What drives your world? Where do you start?

Are you:

  • The Architect, who begins with the setting—crafting landscapes, lore, and systems until the story grows naturally from the world itself (J.R.R. Tolkien)?
  • The Storycrafter, who starts with a strong plot—shaping the world and characters to serve a compelling narrative arc (J.K. Rowling)?
  • The Psychologist, who builds from the inside out—creating vivid, complex characters whose choices shape the world and drive the story (George R.R. Martin)?
  • The Philosopher, who begins with a theme—exploring big ideas and moral questions through a world built to embody and test them (C.S. Lewis)?
  • The Engineer, who uses mechanical systems as a world scaffold - building characters, stories, and lore to support and explore those systems (Brandon Sanderson)?

Which one best describes your process? Or do you switch between them depending on the project?

EDIT: Added The Engineer thanks to CaptSatelliteJack

  • Rappe@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    4·
    6 days ago

    I’m mostly the kind of worldbuilder, who gets one cool but vague idea of something and then just randomly plug stuff into it until it makes sense. The latest was “What if there was a force that was rewriting reality while it’s going on, and some people are immune to it for some reason?” and I ran with it. 150h later I have a full 12 scenario Call of Cthulhu campaign, but without Lovecraft stuff, all homebrew.