Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding, Volume 2

by John Joseph Adams (Editor), Keith Baker, Tobias S. Buckell

Learn to Build Worlds with Titans of Fantasy and Tabletop!

The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding, Volume 2, features 15 stars of tabletop roleplaying games and fantasy fiction, such as Gail Simone, Keith Baker, Veronica Roth, Ken Liu, Kate Elliott, Mike Shea, Tobias S. Buckell, Shanna Germain, Gabe Hicks, the Dungeon Dudes (Monty Martin & Kelly McLaughlin), and more.

Middle-Earth, Faerûn, Westeros, Eberron, The World of the Wheel, Exandria … these richly-detailed fantasy worlds have captured the imaginations of legions of fans worldwide. These settings offer worldbuilding that launched a thousand—or a thousand thousand—dreams.

Whether you’re worldbuilding because you want to write the next Game of Thrones, intend to build a rich, vibrant world to enthrall the players of an upcoming tabletop RPG campaign, or you’re just curious to find out how all these creators did it, the Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding, Volume 2, puts a team of master world-architects at your side.

Featuring practical essays and roadmaps for the intrepid worldbuilder to follow, this anthology shows you how to:

- create a pantheon of gods
- incorporate technology into your fantastical environments
- build great settings that look beyond our own history and cultural expectations
- design a world in just 30 minutes
l- eave space when building a world so the characters can help bring it alive

What worlds await? Let’s find out!

108 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

John Joseph Adams is the series editor of BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as ROBOT UPRISINGS, DEAD MAN'S HAND, BRAVE NEW WORLDS,WASTELANDS, and THE LIVING DEAD. Recent and forthcoming books include WHAT THE #@&% IS THAT?, OPERATION ARCANA, PRESS START TO PLAY, LOOSED UPON THE WORLD, and THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH (consisting of THE END IS NIGH, THE END IS NOW, and THE END HAS COME). Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated nine times), is a seven-time World Fantasy Award finalist, and served as a judge for the 2015 National Book Award. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines LIGHTSPEED and NIGHTMARE, and is a producer for Wired's THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast. You can find him online at www.johnjosephadams.com and on Twitter @JohnJosephAdams.

Reviews

[Mathieu Robichaud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great advice.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Kobold Guide to World Building (volume 2) is an interesting insight into some big names in fantasy, comic books and role playing games and how they curate their worlds. Packed with advice, the guide is a useful resource for fleshing out any created world to ensure it feels alive but has enough space to breathe.

Personally I'd have liked a more structured approach, as the broad spectrum of essays often interlink and repeat themes. I would recommend this to any aspiring novelist, games master or hobbyist who enjoys creating and telling stories in fantastical worlds.

[Eric O · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a very niche book that has a different approach for every kind of GM to improve their TTRPG. There are no tables or rules, but one still walks away teeming with ideas.