USING THE OTHER ATLAS

Other Atlas is a resource, reference and creativity tool that you can use when building a world. It is designed to provide tools, tips, guides, and creative prodding you may find helpful during the process of worldbuilding. What is worldbuilding? Worldbuilding is the art of creating an imaginary setting, space, or location for any number of reasons. Writers, artists, game designers, and more all create worlds. These worlds may be visual, they may be game-oriented, or they may be narrative. Examples of popular worlds are Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Lucas’ Galaxy Far, Far Away, and the Marvel and DC Universes.

Other Atlas is roughly divided between worlds and toolkits. Both of these broad sections are accessible from the top menu.

Worlds provide frequent themes, tropes, and frameworks for commonly existing world types such as fantasy worlds or science fiction worlds. When building a world of a certain genre these sections will provide a quick springboard to get you started.

Toolkits provide guides, reference material, and creativity-generating collections to help you further expand your creation.

• Components will provide you the building blocks you need to create a rich and deeply immersive world.
• Models will help place yourself within an imagined space.
• Techniques are the methods and guides that will help build your world from the ground up.

In addition to these sections, Other Atlas also hosts a blog that covers all topics involved in worldbuilding, from the general to the highly specific.

Other Atlas is designed as a creative space and therefore exploration is highly encouraged. Oftentimes when building a world you will not realize what element you have been missing until you stumble upon it by happenstance. Other Atlas seeks to provide you with those elements upfront so that you can quickly find what you didn’t even know you were missing.

THE FIRST STEPS

To be perfectly honest, if you are in any way familiar with worldbuilding, or have already started a world of your own, just go explore the site! Approach elements and topics with an open mind and find something you would love to incorporate into your own world.

If, however, you are new to worldbuilding or just want a good spot to start exploring, we suggest the following pages.

WORLDBUILDING TUTORIAL: Made with people completely new to the art in mind, this tutorial will help you build something small to get used to the process.

METHODS OF WORLDBUILDING: Here you will find some common and easy methods to start creating your own world. While you do not need to use these specific methods (we suggest you find the method that bests works for you!) this page will get you thinking about how to creatively approach building a world.

ORGANIZING YOUR WORLD: Worlds can sprawl, and if you are not organized you risk losing details. On this page you will find some ideas on how best to organize your creation.

SELECTING A GENRE: While many worlds do not need a specific genre associated with them, many worldbuilders may find genres useful for determining which elements they may wish to include in their worlds.

CHOOSING YOUR PRESENT: Determining if your world has a central era in which a primary narrative occurs is important. Are your heroes using slings, or laser pistols?

FINDING YOUR TONE: Setting a tone for your world will be one of the most important and earliest things you can do as a worldbuilder.

WORLDBUILDING TERMINOLOGY: Sometimes it helps to just be able to talk about worldbuilding. Here you will find general vocabulary and concepts.