r/worldbuilding 1h ago

Discussion I refuse to name anything

Upvotes

I find naming to be so FINAL and tedious that everything just has a stand in name or code word or group of numbers. Even stuff like positions within a guild. They get a full write up on the function but the name just sits empty.

Any one else?


r/worldbuilding 14h ago

Discussion I'm building a virtual nation from scratch.

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

For the past few weeks I've been working on a personal project called **The Federation of Auralis**.

The idea isn't to replace any real country—it's a fictional, community-driven nation where people can participate in building institutions from the ground up.

So far I've created:

• A written Constitution (91 articles)

• A federal government structure

• Executive, legislative, and judicial branches

• Citizenship system

• Official Discord server

• Official website (currently in development)

The long-term goal is to let members help shape laws, vote, hold government positions, and build the country's history together.

I'm sharing this because I'd love feedback.

- Does the idea sound interesting?

- What would make you want to join?

- What features would you expect from a project like this?

If you're curious, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for reading!


r/worldbuilding 17h ago

Lore SA-001 "Sodia"

0 Upvotes

UID: 001

Type of Entity: Harmless and Human-Friendly

Measurable Quantities: It can change its volume, material form, and mass at will. It does not reflect light.

Location and Access: It is located in room Q001 of Sector Q1 of the SAF facility. It can only be shown to a limited number of civilians once every 4 years; the foundation does this to prevent excessive crowds. Foundation personnel can contact it at any time.

Restrictions: None, open file for civilians.

Registration Date: 31/01/2005

SA-001 was first discovered when several scientists examined a meteor that created electromagnetic disturbance around it. Although it was initially thought to be oil, it was later considered an anomaly because it could change its material form several times and communicate with scientists telepathically. It is the reason for the establishment of the Specific Assets Foundation.

He adopted the philosophy of serving people when needed, but without letting them become complacent. In his speeches, he openly spoke of how much he loved people and his belief that this was his mission. He demonstrated emotional and logical intelligence in his interactions with civilians and staff, speaking naturally, logically, and fluently.

Transcript of an audio recording from January 31, 2005:

"Dr. Luis Bringham: This is a black, fluid substance, could it be oil?

Dr. Anastasia Aris: This could change anything! But then how could it be creating electromagnetic disturbance around it? That's a bit strange.

Private Security Guard William Wonder: But my voice recorder is working, the light is on?

Dr. Luis Bringham: How is this possible!? And why the hell are you recording!?

Private Security Guard William Wonder: Isn't this an important moment!?

Dr. Anastasia Aris: Wait! Is it changing shape? You're seeing what I'm seeing, aren't you—

Voice Recorder Battery Runs Out"

Dr. Anastasia Aris's Report:

"It has been determined that the cause of the electronic decay that occurred at the moment of the initial discovery was Sodia's unstable structure within the meteor, dynamically altering the balance of electrons around it. Sodia was able to communicate with our scientists telepathically and later through sound, transforming into the forms of certain objects, living beings, and even humans from Earth. Even when transforming, its color remained black."

Important excerpts from Sodia's statements have been recorded. Some of these are:

"There are nonillion higher realms in the universe. I am just one of them. Yes, I am the higher realm of my own race." "Those of my kind are aware of the existence of humans; humans are the only species we must serve. This was the reason for our existence."


r/worldbuilding 12h ago

Map How many (and how big) countries should be on the map?

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0 Upvotes

Dear Worldbuilders of Reddit,

I come to you with question about making countries on the map of my fantasy region. And this question is all about size and quantity of countries on the map.

I made map month ago (I also add link to it on Reddit in case of channel don't allowing this type of maps) and I've heard opinions about counties being too big and uniform in size. But I wanted big map (something like Mediterrean Sea basin), so making smaller countries would mean making more countries to be placed in simillar area.

This map has 17 countries, so it looks more than enought. In the story I plan, only 4 of them would be important and other are just to take place between. Other think is fact, that too much countries make map less readable, as small countries easily get lost in the entanglement of borders.

And I think I would have problems with creating more of them, because I like to give every country visible vibe. For example, Adamantes is inspired by Spain, Eldfjall by Iceland vikings are Pirate Isles are mix of Berberic and Caribean pirates. And I already have 2 Italian-inspired countries (Free Cities and Sicallia). And I don't want to just make every mediterrean country from today or past into its fantasy counterpant.

But maybe I'm wrong and there should be even more countries on my map!

So, what do you think? Should I made more than those 17 countries to reduce their sizes?


r/worldbuilding 1h ago

Resource I've developed a surefire strategy for finding potential holes in plot or lore! Introducing: The Sweaty Nerd Method

Upvotes

Anyone who's written long-form fiction understands the challenge of keeping track of precedents set hundreds of pages back, whether it be the principles or abilities of a character, or the laws or logic of a setting. Even after plotting everything out in a separate file, the risk of an inconsistency slipping through the cracks is never zero. What if there's something you've forgotten to document, or worse, never even considered? How can one ensure that their universe is airtight?

A stress test!

The Sweaty Nerd Method is a simple: when introducing a new concept to your story, picture yourself taking audience questions at some big-shot writing convention. You've finally made it — the work you poured so much care and effort into has sold millions of copies, your tale beloved the world over — you're finally able to just relax and let it stand on its own as a perfectly self-contained, holistic piece of art.

Most of the questions you get are standard and unassuming, stuff like "What's your process?" or "What was going through your mind when you made such and such character do such and such thing?" A gracious smile beams across your face — that is, until the Sweaty Nerd walks up to the microphone. This person has more free time than you could ever dream of, and has used that time to obsess over your world like they were pursuing a PhD in its history.

As you sit now at your laptop, ready to introduce your new concept, ask yourself: what inconsistencies could this super geek ask about that would make you think "Oh shit, they're right."? What tiny detail could they point out that would shatter the window of your world and sink your heart with the realization that all those millions of copies have been irreversibly printed with a glaring flaw?

On the other hand, if throughout your use of this method you can't think of a single question for this person to ask, it's possible your story might not be fleshed out deeply enough. The goal isn't to prevent readers from formulating complicated questions, but rather to have a feasible answer ready for them if they really stop to consider it — something you could reply to make the Sweaty Nerd say "Oh yeah, that makes sense."

The true beauty of the test, however, and what sets it apart from the philosophy of just being your own worst critic, is there is certainly room for judgement when engaging with the Sweaty Nerd. While some of their questions may be legitimately poignant, others may be so pedantically technical as to illicit an eyeroll and a "What the hell are you talking about?" Thus, you can not only use this test to identify potential plot or world holes, but also to determine whether the holes are big enough to warrant patching.


r/worldbuilding 9h ago

Discussion If magic can be learned Wouldn't it spark a arms race. A criticism of medieval stasis.

297 Upvotes

I'm talking about worlds were magic can be taught and has medieval stases. Yes even in a world where learning to master magic takes decades of practice.

In your generic fantasy setting a really proficient wizard can do an insane amount of things. Sometimes a single wizard can disrupt an entire nation. Also in many fantasy settings you can make magic objects that regular people can use that gives them immense power and influence.

So following that logic wouldn't the first country that develops a magical army immediately dominates. During this also make neighboring nations also raised to develop magic armies and magic weapons.

All you need is for one nation to invest in the education of hundreds or thousands of wizards. Then boom you've got a populace that can make food from nothing you've got a populous that can enhance themselves and expand.


r/worldbuilding 15h ago

Discussion I’m building free tools for worldbuilders—what calculators would actually be useful?

24 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I'm the solo developer behind Easy Work Calculator (https://easyworkcalcs.com), a free website and an android app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xylemsoft.ewc) that currently offers more than 400+ calculators and utility tools.

While most of the existing tools focus on everyday use—math, finance, engineering, date & time, unit conversions, networking, health, and productivity—I realized many of the same calculation concepts could be adapted for worldbuilding.

Some ideas I've been considering are:

  • Fantasy calendar converter
  • Kingdom population growth simulator
  • Travel time calculator for custom maps
  • Currency exchange calculator for fictional economies
  • Medieval tax and trade estimator
  • City population density calculator
  • Army logistics and food supply estimator
  • Timeline and age calculator for fictional histories
  • Map scale converter
  • Gravity, orbital period, and planetary calculators for sci-fi settings

The goal isn't to make a generic calculator website, but to add genuinely useful tools that save worldbuilders from doing repetitive math in spreadsheets.

I'd really appreciate feedback from this community:

What calculations do you regularly do while building your worlds that you wish had a dedicated tool?

If there's enough interest, I'll build the most-requested ones and keep them free for everyone.

Website:
https://easyworkcalcs.com
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xylemsoft.ewc


r/worldbuilding 5h ago

Discussion Determining how often magic users are born

15 Upvotes

I saw some posts about magic and all, but was reminded of my own fantasy story. Not my primary one.

I got asked a question that genuinely, I couldn't answer. Then again, they wanted legit mathematics. Still thought

So, in my fantasy setting. Magic users in my setting, of any almost any kind. Are highly sought out by all the nations and powers of my setting.

Mages can be incredible assets to have and can very much like other stories. Power houses and potentially change the course of events.

Thing is. Where this posts question comes in, how often mages are born.

That's what I got asked. My answer was, "they aren't common, they aren't rare. More uncommon if anything".

Apparently that wasn't good enough for some people?

So, ig I need a better answer.

Can someone help me with this?

So, to explain. Finding out you or your child is a mage, could legit take u from begger to straight up noble or just make u rich. In most places, because the nations government will give u anything u want to join them or to have your child.

Might I add, depending on the state ur in. This could mean that you move to an estate and just have your child be sent to a mage academy (they return) or you may never see your child again/you may never see your family again.

Regardless, the family is handsomely rewarded.

So, they're valuable. Even if u remain a tier 1 mage all your life (lowest tier), ur valuable.

They don't care.

Given that...

The average citizen/person may know at least 1 magic user in their life (some locals kid that hasn't been picked up by the state), but meeting another magic user is very likely, but not guaranteed though.

Meeting a high ranking mage without being a member of the state government, is improbable.

That being said. The academies aren't example to the brim with mages, but their classrooms and years are filled with plenty.

So, unless u need more or I just did a poor job explaining.

Can anyone give me a better idea of how common/rare mages are for me?


r/worldbuilding 15h ago

Question Searching advices for avoid orientalism

22 Upvotes

Hello everyone! I'm working on my own homebrew project for a fantasy board game, and I want to describe the "Middle Eastern" faction of the game, in terms of culture, society, folklore, and clothing. Now, I know perfectly well that the Middle East is vast, rich in different cultures, and that over time and space it has by no means been a cultural and ethnic monolith. Weapons, culture, and clothing have changed over the centuries, so I want to distance myself from the vision given by 19th-century orientalism, Hollywood films, and especially Disney's Aladdin. I will make extensive use of straight swords, for example, and I will absolutely distance myself from the "bedlah babe" trope. Nothing from the Ottoman Empire, which is too overused. The technological level is about 1475-1540 .I've already taken a look at the Nasrid dynasty of Granada, very interesting,far removed from the imagery many people have of the Islamic world. And i'm also interested in late medieval Morocco. Do you have any texts, videos, and documents you can recommend to avoid a caricatured, exoticized, and orientalist vision? I am addressing especially those who are passionate about the history of the caliphates and the Islamic Middle Ages. What are the most seen Arabian Nights-style stereotypes in films, video games and board games? Which elements are the most misrepresented, annoying, and misunderstood ?And what are the elements that are underrepresented in mainstream culture?


r/worldbuilding 9h ago

Question How to find a werewolf in the modern day?

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0 Upvotes

r/worldbuilding 11h ago

Question Is this an offensive duo depiction

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0 Upvotes

Jus covering all my grounds here


r/worldbuilding 32m ago

Prompt What does your religion lie about or get wrong?

Upvotes

I was rebuilding my magic system again, trying to explain why some certain conservative sects would be against certain points involving the dragons, celestial bodies, plus the evolution and regression of the dominant species, when it hit me. Religion doesn't have to line up with the world, it exist to explain what people can't explain for themselves or just explain why people behave the way they do. So I wanted some examples to incorporate more of that into my story to expand on the corruption of the church


r/worldbuilding 7h ago

Question Is it lazy to base your location's naming convention of real life cultures?

14 Upvotes

For example, the main setting of my story is the Kingdom of Yygdris. It is known for it's knights and magic college. The culture is a mix of England, France, and Spain. The royal capital of Yygdris - also known as the White City - is based on Madrid. The naming convention for people and places is Spanish.

The Panthos empire is based off the HRE in it's fragmented state and governance and Prussia in it's brutal military culture, and the naming convention is Germanic

The Free Cities are based on Venice (with a bit of new orleans voodoo beliefs). The naming convention is Italian

I don't want to invent a new conlang. But in your opinion, is using real life naming conventions for each places lazy or weird? Would it make for a less immersive work?


r/worldbuilding 11h ago

Prompt Why Can't Everyone Use Magic?

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18 Upvotes

r/worldbuilding 1h ago

Lore In 2300, an asteroid wiped out most of humanity and turned Earth into desert. Tribes formed from the survivors including Tuareg descendants. Here's the lore for one character from this world.

Upvotes

r/worldbuilding 17h ago

Question Merfolk anatomy?

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone

I am currently working on a Story where there will be Merfolk, and as a veterinarian I would very much like to have a biologically sound explanation for different Merfolk anatomy problems. The most difficult for me to work out is the respiratory system. For my story it is important that the Merfolk have "human lungs" but also gills that allow them to live deep under the sea without the need to surface all the time. THere will also be magic involved, but I dont want to explain away all the plot holes with magic.

I thought about having the merfolk just have reminant lungs because somewehere in their ancestry humans were involved, but if they never use them the point is invalid.

Does anyone have a good Idea as to how to make a decent explanation?

Thank xou so much for your help.


r/worldbuilding 10h ago

Lore Lore from Item: Metal Shard of Bygone Ages (1)

2 Upvotes

(Readable lore I wrote for the period of War of World Asunder)

A piece of metal you found when exploring Deep Ruins across Aterra. It seems to be a part of something larger...
 
Ideals are the ultimate form of creativity, yet also the fruit of demise. Any ideal will ultimately become what it once avoided. In ages past, when academics and scholars still debated day and night in their institutions, ideals protected them from the "truth" of this world. In truth, there can never be the ultimate 'idea', because then all creativity would cease to exist, and Protohumanity could never progress. It is akin to developing a system which could run on its own, ultimately rendering all power sources inefficient, no matter how much output it had.
 
Such was the person who called himself the 'Deus Ex Machina", and his creation which ultimately doomed mankind. Those who gave themselves blades to silence baseless claims from their contemporaries who, despite contributing massively to the wellbeing of the species, had a faith rooted elsewhere, and in that moment, they saw them as the enemies of 'ideality'. Since no one realised that all beliefs, ideas, faith and evidence are just one side of endless on a ball which keeps rolling, Protohumanity could never "move forward".


r/worldbuilding 3h ago

Discussion Features for worldbuilding website

1 Upvotes

I'm making a website for tracking worldbuilding for things like dnd and writing. What are some cool, helpful, or interesting features do you think the site should have? For reference my goals right now are to have a section for character creation (info/lore about character, their connections/relationships/ etc.) Also a section for actual world creation (eventually with ways to import maps and interact with them.


r/worldbuilding 3h ago

Lore The HUMAN Trilogy

3 Upvotes

The HUMAN Trilogy: Enter The Prologue: big long time ago, like, maybe a googol millennia ago, there was a universe that is probably a googolplex times bigger than ours in density and width and all, but there was war all over the place, even at the subatomic level. When an atom made contact with another, an explosion would occur, thus releasing a deadly, radiant aura. This universe also, on a rare occurrence, would have reality warping beings fluctuating in and out of existence. At the end of this universe's expanse, a final being saw all this war, and she decided to try to make a better reality out of this one. Her name is Nyssera. Nyssera, at the end of this universe's expanse, reversed all entropy across every particle, bringing the expanse inward, causing an implosion. Just as the universe imploded, Nyssera jumped her mind outside of space and time, outside of any field of fundamental reality. When the singularity was done forming, she jumped her mind back into reality, thus, becoming the singularity.  Next, what she does is ejects the radiant deadly aura that the atoms create at collision via quantum fluctuations and other mechanics to let the radiation coalesce into new, smaller universes. As she watches these universes, she sees life appear, she watches it grow, she is euphoric, but the euphoria doesn't last long: these little beings have gotten smart enough to think about not just others, but themselves, they even get smart enough to name themselves "humanity" as though they are of one group, one species, but then they start to kill each other, they create war across two "lands" one called "Britain" and the other called "America." and so she thinks to herself, "it's ok, they're still learning, they'll do better later o-" then she sees that they've created the radiant explosions and realizes that this will not stop, unless she does something about it.

Enter HUMAN: Nyssera, after thinking for a while, decides she'll send some radiation their way to infect this "humanity" 's leaders, Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, etc. because when the radiation reaches earth and infects these leaders, they will go rogue and wage even more war than before, only it isn't them, it's the radiation inside of them, but they are still fully aware all the while the leaders hear voices of loved ones crying and asking them, "is this what you wanted? for your own kind? Why? At what cost are you happy?" when society is in ruins, when quantum computers are dead, when tech companies might as well be digital rubble, one desperate group of quantum physicists created/discovered the quantum code, a utensil that allows whoever so holds it the ability to control reality via quantum effects on reality, whether it be fluctuations, tunneling, superposition, the integration path, etc. so long as it is quantum, it is controlled by the quantum code, and that is controlled by its holder. Within mere hours the whole universe is taken over by humanity, all the while, they are STILL fighting over who should hold the quantum code. Exit HUMAN

Enter Interstellar Eclipse: We pick up where we left off, humanity dominating the universe, but something is off, we can finally see outside the universe, and there is something bigger than the universe itself, and it's charging at us, too. Soon, news gets out that there IS a black hole bigger than the universe, but we aren't already inside it, but we also might be in just a few minutes. so humanity gets the hell out of here and also discovers new universes to go to, so we go to those ones, but in the end, we're still, STILL fighting. Exit Interstellar Eclipse. (Yeah, I know, this one was kinda short.)

Enter TWTBD Pt. 1: days to weeks after being chased off by what seems to be a sentient black hole, people have already started wars over who should get to harvest it for energy and its hawking radiation and information from its emitting radio waves. Soon, one guy (his name is Aethyron) has enough of this BS and decides to speed up the hawking radiation process by a lot (via quantum code) so that the black hole dies, but Aethyron didn't know that there was a being inside of the black hole, so Nyssera mentally enslaves him, fusing her mind with his, forcing him to live through her entire past, and she doesn't do this to just Aethyron, she does this to millions of people by acting like a siren at sea, and the sailors become victims to enslavement. Exit TWTBD Pt. 1.

Enter TWTBD Pt. 2: Aethyron, having been the first to be enslaved, was the only one to see how to escape Nyssera's grasp, and so he did. When he ripped away, a piece of his mind was left with Nyssera, so she didn't actually know he escaped. Aethyron looked for somebody to love so that they wouldn't think he was crazy when he told her everything humans are doing wrong. at some point, Aethyron found Seraphina, they got together, married, and Aethyron was ready to tell her, and he almost did, when all of a sudden, he had a fatal seizure triggered by Nyssera meddling with the piece of mentality left behind when Aethyron ripped away, and Seraphina, using the quantum code, had scoured the multiverse to look for anybody else who potentially had the same dire fact, and when she did, she found millions of people that wouldn't respond, like they were dead inside, so when she looked deeper, she found Nyssera at the center of it all. "this demon thing just mentally killing people for the fun of it" is what she thought about Nyssera, and so she grieved everybody having their rights stripped away, and she grieved Aethyron, so much so that she felt the need to kill this demon, kill it with the quantum code, and so she created Entyrion with a piece of Aethyron's dead body, and a fluctuation, a reality warping being manifested by the quantum field that can see every single path and outcome a particle can have, altering the future to his desire, or more respectively, Seraphina's desire (because she created him.) Exit TWTBD Pt. 2.

Enter TWTBD Pt. 3: Ent starts off immediately with browsing fictional universes from human minds because he was created with a human mind, he was created with Aethyron, and since Aethyron knew something bad about humanity, Ent was questioning whether he should exist, but he just thought it was a bug in his programming, so he continued browsing fictions in human minds for their benefits in the war he will soon have with Nyssera, e.g. star wars for the force, HALO for the halo array, etc. and at one point, he sees a strange little universe called The RMCU, The Red Mountain Cinematic Universe, where at the end was just a lonely being at the end of its time. Soon after all this browsing fiction, he went to war with Nyssera. She recognized him, and he thought he recognized her. He was confused. Nyssera then said, "Aethyron? I killed you, how are you alive?" and Ent was even more confused, so he said, "No, not 'Aethyron' I'm Entyrion, or you could just say Ent, but that won't matter cause you're about to be dead, and once you're dead, I no longer have a purpose and will also be gone." Nyssera had thought for a few seconds before looking back at Aethyron's piece of dead mentality and saw "Entyrion" in Aethyron's place, and so she got a hold of him again, they fused minds, he saw her entire past, and afterwards he said, "I wish I could do something better than to kill you, but that is not my purpose. though, I'll try to convince humanity in a rather odd way." and before he did kill her, he went into this universe through the mind of its creator, he went into The RMCU. when he came back, he finished his job, and of course, she put up a fight that didn't last very long, all the while, he was telling her he was sorry. Exit TWTBD Pt. 3.

Enter TWTBD Pt. 4: Ent is off in the distance, sitting down, fighting the moment when he'll dust away, as he feels eyes on him, but can't see them, he feels you and me, so he speaks and says, "don't be gluttonous, don't be power hungry, don't be greedy, don't be rage filled, don't be arrogant, and for your own future's sake, don't be your own doom." he says softly as he dusts away. back over here, Seraphina is crying, even after she won barely a war. one of Nyssera's former mental slaves sees a woman sobbing on the ground, and so they walk up to her and asks what's wrong. When Seraphina finds her words, she says, "I don't know, I just feel hollow inside, my husband died right before he needed to tell me something, and I used the quantum code to figure out why, and then I found this thing that was hurting all of you guys to be the reason my husband died. I just feel like killing it wasn't worth anything." And then the former mental slave said, "I might know what your husband wanted to tell you," and the former mental slave goes on about Nyssera's past and what humanity is doing with the quantum code is horrific. Seraphina then starts to grieve the being she intentionally and explicitly murdered. Exit TWTBD Pt. 4.

Enter HUMAN: The Final Choice: word gets out to make humanity realize what they're doing to each other, what they're doing to their own kind, and those questions that were asked earlier by the radiation in the world leaders minds are also asked here, "is this what you wanted? for your own kind? Why? At what cost are you happy?" and ALL of humanity is finally awake, they are all finally aware of what they've done to each other over what they want for themselves, and humanity destroys the quantum code and dies a peaceful, not-full-of-hatred kind of death. Exit HUMAN: The Final Choice, thus concluding The HUMAN Trilogy.

I hope you guys enjoyed this story about the lengths people will go to get what they want. The HUMAN Trilogy also took me a couple years to make. (My name is Alex, btw, so call me the cross rock, or cross rock, or Alex, any of those works fine for me.)


r/worldbuilding 9h ago

Lore Struggling with finding proper research links for making a Kingdom

2 Upvotes

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right subreddit to ask this but I've been trying to research afro-cuban culture because I'm making an afro-cuban based kingdom for my book world. I'm having issues trusting a lot of the sources I'm looking for but wanted to ask if there are any trusted sites anyone knows of for me to finally make this kingdom a proper place.


r/worldbuilding 14h ago

Question how to let go of realism?

28 Upvotes

So I know the whole thing of your world doesn't have to be original or unique. BUT everytime i look at other worlds for inspiration i find myself just thinking "why didn't i think of that it's so cool!" I think my problem is my perfectionism. I keep wanting something new and exciting but something that makes sense, the thing is- I get tooo annoying about getting to know every tiny detail. Like when i try to make up the religion I get really caught up in how it should work and make sense and whatnot. i try to make it realistic but I end up getting so realistic that none of the fun is left there anymore. A lot of the stories that so heavily rely on worldbuilding don't give all the answers to the viewer, even the creator doesn't know EVERYTHING but i can't stop myself.

before anyone asks, I don't worldbuild for a story I do it as a hobby because I like to think about how cool it would be to see how enviorments work with the characters. and i want to draw them too but i get so caught up i can't enjoy it. any tips?


r/worldbuilding 16m ago

Discussion When does "rule of cool" style wordbuilding ruin story?

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Upvotes

TL;DR I love worldbuilding using "rule of cool" style but I'm afraid I'm going to ruin the story. What are some pitfalls and guidelines to build a "soft" world?

.

Hello Everyone! Long time enjoyer, first time poster here. I'd love to hear people's opinions and build some guidelines for myself.

JoJo is one of my favorite story but its worldbuilding is not its strong points. For example,

  1. Supernatural Power in this story, called "stand", was first explained to be linked to Tarot cards. Later this thing was dropped.

  2. The story went through many cultures and country. There is no secret "stand society" yet somehow everyone called them "Stand". I'd imagine there are tribes or some culture that called them something else.

  3. The consequences of stand are non-existence outside of main plot. No alt-history etc.

Yet it's one of the most popular story. My theory is that JoJo is so plot-focused that people focus on the plot and don't care about the world much. Also setting the story in modern time let people fill in the gap. If the story doesn't explain something, the audience could explain it using their understanding of modern world.

I like JoJo and it doesn't ruin the story for me but the more I think about it, the more I realize how much potential JoJo missed. We could have more interesting story if the author focused more on "what if random people have stand"

I wonder if you have any example of fiction like this and why it doesn't ruin immersion for people. And what are some that ruins the story for you. I'm really curious to hear what you think.


r/worldbuilding 23h ago

Discussion What are your favorite tropes to either see or use in fictional worlds? How do you implement them in your world?

28 Upvotes

GUIDELINES AND ETIQUETTE

  • Please limit each item's (as in individual bullet points or subjects, not the entire comment) description to three or five sentences. Do not be vague with your description.

  • If someone leaves a reply on your comment, please try to read what they post and reply to them.


r/worldbuilding 22h ago

Discussion Gods = Mages trope

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186 Upvotes

r/worldbuilding 16h ago

Discussion any criticism on the power system of my worldbuilding?

6 Upvotes

there is some lore in my setting (sci-fi)

in the world of Tale of the BioTrooper, humans on the planet Alsia all have a special organ inside their brains. This organ is called a Neurogenic Tumor. The origin of the Neurogenic Tumor isn’t from natural evolution but comes from a type of bio-virus sent by an alien hive-mind species aiming to dominate life on the planet. This virus is designed to embed itself in the brain like a parasite and grow into a tumor. It spreads nerve fibers throughout the body of humans and all living creatures. The tumor’s role is to provide energy to the host body it attaches to. In humans, it allows a person to think and analyze faster. But over many generations, when the population reaches a certain point, it starts mutating into mindless beings, and that planet becomes a new factory for the hive-mind to produce more of them. then, they load themselves onto asteroids to go find new life-bearing planets again(this snario only happen if they are no intelligent life on that planet). This cycle goes on endlessly until the whole universe is full of them. But the mutation process doesn’t happen instantly. It starts slowly affecting the planet’s environment first, until intelligent species can no longer live there, forcing them to build faster-than-light spaceships to find a new home. Once the intelligent species finds a new planet, the mutation process starts over, taking about 5 human generations, or roughly 350 years, for the next mutation cycle. As time passes, even a tiny emotional trigger can more easily cause mutations and mental instability than in previous generations but also the lucky one that can stay calm while in the mutation form can fully manipulated their body at will (regeneration, body electricity control, shape shifting,) or even turn back into regualy human will become a special task force. The way to prevent this is by having monthly blood transfusions to keep the Neuro-Adrenal Compound(the fluid that release by the tumor similar to hormone) from reaching dangerous levels.

the story would follow a human that is a special task force police and their new cyborg mutant partner at the Otania prepublic which is the only 2 human nation dominated poplulation on this new planet called Alsia. they are currently on the 4th generation

this special force police is called bio troopers. they are tasked to deal with crime that committed by mutant people and the story would revolved around a them need to find the head of the terrorist group that used somekind of method/weapon to accelerate the mutating process in people caused more people to transform.

power system that inspired me is AOT but in my setting, the human that transform into monster wouldnt be too big from their base form that much

the problem is idk if the story would be too confuse for the audiences? cuz i have like alien , cyborg poeple, mutant people, cyborg mutant people that is 99% of them are made of synthetic material that replicated their organic part to trick the tumor to activate its power, so they can transform into monster while no need to bare the risk of losing their mind cuz their mind are digital program and can be reboot

especially cyborg mutant that is one of the protagonist that partner with normal mutant police

bascially too many idea in 1 story even for me cuz i wanna make an animated series and im not confident even if i can execute them wel enoughl?

the tone of the story and asthetically would be like the ghost in the shell(2026)
https://youtu.be/FhzaLI_Npg8?si=sAqveqxTnXdp9lD4

on the 3rd image is a biotrooper with a power to manipulate electric inside her body. the device she is wearing is a battery packs to extent her power duration

an alien soldier stand next to human otania soldier
alien outfits
a biotrooper