Showing results by author "Randy Ellefson" in All Categories

In every episode of The Art of World Building podcast, host Randy Ellefson discusses how authors, screenwriters, game designers, gamers, and hobbyists can do world building better, faster, and have more fun doing it. Popular topics include creating gods, species, animals, plants, races, monsters, undead, continents, settlements, kingdoms, star systems, time, history, cultures, magic systems, religions, the supernatural, naming everything, and travel estimates for land, sea, and space.

The Complete Art of World Building brings together volumes one through three in The Art of World Building series. This how-to guide will make listeners a master of inventing imaginary worlds and help a setting stand out from the multitude of fantasy and SF worlds audiences see.

He swore an oath to protect all life. Now he must kill to survive. Being a knight at the Renaissance Festival is easy, but when Ryan is magically kidnapped to another world, the quest might leave him dead. Mistaken for a dragon-slaying knight, he must kill the dragon queen to be sent home.

Learning to create a unique, immersive setting one podcast episode at a time. A guide for authors, gamers, and hobbyists. World building strategist Randy Ellefson turned his successful book series, The Art of World Building, into a popular podcast, with episodes loosely drawn from each book in the series. The Complete Art of World Building Podcast Transcripts brings together every episode, previously only available in volumes 4-6.

Creating a unique, immersive setting one life form at a time. This book is a detailed how-to guide on inventing the heart of every imaginary world - life. With chapters on creating gods, species/races, plants, animals, monsters, heroes, villains, and even undead, it draws on the author's quarter century of world building experience. Pointed questions, and an examination of answers and their repercussions, will help readers decide on goals, how to reach them, and whether they are even worth pursuing.

Written to help fantasy and science fiction storytellers, game designers, gamers, and hobbyists, Cultures and Beyond, The Art of World Building #3 is a how-to guide for filling an imaginary world with fascinating societies. It includes chapters on creating culture, organizations, armed forces, religions, the supernatural, magic systems, technological and supernatural items, languages, names, and various systems our world will have, from health, educational, legal, and commerce, to information systems.

The power to heal only comes when she believes. On her quests to other worlds where elves, dragons, and magic are real, Anna can save the dying–and destroy the undead. But on an Earth where magic has awoken after a 1000 year sleep, the gods do not answer her.

When Max awakens on a different planet, he doesn’t know how he got there or why he can’t get home. And a mysterious Life Counter is steadily descending towards zero. Now he’s alone in a world unknown, where his skills as a bard might win him friends to survive. But it may already be too late—someone is hunting him and wants him dead.

While being mistaken for an Ellorian Champion has upended Eric's world, his street smarts have kept him alive. But now it is he and his friends who are fooled. Their next quest is only a ruse. The real champion's families have captured them all, stripped them of power, and put them in chains.

From his best-selling series, The Art of World Building, author Randy Ellefson provides more than 3000 World Building Prompts to inspire creators for everything they might want to invent.

He swore an oath to protect all life. Now he must kill to survive. Being a knight at the Renaissance Festival is easy, but when Ryan is magically kidnapped to another world, the quest might leave him dead. Mistaken for a dragon-slaying knight, he must kill the dragon queen to be sent home.

Cultures and Beyond - The Podcast Transcripts (The Art of World Building, Book 6) discusses techniques on inventing names, organizations for good and evil, and armed forces like the army, navy, and air (or space) force. An extensive look into creating cultures led to four detailed episodes on determining cultural vision, scope, origins, social classes, and the all-important customs that reveal culture. A similar deep dive into inventing magic systems examines the principles behind devising great ones and just what is meant by a law of magic and its applications.

Only a fool steals from a wizard. Talon Stormbringer thought he knew the risk of stealing from Viland Shadowbreaker - until he got caught. The wizard will spare him if Talon fetches the deadly silver elixir from the Everway, a supernatural land of lost souls and worse, ruled by the Ever Fiend. Talon had assumed none of it was real but agrees to go despite a band of people he can't trust accompanying him. Of all the things they might discover on their journey, one is the hardest to learn.

Learning to create a unique, immersive place one podcast episode at a time. World building strategist Randy Ellefson turned his successful book series, The Art of World Building, into a popular podcast of the same name, with episodes loosely drawn from each book in the series...Ellefson breaks out in new directions while expanding on how to invent planets, continents, sovereign powers, settlements, history, maps, and more...Build better, faster.

World building strategist Randy Ellefson turned his successful book series, The Art of World Building, into a popular podcast of the same name, with episodes loosely drawn from each book in the series. Fifteen episodes are collected here, based on a theme: They’re about creating life and inspired by chapters of that volume. Ranging from 25 to 35 minutes each, the episodes discuss gods, species/races, plants, animals, monsters, heroes, villains, and even the undead.

Creating a unique, immersive setting one place at a time. Creating Places is a detailed how-to guide on inventing the heart of every imaginary world - places. It includes chapters on inventing planets, moons, continents, mountains, forests, deserts, bodies of water, sovereign powers, settlements, and interesting locales. Extensive, culled research on each is provided to inform your world-building decisions and understand the impact on craft, story, and audience.

From his best-selling series The Art of World Building, author Randy Ellefson has collected some of his best advice from every chapter in small, bite-size tips. All three books are represented in the topics covered: Creating Life, Creating Places, and Cultures and Beyond.