A few years ago, around the time I first started this blog, Paul Stark created a series of Podcasts dealing with story-centric worldbuilding. Unfortunately Shakespeare & Dragons faded and died, and now even the website is gone. This is a shame because it was a good show. Because I didn’t want the show to be lost to complete obscurity, I decided to link to archived episodes here.
I don’t host any of the files myself. I do not include the two-part episode on monster building, because it was donation-ware.
- Episode 1 – World of the Story
- Episode 2 – Power of Tone and Emotional Effects on the Story World
- Episode 3 – Economy of the World and the Needs of the Characters
- Episode 4 – Objectives of Worldbuilding and an Introduction to the Designer’s Workshop
- Episode 5 – Premise of Your Story World
- Episode 6 – Thematic Subjects of Your Story World
- Episode 7 – Character Design Using Your Thematic Subjects
- Episode 8 – Plot Part One, Shapes and Structure
- Episode 9 – Plot Part Two, Scene Construction and a Look at the Worldbuilding of The Incredibles
- Episode 10 – Plot Part Three, Structuring Plot from Character Desires and Forces of Antagonism
- Episode 11 – Plot Part Three, Structuring Plot from Character Desires and Forces of Antagonism
- Episode 12 – Setting Part One, Geography, Power Structures and Culture
- Episode 13 – Setting Part Two, Creating Cultural Attributes
- Episode 14 – Setting Part Three, Using Image Systems
- Episode 15 – The Party
Thanks to Paul for authorizing this links archive, and for allowing me to post the old show notes. These are PDF exports from the original Shakespeare & Dragons website – they’re not very pretty but they’ll do. I will prettify them eventually.
- SnD 001 – World of the Story (Cleaned-up Version)
- SnD 002 – Power of Tone and Emotional Effects on the Story World (Cleaned-up Version)
- Worldbuilding Ep. 003_ Economy of the World and the Needs of Characters
- Worldbuilding Ep. 004_ Objectives of Worldbuilding
- Worldbuilding Ep. 005_ Premise of Your Story World
- Worldbuilding Ep. 006_ Thematic Subjects of Your Story World
- Worldbuilding Ep. 007_ Character Design Using Your Thematic Subjects
- Worldbuilding Ep. 008_ Plot Part One, Shapes and Structure
- Worldbuilding Ep. 009_ Plot Part Two, Scene Construction
- Worldbuilding Ep. 010_ Plot Part Three, Structuring Plot from Character Desires and Forces of Antagonism
- Worldbuilding Ep. 011_ Seven Steps to Thinking, Breathing, Bleeding, Scheming Heroes and Villains
- Worldbuilding Ep. 012_ Setting Part One, Geography, Power Structures and Culture
- Worldbuilding Ep. 013_ Setting Part Two, Creating Cultural Attributes
- Worldbuilding Ep. 014_ Setting Part Three, Using Image Systems
- Worldbuilding Ep. 015_ The Party
These firefly diagrams are for show #15.
I have not posted Paul’s Monster creation workshop, since he used to only give that to people who donated money, but I hope to convince him to give permission to post that as well.
Thanks for saving and posting this great resource!
You are welcome!
so grateful helpful information is still around
Thanks so much for this (and of course Thanks to Paul for his brilliant podcast: I hope all has been going well with his own art and story work: I hope he's able to update us soon). I also hope that Paul gives permission to post the Monster design two-parter: this all really deserves to be preserved and studied!