BUYING GUIDE
Choose a worldbuilding guide for the question you need to answer
Compare subject, audience and edition before choosing a craft guide, while keeping its examples separate from your own canon.
Read the guide ↗SANJIESAN LORE / JOURNAL
Keep a world consistent
Worldbuilding becomes useful when a setting helps a scene happen. These exercises focus on consequences, travel and continuity. They are tools for your own drafts; they do not add characters, history or rules to Sanjiesan canon.
122 guides and practical notes · Page 2
BUYING GUIDE
Choose map assets at the scale of the scene
Compare viewpoint, symbol role and delivered files before mixing a purchased pack into a fictional map.
Read the guide ↗Physical geography
Trace a fictional river to one chosen outlet
Use a rough terrain sketch to connect tributaries, settlements and one downstream scene.
Read the guide ↗Geography and society
Let a fictional border cross a watershed
Build an upstream–downstream disagreement without treating a map line as a natural barrier.
Read the guide ↗Landscape design
Choose the wind before painting two mountain slopes
Use a stated wind-and-moisture assumption to connect contrasting environments.
Read the guide ↗Environment in scenes
Write one unusual weather day without changing the climate
Keep a region’s expectations distinct from the conditions of a particular chapter.
Read the guide ↗Rules and consequences
Separate a fictional power’s limit from its price
Test a fictional ability with one impossible task and one costly but possible task.
Read the guide ↗Reader understanding
Show a small use before a power solves the escape
Prepare a magical solution through an earlier action without explaining an entire system.
Read the guide ↗Everyday worldbuilding
Take one invented ability into an ordinary workday
Explore who prepares, maintains and declines a useful power instead of adding another ability.
Read the guide ↗Conflict design
Make a villain’s advantage use the established rule
Build an unequal contest through preparation, access and knowledge rather than a surprise exemption.
Read the guide ↗BUYING GUIDE
Choose an interior map tool by the door-and-wall test
Evaluate a room-map purchase with one playable or readable interior, not a spectacular dungeon preview.
Read the guide ↗BUYING GUIDE
Choose a map drawing system for repeated layered edits
Assess a structured map editor through shared geometry, selective visibility and future revisions.
Read the guide ↗BUYING GUIDE
Choose a browser map plan for the release you intend
Separate private drafting, commercial release and editable online work before choosing a plan.
Read the guide ↗BUYING GUIDE
Choose timeline software with an invented-calendar example
Test calendar boundaries, event order and narrative arrangement before buying a chronology tool.
Read the guide ↗Invented languages
Give invented place names a small syllable pattern
Create a recognisable naming sound without making every place rhyme.
Read the guide ↗Pronunciation and naming
Make an invented-name pronunciation note that can be used
Keep spelling, spoken form and performance notes distinct when handing a name to a reader.
Read the guide ↗Writing systems
Separate an invented script from the language it writes
Build a readable inscription brief with separate decisions about language, script and display lettering.
Read the guide ↗Vocabulary design
Give an invented word a boundary, not one English equivalent
Define a term with examples, exclusions and speakers who would choose a different expression.
Read the guide ↗Memory and history
Let a question shape a fictional remembered event
Write a recollection as an interaction between people, not an uninterrupted history lecture.
Read the guide ↗Documents in fiction
Write an in-world announcement for its original audience
Give a fictional public document a purpose that exists beyond explaining the setting to readers.
Read the guide ↗Institutions and evidence
Give a fictional archive a reason to hold the clue
Connect a discovered record to the organisation that created and kept it.
Read the guide ↗Built-world history
Give an old fortress a second use that changes its rooms
Show a building’s past through altered circulation, fittings and conflicting uses.
Read the guide ↗Architecture studies
Pair a dramatic building view with a plain elevation
Use separate views to communicate atmosphere and the features another artist must preserve.
Read the guide ↗Spatial drawing
Keep one eye level through a fictional street study
Check shopfronts, steps and street furniture against one deliberate viewpoint.
Read the guide ↗FROM THE ARCHIVE
More from this site
Browse the earlier articles, references and reading lists.
Open the article archive ↗Browse resources ↗BEFORE YOU BEGIN
A few useful answers
Is a worldbuilding exercise official Sanjiesan lore?
No. Planning exercises and draft maps are separate from the official universe. Consult the linked official material for established characters, relationships and card identities.
How much setting should I write before a story?
Begin with what the opening scene needs: a place, a constraint and the consequence of breaking it. Expand when another scene asks a question the notes cannot yet answer.
Can a new illustration change a character identity?
No. Identity and artwork are separate records. A new pose, costume or image treatment does not by itself create a different official identity or alter the 54-card system.