Steve Dee has worked in games for thirty years as a designer, writer, editor, journalist, consultant, organizer and educator. He has won five ENnie awards for RPG design, most recently for CHEW: The Roleplaying Game and won Best Non-Digital Game at the 2024 Freeplay Awards for The Score. His card game There's Been A Murder has sold over 100,000 copies and been translated into three languages. He is the president of Tin Star Games.

• Part One: General Principles, 1. Worlds Must Be Built to Purpose, 2. Setting Exists To Communicate Mechanics, 3. Worlds and Games Are Built On Narratives, 4. World Building is Character Building, 5. Astrology not Astronomy, 6. Realism and Believability, 7. Keep Asking Questions, 8. Question Everything, 9. Reality is Your Muse, 10. Keeping Asking People, 11. Rigidly Defined Areas of Doubt and Uncertainty, 12. Embodiment and Anthropology, Part Two: Breaking Ground, 13. Extrinsic and Intrinsic Worldbuilding, 14. Start Small and End Small, 15. Go Big and Go Home, 16. The Richard Scarry Interrogative, 17. Gods and Monsters, 18. The Map is not the Territory, 19. Genesis and the Bible, 20. Top Down…, 21. …and Bottom Up, 22. The Spongebob Technique, 23. Good vs Evil and Other Popular Brands, 24. Psychographics and Psychodrama, 25. Plot Armour and Railroading, Part Three: Developing Your World, 26. Never Say Never Again, 27. Pipe and How To Lay It, 28. The Slice of Life, 29. Signs and Signifiers, 30. Synecdoche and Statistics, 31. A Game Is A Map, 32. Teaching and Example, 33. The Jimmy Olsen Blues, 34. The Ray Arnold Principle, 35. Filling the Fractal, 36. Borrowing, Stealing and Appropriating, 37. Lawyers, Puns and Money

“Steve Dee’s book is the best work on worldbuilding since the Hadean Eon.” – Dan Abnett, New York Times bestselling author and writer of wrongs.“I can count on Steve always to deliver on the creativity. He has a knack for digging in deep and coming up with something marvelous! When it comes to worldbuilding, he knows his subject and would-be game designers can learn a lot from him.” – Robert J Schwalb, Game Designer (Shadow of the Demon Lord, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay)