(Way With Worlds is a weekly column on the art of worldbuilding published at Seventh Sanctum, Muse Hack, and Ongoing Worlds)

Having explored the psychology of conflict and the way that conflicts can go from simple disagreements to smashing galaxies with a Dimension Cannon, let’s take a look at some of the more personal elements of conflict. It’s a bit of a break from the galaxy-smashing thing, but the potential is there of course.

Let’s talk biases and bigotry, those steps that often let us climb the ladder to conflict.  Or descend into the pit of conflict, whatever, pick your metaphor.

We’ve all encountered biases and bigotry in real life and been driven crazy by them. We know people affected by them. In our historical readings we’ve seen cases where biases and bigotry have led to atrocities with depressing regularity.  Bias and bigotry is everywhere.

Which means that as world builders and creators, we need to think about these horrible things because they’re probably part of our worlds.

Worldbuilding isn’t for people afraid to get their brains messy. So since you have to write the biases and bigotries in your world, and the results of their existence, let’s talk about them.

But first . . . (more…)

(Way With Worlds is a weekly column on the art of worldbuilding published at Seventh Sanctum, Muse Hack, and Ongoing Worlds)

So there’s a reason I covered humans (and human-alikes) and the psychology of conflict first. Characters and their institutions are often the causes of conflicts – and characters are the lenses through which players/readers experience your world. We have to think about them first in the case of worldbuilding because it gives us the right perspective.

But with that said, you need something to get your cast to engage in (or prevent) atrocities. What are he drivers and elements that create wars and conflicts?

Again, it’s often a matter of perspective. Which is the problem in fiction – and come to think of it real life as well . . . (more…)

Merry Christmas Everyone!  And for Christmas let me give everyone the Fantasy Metal Generator!

This interrupted the Magical Power Generator and was inspired by the Rougelike game Dungeonmans, which beyond being a fantastic comedy/adventure/roguelike/persistent world game, also has some dynamite (and funny) sounding items and components that made me think “hey, fantasy often has strange metals.”  So in turn, I made a generator for them.  Here’s some samples:

• Demons’ Timemetal
• Dream Glittermercury
• Dream Mithril
• Evil Shadowiron
• Fatal Dream Mithril
• Flaming Bronze
• Ghostly Ice Copper
• Glitterhammer Adamant Of The Past
• Meteoric Orichalcum
• Night Platinum
• Night Windhell Orichalcum
• Phantasmal Windgold Of Arch-angels
• Rottin
• Sand Bronze Of Wizards
• Sapphireshadow Adamant
• Secret Orichalcum
• True Adamant Of The Dawn
• Unknowable Rockiron Of The Rivers
• Wordsilver Of The Swamps
• Zephyrlead

This puts me in mind of a game of fantasy weapon making where the minerals you mine are procedurally generatred.  So you make weapons and equipment out of randomized minerals with different properties, and if there’s one you like you can keep trying to mine it or get ahold of it.
– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

Edward Morris is a man seeped in literature from a young age, who’s also lived quite a life. He’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2011, the Rhysling Award in 2009, and the BSFA in 2005. From short stories to full novels, he’s done it all – and pretty much lived it all as well.

Let’s dive into this man’s life and find out what he can teach us – which is a lot. (more…)

(Way With Worlds is a weekly column on the art of worldbuilding published at Seventh Sanctum, Muse Hack, and Ongoing Worlds)

For the next few columns I’m going to be exploring the dysfunctions and conflicts in the worlds we create. Not conflicts brought about by our mistakes as worldbuilders (though those can become fuel for deeper worldbuilding as noted), but what happens when things break down? Sure we’re all busy building our world, but things go wrong inside the worlds as part of good worldbuilding, and we have to figure out the implications of the crises we create.

In fact, as repeated several times, conflict is actually part of the process of making a world accessible and interesting. People want to hear stories and play games about things that happen, and that often involves conflict. Not always of course, but often enough it warrants its own section here in a series of columns by a slightly-mad-scientist of randomizing ideas.

Now everyday conflicts are one thing; arguing over a tab, not being able to find dragon dung at the alchemist’s shop, and so on. Let’s talk about the big ones, the ones that are epic and horrible, the ones we write about – and the ones that in real life make us wonder why the hell they happened.

So let’s go and find out just how things break down and go wrong. We’ll start with how it stays together in the first place – well, how our cast of characters and people keep it together.  After all, they’ll be the ones you’re writing about or your players are playing.

Also they’re probably the ones causing the problems . . . (more…)

Yeah, another delay – holidays, illness, work craziness.  I am so glad I’ve got vacation time coming up.

So first up, more detail on the Magical Power Generator idea.

Basically I noticed in things like anime (especially Fairy Tail which inspired another generator a year ago – which is how long this idea was sitting in my head) and video games there’s magic that’s sort of a “superpower” – not a ton of chants and material components but more blast-and go.  You also see this to an extent in video games.  It’s a “set” of abilities as it were with names as simple as “Dance Magic” or as complex as “Lightning God Slayer Magic.”

Needless to say, that started giving me ideas.

So what about a generator that makes these “types” or “sets” of powers, but also tosses in some good expansion.  Sure you may have “Air Magic” but why not “Wind Bewitchment?”  Why not have “Celestial Beast Snare Sorcery” along with “Animal Magic?”

On that level, why not make options that allow for some poetic alliteration?  You could have “Water Wizardry” out to “Dark Demonic Decimation Diabolism?”

So as you can guess this simple idea is fun (in fact I have most of the data),  though getting the poetic alliteration is a wee bit challenging – but is teaching me some new stuff.  Let’s hope I have enough sane time to do this!

Now with that being said . . .

The new year’s coming up and last year left me with enough ideas I don’t think I need to do a new poll (or “yes, I know, plot twist generator.”).  However I do want to consider it.

Things I HOPE to do are:

• More Tumblr feeds.
• Automate the Twitter random idea feed.
• Consider a Patreon to ditch ads and give me more layout options.
• Try to do some events/teamups/more contributors to the codex and others.

Oh and use that portable dev environment I have yet to use.

This was a pretty insane year.

Finally at Muse Hack I did two columns on the question “is there a gap in hiring in IT” – if you work in IT you’ve heard the claim it’s hard to hire people.  In part one I examined the basic numbers and what they tell us, but then dived deeper into specifics and reached some surprising conclusions.  Short form, there’s probably a gap for senior people, it’s concealed due to certain factors – and we’re making it worse.  If you work in IT check it out . . .

 

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

(Way With Worlds is a weekly column on the art of worldbuilding published at Seventh Sanctum, Muse Hack, and Ongoing Worlds)

 So last we met I discussed how using RPGs was actually a boon to Worldbuilding. There were positives in stimulating thinking, in sheer entertainment, and of course using premade concepts to test the consistency of an RPG system.

Now let’s talk the negatives of using using RPG systems in your worldbuilding, be they mapping characters to classes or diving into them for ideas. Yes, there are negatives.

Hey, it’s not all sunshine and worldbuilding here.  Some stuff is just bad.

The core issue is that RPG systems are just that –  systems – and any use of a system can constrain you. That is actually the point of having a system. The problem is the system is an outside factor influencing your imagination.

Which is good. Sometimes.

In this case however, we’ll look at how it can go bad. (more…)

(Way With Worlds is a weekly column on the art of worldbuilding published at Seventh Sanctum, Muse Hack, and Ongoing Worlds).

A lot of people who wolrdbuild get into roleplaying games. I feel I can make this statement clearly; its true in my experience, and of course I’m not quoting any numbers so I have deniability. I’m covered here!

But seriously, it seems like people get ideas from, put ideas into, or think of ideas in forms of RPGs. I’m not just talking the freeform collective storytelling style of RPGs – I’m talking about the rules-and-dice type RPGs that we’re all familiar with.

We wonder what class a character would be in a given game.

We try and build a character we made in a given game.

We think of game rules as writing guidelines.

We get ideas looking over game rules.

And more . . . (more…)

OK a bit behind – been busy, been traveling, so here’s what’s up!

With the holidays coming, here’s some gift idea generators for you.  Because generators.

Got a lot more writing done on Way With Worlds – in this case I’ll cover RPGs and their pluses (and minuses), and voyage into conflict and cultural meltdowns later.  I’m glad I got to cover the use/misuse of RPGs in worldbuilding as I think games often influence our worldbuilding.

Next up for generators will probably be a magical power generator, for those anime like Fairy Tail and some early fantasy where “superpower” and “magic” and “martial arts” were kinda slammed together.  I’ve had this one brewing for a bit, sort of somewhere between “Anime Power” and “Magical Forms”  – but I want to add some stylistic options to try out.

I’ll look at the Plot Twist generator next year – I am thinking I need to learn how to pace myself on those crazy ones.  Still figuring out how to start that thing – genre limits?  Freeform?

I did get my mobile environment up – and then didn’t use it over the holidays.  I used XAMPP.

MuseHack, as you saw, is re-structuring – to be my more voice yet a voice of enablement.  That’s taking time, but I like how it’s shaping up – and expect a lot over the holidays!  I also just finished my Fandom Identity series, and started a new two parter on “Is There An IT Gap.”  I also have a few more things coming up after that as I focus more longform.  Also be sure to check it’s spinoff site for getting “Geek Involved” – CivicGeek.com.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.

(Way With Worlds Runs at Seventh Sanctum, Muse Hack, and Ongoing Worlds)

So we discussed the odds of things in your world, of knowing how likely things were. Now let’s talk the thing you’re writing the most, the odds you know but don’t realize you know, and the most important part of your world and he tales in it.

What’s normal.

In fact, I’m going to tell you that what your stories are about, your world everything about them, is about what’s normal. No matter how freaky your character, strange your plot, normal is what’s important.

And you need to know what’s Normal in your world.

The Importance Of Normal

Normal in your world is what is reliable and predictable. Gravity works, rain falls, and Dz’orgak the demon lord is made from the blood of the Fallen God which is why every ruby gem is his eye spying on your sins. Normal are those truths that your world rests on as sure as we rely on the sun rising.

Enormous amounts of worldbuilding and tales inside those worlds rely on a grounding of normal. Roadways that re reliable, swords made of metal, reproductive biology that ensure species go on, and so on are just normal – what you can count on so you can build a world of it, even if some may change Normal gives your world a foundation so it actually is something, and gives something for readers/gamers to understand and apprehend.

If there’s no sense of normal, then the world itself becomes meaningless. Now in a few cases this might be your point, but in general worldbuilding is about building – making something. Normal has to be assumed, a foundation must be there, or everything is meaningless.

Even if your world is weird to us, having a Normal means we can understand it, relate to it, and thus believe it and enjoy it. It just may be a rather odd normal.

Weird Needs Normal

This normalcy is important not just to provides believable world but to help people relate to what goes on it it – which often are anomalous events and characters.

Tales often deal with exceptions to the normal because stories are often about deviations from norms – I mean if there’s no deviation not much may actually happen to tell.  This deviation could be as big as a war among galaxies or as small as a quirky set of characters at a coffee shop who are weirdos. However the normal provides the grounding to tell you what the abnormal means.

Some characters specialize in the abnormal – the policeman who investigates crimes, the warrior who fights invaders, the psychologist who deals with insanity. There’s a reason we love stories with people like that – they’re interesting as something happens. They try to restore normal (or find a new one) and that’s what the story is about.

Normal lets you understand just what the abnormality you’re often writing about means.

Sort of the normal abnormal. If you don’t know normal, these anomalies become nonsensical or worse, “inappropriately normal.”

Going Away From Normal To Get Back To It

Knowing the Normal of your world is also important to understand events and thus stories that take place in it. Most people’s travails, most tales, most great wars and small quests, are either seeking a return to normal or a new normal. Normal is also a “goal” of people to get to, even if normal only exists in their head.

Now of course this normal may not be possible, or desirable, or realistic. The normal a character or a culture may seek could be a complete delusion. Which is important because there’s normal and normal if you get my drift . . . but that’s also part of the world and your tales.

The True Normal And A Character’s Normal

Knowing what’s normal in your setting helps you understand character motivations and expectations. The average, the reliable, the likely affect people, providing a ground for what happened or a contrast to their own crazy lives. Expectations of what is normal for characters – and often what they’re seeking – comes from their ideas of normal.

Characters may have an inaccurate ideal of normal. How many times in history have we seen people long to return to “normal,” when their idea of normal was a self-deceptive mix of nostalgia and ignorance? How many do we see now?

There’s normal and then there’s the normal in our heads. We need to understand what our characters expect to be normal – and what is really going on.

In fact, characters may just not understand normal or want to. If your universe is one of magic and a scientific civilization refuses to admit this, then you may know normal – but the characters don’t. That’s quite a tale to tell, yet the whole point is ignoring normalcy.

You need to know what’s normal. Your characters well may not – which of course is part of things you’d be writing on.

Their inaccurate ideas of normal may be common enough that their abnormality is rather normal.

Audiences And Normal

Your audience will almost immediately need a set of normal expectations to understand your work – often a tricky business when you’re creating a crazy world. As noted earlier, people have a natural sense of odds and likelihood – and in turn, of normalcy. They’re going to look for it right off the bat.

Audiences can usually sense if your world has some “normal” in it. We’re good at finding coherence in settings, and if your world doesn’t have rules and its own normal, people will pick up on it. They may not care, they may not need much “normal” to figure things out (magic works, wizards blow stuff up a lot might be enough), but they need something. If you don’t give that to them, the world will lack meaning to them.

It also gets a bit tricky to communicate your setting as people have to get it, while at the same time it’s rules may be a bit odd, and you don’t want to overexplain things on top of that.  That requires some careful writing of your tales, to avoid over-explaining or under-explaining the world you built.

This is ultimately where you, the world-builder, have to figure out what’s normal. Oh sure you’r not going to spell it out, but you need to know.

Knowing Normal

So how do you know your normal in your world?

I find, rather interestingly, we usually build “Normal” into our worlds by instinct. You can’t have a coherent setting without some rules and norms and so on. In fact, to try and make your setting weird enough for your goals you may have to actively make it stranger.

However, I think we’re helped in worldbuilding by being aware of normal and what’s normal. Much as when I discussed the odds, we should spend some time analyzing what is normal and expected in the world. Even if we never use it directly, it helps us build the world.

Here’s a quick guide to the Normals to look for

• The Reality Normal: What is the nature of reality. Hard science? Everything has magic in it? What does this mean for your setting (if anything). Sometimes this is boring as you say “actual physical laws, next.”
• The Setting Normal: What are the norms of your setting or settings. Drought or flood, many mountains or huge plans, and so on. This helps you build the setting, and understand how characters and cultures interact with it. If your setting has a lot of desert, the norm is “dry” and the norm also is going to be finding water.
• The Culture Normal: What is the normal for cultures characters are in, the expectations, ideas, and language. There will be both the “Norms” of the culture and the normal parts of the culture, what is expected and what is common. A culture may put great value on honesty, but may have sexism built into it that is common but rarely analyzed as it’s so regular.
• The Personal Normal: What are a characters own experiences, understandings, and so on – and how normal are they? A character may be utterly average (dare I say normal) with one outstanding trait. A characters’ experiences may differ radically from others – making them seem disconnected or perhaps making them wiser.

Note these norms are all going to play into each other. If you have a desert culture that values honesty but has the inbuilt assumption men are violent, a male character raised by water thieves as a calm master of disguise is going to really be something read. How many times will someone ask “are you sure he can keep calm pretending to be this guy?” and what plot points could you explore.

Think Normal

In doing worldbuilding, much as I note it helps to note odds and some of the math of your world, consider what’s normal. Definitely put it in your worldbuilding notes as a reminder for yourself so keep you grounded in what you do. It’ll remind you of what should happen – or remind you in what case it’s time for things to get abnormal.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.