[Guide] : How AI Can Be a Co-Creator for World-Building

World-building is an essential part of creating engaging settings for tabletop RPGs, novels, or games. It involves developing a unique and believable world with its own rules, geography, history, and culture.

While the process can be exciting, it can also be overwhelming, especially when it comes to fleshing out details or overcoming creative blocks. This is where AI tools like ChatGPT can be invaluable. By bouncing ideas off AI, you can rapidly generate concepts, refine existing ones, and explore new avenues of your world that you may not have considered.

In this guide, we’ll show how AI can be used for world-building, from idea generation to refining complex narratives and systems.

1. Idea Generation: Brainstorming the Big Picture

When you start building your world, you might have a broad vision but need help fleshing it out. AI can help you brainstorm key aspects of your world, such as its structure, cultures, conflicts, and magic systems.

Example Prompt 1:

“Help me brainstorm a fantasy world with magic, but I want magic to be based on emotions. People can only harness magic by tapping into a specific emotion, like anger or love. What could the cultures and history of such a world be like?”

Example Response:

“In this world, magic is deeply tied to the emotions of its people. Different cultures developed unique practices based on their emotional ‘resonance.’ For example:

• The kingdom of Resa: A region where love-based magic thrives. Their magic can heal, protect, and build bonds. They focus on diplomacy and unity but struggle with people who don’t share their ideal of mutual affection. Their temples are full of artworks and music to stir positive emotions in the air, amplifying the power of their spellcasters.”
• The kingdom of Furyan: Known for their anger-based magic. Their warriors can use their rage to summon fire, enhance strength, and cause destruction. However, their anger also makes them prone to recklessness, and their society often experiences civil strife. The ruling class has worked to create rituals to control their fiery tempers.”
• The Silent Isles: A place where people tap into sorrow for powerful, almost necromantic magic, manipulating death and spirits. This culture values mourning, loss, and remembrance, and their magic is focused on manipulating the souls of the dead, binding them to objects or using them for protection.”

Outcome: This response provides a diverse range of cultural ideas and provides a starting point for developing complex political systems, conflicts, and even future storylines.

2. Refining and Expanding Ideas

Once you have a broad idea, you can start using AI to refine specific details, flesh out the lore, or explore particular aspects of your world. For example, if you want to expand on the kingdom of Resa, ChatGPT can help deepen the societal structure, politics, or economy.

Example Prompt 2:

“Tell me more about the kingdom of Resa. What is their political system like? How does the magic of love affect leadership and social hierarchy?”

Example Response:

“In Resa, the political system is a meritocratic monarchy, where rulers are selected not only for their political savvy but their ability to demonstrate the strength of their emotional bonds with the people. The monarch is chosen from a group of candidates who pass the ‘Bonding Trial,’ where they must form strong emotional connections with various societal factions—nobles, commoners, and even magical entities. The trial is designed to reveal which candidate’s emotional resonance can most effectively unite the kingdom.”

The leadership of Resa is divided into two main factions: The Heartbearers, who are the ruling elite skilled in manipulating emotions to create harmony and diplomacy, and the Soulweavers, who specialize in using love magic for protection, strengthening bonds, and defending the kingdom from external threats. The common people are generally allowed to vote on issues that directly affect their lives, but only those who can wield love-based magic are eligible to run for office.”

Outcome: This response further enriches the kingdom’s political structure, making it more dynamic and relatable, while tying it back to the theme of love-based magic. You can now explore how this affects day-to-day life, laws, and cultural traditions.

3. Dealing with Creative Blocks: Counter-Prompts and Refining

When you hit a roadblock or need to refine an idea, AI can serve as a sounding board to test theories, generate alternative perspectives, or fill in gaps. If you feel stuck on how magic affects daily life or how to resolve a plot issue, AI can suggest new angles and approaches.

Example Prompt 3:

“I’m stuck. I’m not sure how to make the emotion-based magic system feel like it has limits. Right now, it seems too powerful. What are some limitations I could introduce?”

Counter-Prompt Response:

“Here are some limitations that could balance the magic system:

1. Emotional Fatigue: Using magic based on strong emotions can exhaust the caster. After a large spell, they might experience emotional burnout, making them unable to tap into that emotion for a period of time. For example, after casting a powerful spell based on anger, the caster might become physically weak or emotionally numb for a while.
2. Emotional Vulnerability: The more a person taps into their emotions, the more they risk losing control. If a mage draws too much from their anger or love, they could lose their ability to control their magic, leading to unintended consequences—uncontrollable explosions or uncontrollable bonds that could backfire.
3. Limited Emotional Range: Magic can only be tapped into through a person’s own emotional state. If a character is emotionally exhausted, depressed, or detached, they can no longer perform their magic effectively, or they might be limited to weaker spells. This introduces a more personal challenge for mages to maintain their emotional balance.”

Outcome: This response provides new ideas for limitations that balance the system. These limitations also add depth to the emotional magic theme, making it more complex and ensuring that players can’t just rely on it without consequence.

4. Building a Rich History and Lore

AI can also help you create the history of your world—key events, myths, legendary figures, and past wars. These elements can serve as background for current conflicts in your story and help you add depth to your world.

Example Prompt 4:

“Can you help me create a myth for the origin of magic in this world? What ancient event triggered the ability for people to harness emotions as magic?”

Example Response:

“The ancient myth tells of ‘The Cry of the First Heart,’ an event that occurred millennia ago, when a great war between gods ravaged the land. The gods, who had once lived in harmony with humanity, became consumed with their own emotions—love, jealousy, rage—and unleashed their magic upon the world, causing destruction on an unimaginable scale. The gods’ battle spilled over into the mortal realm, shaking the very core of the earth.”

In the aftermath, a young mortal named Liora, the last survivor of her village, heard the wail of the gods’ suffering in the air. Moved by a deep empathy, she reached out with her own heart, and her pure love became a force that resonated with the world, healing the shattered earth and calming the raging gods. From that day forward, the ability to harness emotions as magic was born, passed down through generations from the Cry of the First Heart.”

Outcome: This mythical origin story ties into the central theme of emotion-based magic and provides a backdrop that you can reference in your world’s history, deepening the cultural significance of magic.

Conclusion

AI tools like ChatGPT can serve as a co-creator for world-building, helping to brainstorm, refine, and expand your ideas. Whether you’re struggling with the grand ideas of your world’s structure, fleshing out its detailed history, or finding ways to balance complex systems like magic, AI can provide instant feedback, new angles, and fresh insights. By bouncing ideas off AI, you not only speed up the creative process but also open yourself to new possibilities and perspectives that can make your world more unique and immersive.

Use AI as a collaborative tool to push past creative blocks and deepen the lore of your creations. The more you interact with AI, the more creative ideas you’ll generate, leading to a richer, more dynamic world.