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The Architect of Elsewhere: Narrative Design and Worldbuilding

  • Writer: Alice Kent | amknarratives
    Alice Kent | amknarratives
  • Jul 15
  • 8 min read

Updated: Jul 22

Worldbuilding is a fundamental part of game design that, when done correctly, immerses players in a rich, explorable world. Every time we step into the bleakness of Crow's Perch, the mud-soaked streets of Valentine, or the polished stone layers of Markarth, we’re experiencing the product of deliberate worldbuilding. Each setting has rules, tensions, histories and contradictions. They feel real because they have been designed and built with care, and treated as if they are a real place.

As a narrative designer, worldbuilding is one of the most powerful tools we have. We create an elsewhere for players to feel at home in. Great worlds evoke emotion and spark curiosity. They are living canvases that place the player firmly within the world, allowing them to shape and transform it with meaningful choices.


In this post, I'll take you through three ideas that will help you create emotional, evocative worlds:


  1. Theoretical: J.R.R. Tolkien's worldbuilding concept: sub-creation.

  2. Personal: A look at how I’ve developed a world for a tabletop RPG.

  3. Practical: Tools to help you start what can be a daunting task!


Sub-Creation and Secondary Worlds


The revered master of worldbuilding, J.R.R. Tolkien, explained the concept of sub-creation in his essay 'On Fairy-Stories' (1947). While defending fantasy and explaining the depths of the genre, he states that when 'Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator,' bringing with it a new, fantasical world waiting to be filled with wonders and possibility, wholesome and malignant. It is the human need to express creativity through building 'Secondary Worlds', worlds that live in our imagination. These elsewheres aren’t merely imaginative escapes — they’re carefully constructed places that must be consistent and emotionally resonant to succeed. It is why mythological tales have survived and regained their popularity for thousands of years. They explain the world around us, give us morally complex characters, and, most importantly, provide us with learning opportunities (hey there, ancient Greeks!)

'What really happens is that the story maker proves a successful “sub-creator.” [They make] a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what [they relate] is “true”: it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside.''

Tolkien believed that a world had to have a clear set of rules and had to abide by them. And that is why his worldbuilding of Middle-Earth is so perfect. Yes, it's vast and easy to get lost in, but everything within that world has a purpose. During the fellowship's journey through the mines of Moria, the reader is plunged into the depths of Moria's history. We learn of Moria's rise and fall, the physical manifestation of the greed of the dwarves, Gimli's grief, orcish brutality, a fleeting shadow from The Hobbit, the decaying splendour of Moria's halls and chambers, which all connect with the wider narrative. It's this interconnection, the weaving of narrative strands, that makes Tolkien's works so distinctly effective. From swords to the lineage of Gondor, everything has a history that adds layers to the narrative, but never takes the reader's attention away from the heart of the story: saving Middle-Earth from evil.

If, like me, you enjoy getting lost in the lore of Middle-Earth, I highly recommend exlibrismi's Instagram page and her 'Tolkien Tuesday' lore bites. https://www.instagram.com/exlibrismir/


Sub-creation and Narrative Design


In narrative design, we might think of sub-creation as the act of designing systems of meaning, not just settings. As narrative designers, we're not only plotting maps or populating timelines; we’re defining how characters live, what they value, what they fight over, and what feels true to them. And that truth must be consistent; otherwise, the illusion collapses.

'The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside.'

So, we need to constantly question the world we're creating. Is the world logical, and does it uphold the rules and systems within it? Do character motivations align with the culture and history created? Does the player’s freedom feel meaningful, rather than restricted by the story? How will the world react to their actions? Does this feel like a lived-in, well-worn world? What is the reason for that element? As Tolkien states: 'The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make.'


When games create a reactive world, that's when narrative harmony can be achieved. In Baldur's Gate 3, allowing certain characters to die has a wide-reaching effect, cutting off quest lines. Your choice regarding Megaton's bomb in Fallout 3 changes the fate of a whole town, storyline, and where you can rest your weary post-apocalyptic head. Even more simply, after some boss levels in Kingdom Rush, the heroic challenge map will show the effects of the death of that boss, be it a yeti leg on a spit or the 'For Sale' sign on Vez'nan's tower. These systems and moments show the player that their actions mattered and will continue to matter, and the world they are in is a place to mould into their fantasy.


Again, what makes worldbuilding in these games captivating isn't just the responsiveness that the medium of games requires; it's the coherence and interconnection of story elements (along with environmental narrative, character design, quest design, and more) that work together to create a lived-in world, just as Tolkien did.


Worldbuilding for a Tabletop Role-Playing Game


One of the projects I've been working on recently is a tile-laying TTRPG called Reclaim the Wastes https://www.gamecrafterscollective.com/blog/the-fight-for-survival-begins-an-introduction-to-reclaim-the-wastes. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the player's goal is to find resources, claim land, and dominate in combat. My first task on the project was to create a world for the game that would give reasoning to the game's mechanics and be an engaging place for players to explore. I'll talk you through my creative goals and process, hopefully giving you some insight into effective worldbuilding. I can't go into too much detail about the game itself due to it being in production, but I'll share what has been announced so far.


My starting point was to read all the documentation that had been created so far and ensure that I understood the goals and mechanics of the game. That allowed me to create worldbuilding goals and prioritise elements.


Every world needs an emotional anchor — a tone, theme, or feeling for players to experience. For Reclaim the Wastes, I started with a single word: survival. It is key to gameplay and would help shape the world and characters. Every narrative design decision, from factions, environments, items, and mechanics, had to orbit that idea. It grounded the world in a sense of loss, desperation and also opportunity.


The needs of the game meant that I began by creating factions first. I aimed to make each faction unique and ensured that each one had a clear motive and history. As I created them, I questioned how each one fitted into the current world, how they lived before the apocalypse, and what the player's experience would be playing as them. From this, other worldbuilding elements appeared organically. For example, as I was creating the Beast faction, geographical elements arose, items of importance appeared, and a new faction was born to give reasoning to the Beast's hatred. When creating each faction, I aimed for each one to connect with the other factions, considering historical relationships, along with current loyalties and hostilities. I wanted the player to feel that the world already exists before the game begins, and it is the player's role to carry on the story through quests, abilities and player choice.


When we began playtesting, that's when my worldbuilding work was truly put to the test! Faction and character designs changed as the game evolved, and gameplay mechanics emerged from the worldbuilding. Worldbuilding elements guided critical decisions and helped to creatively propel the game, making it a unique and, in my opinion, a super exciting game (I'm such a fangirl of the game and cannot wait for it to be fully shipped!)


Ultimately, worldbuilding for Reclaim the Wastes has been a flexible, collaborative process where worldbuilding informs mechanics, mechanics reshape narrative and player experience sits at the heart. When players step into this world, my hope is that it doesn’t just feel like a backdrop, but like a place that has meaning, history and conflict. A place where actions have consequences and a place for players to tell stories of their own.


Worldbuilding Tools


Worldbuilding is a big task, right? If you're aspiring to create the next Middle-Earth or Continent, then, yes, but good worldbuilding doesn't just mean creating vast worlds. Immersive worldbuilding can be present and felt in even the smallest of elsewheres. But where do you start? Here, I'll share some different tools that I've used to help my worldbuilding across various projects.


Websites


One of my go-to tools is World Anvil https://www.worldanvil.com/. It's an amazing website that helps to keep all documentation organised and accessible. It gives you scope to go as big, small or as intricate as your world needs. A limited free version is available.


Another great website is https://www.campfirewriting.com/worldbuilding-tools. Similar to World Anvil, but with a slicker UI in my opinion. I love its language creation tool, but not keen on the amount of generative AI opportunities... A limited free version is available.


If the free versions of the two sites I've recommended don't cut it, don't forget about good ol' reliable Google Drive https://drive.google.com. Professionally, this is my go-to tool as every studio has a shared Google Drive. Documents can be easily shared and presented to teams, and are a good place for colleagues to leave feedback. Folders organise content well, links can be added to documents, or if one giant Doc is more your thing, tables of contents and tabs can help organise and signpost elements.


Software Programs


One of the best worldbuilding programs I've worked with is Fantasy Archive https://fantasiaarchive.com/. The best part is that any content created within the software is private, which is great for NDA projects or projects you want to keep to yourself. And it's free! And offline!


Acronyms


Now that it's time to get writing and building, it can sometimes be difficult to get started and then carry on! Love them or hate them, here are some acronyms that I use to inspire my process.


First up is G.R.A.P.E.S. I use this acronym as a high-level cultural design tool. It helps me to dig deeper into my worlds and question the elements I already have.

My preferred acronym is D.O.P.P.L.E.G.A.N.G.E.R. It's a much more in-depth and flavourful worldbuilding template. That said, not all worlds will need every section mentioned in it. One of the pitfalls of worldbuilding is thinking that every minute detail of the world needs explaining. Your player doesn't need to know absolutely everything about the world. Giving the players space to fill in the blanks for themselves is a powerful tool and helps the player to feel more involved in the world (who said The Lusty Argonian Maid!) One of the fundamentals of good writing is 'show, don't tell', and that applies to games too. You don't need to flood your world with hundreds of lore entries about every conflict and its details that have happened in the last 1000 years. Focus on the world that the player inhabits, how its present and past affect them, and how they can affect the future.

Creator of the D.O.P.P.L.E.G.A.N.G.E.R. template, Anto of Icarus Games, explains each worldbuilding element.

Bonus Tools


Here is a quick list of other tools that are great resources to have up your sleeve when you're worldbuilding and creating a compelling elsewhere.


Infographic detailing "The Four Cs of Fantasy Worldbuilding": Creative, Complete, Consistent, Compelling.

I hope you've found some of these tips and tricks useful and are inspired to start your own worldbuilding journey. Share in the comments what tools/software/templates/processes you use to keep your worldbuilding creative, complete, consistent and compelling.


Happy Worldbuilding!

 
 
 

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