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Is there a pattern that can be identified that we could use to build worlds? Is there something currently being used in certain circles?

Thomas Blobaum
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  • I’m afraid your question is so broad, we can’t help you much. Worldbuilding is a subtype of writing, and just as there are many ways to write a book, there are many ways to build a world. Look online for worldbuilding examples; I might suggest the YouTube channels Nakari Speakerdane and Worldbuilding notes as a starting point. – Globin347 Feb 25 '22 at 05:27
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    Hi Thomas Blobaum, this is a great question for our Meta site which exists to guide and resolve activities here in the main public site. Rules are pretty strict here, please review them at HELP - we have to maintain appearances and represent well to the public. Learning the ropes can be done by browsing around, or asking at the Meta. Thanks, hope to see your worlds soon! – Vogon Poet Feb 25 '22 at 06:49
  • Check the description of the [tag:worldbuilding-process] tag. It has the explanation of a basic framework. – Otkin Feb 26 '22 at 05:16

1 Answers1

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  1. Select the kind of story you want to write, the kind of adventure you want to play.
  2. Identify if this fits into an established genre. Learn the conventions of that genre, become aware of prior art.
  3. Think of setting details which are unique to your own setting (or at least not used by well-known IP in the genre), and which enable the specific stories you want to tell.

For a classic sword-and-sorcery adventure, you can mix adventurers in plate armor, shirtless barbarians with big swords, and leather-clad rangers with bow, arrows, and slightly smaller swords. That's expected. You don't have to worry that plate armor was historically for knights with an extensive support structure, squires and grooms and a fief to pay for all that. In a roleplaying game with halfway reasonable economics rules, because the players are expected to trade and buy, you need to worry about it -- unless there are convenient dungeons as a source of loot to fund the adventurers (never mind who re-stocks them and why).

In a space opera adventure, you can have single-seat starfighters running circles around lumbering battleships, because the mental image is World War II in spaaaace! For a more hard science fiction setting, you would note that delta-V tends to be at least as important as acceleration, and delta-V depends on mass ratios rather than absolutes. So the big battleship can actually outrun the fighter (which might still be able to turn faster).

You tagged this , so I presume it is a science-fiction world. The most important question is the degree of realism: Do you want 95% of the aliens to be humanoid, able to drink, brawl and even interbreed with humans in a shirt-sleeve environment? Or are they stranger? Completely absent?

o.m.
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