Tock's World Builders Book
Imagine a place. Give it rules. Fill it with life and stories.
What is world building?
World building means inventing a whole imaginary place: its land, its rules, its creatures, its people and its past. Then you make all the parts fit together.
Every game, film and fantasy book you love started this way. Someone drew a map, decided how things work and asked hundreds of "what if" questions.
World building mixes imagination with careful thinking. You get to make anything up, but once you set a rule, your world has to follow it. That's what makes a made-up place feel real.
How this book works
Every chapter has the same four parts.
- Read it. One big idea, with pictures.
- Try it. An activity you play right here on the screen.
- Away from the screen. A game for paper, pencils and friends.
- Quick check. Three questions. Get them all right to earn a star.
There are 9 stars to collect. Got a question wrong? No problem. Read the hint and have another go. That's how thinkers learn.
Choose a chapter
Chapter 1 · World skill one
Start with what if
Every imaginary world begins with one big "what if". That idea is called the premise.
What if the whole world was one giant tree? What if nobody ever slept? What if it only rained once every ten years? A strong premise changes everything else about the world.
Start with our world and change one big thing. Then ask what else would have to change because of it. That chain of changes is where the fun is.
Here is a premise. Which change would most likely follow from it?
Away from the screen: the what-if jar
You need: ten slips of paper, a pencil and a jar
Write ten "what if" ideas on slips of paper and put them in a jar. Pull one out. Set a timer for three minutes and list everything that would be different in that world. Keep your favourite for the rest of this book.
Quick checkEarn your star
Chapter 2 · World skill two
Map it out
A map turns a daydream into a place. Once you draw it, you start to see where things are and how far apart they are.
Start with the big shapes: land and water. Add mountains, rivers and forests. Then decide where people would live. Towns usually grow near fresh water, and rivers always run downhill to the sea.
In maths: scale
If one square on your map stands for 5 kilometres, a river that is 6 squares long is 6 × 5 = 30 kilometres long. A scale turns counting squares into real distances.
On Tock's map, each square stands for the distance shown. Work out the real distances.
Away from the screen: the rice-spill map
You need: a large sheet of paper, a handful of dry rice or lentils and a pencil
Drop the rice onto the paper and trace around the shapes it makes. That's your coastline. Tip the rice away, then add mountains, rivers, forests and three towns. Draw a compass, a key and a grid. Name everything.
Quick checkEarn your star
Chapter 3 · World skill three
Make the rules
In your world you make the rules. The catch is that once you make one, the world has to keep it.
If magic works by singing, a character can't suddenly cast a spell by clapping. If your dragons can't swim, one can't cross the sea later because the story needs it. Readers and players notice, and the world stops feeling real.
The best rules have limits and costs. Magic that can do anything is boring. Magic that makes you sleep for a day afterwards is interesting.
The rule is written at the top. Does each event keep the rule or break it?
Away from the screen: the rule book
You need: paper and a pencil
Write three rules for your world: one about nature, one about a special power and one about what is not possible. For each rule, write one thing that must be true because of it. Swap with a partner and try to find a gap in each other's rules.
Quick checkEarn your star
Chapter 4 · World skill four
Fill it with life
The plants and animals of a world aren't random. Each one fits the place where it lives.
In our world, polar bears have thick fur for the cold, and camels store fat in their humps for long desert trips. Living things are adapted to their homes. Your invented creatures should be too.
So start with the place. Is it dark? Then eyes might be huge, or missing. Is it windy? Then things might be low, heavy or shaped like kites. Ask what a creature eats, and what eats it.
Read about the place. Which creature is best adapted to live there?
Away from the screen: creature card
You need: a card or half a sheet of paper and coloured pencils
Invent one creature for your world. Draw it and label four features. For each feature, write why it helps the creature survive in your world. Add its food, its enemy and its size compared with you.
Quick checkEarn your star
Chapter 5 · World skill five
Meet the people
Who lives in your world? How they live is called their culture, and it grows out of the place around them.
People build with what they have. In a forest they build with wood. On an ice sheet they don't. What they eat, wear and celebrate depends on the land, the weather and the rules of the world.
Real cultures are different from each other, and each makes sense to the people who live it. Give your invented people the same respect. Make them thoughtful, and give them reasons for what they do.
Read about the place. Which choice makes the most sense for the people who live there?
Away from the screen: a day in the life
You need: paper and a pencil
Write or draw one ordinary day for a child your age in your world. What wakes them up? What's for breakfast? How do they get to school, and what do they learn there? What game do they play afterwards?
Quick checkEarn your star
Chapter 6 · World skill six
How it all works
A world is a system. Its parts are connected, so when you change one thing, other things change too.
If a town has lots of fish but no wood, it will trade with a town that has forests. Now there's a road between them, an inn on the road and probably a robber or two. One fact led to four more.
Good world builders keep asking "and then what?" How do people get food, water, light and news? How do they travel? What do they use for money?
In maths: trading
In Tock's world, 1 shell is worth 3 beads. A hat costs 4 shells. In beads, that's 4 × 3 = 12 beads. Swapping between kinds of money is multiplying and dividing.
Something changes in the world. What is the most likely thing to happen next?
Away from the screen: the web of string
You need: six cards, a pencil and a ball of string or wool
Write six parts of your world on cards, such as river, farmers, market, bridge, dragons, weather. Lay them in a circle. Run string between any two that affect each other and say how. Then take one card away. Which strings go slack?
Quick checkEarn your star
Chapter 7 · World skill seven
Give it a past
A world that began this morning feels thin. A world with a past feels deep, even if you only hint at it.
Ruins on a hill. A festival nobody remembers the reason for. A bridge that two towns argue about. Each of these is a clue that things happened here before the story began.
You don't need a thousand years of detail. Choose three or four big events that shaped your world, such as a flood, a discovery or a great journey, and put them on a timeline.
In maths: years between
If the Great Flood was in year 120 and the bridge was built in year 185, the time between them is 185 − 120 = 65 years. A timeline is a number line for history.
You find a clue in the world. What does it most likely tell you about the past?
Away from the screen: the timeline ribbon
You need: a long strip of paper and coloured pencils
Draw a line along the strip and mark every 50 years. Add four big events from your world's past with a small picture for each. Work out how many years passed between the first and the last. Add one legend that people still tell.
Quick checkEarn your star
Chapter 8 · World skill eight
Tell its stories
A world is a stage. Now it needs something to happen on it.
A story starts when someone wants something and something is in the way. That problem is called the conflict. In a well-built world, the conflict grows out of the world itself: its land, its rules or its past.
Your world can hold hundreds of stories. It can also become a board game, a comic or a guide book for visitors. However you share it, let people explore. They'll ask questions you never thought of, and your world will grow.
Which story idea grows out of this world, instead of one that could happen anywhere?
Away from the screen: the visitor's guide
You need: a folded sheet of paper and coloured pencils
Make a small guide book for a visitor to your world. Include the map, three rules they must know, a creature to look out for, a local dish to try and one warning. Give it to someone and see what they ask.
Quick checkEarn your star
The last chapter · Put it all together
The big world
You now have all eight world building skills. Here they are, with the question each one asks.
| Skill | Ask yourself |
|---|---|
| Start with what if | What is the one big idea? |
| Map it out | Where is everything, and how far? |
| Make the rules | Does this follow my rules? |
| Fill it with life | How does it fit where it lives? |
| Meet the people | Why do they live this way? |
| How it all works | And then what happens? |
| Give it a past | What happened here before? |
| Tell its stories | Who wants what, and what's in the way? |
Before you go, show what you know. Answer all ten questions to earn your last star and your certificate.
Final testTen questions, every skill
Certificate of World Building
This certificate is proudly given to
for learning to imagine a world, map it, give it rules and fill it with life.
Look it up
Word bank
Every big word in this book, in plain language.
- Adapt
- To change over time to suit the place where you live.
- Conflict
- The problem at the heart of a story.
- Consistent
- Staying the same, and following the same rules every time.
- Culture
- The way a group of people live: their food, homes, beliefs and celebrations.
- Grid reference
- A letter and a number that show where something is on a map.
- Habitat
- The natural home of a plant or animal.
- Key
- The part of a map that explains what the symbols mean.
- Premise
- The big idea that a made-up world is built on.
- Scale
- How much real distance each part of a map stands for.
- System
- A set of parts that work together and affect each other.
- Timeline
- A line that shows events in the order they happened.
Parents, carers and teachers
Notes for grown-ups
World building is sustained imaginative work with a logical backbone. A child who invents a world has to keep it consistent, reason about cause and effect and think in systems, which is why game designers, novelists and film-makers treat it as a discipline.
It also pulls in a great deal of curriculum quietly: mapping and scale, habitats and adaptation, how communities meet their needs, and timelines. The project suits several weeks, with one chapter adding one layer. A shoebox or folder to hold the map, rule book and creature cards helps children see the world grow.
How to use the book
- One chapter per sitting. Each takes about 15 to 25 minutes, plus the off-screen activity.
- Ages 7 to 8 will get more from it with someone reading alongside. Ages 9 to 12 can usually work alone.
- Chapters build on each other, so going in order works best.
- Wrong answers are part of it. Every quiz question explains itself and can be tried again.
- Stars are saved in this browser on this device. Clearing browser data may reset them.
What each chapter covers
| Chapter | Idea | Where it helps at school |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Start with what if | Premise, imagining consequences | Narrative writing, science "what if" questions |
| 2. Map it out | Maps, compass, grid references, scale | Geography, measurement, multiplication |
| 3. Make the rules | Consistency and logic | Reasoning in maths, fantasy writing |
| 4. Fill it with life | Adaptation and habitats | Biological sciences |
| 5. Meet the people | Culture and how communities live | Humanities and social sciences |
| 6. How it all works | Systems, cause and effect, trade | Economics, science, multiplication and division |
| 7. Give it a past | Timelines, change over time | History, subtraction |
| 8. Tell its stories | Conflict, character, sharing the world | Narrative writing, game design |