PODCAST · education
WorldCraft Club
by WorldCraft Club
For writers, dungeon masters, and anyone else who wants to create rich, immersive settings and story worlds that will draw their audiences back time and time again. James, our host, interviews worldbuilders of every type and draws on their skills and experiences to help you develop key skills and master the craft of world-building.
Episodes
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79 - Power Has a Price: Grimdark Westerns with Clay Boone
In this episode of the WorldCraft Club Podcast, Dave talks with author Clay Boone about building a Grimdark Weird West setting that actually works. The conversation digs into what makes dark fantasy and weird westerns compelling beyond surface-level grit: magic with consequences, characters whose...
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78 - Worldbuilding Factions | Fast Tools for Conflict and Depth
Factions, groups of people with a shared motivation, are the ultimate shorthand for a busy worldbuilder on the go. They offer the ability to quickly determine what a character's motivations might be while hinting at great depth. In this epsiode, Seth and James break down why factions are great,...
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76 - Is Sci Fi Only Lasers and Spaceships? | Conversation with Dave Schmidt
In this episode of the WorldCraft Club podcast, James and Dave dive into the perennial debate about whether Star Wars is science fiction or science fantasy. Building on a previous discussion with Seth on genre from an author's perspective, they now explore it from a broader, more critical angle....
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75 - Avoiding the Genre Trap - Worldbuilding in a way that draws your audience in without burning you out
In this episode of The Worldcraft Club, host James and guest Seth delve into the complex topic of genre and its impact on storytelling and worldbuilding. They explore the dual-edged nature of genre as both a helpful guide for setting reader expectations and a restrictive boundary for creative...
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74 - Progression in Worldbuilding
In this episode of the WorldCraft Club podcast, the hosts dive into the intricate relationship between worldbuilding and storytelling, particularly focusing on the concepts of systems and progression. They discuss how overly complex systems can overshadow character arcs and the importance of...
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73 - Don't Worldbuild your Wonder Away | Fairystories and Allegory with Dave Schmidt
Don't worldbuild at the cost of wonder! In this episode of The WorldCraft Club, James and Dave delve into the origins of worldbuilding, tracing it back to ancient myths and fairy tales. They discuss how early storytelling, through tales of trolls, fairies, and elves, laid the groundwork for what...
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72 - Accents and Dialects | Interview with the Max Moyer & Co.
In this episode of the WorldCraft Club podcast, James is joined by guests Max Moyer, an epic fantasy author of 'Zodak the Last Shielder', his brother Eli, and audiobook narrator Dallin. They discuss the creative process behind the making of the 'Zodak the Last Shielder' audiobook, highlighting…
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71 - Adaptations | Changing the world to match the medium
Check out this episode on YouTube! Adaptations are BIG right now! Live action interpretations of childhood shows (like Avatar the Last Airbender, or anime like One Piece) or books being turned into movies or comics, there is so much IP out there to be adapted. Today Seth and I talk through why a...
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70 - The Style is the Substance - Eastern and Western Animation with Studio YGKrow
In a WorldCraft Club first, we interview an animation studio, YGKrow, and talk about the process of animation and how it can enhance your worldbuilding. In this episode we explore the differences between the eastern and western approach to animation and what that reveals about the priorities of...
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69 - A Culture of Creation with the Moyer Brothers
Possibly the most important question a worldbuilder will never ask themselves: How do I make room for someone else to add to my world? Community is underrated but critical to the creative process. At some point your work will interact with others, whether it's your family and friends, writers in…
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68 - Boronian Out of Water - Interview with Ross Buzzell
In Ross’s latest book we see a man displaced from all he finds familiar adjusting to a new world he knows only through academic study. In this process we as readers learn much about his world as he explores ours. Key Takeaways: Don’t fear a good trope. Fish out of Water, as discussed here, can...
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67 - Weeding your World with Seth Ring
Worldbuilding is like gardening, you’re creating a space that’s artificial, human made, but it showcases natural beauty. Wild nature meets ordered man. But what if you get distracted along the way, an idea pops up that you’re growing an obsession with and can’t tell if it really ‘fits’. Do you…
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66 - A Powerful Worldbuilding Tool with Steel Stash - Part Two
Part Two of Steel Stash on using ASCOPE/PMESII as a worldbuilding tool! Join Steel Stash and James as they finish up with the OPE of ASCOPE looking at Organizations, People, and Events in the fictional city of Nightside. This tool is incredibly flexible and can aid in the creation of a lot of...
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65 - Dear Reader, Asimov and Worldbuilding with Seth Ring
There’s no doubt that Isaac Asimov was a master. His work is unparalleled science fiction that formed the basis of the genre as we know it. But the 1940s were a different time and when he wrote Nightfall he had some ideas about worldbuilding that might throw some of us for a loop. “Just imagine…
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64 - A Powerful Worldbuilding Tool with Steel Stash - Part One
Pop quiz! What page of the monster manual has an ASCOPE/PMESII? Steel Stash joins the pod for this two part episode discussing this powerful worldbuilding acronym. It's a tool that was developed by the military to assess an area of operation but serves world builders by helping to clearly and...
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63 - Lore with Peter Chiykowski
How do you write compelling and rich lore? Peter Chiykowski has a new tool to help with that. With a focus on building out connections and relationships to establish a lore web with the Lore Master's Deck. During this episode Peter and Seth discuss the nature of lore and its place in your...
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62 - Bluey Roundtable (April Fool's Special)
April Fools! Normally you get insightful worldbuilding commentary. Today you get the server hosting a roundtable about a children’s TV show, Bluey. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a panel of adults thinking way too hard about a kid’s show. Our LinkTree, this has the link to the Discord on it along...
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61 - Star Wars: Andor Roundtable
Andor hit different. As far as Star Wars stories go this show fell on the 'grittier' side of things. Much like Rogue One, where we first met Cassian Andor. It also told a story which was more focused on the million small stories that took place around the major Skywalker narrative present in the...
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60 - What is Worldbuilding?
Do you ever stop to ask yourself why? At the WorldCraft Club that’s a yearly tradition. In order to perfect the craft of building exceptional worlds we hold the practice of pausing to reflect. We consider the definitions of our terms and look at how our understanding has changed. In this episode...
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59 - Storying Through Your World
Sometimes the process of worldbuilding can drag and steal your sense of excitement about a setting you’ve been crafting. The antidote? A good story, preferably a short one, set in your world that you can finish and share. Daniel McCormack talks with us about this powerful, instructive process…
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58 - Gardening Your Setting
Plotter or pantser? Do you take the time to write extensive outlines or do you find that you tend to create on the fly? It’s never really been a true dichotomy but rather a spectrum. The analogy of a garden or the process of cultivation with its pruning, grafting, and tilling earth seems apt.…
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57 - A World Fit for Wandering
Being GM is not easy. The worlds we create are supposed to ensnare our visitants and draw them in but when our audience have a mind of their own and desire to bring about meaningful change in our settings that can lead to some tricky situations. Greg from Worldbuilding.io joins us today to help…
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56 - Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Worldbuilding Roundtable
This Netflix series by Studio Trigger brought Night City to life in new and unexpected ways drawing so many of is in from the first episode of it’s tragic run. The Discord server was abuzz with ideas about it for weeks and many of us couldn’t wait to grab the mic and talk about it. What follows…
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55 - Cultivating a Captivating Setting - Discussion with Andrew Zimba
The best worlds might be grown rather than made. We often talk about these two separate concepts that exist in tension in solid worldbuilding. There’s wonder, this feeling of getting wrapped up in the scale of a setting, the sense of the unknown just beyond your eye line. Then there’s immersion,...
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54 - The Shadows of your World - Worldbuilding Horror with Seth Ring
Horror lives just outside of our eyeline. In the peripherals of our vision. It's a feeling we can't quite shake when something seems amiss and the hairs on the back of our necks rise as our pulse quickens. To that end, world-building is absolutely critical to that tangible atmospher of dread. But...
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53 - Netflix's Arcane - Worldbuilding Analysis
I think Arcane surprised everyone. Video game adaptations are seldom well received but this one exceeded all expectations and told a heartfelt story filled with interesting characters and fascinating world-building. I can count on one hand the people I know who didn't actively love this show.…
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52 - Expansive Universes - Interview with Ross Buzzell
Worldbuilding is a long process that can feel overwhelming when you're dealing with just one primary planetary location let alone the universe at large. Today's interview with Ross Buzzell explores some techniques at developing unique races to populate your settings as we discuss his planned 16...
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51 - Deep Myth - DinoBeasts Interview
What happens in your setting when someone dies? Are there gods? Are they deeply concerned with the comings and goings of people or are they aloof and indifferent? The Coats Brothers creators of the DinoBeasts Comic create some of the tightest worldbuilding on myth that I’ve seen in some time.…
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50 - Where Have We Been?
Holy Cow! It’s been a minute. Seth and I owe you an explanation for our absence. To that end, let’s appraise you of all we’ve been up to. The Worldbuilder’s Journal Kickstarter is now fully complete and delivered and reviews are coming back raving. Our Discord is in full swing and growing and now...
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49 - Save Room for Wonder in Your Worldbuilding
Do you ever feel overwhelmed with the process of worldbuilding? There’s just so much to learn and do, you’re building a whole world after all! But don’t sweat it. James and Seth dive into the process of getting yourself started worldbuilding focusing on the major factors that contribute to a well...
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48 - Jog Brogzin and Collaborative Worldbuilding
Every GM is trying to creating a world with collaborators whether they like it or not. Authors are now embracing methodologies that include fans in their worldbuilding and story telling. How do you work well with others to create powerful settings and why might this be the best way to work? Long...
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47 - The Rule of Cool in Your Worldbuilding
Is breaking your rules because a particular scene needs a little extra oomph a good thing to do? The rule of cool is where your story starts to strain the expectations and rules that are created and there’s always a cost to it in the form of your visitant’s trust. Will you simply bend/break your...
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46 - Creating Cultures, and why James needs to be asked at least 3 times if he wants tea
Fish don’t know they’re wet. We all have a culture whether we know it or not. We tend to see it clearly in others and recognize that it’s a pivotal part of worldbuilding. We all remember a particular race or culture in our favorite media’s world-building that set our imaginations on fire whether...
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45 - Using Tropes In Your Worldbuilding
Everyone’s afraid of being unoriginal. I mean, it’s understandable that we want to stand out. We don’t want our world-building to be hum drum filled with the same junk that we see day to day. But we needn’t fear the humble trope because it’s like salt. Too much and it’s poison but just the right...
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44 - RJD20, Making Room in Your World For Your Players
It’s hard to kill your darlings. To let go of something that you spent hours (days/weeks/years) creating but that’s what we do when we engage on any creative endeavor. It’s especially true with tabletop roleplaying games where the visitants tend to want a hand in the creative process. They’re not...
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43 - Effective Exposition - trusting your audience
It’s a bug bear isn’t it? Exposition. I mean, in one sense we’re told to show and not tell but we also need our visitants to understand your worldbuilding, to feel like they can anticipate outcomes so they’re not caught flat footed (or we don’t fail to catch them flat footed when we need to). How...
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42 - Worldbuilding Secret Sauce with Peter Chiykowski
But, what is the secret sauce!? Peter Chiykowski is all about it. He’s an award winning author, cartoonist, dog enthusiast and maker of awesome kickstarters and we get to pick his brains! We talk about it some of the key components to good worlds and how a creator can build such depth into their...
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41 - Cultivating Player Engagement Through Worldbuilding
Isn’t it great when your players are obsessed? When they form massive cork boards with twine and string connecting images of different characters and phenomena in your world. How do you bottle this, though? How does a GM drive player engagement with worldbuilding? James and Seth break down how to...
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40 - What Has the Empire Ever Done for Us!?
Well!? The Empire is obviously evil, I mean, obviously. However, we reckon most folks in the galaxy far far away were pretty ambivalent about it and might not have even noticed the change of the guard. Marcos and James discuss the Mandolorian and how the show depicts the regular folks in the...
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39 - Jedi, Good, Bad, and Ugly
Happy Star Wars day everyone! May the Fourth be with you! The Jedi are a staple in everyone’s worldbuilding imagination, most everyone wanted to be one at one time or another. Seth and I are gonna tell you why they’re terrible and not just cause they indoctrinate kids in their hokey religion or...
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38 - Food Glorious Food
There’s one thing that unites us all, one thing that is totally and indisputably common to the human experience. We eat (and breath, and probably whole bunch of other stuff but mostly that first thing). Every people has unique food and that food is informed by thousands (if not millions) of years...
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37 - What About Wanda
We spoil the crap out of this show so if you haven’t seen it yet and you want to see it and you don’t like spoilers then we recommend you give this a miss till you catch WandaVision. As for the rest of you. What happens when a deity grieves? This episode Marcos and James dive into WandaVision to...
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36 - Does your world have potential?
If you were to strip your story from your setting leaving just the world you made behind would people still want to be there? If you take Rocky out of Philadelphia you just have, well, Philadelphia, Will Smith out of Bel Air and… you get the idea. Some worlds are just saturated with potential…
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35 - Cheating at Worldbuilding with Seth Ring
Let’s be honest, GameLit is cheating at worldbuilding. Our very own Seth Ring is joining us today to talk about worldbuilding in his fantastical world of Nova Terra. Seth goes into the nuts and bolts of his collaborative writing style gives away some of his best secrets on how to write and keep...
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34 - Horror in the Margins: Interview with Zack Goings
Horror holds a grim fascination for millions of people but it can be elusive at times. The things that you’d think would draw out the biggest screams sometimes fall flat because they’re too obvious or gratuitous. Real horror lies in subtlety and the unknown. What if the best horror is in the...
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33 - Mars is Having a Mid-Life Crisis
Remember when we looked up into the night sky and saw endless potential in that little red dot out among the stars. Was it a god looking down upon us? Aliens perhaps? Scantily clad space women from pulp fiction? I mean, c’mon, there were roads up there, I’m pretty sure once we found a face carved...
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32 - DinoBeasts
Ferror, the world of DinoBeasts, is merciless. Only the strong survive, the ones who pass the frequent testing of her savage jungles filled with deadly beasts. DinoBeasts is an action packed comic about a barbarian, the last of his species, on a desperate race against to the clock to recover a...
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31 - Chekhov's Obelisk
As worldbuilders we constantly desire more detail in our settings but is it possible that we’re writing checks that can’t be cashed? When an object is placed in the world it’s inevitable that at least some your audience will place significance on it but the very act of worldbuilding is making...
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30 - Gameplay Mechanics and Worldbuilding
Why do people keep honking at James’ bike? How come no one cares that Marcos is streaking? Why can’t Seth get free burritos? Gameplay mechanics are where the game you’re making intersects with the world you were hoping to create. The truth is that almost any gameplay mechanic be it gunplay,...
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29 - Worldbuilding in CyberPunk 2077, Post Play Discussion Part I
Well, we finally played it. We had high expectations for this game, did they pan out? Seth, Marcos and James dive deep into the worldbuilding of cyberpunk and discover the truest core of the wordbuilding ethos that surrounds the game and its genre. We discuss how we approached the game, some of...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
For writers, dungeon masters, and anyone else who wants to create rich, immersive settings and story worlds that will draw their audiences back time and time again. James, our host, interviews worldbuilders of every type and draws on their skills and experiences to help you develop key skills and master the craft of world-building.
HOSTED BY
WorldCraft Club
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does WorldCraft Club have?
WorldCraft Club currently has 64 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is WorldCraft Club about?
For writers, dungeon masters, and anyone else who wants to create rich, immersive settings and story worlds that will draw their audiences back time and time again. James, our host, interviews worldbuilders of every type and draws on their skills and experiences to help you develop key skills and...
How often does WorldCraft Club release new episodes?
WorldCraft Club has 64 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to WorldCraft Club?
You can listen to WorldCraft Club on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts WorldCraft Club?
WorldCraft Club is created and hosted by WorldCraft Club.
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