Deep, Immersive Worldbuilding From Runic Press

I had the opportunity to sit down with Anthony Anderson and Cas Cavieri of Runic Press over the weekend to chat about their upcoming book, What’s My Foundation?, a system-agnostic guide to worldbuilding.

Wobble: In 2024, you guys published What’s My Motivation? a system-agnostic process for developing deeper, more complex characters for TTRPGs. Now you’re launching the Kickstarter for What’s My Foundation?, a follow-up book. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about the new project?

Anthony: We got the bug to work on this about halfway through the process of writing WMM. We realized, just like with Motivation and its unique approach to complex characters, that we hadn’t really seen a holistic deep dive into the process of building a complex world from scratch in a systematic way that was equal parts accessible and detailed. Some resources were random generators, there were a few prose books on the topic, and there are a handful of question-and-answer materials. But nothing that didn’t lead to frustration or the feeling that it didn’t quite take you where you needed to be.

What’s My Foundation? was the result of that. It’s just taken us this long to write it. It’s like giving a college-level introductory course on about ten different subjects at once, and the chapter list reads like a course catalog. That’s intentional. We wanted to start as broad as possible and slowly filter things down. From wide and esoteric to narrow and granular.

By the end, you should have all the groundwork laid for your setting to understand the past, allowing you to create whatever kinds of stories in the present you can dream up.

Want to learn more about the first book, What’s My Motivation? Check out this review by Rich from The Laughing Tavern.

Wobble: I’ve read a lot of guides on worldbuilding. I’ve had the opportunity to look through a draft version of What’s My Foundation? and one of the things I enjoyed was the structure of the book. It takes you through a number of broad topics, including Cosmology, Theology, Geography, Biology, Anthropology, and more. Everything flows in a very logical way from one topic to the next.

This past week, you’ve been showing off the process on Bluesky with the #weekofworldbuilding hashtag, tapping various individuals in the TTRPG space (including yours truly!) to collaboratively build a fantasy world.

At the time of this interview, we’re about five days into that project: how has it been going and what are your feelings on seeing others use the process in the book?

Cas: Week of Worldbuilding has been a blast! I honestly was just kinda brainstorming “What could we do to promote this that’s actively fun and engaging rather than just another posting campaign?” I love doing collaborative work with the community, and coming together to make something for everyone to use is exactly the theory behind WMM/WMF in the first place!

I’m LOVING the spins folks are putting on it; watching people adapt the book to a collaborative play-by-vote style on the first read shows me that we’ve got something truly accessible on our hands, which has me thrilled. A nice side effect of this endeavor is getting to see where we exceled, and what could use a bit of refining before it goes out to the world.

Anthony: What’s My Motivation? got a chapter added when we realized it could be a fun solo journaling experience. With how this Week of Worldbuilding has gone, we realized that What’s My Foundation? needs an extra chapter talking about how to use this at the table as a group activity. So, thanks!

The Runic Press Crew

Wobble: That’s a great idea! Let’s talk crew a bit. What members of Runic Press have worked on the book and who is doing the art?

Cas: So the work is broken down by chapter: Anthony’s done the majority of the connective text, but each of the members of Runic have written their own chapter (or two) for the book, so you’ve got everyone’s spices in the pot! I pat myself on the back enough to say I was pretty instrumental in concepting for this one. The cover is done by Mymic, and the interior art that you’ve seen is by Chocori! I’ve never seen either of them miss, and I’m loving the visual aesthetic for the book.

Anthony: Yeah, I’d say development and writing, Cas and I have covered about 75% at this point. Bryan Cetroni, Danny Kodicek, and Jackson Wagner have all contributed a chapter or two.

The interiors are still coming in, but what we have so far is gorgeous.

Artwork by Chocori.

Wobble: If you both had to pick one chapter of the book as a favorite, which would it be?

Anthony: Hm. That’s tougher than I thought it would be.

Cas: I think they’re all fantastically written, but if I’m honest, the first two chapters (Cosmology and Theology) have my heart. I think we’ve done very well in most of the other chapters elaborating on worldbuilding concepts that are often addressed in a thorough and organized manner. With these two, though, I feel like we’re giving a depth to most game worlds that you don’t really see addressed often. Even in deep sci-fi or extremely high magic fantasy, the origin of the universe itself and the birth of the gods is very rarely addressed.

Anthony: Cas and I spent literally weeks researching and writing the Biology chapter, so that’s a solid one but I think I’m just happy we finished it. Cosmology one really does lay the groundwork for everything that comes after. It’s detailed but allows for the freedom to use the rest of the chapters how you need without overly dictating the results and limiting your options further on.

I do think an untapped gem is History. I’m pretty proud of the Ted Talks prose at the beginning, and think anyone wanting to timeline out a civilization or world could use it even as a standalone. It’s close enough to the end of the book that I think it’s one of the least-read sections, even amongst our own team. Hopefully folks will be pleasantly surprised. (We cheated and collectively gave 4. Ta-daaa.)

What’s My Foundation? Kickstarter

Wobble: Let’s talk about the Kickstarter. It launches on September 22nd and end October 10th. How much are you trying to fund, and can you lay out the tiers?

Anthony: Well, What’s My Motivation? surprised us all, coming very close to $6,000 when we’d targeted about $500. We have a little more support, a little more experience, and are shooting for at least $5,000 this time around. Obviously hoping for far more, but the industry is fickle, especially right now, so we have no idea how this will go.

Additionally, we wanted to limit the excess fees both the backer and us will have to pay to various third-party groups. And with the current tariff, shipping rates, and personal economic situations being what they are, we wanted to maximize options for the backers. So we’re having relatively low-cost tiers, but are providing digital access to get a Print on Demand copy of the book(s) for anyone who wants them. So the “print copy” can be handled by the backer at a time and location of their choosing (through DriveThru).

We have 6 tiers slated:

Cosmic Perspective is everything above plus a one-time worldbuilding session with us, where we’ll walk you through the process of a new world or help you whip your existing setting into shape.
Ground-Level View gets you the base PDF of What’s My Foundation?
Ground-Level View Plus is the PDF with print access.
Bird’s Eye View gets a PDF of What’s My Foundation? and What’s My Motivation?
Bird’s Eye View Plus is both PDFs and print access for both.
Stratospheric View is the All-In tier. All the above 4 items, name in the credits, 4 more books from the Runic Press back catalog, and a PDF of 5 Pre-Made Foundational Worlds.

Wobble: That sounds like a great structure. Do you have any stretch goals planned if you exceed your funding goal?

Cas: They’re not out of the question, but we’re taking our time to make sure anything we offer is something that truly adds to the product, rather than just slapping on some sparkles for the sake thereof. I’ll give it a “probably.”

Anthony: That’s a safe answer. Something is likely, but what it might be, we couldn’t say yet.

Wobble: So we all know that projects like these can hit any of a number of unforeseen delays and snags, but assuming the Kickstarter funds, what’s your projected timeline for release of the finished project?

Anthony: With any luck, before Thanksgiving for the PDF? From there, getting the print version set up isn’t too difficult, but dealing with the print bits, getting the proof copy, approval, etc… I’m suggesting sometime December to get those print access tokens out.

We have about 80% of the book written, and edits are in progress. I don’t take too long on layout once everything’s available. It felt like that was a reasonable timeline to promise.

Upcoming Project From Runic Press

Wobble: I can’t wait. I have a physical copy of WMM and I want a physical copy of this new book to go with it. What other projects does Runic Press have in the works? I know I’ve seen some rumblings about something new called Runic Collective.

Cas: Honestly, we’re in the middle of a bit of a gear shift. While Gethin, Danny, Bryan and Joy are working on Wondrous Environments, we’ve been putting a lot of our combined focus onto making sure What’s My Foundation? is as good of a project as possible.

As for next steps? I’ve heard whispers from reliable sources that a “What’s My Population?” settlement builder isn’t an impossibility.

We’ve been taking a much more system agnostic path lately, and I’ve really been enjoying it. Getting to work on creating settings and living, breathing worlds (hehe) for all folks has really broadened my horizons on what a “good TTRPG project” is.

Anthony: Yeah! Cas and I will probably at some point early 2026 turn our gaze away from building the nebulous history of your world into the specific present day. Kingdoms, Towns, etc. We’ve been in preliminary talks with a respected, industry-known artist who does great little hex maps to handle a lot of the art for that one.

As for Runic Collective, we’ve often had side projects released where only a few of the team members work on it, and we didn’t necessarily feel like we should stamp the RP logo to it. Runic Collective lets us say it’s RP-adjacent, so it gets the stamp of approval but isn’t from the whole team.

Final Comments

Wobble: That sounds like great stuff. I’m really excited about that whispered What’s My Population project in the future! Let’s wrap up with What’s My Foundation? In one sentence, why should people back the project?

Cas: Your world can be more than just a background; it can be a truly living setting, and you owe it to yourself to make the world you’ll be spending so much time in as rich as possible!

Anthony: We hope that with What’s My Foundation? you’re able to build worlds you can be proud of, worlds that excite and entice, and worlds that last.

Wobble: Thank you both for sitting down with me. This sounds like an amazing project and I can’t wait to see it get off the ground. Any final comments or things you want to mention?

Cas: Go check Magpie’s Bluesky to see if Week of Worldbuilding is still going on!! If you’re reading this on Monday, there’s a good shot!

Anthony: Just like any good GM, musician, or improv artist, we feed off of the energy from interactions. If there’s any questions or suggestions folks have, we’re happy to engage. And who knows? We might get the bug to do a new book about it.

Also, Jackson’s got an fun indie computer game coming out very soon that I’m sure he’d appreciate getting on everyone’s wishlist. Look for Letter Lost on Steam. I made one of the trailers!