I'm in the research phase of a new project. I would like to research world/setting building. I would preferably like sources that discuss world-building in play, but in lieu of that, world-building as a type of prep would be fine too. I would preferealby like a list of games & maybe a description of each, but articles would work too.

Thanks alot!

The original Traveller had rules for generating star systems and worlds, down to civilizations in prep, I believe.

Last Unicorn's ARIA was pretty much all about world building during play.

And, of course, Universalis.

This site is a useful compilation of RPG-related world-building resources: http://users.tkk.fi/~vesanto/world.build.html

I've found it useful in the past.

There's also a yahoo-group devoted to world-creation. I don't believe it's as high traffic as RPG-Create@yahoogroups.com, but a lot of RPG-Create-ers lurk there. I think the group is called World-create@yahoogroups.com.

Multiverser has material on world creation (has to, doesn't it?), including some advice on doing it on the fly in game.

Eric Ashley is expected to talk on the subject, particularly in relation to horror worlds, at HollowCon in Tennessee this fall, and he's an extremely prolific world builder from whom I think I could learn a few things. You can find him on the Multiverser Forum at Gaming Outpost, if you want to pick his brain.

--M. J. Young