Worldbuilding

Started by Tacogeddon November 8th, 2009 9:10 AM
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Age 30
Maryland, USA.
Seen August 18th, 2010
Posted June 25th, 2010
159 posts
14.1 Years
" Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. The result may sometimes be called a constructed world, conworld or sub-creation. The term world-building was popularized at science fiction writer's workshops during the 1970s. It describes a key role in the task of a fantasy writer: that of developing an imaginary setting that is coherent and possesses a history, geography, ecology, and so forth."

Out of curiosity, does anybody else do this? I have many text files full of fiction setting ideas, some never get used, some end up being Roleplaying game worlds and so on. Some are ideas for alien species, such as a race of sentient plants on a swampy world that orbits a pulsar, or a planet of Xenon-based creatures that tend to glow lurid colors and blur the lines between plant and animal. I also write up twists on popular settings, like a dark post-nuclear version of Pokemon, or alternate history, such as Nazi Germany being the first country to land on the moon.

I suck at drawing and such, so this is mostly what my imagination outlets into. :P

Apple Juice

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Male
Seen July 15th, 2014
Posted October 13th, 2013
1,219 posts
13.6 Years
...

I always do this. Literally. I think I've created over 50 imaginary worlds, even if half of them were ripped off the ideas of other people. I'm pretty good at drawing maps too,and if I like the idea, I'd usually make it look overly proffesional like it was a real map, with a grid, longitude/latidute, Prime Meridan, etc. And, if I go that far, I usually color it with an elevations key as well. I bacially think it's fun, especially making up the names of the countries/islands/archipelagos/any other landform imaganiable.

I've also written some stories about some of them, but they're meh. :3

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Age 30
Maryland, USA.
Seen August 18th, 2010
Posted June 25th, 2010
159 posts
14.1 Years
...
I've also written some stories about some of them, but they're meh. :3
I never seem to work up the nerve to make stories out of my worlds. The post-nuclear Pokemon world is one I'd like to use though. It kind of pokes fun at the Cold War, there was a concrete barrier between Johto and Kanto, posters around the towns telling citizens to beware wild Pokemon, as they may be trained scouts, ads for Silph Co. making blastproof homes, and all that silliness. The Pewter City Museum even showcases that in 1969, the first orbital bomber was launched, as opposed to a moon landing. :P
Age 29
California
Seen May 29th, 2011
Posted February 4th, 2010
275 posts
14.9 Years
I never seem to work up the nerve to make stories out of my worlds. The post-nuclear Pokemon world is one I'd like to use though. It kind of pokes fun at the Cold War, there was a concrete barrier between Johto and Kanto, posters around the towns telling citizens to beware wild Pokemon, as they may be trained scouts, ads for Silph Co. making blastproof homes, and all that silliness. The Pewter City Museum even showcases that in 1969, the first orbital bomber was launched, as opposed to a moon landing. :P
DO THIS TOTALLY DO THIS

Anyway, I don't know if I do this too often, sometimes maybe. Not really on paper, though.

I lovelove things like the Dinotopia books, though - you know, the old illustrated ones with not much in the way of plot, just sketches of city blueprints, flora, fauna, technology, descriptions of the social structure. They're so much fun! I love reading about other people's worlds, so long as they are fleshed out enough to feel real and true and beautiful.

I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.

Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'

Age 97
Shimoda City
Seen 2 Weeks Ago
Posted January 25th, 2022
9,705 posts
15.5 Years
I do this on a much smaller scale. I create fictional towns, but mostly only focus on where things like airports, malls, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and the like are located. Oh, and I develop intricate highway networks. Heck, sometimes I give those hotels attributes like number of rooms, layouts, and even guest ratings.

And I did create my own region for my Pokemon fan-fiction, but the less said about that, the better.

Elite Overlord LeSabre™
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Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
I lovelove things like the Dinotopia books, though - you know, the old illustrated ones with not much in the way of plot, just sketches of city blueprints, flora, fauna, technology, descriptions of the social structure. They're so much fun! I love reading about other people's worlds, so long as they are fleshed out enough to feel real and true and beautiful.
I <3 Dinotopia, too, but maybe that was for the dinosaurs.

And to the topic: doesn't everyone who tries fiction writing/artwork/etc. do something like this? You make up a house where a character lives or a spooky graveyard in a town where one doesn't exist. That sort of thing.

Miz en Scène

Everybody's connected

Male
The Wired
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted August 30th, 2016
1,645 posts
14.7 Years
Yes, I always do this and so do writers.

You seem talented. Why not try your hand at fanfiction?

Oh yeah, back to the topic.
I love doing this kind of thing it's just that my ideas don't always get translated onto paper. I have one world ready for next years NaNoWriMo though. XD
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Seen September 18th, 2020
Posted February 18th, 2018
7,741 posts
16.6 Years
I grinned and crossed my legs as I read the OP.
To date I've made two universes, one called The Great War for lack of a more fitting name — a misnomer since the current timeline covers two major wars; and another which goes unnamed although I'm starting to call it Luxbury — again a misnomer since Luxbury Forest is only a location within that world.

The scene of GW covers a full quarter of a galaxy and it has strong but unintended parallels with Warhammer 40,000 in terms of the mass of military might being thrown around daily. The war attitude of the partaking races is somewhat archaic, mostly WWI-esque both planetside and in space, save of course with more advanced technology.
Luxbury is the result of an initially Gensokyo-inspired world. It's just a relatively quiet fantasy setting with little going on. The primary occupants are wingless, human-sized fairies and actual humans, with the latter having enslaved most of the former in recent history. Unlike most fantasy worlds this one is host to gunpowder weapons (all the way up to bolt-action rifles), which for being so easy to learn and use often take prevalence over the practice of magic.
Age 30
Maryland, USA.
Seen August 18th, 2010
Posted June 25th, 2010
159 posts
14.1 Years
I like to daydream about it, but I never take any really serious interest. Usually some form of steampunk world, but they vary.
Steampunk's great, so is Dieselpunk, which is more 30s-40s and art deco inspired. I'd been considering remaking Star Fox as a dieselpunk idea called Sky Fox inspired by WWI-WWII dogfights, and making sprites for it, but I never did. :\

Bay

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Dani California
Seen 3 Hours Ago
Posted 3 Hours Ago
6,347 posts
17 Years
I did worldbuilding before. When I wrote original fiction, I would make up towns and their system based on medieval times. Heck, I even laid out the army ranks like knights and such. That didn't went well though because one movie that came in 2005 is similar to what I was going for. XD;

Then there's fanfiction. On my first fic I had done an island like place in Hoenn. On another fic I did a whole new region and based cities off of real ones like Paris, London, and even Big Bear (California, USA :P ). Most of the time though I use other regions and expand that, but I usually go more how the anime portrays the cities since they did better on adding buildings, the city's culture, and such. There are times though I would imagine how the Pokemon world would be like in the future, so it would end up being a battle in a city like the ones in Pokemon Revolution. :P
Miles Edgeworth
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Age 34
Female
ENGERLAND
Seen October 30th, 2011
Posted October 29th, 2011
1,189 posts
13.7 Years
Oh god, I do this so much! XD I'm glad I'm not the only one. I tend to store most of my worlds in my head, though, and I experiment with crossing them over to see how they work. They're mostly science fiction/Steampunk realities, which is weird because I don't read a lot of Steampunk fiction. (My favourite genre is Crime.)

Worldbuilding is great. Especially when you're buzzing along and have nothing else to do in your head. >_>

How's your thirst for adventure, Captain?
Age 30
Maryland, USA.
Seen August 18th, 2010
Posted June 25th, 2010
159 posts
14.1 Years
A few Worldbuilding projects have gotten huge, look at Sagan 4, which has a bunch of members detailing the evolutions of an alien planet, named after Carl Sagan of course. Orion's Arm is a good one, it's set over 10,000 years in the future with all sorts of mind blowing nanotech and transhumanism. Orion's Arm has a planet called Whisper, the environment is entirely grassy plains, the grass makes whispering sounds as the grass sways in the wind, but it's actually a giant bio-computer in which the sounds form complex waveforms that work like a computer calculating. The grass-AI is a virtual reality containing the uploaded minds of an entire society, if that isn't worldbuilding, I don't what is!

http://www.orionsarm.com/
http://sagan4.com/

And for everyone interested in steampunk and dieselpunk...

http://www.dieselpunks.org/
http://brassgoggles.co.uk/

There's not as much on retrofuturism/atomicpunk, if anyone has played the Fallout series of games, the pre-war world was like this, a 50s view of the future with plenty of atomic engines, chrome fins, and helper robots.

http://www.paleofuture.com/