward his home. “He’s an army man,” Robert declared.
Horace could hear Ed arguing with young Rob- Horace nodded. The boy was right. No sense in
ert inside. “Back off!” Ed commanded his little lying; not about that, at least.
brother. “Hurry! No, you can’t hold it Rob. Papa “Northerner,” Horace muttered. He listened for
wants you to go to bed, lock the door. Just go! I’ll any others which might be slithering through his
get you a snack or somethin’ later.” wheat fields, but it was hard to pick anything out of
Robert raised his voice to match Ed’s. “Why?” the storm.
“Because Pa said so!” “A Yankee!” Robert shouted. “Robert Darren’s Pa
“But why can’t I hold the gun?” says they steal girls and all your stuff!”
“‘Cause you can’t!” “Mr. Darren’s an idiot,” Horace said.
The rider was near the foot of the stairs lead- “Keep him away from me!”
ing up to their porch when the two boys finally Ed adjusted his grip on the rifle, looking a bit
stepped outside. Horace gripped the whittling less confident.

32 FEATURED SHORT FICTION

 “He’s just a man,” Horace told his sons. “Just a
man born in another part of the country.”
“Not our country no more,” Robert declared.
“Kentucky’s still a part of Lincoln’s States,” Ed
said.
“Nu-uh.”
“Shut up Rob! It is.”
“Boys!” Horace growled. They stopped. Through
the rain he could hear men shouting like whis-
pers on the wind. Every couple of seconds, rifles
popped. Cannons thundered. Among the rustling
leaves Horace could hear the cries of men at war.
“Help me get him inside.”
“But he’s the enemy.”
“Quiet, Rob,” Horace yelled. He knew, when he
looked at the child’s reddening face, that he had
lost his temper. Horace took a breath, collecting
himself. He lifted the wounded soldier and told
Rob to do the same, albeit more gently. Rob did his
best. “I’m not leaving an unconscious man on my
porch,” Horace said. “Not what your Ma would have
done.”
“So?” Robert asked.
Horace pretended he hadn’t heard the brat.
Ed let go of the gun and helped lift the stranger.
Horace inspected the wound after they set him on
the round kitchen table, his feet and right forearm
dangling off, not before spitting on his fingers and
wiping the dirt off on his pants. Blood swelled
where he prodded the leg wound, seeping into the
uniform around it. There was nothing to be done
about the leg, save perhaps amputation, but Horace
didn’t have it in him to chop a man’s leg off. The
procedure would most likely kill the stranger, scar
the kids, and make a mess of his home.
“Ed,” he said to his oldest son, “why don’t you go
and see if you can find Mrs. Harris. She should be
home.”
“Pop—”
“Go. Tell her it’s an emergency. A southern boy
badly wounded.”
“But that’s a northern soldier,” Robert pointed
out.
Ed nodded. “That’s more than a mile aways,
though. It’ll take all night to get there.”
“No it won’t,” Horace sighed. “Forty minutes,
tops. You’re quick.”
“Best get movin’,” Robert sneered. Though he
looked conflicted.

Photo: Erda Estremera on Unsplash

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 33
 Ed huffed and put on a raincoat. Horace thanked shirts Robert brought. Horace grinned, remember-
him but the boy said nothing back and walked out ing that it had been the fourth stain he’d gotten in
the door, tossing his Pop the rifle before slamming the course of a single week, just a few years back,
the door shut and running out into the storm. when Rebecca wasn’t yet ill. She’d beat him with
Horace tossed it on the couch. The rifle made a soft her bare hands and shouted about how clumsy he
thud. was, how it just had to be the button-down one
“Stay away from that,” he said to Robert. that she liked and how he better wish God was
His son was already walking down the hall to his fond of him—if she couldn’t get that out she would
bedroom. kill him.
Horace inspected the stranger for any other He smiled at the stain. Lord, he missed his wife.
wounds. There were a few scratches around his “Thank you, son. Stay close please, I may need
ankles and hands, and he noticed a bit of scorched you again.”
fabric on the soldier’s shoulder. Fragments of the Robert nodded and ran off somewhere. Horace
northerner’s uniform flaked into ash in Horace’s took a pair of scissors from the drawer beneath
fingers, which he smelled. He wondered why he the coffee pot and pulled the soldier’s coat off,
bothered. It smelled like ash. cutting his legs free of the soaked and bloody
Horace yelled for Rob to go fetch a few of his trousers as well. He tossed the ribbons on the
clothes from the tall floor. The buttons collided
dresser in his bedroom, with the wooden boards
while starting to rifle louder than he expected.
through the uncon- Horace looked through the
scious soldier’s pockets. Morgan looked up at the windows, wondering what
He had a few spare happened to the rest of the
minie ball rounds in boys. “You may want to step Northerners, stopping his
one, and it occurred to
Horace how fortunate
aside. This won’t be pretty,” work long enough to lock
the front door. There had
the northerner was not she warned. been thousands of men and
to have been hit with a dozen cannons; Ed was
one of those. He would ecstatic about it the other
have never made it to Horace’s farm. He wouldn’t day, having claimed to see the glint of the soldiers’
have made it half that distance. In the other pocket steel through the woods. The boys had wanted to
was a wallet which contained two dollars, a hand- go see the battle yesterday when they heard the
ful of coins, a slip of folded paper that when unrav- thunder from the cannons and the chorus of rifles
elled read Jacob West, and two small and worn and shouts, before the rain began. He wondered if
pictures. The first was of a man who looked a bit they’d ever learn how lucky they were to have a Pa
like the man on the table, but without the promi- who wouldn’t let them picnic beside a battlefield.
nent lip scar. The second was of a woman with the Horace finished cutting. He’d exposed the
soldier, both smiling, standing beside a pond under wounded leg and left the other half of the strang-
a tree covered in small white flowers. Horace put er's trousers intact. He explored the hole again.
the money into his own pocket, putting the rest As grotesque as it was, the charred and torn flesh
back. He stopped and looked the young man over. was also fascinating to behold. He prodded it with
He could feel a stinging panic begin to set in; he a finger and blood spilled down the soldier’s leg,
stared at the body on his kitchen table, still bleed- catching in his leg hair and dripping down onto the
ing from the wound in its leg, blood beginning to table. Horace wiped it off with a finger and dragged
pool on the wood. Instinctively he swept it away it across the stranger’s coat. He heard Robert make
with a nearby rag—smearing the red in a thin a yuck sound, followed by his boy’s feet beating
film over the table—and soon he gave up. Rebecca down the hall.
would have been furious... The coffee was old and room-temperature but
...Horace looked up as heavy footsteps it felt good to hold the mug. He would have made
approached from down the hall. Robert a fresh pot for Morgan when she arrived but he
approached with hands full of old clothes. They needed to sit down more, and he had become
were torn and sun-stained, and maybe a bit too accustomed to old coffee. He could always offer her
big, but it would do. A pink stain was on one of the some water.

34 FEATURED SHORT FICTION

 It still amazed Horace what a man could get “Ed, grab that bag I brought please.”
used to. Used to be that every morning Rebecca Ed moved quickly, presenting the duffel bag to
would make a fresh batch of coffee. The house Morgan as if it were a treasure. She was preoccu-
would fill with the scent of whatever beans he was pied for a moment, taking a glass from the sink
able to find in town. She liked a dark roast, he liked and filling it with well water from a barrel beside
milk and plenty of sugar; a mean sweet cup, she the ice box. She thanked Ed when she returned to
called it. He had that just about every morning for the table and pushed the soldier aside. She set the
seventeen years, then he would tend the fields. She bag beside his head, unzipping and rifling through
would settle into the couch and mend the clothes its contents. Ed rejoined Horace by the counter,
of whoever left them for her. It was a small busi- crossed his arms, and returned to watching Mor-
ness, but she made a quarter for the little things gan clean the wound. She poured water over it—
and a dollar for major work. The others who lived Horace immediately became aware of the water
nearby adored Rebecca for the service. Horace had damage that would be done to his table—and
gotten used to that routine—coffee, a bite of bread, then retrieved her metal instruments. There were
working the fields, and coming home to see his pliers, tweezers, scissors large and small, a few
wife in the couch mending one of the neighbors’ knives, and sutures together with a needle.
garments... “The bullet is still in his leg,” she announced. “I
...the slamming door interrupted his bitter- need to take it out. Horace, would you like to grab
sweet memories. Ed walked in first, looking like me a tarp or somethin’ to catch the blood? It could
he stopped to swim in the river on the way back, get messy.”
with a woman in tow. Morgan Harris was a tall Horace brought her a few rags, which were still
woman and stepped inside with a sense of pur- damp from doing dishes earlier, but would help
pose. Her high boots stomped on the welcome mat, at least. Together they lodged a few beneath the
leaving mud behind where she scraped them. She soldier’s leg and wrapped more around the wound.
carried a duffel bag over one shoulder and a small They would be ruined, but the floral pattern was a
umbrella over the other. She set the bag half atop bit much for his taste, and they were well-stained
the welcome mat, the umbrella atop it, the slight already anyway.
incline allowing rainwater to pool around the Morgan looked up at the boys. “You may want to
base. Her coat was a pale green color and her thick step aside. This won’t be pretty,” she warned.
framed glasses so closely resembled the color of Neither moved.
her black hair that, to Horace, it seemed as if they “Suit yourselves,” she said.
had merged as one around her ears. She was drip- Morgan began searching for the bullet, now
ping with water from the storm when Ed took her lodged deep in the soldier’s leg, feeling for it with
coat like a little gentleman, even walking a little her fingers and moving the flesh aside with the
straighter as he carried it to the hooks on the wall. smallest pair of scissors. She ignored the steady
Horace suppressed his grin. blood flow that had already soaked one of the
“Morgan,” he said. “Thank you for coming at rags with a steely determination, even when the
such short notice.” soldier’s eyes opened and a bellowing wail left his
“Ed said somebody was hurt?” mouth. Robert left the kitchen, though he could still
“Yes, this way. I believe the young man may have hear the boy in the family room. Horace walked
been caught in the crossfire at Richmond. A bullet, forward when Morgan called for him and held the
looks like. How he found his way here is beyond man still. He thrashed for a moment and Morgan
me.” took him by the face, putting aside her work for a
Morgan took a minute to examine the man. She moment, telling him that if he didn’t stay still he
opened his eyelids—he made no response—and would die.
searched for any signs of injury beyond the leg “Keep up the pressure,” Morgan instructed. She
wound that Robert pointed out the moment he tossed a rag from beneath the man’s leg at Horace
walked back into the kitchen. and said, “He needs something to bite down on.”
“Is his nose broken?” she asked. Horace set the part of the rag that hadn’t been
“Not sure,” Ed said. He stood with Horace, both bloodied in the man’s mouth and told him to bite
leaning against the counter, watching the horse down. He did. The shouts were muffled by the wet
doctor work on the soldier. If she was struggling cloth and the stranger's tears rolled across his face,
to decide what to do, she made a convincing show toward his ears. Morgan yelled back for the man to
otherwise.

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 35
 keep still. Horace found a better grip and secured from his father’s embrace and telling him that he
the young man’s leg, already beginning to feel was hungry. Horace was glad it was over—is knees
sweat run down his back. The man’s hands gripped hurt from the way he was sitting and he hated
the sides of the table and held tight. Morgan made these fits. They walked together back into the
a noise—Horace looked up at her and found that kitchen, where Horace noticed that Rob wouldn’t
he could not see her eyes beneath damp and look at the wounded soldier. Ed was talking with
disheveled bangs. Morgan, his arms crossed over his chest and his
“Pa,” Robert shouted. voice cracking a little, asking about the stranger.
“I’ve found it,” Morgan announced. “Hey,” Ed said, “Mr. Lewis was wounded like
The soldier was breathing loudly, his chest this... fella’. Think he’ll end up in a wheelchair too?”
heaving. “Hard to say,” Morgan said, looking over the
“What?” Horace yelled to his son. wound once more. “We’ll know more when he
“I don’t like this.” wakes. Even if he can’t walk now there’s a good
“I need to get the bullet out, hon,” Morgan nearly chance he will just need time to heal. The wound
shouted, not waiting for his response before going was clean. Not sure exactly what comes next. I
back into the poor man’s leg with her tools. He just didn’t have the best tools for this — there I
wailed through the rag, looking up at Morgan the was, expecting to finish my coffee and read a little
best he could. Horace saw tears in the man’s eyes. tonight, check on the horses before bed and such,
“Pa?” when Ed comes out of the dark and tell me a man’s
“A minute,” he said. been shot.”
Morgan hissed a few cusses and the soldier “Sorry,” Horace said.
cried out. She bit her lip and hunched down closer She laughed. “It’s fine.”
to the wound, slowly shifting her fingers and twee- There was a moment of silence. Robert made his
zers inside the man’s leg. way into the kitchen, keeping far from the bloody
“Pa.” table. He grabbed a piece of bread from a loaf on
“Ed! Do something!” the counter and buttered it, declaring, “I think he
Morgan’s lips curled into a smile and she slowly will be okay,” before walking back to his room with
raised her hands from the wound. She cradled the a mouthful. He said something else as he left, the
bullet between the tweezers and a long middle word wheelchair in there somewhere, but it was
finger, lifting it from the flesh it had bored into. She muffled by his snack.
dropped it on the bloody rags around the man’s leg “I guess that settles it,” Horace said. Morgan
and took a step back, grinning like a fool. laughed.
“We did it,” she said. She stayed up with him after the boys had gone
The soldier lay there on the table, unmoving. to bed. Horace was sure it was due to the fact it
Upon further inspection Horace discovered the was still raining. He knew that he made terrible
man was once again unconscious. company. He offered her coffee again, only remem-
“Pa,” Ed said softly. bering that she had already declined when she did
“I’m on my way.” so again by using nearly the same words. Horace
“Is he okay?” idled in the kitchen for a minute while she made
“Yes,” Horace said, walking quickly to the hall her way to the couch, deciding that it was good
where his sons hid. time for a smoke, and stepped over to the couch.
Robert was crying. Ed held his brother’s shoul- Morgan was watching him while he set the rifle
der, looking out of place. aside and sat down with his pipe kit, taking it out
“What’s going on?” he asked, sitting in front of of the thin wooden box that Rebecca and the boys
his youngest. made for him one christmas. He put a leg up on the
“The - the-” coffee table, then down on the floor again when he
“It’s reminding him of Ma,” Ed said. remembered some people thought it was impolite.
“Oh,” Horace said, speaking to Robert. “I’m sorry, Besides, one of the legs wobbled a bit. That would
son. Listen—hey—there’s no need for all of this. need fixing soon, before one of the boys made
Listen, your Ma is fine. She’s not sick anymore.” it worse. It was probably just a loose screw, he
“I wish she didn’t go.” hoped. It should be a simple fix.
Horace held his son close. Ed walked off. Robert “Horace?”
cried for a while after that, eventually pulling away He faced his guest, his fingers navigating the
pipe kit without needing to look.

36 FEATURED SHORT FICTION

 “How have things been?” He aimed as Morgan approached, putting the
“Fine,” he lied, stuffing the pipe with some northerner’s chest in line with the sights. When
tobacco from Teddy Wilson’s shop in town. Might they rounded the bloody kitchen table the soldier
be the last he’ll ever get from that man; he went was clutching at his leg, recoiling when his dirty
south to join the Confederates a few weeks ago. If fingers brushed the stitching. He poked Morgan’s
he died maybe his wife would keep the business handiwork, a dumb expression on his face.
up until their son could run it. “Ed’s gotten over “Hey!” She swatted him. He pushed himself
it. Robert will take longer, but he won’t remember away from her along the floor with his good leg, his
much of this later. Boy’s lucky ‘bout that.” boots dragging in front of him. “Now I worked hard
She nodded. “Plenty of things I wish I could on that. Don’t you go ruining it!”
forget.” “No, no ma’am.”
Horace lit a match and pressed at against the Horace was surprised to hear a Kentuckian
tobacco, watching it take on the flame. “Yeah,” he accent in that shaky, young voice.
said. She paused. “Good.”
“They’ve grown so quick.” “What time is it?” he asked.
“Ed’s gotten tall this year,” he took the pipe Morgan’s head swivelled looking for a clock.
into his mouth and sucked air in, letting the sweet “Quarter-past eleven,” Horace told him. “Wel-
smoke linger on his tongue. come back.”
“Oh my goodness, he has! Almost didn’t recog-
nize him when he showed up,” she said, taking a sip
from her drink. Horace couldn’t recall giving that
cup to her. He stuffed his hands into his pockets
and looked past the woman to the soldier. He was
moving the way somebody in a bad dream shifted
in their sleep.
“That smells delicious,” Morgan said, watching
him closely.
He handed her the pipe. She put it between
her lips and breathed in, an odd look in her eyes.
Her fingers caressed the wooden pipe as the
leaves blackened and burned, watching him. As
she exhaled smoke wafted around her chin, and
her nose, and her lips which generously wrapped
around the pipe’s stem once more. She breathed
in again, her eyes fixed on his, and breathed out
another slow shifting stream of grey sweet-smell-
ing smoke.
He took the pipe back from her, which she
allowed, and bit on on the stem. He could taste
a change in the pipe. He could feel the heat from
her breath on the stem and—he stood and turned
away from her, staring out the window at the rain
which poured mercilessly and listening to the wind
which wailed against his home. The windows rat-
tled and lightning tore at the sky over the trees and
wheat.
Horace sucked in a deep breath of his pipe
smoke, coughing.
The northerner grunted. Horace looked over
Morgan’s shoulder as he fell off the table. His
descent was quick and resulted in a hard thud. As
the man bemoaned the pain and gripped his leg,
Horace took the rifle that he’d left on the couch.

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 37
 A Universe in Constant Flux:
Building the World of Warcraft
Casparata

T he year is 1994. A few people have a meeting

to discuss the marketing strategy for their
current project. They’re working for a company
this Stormwind Keep!’” Together with Millar, Rose
created the Kingdom of Azeroth that was set to be
invaded by orcs—the premise of “Warcraft: Orcs &
founded under the name “Silicon & Synapse” three Humans” was born.
years before that had a brief rebranding period
as “Chaos Studios”; just recently it changed again The World of Warcraft I
to “Blizzard Entertainment”. The project is called
“Warcraft” and it’s supposed to be a real-time strat- The setting became a melting pot of 1990s
egy game. This is a new market to break into, there fantasy stereotypes, fueled by the golden age of
have been only one or two other titles of note in pen and paper behemoths like Dungeons & Drag-
this emerging genre, and on top of that Warcraft is ons. In a kind of magic-infused medieval period
supposed to be the future of the company. There’s noble human knights rode into battle against
only one problem: the team is divided over what brutal orcish hordes; sorcerers conjured water
the game should be about. elementals and giant scorpions, while warlocks
summoned fire and demons; ogres, skeleton war-
Allen Adham, one of the company’s founders, riors, giant spiders, gelatinous monsters and fire
would really like to turn this into a series of his- elementals all joined in; lizardmen, hobgoblins
toric games with a white box design that’s easily and halflings narrowly didn’t make the cut because
recognizable on the shelves: “Warcraft: The Roman of budget reasons. From today’s perspective you
Empire”, “Warcraft: Vietnam”, et cetera. Ron Mil- wouldn’t call the result very original.
lar and Sam Didier, two of the graphic designers
present in the meeting, don’t like this idea at all. However, a fictional universe’s character is
“They enjoyed fantasy games like Warhammer and not only defined by its overall setting and inhab-
Dungeons & Dragons”, writes Patrick Wyatt on his itants but also by the stories told within it and
blog years later. He is the guy handling the game’s how they’re portrayed. While Blizzard may have
naked code. In a clever bid Millar and Didier man- faltered on the originality front they got to work
age to sell the rest of the team on a fantasy setting on the narrative: the conflict between humans and
by advocating innovation and differentiation; after orcs would go on to be the narrative foundation for
all, wasn’t a world populated by orcs and humans a all Warcraft games, and the portal through which
much better canvas for the unique visual style that the orcs invaded became the focal point for many
was to set Warcraft apart from its competition? story arcs. Yet, more importantly, was the develop-
ment of the visual design of the world.
Everything that followed was about the exact
opposite of systematic worldbuilding; no one laid “We started out trying to make things more
the foundation for the world’s cosmology, and realistic. But in the game, the realistic stuff was
nobody cared about new and interesting concepts thin and tall and just didn’t look powerful. So we
regarding lore. The team was on a tight deadline started squashing the characters so they looked
and consequently all designs had to fit the game’s better from the camera angle, and it just turned out
mechanics. Stu Rose, another designer on the team, that they looked cool and mighty”, says Sam Didier
remembers the process as somewhat chaotic in in Stay Awhile and Listen. Bulky fantasy warriors
Stay Awhile and Listen, a book retracing the com- would become his signature style and what is rec-
pany’s early steps to success: “I took some initial ognized today as the “Blizzard look”. Interestingly
ideas that Allen had, and ideas Ron Millar had a game with a license for the Warhammer universe
about scenario designs, and pretty much fleshed was also briefly on the table at this stage, so the
out a lot of the names. I was pulling names out of distinct design might have took some inspiration
my… uh, out of different orifices. ‘I think I’ll call from it as well.

38 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
 Its style, along with the flashy colors, gave the Metzen. Metzen is a designer who first contributed
world of Warcraft a somewhat cartoony appear- a lot of art and then large parts of lore, later going
ance that in turn opened up new opportunities on to become Creative Director of the sequel. How
in worldbuilding: if a world doesn’t take itself did Blizzard manage to build a consistent world
too seriously in its appearance one might as well over such a long time? How do all of the new
throw in some more crazy ideas. In the end this is elements that have been added over the years fit
what saved the inhabitants of Azeroth from their neatly into the existing picture? The short answer
generic roots, and they would gain an increasingly is that they didn’t, and they don’t. Blizzard is just
distinct flavour in games to come. really good at creating the illusion that all pieces
fall into place. Only players who have experienced
Turning a Kitchen Sink into a Recognizable Warcraft over many years would notice how the
Universe world has changed and shifted from game to game.

At the end of “Warcraft: Orcs & Humans” the The Weird Career of a Small Island
Kingdom of Azeroth either repels the invaders
or succumbs to the orcish hordes, depending on In “Warcraft II” the orc campaign features an
which of the two available campaigns is completed island with the tomb of a certain Sargeras which,
by the player. For the sequel, “Warcraft II: Tides if one wants to examine the twists and turns of
of Darkness”, Blizzard needed to make a decision Warcraft’s worldbuilding history, is an exemplary
on which ending would become canon. It became case. In roughly 20 years of game development the
clear for the first time that Blizzard only really small island would grow to the size of Australia
shines in its worldbuilding if the team is forced to and change its location on the world map multiple
make this kind of decision. times. When the island is first visited by the orc
warlock Gul’dan in “Warcraft II” it is just off the
Azeroth is no more at the beginning of “War- coast of the kingdom-turned-continent of Azeroth.
craft II”, the human survivors have fled across the When the night elf warden Maiev Shadowsong
sea to the northern kingdom of Lordaeron. Here tracks down her escaped prisoner Illidan Storm-
they forge an alliance with elves and dwarves rage to the island in “Warcraft III: The Frozen
while the orcs bolster their ranks with trolls and Throne” it’s suddenly part of an archipelago in the
ogres to launch their next attack. When the game middle of the ocean, close to the unforgiving Mael-
is released in 1996 the manuals of “Warcraft II: strom and far away from any coastline.
Tides of Darkness”, and those of the expansion
pack “Beyond the Dark Portal”, provide detailed In the online role-playing game “World of War-
accounts of the conflicts: they describe the nations craft” the island didn’t exist on the map at all until
of humans, elves, and dwarves, as well as the the latest expansion pack, “Legion”, where it sud-
orcish clans. They include maps that show how denly enjoys a spot on the center stage. As befits
the stage now spans whole continents instead of a such an important location it has been blown up to
tiny kingdom. Leading figures on all sides are por- the size of a small continent.
trayed, and many of them would go on to become
pillars of the Warcraft mythos: Gul’dan, Anduin These geographical shenanigans are a byprod-
Lothar, Orgrim Doomhammer, Uther Lightbringer, uct of the overall expansion of the Warcraft cos-
Ner’zhul, Deathwing. At last the derivative world mos. The island simply became more and more
from the first game transformed into something important as the role of Sargeras, the occupant of
more. its ancient tomb, likewise changed and grew. In
‘Warcraft: Orcs & Humans’ demons were simply
If you play “World of Warcraft” today you’ll find a source for the unholy orcish magic, dwelling in
that many of these building blocks are still in the a vaguely mentioned underworld. In “Warcraft
game, and this is in no small part thanks to Chris II” this was retconned and demons now lived in

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 39
 the Twisting Nether, a kind of interdimensional With the new immersive environments
plane. In this incarnation Sargeras was one of their came the opportunity to retcon earlier lore and
mighty lords, once defeated and buried with his introduce new events to the long history of Aze-
secrets on an island “a thousand years ago” accord- roth—and Blizzard is still doing this with every
ing to the updated game lore. new expansion. Players even got the opportunity
to experience historic moments from the first
In “Warcraft III”, however, Sargeras is reintro- Warcraft games first hand with a series of time-
duced as the leader of the Burning Legion: a vast, travel events. Only recently did Chris Metzen try to
world-devouring army. The Legion had a similar cement the history of the universe with the “World
fate in mind for the kingdom-turned-continent- of Warcraft: Chronicle” series published by Dark
turned-planet of Azeroth, for this purpose it Horse. For all intents and purposes this would
enslaved the orcs as their vanguard to soften up serve as a world bible: a definitive and all-encom-
the defenders. But in the timeline of “Warcraft III” passing document representing canon lore rather
this was already their second attempt at conquer- than an evolving in-game world that can grow and
ing Azeroth—the first one was foiled by the newly change as new content demands it. It remains to
introduced night elves and their allies who killed be seen for how long its contents will endure unal-
Sargeras 10,000 years ago, who’s suddenly he’s tered—and how well they manage to contain the
been dead for much longer. This allowed Blizzard unwieldy nature of the World of Warcraft.
to recontextualize the human-orc conflict and to
simultaneously de-villainize the orcs, who were just
unlucky: forced to be pawns for the Burning Legion.

“World of Warcraft” picked up where “Warcraft

III” left off, going on to expand on the world’s cos-
mos enough to change Sargeras’ origins to those
of a fallen god. Several expansions gradually reveal
the shaping of Azeroth by godlike Titans, of which
Sargeras was one before becoming the leader of
the Burning Legion. Sargeras outgrew his initial
role by several magnitudes, along with his tomb—
you can’t have a god be buried on a tiny, unimport-
ant island, really.

Telling Old Stories Anew

The creation of “World of Warcraft” fueled the

biggest leaps in the franchise’s worldbuilding.
For the real-time strategy games of the past it
was enough to show individual loosely connected
locations of the world. However, for the massive
and fully explorable world of an MMORPG, Blizzard
now needed to fill in all the blank spots on the map
and flesh out elements that had only been briefly
touched upon before, if at all.

40 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
World Anvil Interview
UNoahGuy

I recently had the chance to sit down and talk Do you have your own worlds, and if so can you
with the creators of the new worldbuilding com- share their premises?
munity website WorldAnvil.com. Dimitris and
Janet are a couple who have been worldbuilding Dimitris: I am always building worlds so there
for a combined fifty years between them. are many underneath my belt. Worlds that I write
always end up lost in mountains of notes. I just
felt like I was not the only one: so many notebooks
with brilliant ideas scribbled in them lost in piles
What are your backgrounds? of papers somewhere.

Janet: I am a writer, I’ve always written. Since I can The world I am working on now is called Hydria.
remember I was completely obsessed with fantasy, I would describe it as an era of reason in a sci-fan-
scifi, and everything that brought me into a new tasy setting. A long time ago, there was a human
world. I have an affinity for Middle Ages fantasy, galactic-wide empire. In their hubris the Empire
however, maybe because I have a degree in Histor- tried to create terraformed planet. The colonists,
ical Music and come from a family of historians. however, lost contact with empire without know-
Right now I work as a musician but I still do a lot of ing why. In turn they created a completely new
writing. world from scratch on which, after a while, gods
appeared out of the sky. These gods were in fact a
Dimitris: I have a background in computer sci- mothership; “Gods” that walk the world with regu-
ence, with degrees in both computing and social lar people. It’s a cool mashup of a space opera and
psychology. It has been interesting because I classical worldbuilding.
started my degree social psychology before the
onset of social media, so I’ve seen a massive change Janet: My world changes depending on what I am
in society before my eyes. Oh, and I am also a writing. It serves the story. I am currently working
photographer! with a low magic world inspired by the London
Bridge bombings in April of this year. I wanted to
What made you interested in worldbuilding? create a story based on two different cultures find-
ing a way to coexist peacefully. It has magic, dru-
Dimitris: My interest in worldbuilding started off ids, and the power of words, as well as linguistic
when I was just five years old, with a journal in pri- elements. My world draws some inspiration from
mary school that was filled with stories and worlds the Norman Conquest but it also has oppressed
from my mind. Then I graduated to Dungeons and nomads. Concepts such as secret history and fac-
Dragons (D&D). I have thirty years of experience tors from the outside world bleed into the story.
worldbuilding. I am super excited for it!

Janet: I see my worldbuilding, and interest in it, as What made you start World Anvil?
an offshoot of my writing. As a writer I see world-
building as a requirement to support the plot that Dimitris: I made World Anvil for Janet, because
I create. Worldbuilding to flesh out D&D campaign she could not organize her thoughts when world-
settings is more to add suspension of disbelief. building. I wanted to help. The project now known
I have always been chaotic; always had bits and as World Anvil started in June, and I worked all
pieces of worldbuilding spread out everywhere, summer to build something for her. I actually
mostly on backs of sheet music. coded the entire thing from scratch. We spent a lot
of time together during the process, going through
what we needed it to be. Then we asked ourselves,
why are we not doing this for everyone else as well?

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 41
 Janet: Inspiration for worldbuilders comes from Are there any features that you’d like to put in
anywhere, so all notes are scattered everywhere. but haven’t yet?
Many people lose 95% of what is written down in
the heat of an epiphany. I could visualize the exact Dimitris: We want to include maps that you
page where my ideas are written down, but I could can place pins on, so that places and articles can
not for the life of me find it. That is when Dimitris connect. We also want people to be able to create
stepped in and World Anvil was born. historical records in articles, so as to represent
population in different eras, like population
Can you explain to me what World Anvil is in growth, and wealth, among others. Our ultimate
terms of its features, interface, and community? goal is for World Anvil to become a place for
worlds that exist both in space and time. We want
Dimitris: World Anvil is an online system that our users to have articles that exist at multiple
allows worldbuilders of all types to put thoughts points in their world’s history.
together in an integrated way, so that ideas are not
lost. This allows one to share what one’s built with How much time do you put into this?
the rest of the world to get feedback. World Anvil is
in open beta testing right now, so it is not open to Dimitris: I wake up at 5:00am and work until
the world just yet. However, all the basic features 9:00pm, with 2 hours break, totaling 14-16 hours
are there or almost completed. A lot more features a day. I get so much help from developers, like
are planned down the line; I actually have a list of Discord mods and others, that help me out with
wanted features in the hundreds. the project. The community is really engaged with
World Anvil, which is really nice.
Janet: World Anvil is not just a tool to store knowl-
edge and share with the community—it also is a What do you hope to see at the end of the project?
writing tool built to evoke thought in the user. Cre-
ativity comes from the crucible. Our project prods Dimitris & Janet: We really want to foster a com-
you to create more detail, not just showcase, your munity with common goals, challenges, and in
world; it helps worldbuilding. the end, to make worldbuilding less lonely. Right
now the community feels somewhat disjointed,
Dimitris: One difference from other online sys- we can go further than just spotlights on Reddit.
tems is that World Anvil easily connects articles so We’re hopeful for the future of the worldbuilding
that users can cross-reference them. It also sup- community!
ports maps, documents, timelines, and many more
other features that others do not have.

How many people use World Anvil right now?

Dimitris: There are about 1,400 users in beta test-

ing right now, with 500 more waiting to join. We
are just astounded by the amount of people who
signed up: right now there are 2,500 unique pages
on the website!

42 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
Is there anything else that you would like to
mention?

Janet: We’ve opened up World Anvil access—from

closed Beta to limited open Beta—so that anyone
can create an account for our WorldEmber 2017
Challenge. This is kind of like NaNoWriMo or Map-
vember, but specifically for worldbuilding over
December.

WorldEmber 2017:
One world, 31 days, 6000 words.

We’re so excited to announce our new challenge—

the WorldEmber 2017 Challenge! Inspired by
NaNoWriMo and MapVember, we wanted to make
a worldbuilding-specific event to get our creative
juices flowing and animate the worldbuilding com-
munity. We hope this will give experienced world-
builders a new focus and a chance for friendly
competition, also inspiring potential worldbuilders
to have set down the ideas which might have been
percolating at the back of their brains. By reaching
6000 words you’ll get a unique collectible badge
for the WorldEmber 2017 Challenge displayed on
your profile forever. To create friendly competition
all those who complete the WorldEmber 2017
Challenge will also be eligible for our various prize
categories.

We want the WorldEmber 2017 Challenge to reach

the widest possible number of worldbuilders,
so we’re opening up World Anvil access until
23:59 GMT on 15th December 2017. This will
be a limited open Beta and anyone can create an
account during this time. This will allow you to
recruit your friends and share your progress with
them.

Go light up the forge and finish 2017 with a bang.

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 43
 issue contributors
Administrators:

UNoahGuy — Editor-in-Chief
LordHenry — Vice Editor-in-Chief

Adam Bassett — Writing Department Chair

GangsterDuck — Writing Department Deputy Chair

Ike Riva — Editorial Department Chair

Strongly_O_Platypus — Editorial Department Deputy Chair
Brotatofarm — Editorial Department Deputy Chair

Wynter — Art Department Chair

WithBestIntentions — Art Department Deputy Chair

Debug200 — Meta Department Chair

Contributors:

Asanouta — Editor
Bokai — Editor
Casparata — Writer
MnBrian — Writer
Psycho Romeo — Writer
SergeantPatrick — Editor
Spartango — Editor
Tristen Fekete — Artist

44 WORLDBUILDING ARTICLE
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 7 45