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A list of worldbuilding resources
Worldbuilding Lexicon
What is a LitRPG?
A Word about Copyright
How does using Worldbuilding.SE affect my copyright?
When is a person a co-author of a joint work?
General Guides
Universe Factory: ...
104
votes
How do I create a religion unlike greek pantheon?
Mythology is not religion. Mythology and religion are two very different things.
Funny thing is, the ancient Greek mythology we all know and love was not the actual ancient Greek religion. For an ...
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87
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What questions should I ask myself when designing a legal system for a fantasy world?
Assuming you have a basic list of things not to do and penalties set up you may wish to start asking about the bureaucratic process:
Who can accuse people? Everyone, or only the elite?
Who can catch ...
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77
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How can I develop names for my fantasy land?
I would recommend google translate for this little effort.
Pick a language that fits the style of your world/or a particular nation depending on your scale. This mainly means find a language where ...
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76
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Is there a more effective way to build a language than a word frequency list?
I don't have a reference but some philologists and linguists have speculated that you could survive (explain who you are, ask for employment and food, etc.) in a foreign land with as few as 500 words. ...
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67
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What is a good way to make an abstract board game truly alien?
Games that are not about winning.
One concept almost all human board games have in common is that there must be winners and losers. Even if it is a cooperative game, the group as a whole wins or loses....
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65
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Is my world map unrealistic?
Some advice here, before I dissect your map in my giant answer: it would be really, really helpful to anybody trying to evaluate the map if you had at least the latitude lines on it (longitude would ...
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62
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How do I justify spending time to create a world in the first place?
World building tends to attract certain types of people
People who like the process of world building
People who go the extra mile in making sure their story is accurate
People who want a single ...
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56
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Do I have to rename all creatures in a new world?
"Kalgash is an alien world and it is not our intention to have you think that it is identical to Earth, even though we depict its people as speaking a language that you can understand, and using ...
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55
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How can I make the food of my (fantastical) culture believable?
Food in war-oriented organizations tends to be nutritious, reheatable but can be eaten hot or cold, is neither too bland, too spicy, nor too pungent, is portable, and can be transported and eaten one-...
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54
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How can demon technology be prevented from surpassing humans?
Message from Dea
My Dear Tasty Morsels,
You misunderstand the origin and nature of the recipe-ingredient that you call "demons". They are not creatures from beyond my domain. I am all powerful! ...
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53
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How far is too far when worldbuilding?
Building a world and writing a story are two entirely separate things. In practice there will be a feedback between the two where you fudge the story to match the setting and the setting to better ...
- 43.2k
53
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How do I resolve science-based problems in my worldbuilding?
Step 1: Decide how scientific you want to be
There are three general levels of science fiction. 'Soft', 'medium', and 'hard'.
Soft science fiction is science fictiong that doesn't even want to try ...
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49
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When countries combine, how do they pick a new name?
Sometimes, they do merge their names; for example,
Tan-ganyika + Zan-zibar $\rightarrow$ Tanzania.
Italy was a place before it was a country. It is pretty natural for a country which occupies the ...
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47
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How can asymmetrically powerful states be balanced? (AKA why don't legendary heroes rule the world)
Dune provides a pretty good model here, and so does the Cold War - balance your heroes against one another.
In Dune you had several powerful groups, each with their own type of power, balancing one ...
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47
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How would you make money by "worldbuilding"?
When can an artist become a businessman?
A very long time ago I remember watching an episode of The White Shadow, a show about an urban high school basketball team coached by an ex-pro. The episode ...
- 117k
42
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Realistic way a character that born with 999/1000 luck stats die?
Going with your explanation that 999 is at the high end even for gods, and that it's not something like 99.9% but more something like 99.999999999999% (and then some) of luck:
Congratulations, you ...
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41
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How can a new country break out from a developed country without war?
In 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist as a country and the land was divided up into 15 countries, generally along boundaries of countries that existed when the Soviet Union formed in 1917, ...
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41
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Is it possible for a planet to have the same seasons in both hemispheres?
Yes it is possible, if the planet has little axial tilt but an eccentric orbit. Then summer will be when it is closest to its sun, and winter will be when it is furthest away, which will be the same ...
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40
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How to prevent the evolution of human flight?
Magic is a dense material.
Magic is quite dense. It tends to fall down with gravity, and tends to cling to the earth. As such, if you get too far above the ground, there tends to be little magic left.
...
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40
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How do you make your worldbuilding less utopian?
New advantages make new problems
Make your Utopia, and don't be bashful. But remember that as people develop new levels of decadence, or shall we say sophistication, they come up with new problems ...
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39
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How can I develop scientific names for my species'?
Use Binomial Nomenclature
Part of what makes scientific names sound consistent is that they're part of a formal system called binomial nomenclature. If you apply the same system to the names of your ...
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39
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Is it bad Worldbuilding to use the real world and history as a template for your own setting?
Alternate history is a well-established genre. Full disclosure: I'm a fan. You can base your alternate history:
On a point of divergence from real history. For example, S. M. Stirling's Draka, which ...
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38
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Destruction by design - how best to go about crafting a ruined landscape?
Start with the people then the city then the ruins
Cities always arise from the culture and situation of the people who built it. Their priorities will be expressed in what buildings are where and ...
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37
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How to create accurate map with white spaces?
I think your headaches come from misunderstanding why the blank spaces exist. The Terra Incognita is simply an area the cartographer has no good information on. Most such areas had people living on ...
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37
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How can asymmetrically powerful states be balanced? (AKA why don't legendary heroes rule the world)
Well, why does the US with their massive military not conquer the entire world or at least the Western Nations they have a cultural affinity with? I mean there are several reasons, mainly their ...
- 8,767
37
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Realistic way a character that born with 999/1000 luck stats die?
Just keep trying to kill him.
A 0.1% chance of dying to any given event is good, but not that good. If the stat and it’s effects are linear (IE any given attempt on this guys life has a 99.9% chance ...
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36
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How can I make the food of my (fantastical) culture believable?
If you want to make it believable you can build your diets based on these:
available ingredients;
available cooking technologies;
culture
Ingredients
Your people live somewhere and they get ...
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35
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How can I create original holidays for my world?
First of all, I don't think there's any shame in taking our existing holidays as inspiration. Many holidays from different cultures on Earth have similar roots, typically in the meanings of the ...
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How can demon technology be prevented from surpassing humans?
When the world resets, the demons must conserve their strength to survive the long soulless winter. A demon lord from the last world may have consumed a million mortal souls, but then must wait eons ...
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