City Stats and World Building

[Refplace]

I was looking at a few things and noticed this was doing rather well.
At 895 downloads its in the top 20 and a lot of other World building items are pretty high up as well.
We have talked about a Corporate Stat book on the forums and even a religious organization one made it to the forum.
What kind of world building books would people like to see?
For this thread avoid the genre and setting resource books like the tech line and Thaumatology. They have plenty of threads.
I am curious about books that help GMs build worlds.
Some want a quick set of charts, others detailed essays on setting choices and rules options.
What are world building books anyhow?
To me Space, Fantasy, and Religion are probably the biggest.
What other sweeping books could there be? I would like an economic one, perhaps an update of fantasy and an update of Religion. Perhaps a government one that went over various types and what effect they could have on a campaign and what would make them more or less viable.
I would also like to see more along the lines of City Stats and the random creature generators.
Also a name generator. There are some online ones but most are kind of hokey and I would love to see what some of the authors could come up with.
I have seen some in print, most also kind of hokey but one I really liked. I think it was Judges Guild that put it out and wish I still had it.

[johndallman]

I'd like an economic book, but what I'd really like is a continent builder system: something that plausibly relates physical geography to climate, and thereby fertility and ecosystems. When I draw maps, the placement of cities and characterisation of countries feels terribly arbitrary, and I'd like to be more plausible.

I have no idea how such a thing could be created, though, although it might sell to fantasy novelists ;)

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I'd like an economic book, but what I'd really like is a continent builder system: something that plausibly relates physical geography to climate, and thereby fertility and ecosystems. When I draw maps, the placement of cities and characterisation of countries feels terribly arbitrary, and I'd like to be more plausible.

I have no idea how such a thing could be created, though, although it might sell to fantasy novelists ;)

Hmm Good thought, I would buy something like that also.
And it might have the advantage of being a leader type product.
Getting more people into GURPS like many of the licensed books have done and some other materials. The kind of things people will buy even if they are not into GURPS but once they do there on the look out for more.
The challenge would not I think be so much as writing up most likely landscapes and ecosystems as making it good read. I suspect most capable of writing such material would make it rather dry.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I am curious about books that help GMs build worlds.
Some want a quick set of charts, others detailed essays on setting choices and rules options.

Most world building books would not need to be tied to a specific system. The virtue of City Stats was that it did its job and was over; there are only a few GURPS-specific crunchy bits needed for a city, so anything else is overkill. It didn't try to be a GURPS-themed city design system, and that has helped its sales.

There are already plenty of world-building books on the market, so I don't see the need here. I can maybe see a religion book in the vein of City Stats, but nothing like the old GURPS Religion was.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Most world building books would not need to be tied to a specific system. The virtue of City Stats was that it did its job and was over; there are only a few GURPS-specific crunchy bits needed for a city, so anything else is overkill. It didn't try to be a GURPS-themed city design system, and that has helped its sales.

There are already plenty of world-building books on the market, so I don't see the need here. I can maybe see a religion book in the vein of City Stats, but nothing like the old GURPS Religion was.

Well your right that most dont need to be tied to a system but it is helpful if they have stuff that is easily put into a system. Also if they use 3d6 for any random tables. or something like 1d6 and another for a table. Like the world building Pyramid issues with its historical event article.
I am curious what currently available world building books you prefer?
Aria Worlds was mentioned in another thread which I kind of liked but found it not as well written as I would have liked.

[Flameman]

Our group want to rule a kingdom.So I would like to see a Gurps:Kingdoms book. Incuding the economics. It could even include the effects of religion. I already see it happening.
"My king, some jews are asking for permission te enter our city"
Player consults the books
"Let them enter"
Against fellow players:"We could use the +3 on our banking roll"

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Flameman

Our group want to rule a kingdom.So I would like to see a Gurps:Kingdoms book. Incuding the economics. It could even include the effects of religion. I already see it happening.
"My king, some jews are asking for permission te enter our city"
Player consults the books
"Let them enter"
Against fellow players:"We could use the +3 on our banking roll"

Hey, now. My relatives are also good accountants.

[daniel_gudman]

GURPS: Kingdoms is a little... specific.

GURPS: Nations, on the other hand... yeah.

I think a book on designing nation-states could be really useful.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by daniel_gudman

I think a book on designing nation-states could be really useful.

There are three ways, I think, to "design" something:

Come up with a way to represent it in game terms, apply it to some real world examples, and eyeball stats for the ones you make up. This is what I did in City Stats and what the Basic Set does for vehicles.

Come up with rules for rolling dice to produce random results from a spectrum of possibilities. This is what GURPS Space does for planets and solar systems.

Come up with a rational design scheme based on narrative purpose and on the laws of nature in the imagined world. I'm not sure if any rpg does this; some writers have attempted it in science fiction—Hal Clement is the classical example—and I suppose you could say that J. R. R. Tolkien did something of the kind for aspects of LotR.

What sort of design do you want to do?

Bill Stoddard

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by whswhs

There are three ways, I think, to "design" something:

Come up with a way to represent it in game terms, apply it to some real world examples, and eyeball stats for the ones you make up. This is what I did in City Stats and what the Basic Set does for vehicles.

Come up with rules for rolling dice to produce random results from a spectrum of possibilities. This is what GURPS Space does for planets and solar systems.

Come up with a rational design scheme based on narrative purpose and on the laws of nature in the imagined world. I'm not sure if any rpg does this; some writers have attempted it in science fiction—Hal Clement is the classical example—and I suppose you could say that J. R. R. Tolkien did something of the kind for aspects of LotR.

What sort of design do you want to do?

Bill Stoddard

I prefer 3, 1 and then 2 in that order.
However I am probably the exception rather then the norm and I think a book that allowed all 3 would sell better.

You could start it off with a narrative to go over the broader details and give ideas to the reader. The random table would refer to that section so would just be a few pages of tables and charts.
And either rules in the narrative method or another chapter would go over the mechanics and optional stat rankings.
I think the latter would flow smoother and possibly be more useful to non GURPS people but would waste word count on duplication.

I would like to write something like this but do not have the chops for it.
I probably would find just the outline of the thing to be too much so my ideas may not hold water. However if no one wants to do it I may come up with a non GURPS electronic version. Be able to make it collaborative that way as well. However I think you could do it rather well if you wanted to.
City Stats is pretty clean and lean. Fantasy gave good inspiration as well.