World Building Books

[guyanonymous]

I've been seeking out for some time, books on World Building/Planet creation/Star Creation etc. that have a realistic nature.

Since my local gaming shop looked at me like I was crazy, I thought I'd pass on what I managed to find via the internet.

The one that's most caught my eye is, I think, an update of earlier texts.

It is: Gurps 4th Ed - Space

Here is a clip from the index....

4. BASIC WORLDBUILDING . . 62
USING WORLDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Dramatic Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Depth of Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
MAPPING THE GALAXY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Astronomical Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Distances and Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
The Frequency of Worlds. . . . . . . . . . . 70
Choosing a Preferred Scale . . . . . . . . . . 72
WORLD DESIGN SEQUENCE . . . . . . . . 73
Step 1: Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Step 2: World Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Why World Types? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Step 3: Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Toxicity Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Step 4: Hydrographic Coverage. . . . . . 81
Step 5: Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Step 6: World Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Step 7: Resources and Habitability. . . 87
Habitability for Aliens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
SOCIAL PARAMETERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Step 8: Settlement Type . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Step 9: Technology Level . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Step 10: Population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Altering the Colony Population Table . . . 93
Step 11: Society Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Step 12: Control Rating . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Step 13: Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Step 14: Bases and Installations . . . . . 96
5. ADVANCED
WORLDBUILDING. . . . . . 99
GENERATING STAR SYSTEMS . . . . . . 100
Stellar Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Step 15: Number of Stars. . . . . . . . . . 100
Step 16: Star Masses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Step 17: Star System Age . . . . . . . . . . 101
Step 18: Stellar Characteristics . . . . . 102
Step 19: Companion Star Orbits . . . . 105
Step 20: Locate Orbital Zones . . . . . . 106
Step 21: Placing First Planets . . . . . . 107
Step 22: Place Planetary Orbits . . . . . 108
Step 23: Place Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Step 24: Place Moons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
GENERATING WORLD DETAILS . . . . . 113
Step 25: World Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Step 26: Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Step 27: Hydrographics . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Step 28: Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Step 29: World Sizes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Step 30: Dynamic Parameters . . . . . . 115
Step 31: Geologic Activity . . . . . . . . . 119
Step 32: Resources and
Habitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Step 33: Settlement Type . . . . . . . . . . 121
Step 34: Technology Level . . . . . . . . . 122
Step 35: Population. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Step 36: Society Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Step 37: Control Rating . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Step 38: Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Step 39: Bases and Installations . . . . 123
SPECIAL CASES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124
Gas Giant Moons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Tide-Locked Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Massive Stars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Red Dwarf Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Brown Dwarf Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Rogue Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Terraformed Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
OTHER OBJECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
Asteroids and Comets. . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Artificial Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Who Needs Planets, Anyway? . . . . . . . 132
Megastructures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Each section is fairly well explained. Where useful, charts and diagrams provide the real-world numerical info so that you can either create a planet (or star) yourself, or roll one; by following their setup, you should come up with a relatively realistic galaxy->planet.

________________

A couple other books I found over the years:

MegaTraveller - World Builder's Handbook (1989) -> this is the one I feel the GURPS is based on.

D20 make a few in their "builder's" series. The ones that caught my eye were:

World Builder's Guidebook
Dungeon Builder's Guidebook
Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
Gary Gygax's World-Builder Book

There is also the very excellent "A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture" for understanding the ecology, biomes, etc. of your Planet after you've created it.

I've also collected a few "precursors" to the MegaTraveller book, but can't find them at the moment. I don't think they added anything to the mix.

I hope this list is useful, and, perhaps, save someone the time I wasted trying to find a book that had the info I needed.

[Ascension]

Good stuff, guy. I'll definitely check these out.

[jaerdaph]

I've always loved Steve Jackson Games' GURPS supplements because they always contain a wealth of compiled information on whatever genre or subject they cover and present it in a format that lets you mine for ideas for your campaign. I have quite a collection, but still I've yet to use the GURPS rules to game.

Thanks for the tip - I don't have GURPS Space, but it definitly looks worth checking out!