Here’s some great news in these troubling times: as part of its annual May sales promotion for gamers, e-book distributor DriveThru RPG is offering three “Covid-19 Charity Bundles” to raise money for the nonprofit organizations No Kid Hungry, Doctors Without Borders, and the World Food Programme.
With the kind assistance of bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White, the e-book we’ve donated for the two-week sale is Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, a how-to book for writers and gamers in which Rich (author of For a Few Gold Pieces More, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special, Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings) takes you through the step-by-step process of constructing a world for your characters, from societies and governments to currency and religion. Included is an interview with New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance) that discusses his methods of world building, as well as his creative experiences during his time as a designer for gaming company TSR, the original home of Dungeons & Dragons.
What you’ll find in its pages is information that’s vital for just about any writer, especially when it comes to world building, and Rich shows you how to do it:
- Avoiding the pitfalls of naming characters, regions, and countries
- Applying the technique of “outside in” to develop and then refine ideas for your world
- Creating a world your readers can relate to, regardless of its technological levels
- Identify how to create backstories and conflict by observing how your world comes together
- Adding details to make your story richer without overwhelming your readers
- Identifying useful resources for research
From its first publication, the book has been a hit with not just fantasy writers, but role-playing gamers as well. When it debuted in October 2015 at the e-book distributor DriveThru Fiction and its sister sites DriveThru RPG and RPGNow, it immediately shot to the #1 position on all three as their top-selling title, and then remained for weeks as DriveThru Fiction’s #1 Hottest Nonfiction Book and #1 Hottest How-To for Writers! If you’re a writer or gamer, you might just want to check it out. In fact, it’s currently being used as a textbook in the Interactive Media Design (i.e., game design) program at Becker College in Worchester, Massachusetts!
Terra Incognito is part of the No Kid Hungry bundle, so if for some reason you’ve been holding off from purchasing it, now’s the perfect time to do so, as it benefits a great organization. For more information on the bundles for No Kid Hungry, Doctors Without Borders, and the World Food Programme, visit the DriveThru RPG emergency relief page. And thanks for helping out!
