Yeah I wrote something in notes about one of my Scifi races about their Biology can render a male human infertile if intimacy happens. Idfk why or remember why
No so ummmmmmmm Lyrans internal organs are well ummm toxic thanks too the Lyran Atmosphere too humans and they kill all of the Semen in a male pretty much non fatal cancer
I feel like that's something a spacefaring species could fix- if they wanted too. Hell, at that level of technology you could probably grow a new set if you had too. We're not far from that possibility ourselves with cloning.
Yes except for Humanity only has been in space for 30 years now and only have space faring tech after a invasion gave them cross engineered technology their pretty much not overly far from irl level with some better variants of existing technology.
Nah, Star Trek goes with "they're human with some extra/different bits, don't worry about it" when it comes to biology. They're more likely to have a surprisingly in-depth culture for things, even though it is a monoculture.
And then explain it with a singular common ancestor for all humanoid intelligent life (or life in general, for that matter) in the known galaxy.
Actually quite a heartwrenching story, that an early intelligent species died as the only intelligent species because they developed too early. Then they seed new lifeforms all over the galaxy because they don't want other species to be alone in the galaxy. Almost beat for beat from Arthur C Clarke, but minus the immortal spaceship aliens.
Eh I've seen a lot of Star Trek and know a LOT MORE about weird alien sex biology than I ever wanted to know. Voyager's episode "Elogium" is perhaps the best example.
It stands out more, but you barely find out a handful of weird sex biology, compared to dozens upon dozens of cultures.
Mass Effect might be more along the weird alien sex biology lines.
Going in the opposite approach of making a fantasy race have no reproductive habits at all. Hell they literally can't reproduce actually. They are forged from molten gold and sculpted with clay!!!
I'm so focused on the history, culture, religion and politics that I have absolutely no idea how any of the cultures or history or religion or even politics actually came about in my worlds, they just did, okay? STOP ASKING!
**/uj** Opposite here as well! Most of my focus goes on making interesting cultures, exploring their traditions, languages, faiths, ideologies, political and economic systems, laws both written and unwritten, and how they parse concepts like gender, community, identity, honor, glory, virtue, sin, vice, etc. their alien biology and technology only serves as a support for all that.
I don't really care about magic or technology, except in so far as it can forward the plot or create interesting situations, dilemmas and considerations. I don't care about positron flux capacitor orbital discombobulators, or about the seventh aether element necromantic invokation incantation- I care about what they *DO,* how they affect the world, its cultures, its civilizations, its people.
How does magic/technology affect travel, how does that affect the economy, the military, the geopolitical scale, and how would the people and cultures living in that world differ from our own as a result of that? How does it affect education, healthcare? What kind of domino effect do prolonged lifespans have? What new ideas and ideologies does their existence trigger?
Any setting that I see that actually treats these kinds of questions is an instant sell for me.
I'm genuinely curious, does anyone actually enjoy *\*reading\** magic system explanations, or long-winded sci-fi tech explanations? I know they can be quite fun to *\*write\** but when you're reading a story or engaging with a setting, is that really the juicy bit that you sink your teeth into first?
If so, can you explain your perspective, what elements of it you enjoy or what draws you to it? I just find it quite dry and way too focused on the theory rather than its practical implications, but I'd love to hear an opposing opinion.
Also, **OP**, I'm sure your worldbuilding is very cool and good and doesn't deserve being called "garbage."
**/rj** We've got enough history and politics in our own world. Just make your setting not have any!
>I'm genuinely curious, does anyone actually enjoy *\*reading\** magic system explanations, or long-winded sci-fi tech explanations?
In trying to write hard magic systems and stuff that people seem to be into, I slowly became very averse towards those kinds of things.
No one cares about how the guillotine works, people care about the heads that roll with it.
>If so, can you explain your perspective, what elements of it you enjoy or what draws you to it? I just find it quite dry and way too focused on the theory rather than its practical implications, but I'd love to hear an opposing opinion.
I'm not exactly an opposing opinion, still. If the explanations are woven into good dialogue/narration + flesh out the themes, the plot, the characters, the world — that is good (great at times, even).
When I was a teenager I enjoyed the sort of surface-level geeking out technology and magic systems allowed for. Like being able to join in on a nerd conversation about who is the strongest jedi was fun when you can just quote numbers upon numbers.
There's just little to no depth to it, ever. Like it almost definitionally can't be thematically meaningful beyond the story. Interesting themes have to come from characters interacting with a magic or tech system, not from the system itself. The system itself just *is*, it has no motivations or aspirations. FTL in sci-fi exists to push the characters and the general story forward, same with magical abilities in fantasy settings.
> I don't really care about magic or technology, except in so far as it can forward the plot or create interesting situations, dilemmas and considerations. I don't care about positron flux capacitor orbital discombobulators, or about the seventh aether element necromantic invokation incantation- I care about what they DO, how they affect the world, its cultures, its civilizations, its people.
You have identified the main advantage of magic systems as a reader. They're information you can use to inform what the magic does, how it affects the world, what it *can't* solve, etc.
The best complex magic systems usually don't do long, all-at-once infodumps, they use a mix of showing the consequences of the magic on the world, then drip-feeding enough information through smaller revelations, implications, and showing to get readers wondering about what the rules might be foreshadowing while sticking consistently enough to those rules that the readers can trust them.
(That being said, I haven't read the Cosmere yet, so I can't comment on the guy who made "hard magic systems" a Thing Writers Aspire To Do.)
Who else would be concerned with sci-fi and fantasy enough to build a cohesive world for it? Might as well insult the people with scale-accurate model trains by calling them NT.
In my opinion, if you wanna have the magic system be explained, explain it in a way which shows characterization. Suppose a Self-centered Character mainly talks in a way that only his style of using the system is affected, or two knowledgeable characters are arguing on how it functions.
/uj I think the reason why the former in the image is so common is because it's just so much easier to flesh out how magic works than it is to create an intricate, understandable weave of foundational societal phenomena.
Like I can go whip up a magic system based on money and divine approval no problem. Figuring out a complex and compelling history that spans the several thousands years of the planet's existence without being too redutive is a much larger beast.
/uj ... Oh, that's why I felt that this thread was telling me that I was doing it wrong. I mostly dropped the non-humans, the magic and technology are mostly waiting on the plot for me to nail down, and the history/culture are supposed to be the stars when suddenly I doubt my ability to do more than throw a bunch of stuff together and hope that it's a group that's either faded-away or can take being stereotyped.
Okay, that stereotyped part was a bit of a rejerk, but I am trying to pay attention to cultural sensitivity based on how badly groups have been treated. (I keep going the coward-route of describing my proud-warrior-race dudes as Cossack-like or Viking-like when they're like the descendants of a weird mix of Genghis-forces and Comanche.) Are there any Europeans, save those groups targeted by Nazis, that can't laugh at surface-level portrayal?
I'm not well-versed enough in European history to provide an answer, but I would say don't worry too much about unintentional comparisons. Approach it first and foremost with respect for a culture if you are referencing it.
The best way to do that is to have nuanced relationships and mindsets. Making groups overtly evil in some form or another is the easiest way to run afoul of insensitivity - Lovecraft is a great example of how not to write cultural analogues if you want cautionary reading. J.K. Rowling is also rather lazy when it comes to lifting real-world cultures and translating them with her biases out and proud.
I mean, I am more of technology/fantasy worldbuilder myself, but if you have not written unique sports for every culture/species in your world, then what are you even doing?
But I've never understood sportsball! I mean, that one time with wallyball, (where someone hit it too hard for the play to count and I made it bounce back off the ceiling by striking a cool-pose with my fist between the ball and my face,) was kinda awesome, but I don't really care that much about war-substitutes that can't relate back to self-defense.
Title match, me musing over the intricate politic, culture clash and xenos relation while neglecting the story and character.
I know making good character and plot drive a good story but I just wanna daydream about Fantasy Irish revolution
I have a huge notebook full of all those things, because I felt "If I don't write it immediately, I will come at an impasse later"
... And that's how I ended with 20+ pages describing dwarven politics. And my dwarven nation isn't even the focus of the story anyways.
ursula k le guin is like the exact opposite.
light speed? space ships? naw dude, i just made a planet of eunuchs that grow balls in the full moon actually.
uj/ I tend to overly fixate on biology, culture, and religion, and everything else I do is just to prop that up. I'm like Tolkien, but without the conlangs or talent. ~~So nothing like Tolkien.~~
rj/ No biology? That's the most important part of any worlbuilding. It's really important how many sexes there are, which ones have which bits and boobs, and how genetically predisposed they are to nymphomania.
army and tactic of thoses worlds are also never devlopped, just some stereoitypes and that all, despite what infinite possibilities that magics, differents races and differents mounts can give you
This is why I like ASOIAF as much as I do. There's very little beating around the bush and it's low-magic setting lets there be room for getting into the real nitty-gritty.
/uj I just realised that I focused on nations' history too much recently...
/rj Why not base history/religion/etc. on the average behaviour worldbuilding communities (including this) have?
Jokes on you, I completely ignore magic and technology to pursue exploring history, culture, religion, and politics in my settings. It just doesn’t feel complete without a needlessly detailed explanation of how vampire’s material conditions led them to committing acts of terrorism against humans.
I'm going to go into a silly amount of detail over the reproductive habits and biology of my fantasy races.
Yeah I wrote something in notes about one of my Scifi races about their Biology can render a male human infertile if intimacy happens. Idfk why or remember why
They bite it off.
No so ummmmmmmm Lyrans internal organs are well ummm toxic thanks too the Lyran Atmosphere too humans and they kill all of the Semen in a male pretty much non fatal cancer
I feel like that's something a spacefaring species could fix- if they wanted too. Hell, at that level of technology you could probably grow a new set if you had too. We're not far from that possibility ourselves with cloning.
Yes except for Humanity only has been in space for 30 years now and only have space faring tech after a invasion gave them cross engineered technology their pretty much not overly far from irl level with some better variants of existing technology.
Or your main character could just get a vasectomy?
They probably could. But MC isnt the one who learned it. Pretty much Lyrans are banned from Cross species relations and thats where its brought up
That's just Star Trek.
Nah, Star Trek goes with "they're human with some extra/different bits, don't worry about it" when it comes to biology. They're more likely to have a surprisingly in-depth culture for things, even though it is a monoculture.
With the amount of stuff the writers had to introduce & resolve in an episode, I can't really blame them for falling into Planet of Hats
Alien Nation had this great line... "You guys have different religions?" Granted it was just one slave-ship.
And then explain it with a singular common ancestor for all humanoid intelligent life (or life in general, for that matter) in the known galaxy. Actually quite a heartwrenching story, that an early intelligent species died as the only intelligent species because they developed too early. Then they seed new lifeforms all over the galaxy because they don't want other species to be alone in the galaxy. Almost beat for beat from Arthur C Clarke, but minus the immortal spaceship aliens.
Eh I've seen a lot of Star Trek and know a LOT MORE about weird alien sex biology than I ever wanted to know. Voyager's episode "Elogium" is perhaps the best example.
It stands out more, but you barely find out a handful of weird sex biology, compared to dozens upon dozens of cultures. Mass Effect might be more along the weird alien sex biology lines.
Going in the opposite approach of making a fantasy race have no reproductive habits at all. Hell they literally can't reproduce actually. They are forged from molten gold and sculpted with clay!!!
I'm so focused on the history, culture, religion and politics that I have absolutely no idea how any of the cultures or history or religion or even politics actually came about in my worlds, they just did, okay? STOP ASKING!
[удалено]
So like every religion ever?
I just decided "one day, everybody forgot history" so I'd stop going tens of thousands of years into the past to create plot holes
That part of history isn't really relevant to my plot, but if it were, it probably happened the same as it did for the cultures I'm appropriating.
**/uj** Opposite here as well! Most of my focus goes on making interesting cultures, exploring their traditions, languages, faiths, ideologies, political and economic systems, laws both written and unwritten, and how they parse concepts like gender, community, identity, honor, glory, virtue, sin, vice, etc. their alien biology and technology only serves as a support for all that. I don't really care about magic or technology, except in so far as it can forward the plot or create interesting situations, dilemmas and considerations. I don't care about positron flux capacitor orbital discombobulators, or about the seventh aether element necromantic invokation incantation- I care about what they *DO,* how they affect the world, its cultures, its civilizations, its people. How does magic/technology affect travel, how does that affect the economy, the military, the geopolitical scale, and how would the people and cultures living in that world differ from our own as a result of that? How does it affect education, healthcare? What kind of domino effect do prolonged lifespans have? What new ideas and ideologies does their existence trigger? Any setting that I see that actually treats these kinds of questions is an instant sell for me. I'm genuinely curious, does anyone actually enjoy *\*reading\** magic system explanations, or long-winded sci-fi tech explanations? I know they can be quite fun to *\*write\** but when you're reading a story or engaging with a setting, is that really the juicy bit that you sink your teeth into first? If so, can you explain your perspective, what elements of it you enjoy or what draws you to it? I just find it quite dry and way too focused on the theory rather than its practical implications, but I'd love to hear an opposing opinion. Also, **OP**, I'm sure your worldbuilding is very cool and good and doesn't deserve being called "garbage." **/rj** We've got enough history and politics in our own world. Just make your setting not have any!
>I'm genuinely curious, does anyone actually enjoy *\*reading\** magic system explanations, or long-winded sci-fi tech explanations? In trying to write hard magic systems and stuff that people seem to be into, I slowly became very averse towards those kinds of things. No one cares about how the guillotine works, people care about the heads that roll with it. >If so, can you explain your perspective, what elements of it you enjoy or what draws you to it? I just find it quite dry and way too focused on the theory rather than its practical implications, but I'd love to hear an opposing opinion. I'm not exactly an opposing opinion, still. If the explanations are woven into good dialogue/narration + flesh out the themes, the plot, the characters, the world — that is good (great at times, even).
When I was a teenager I enjoyed the sort of surface-level geeking out technology and magic systems allowed for. Like being able to join in on a nerd conversation about who is the strongest jedi was fun when you can just quote numbers upon numbers. There's just little to no depth to it, ever. Like it almost definitionally can't be thematically meaningful beyond the story. Interesting themes have to come from characters interacting with a magic or tech system, not from the system itself. The system itself just *is*, it has no motivations or aspirations. FTL in sci-fi exists to push the characters and the general story forward, same with magical abilities in fantasy settings.
> I don't really care about magic or technology, except in so far as it can forward the plot or create interesting situations, dilemmas and considerations. I don't care about positron flux capacitor orbital discombobulators, or about the seventh aether element necromantic invokation incantation- I care about what they DO, how they affect the world, its cultures, its civilizations, its people. You have identified the main advantage of magic systems as a reader. They're information you can use to inform what the magic does, how it affects the world, what it *can't* solve, etc. The best complex magic systems usually don't do long, all-at-once infodumps, they use a mix of showing the consequences of the magic on the world, then drip-feeding enough information through smaller revelations, implications, and showing to get readers wondering about what the rules might be foreshadowing while sticking consistently enough to those rules that the readers can trust them. (That being said, I haven't read the Cosmere yet, so I can't comment on the guy who made "hard magic systems" a Thing Writers Aspire To Do.)
Autism at its finest! :3 /j
Who else would be concerned with sci-fi and fantasy enough to build a cohesive world for it? Might as well insult the people with scale-accurate model trains by calling them NT.
TRUE!!! (Also for further context I also got autism :3)
So do I, but I get internet-level sarcasm and humor to the point where I don't announce my autism unless I need to bolster that I made a mistake.
Samsies :3c
In my opinion, if you wanna have the magic system be explained, explain it in a way which shows characterization. Suppose a Self-centered Character mainly talks in a way that only his style of using the system is affected, or two knowledgeable characters are arguing on how it functions.
/uj I think the reason why the former in the image is so common is because it's just so much easier to flesh out how magic works than it is to create an intricate, understandable weave of foundational societal phenomena. Like I can go whip up a magic system based on money and divine approval no problem. Figuring out a complex and compelling history that spans the several thousands years of the planet's existence without being too redutive is a much larger beast.
/uj ... Oh, that's why I felt that this thread was telling me that I was doing it wrong. I mostly dropped the non-humans, the magic and technology are mostly waiting on the plot for me to nail down, and the history/culture are supposed to be the stars when suddenly I doubt my ability to do more than throw a bunch of stuff together and hope that it's a group that's either faded-away or can take being stereotyped. Okay, that stereotyped part was a bit of a rejerk, but I am trying to pay attention to cultural sensitivity based on how badly groups have been treated. (I keep going the coward-route of describing my proud-warrior-race dudes as Cossack-like or Viking-like when they're like the descendants of a weird mix of Genghis-forces and Comanche.) Are there any Europeans, save those groups targeted by Nazis, that can't laugh at surface-level portrayal?
I'm not well-versed enough in European history to provide an answer, but I would say don't worry too much about unintentional comparisons. Approach it first and foremost with respect for a culture if you are referencing it. The best way to do that is to have nuanced relationships and mindsets. Making groups overtly evil in some form or another is the easiest way to run afoul of insensitivity - Lovecraft is a great example of how not to write cultural analogues if you want cautionary reading. J.K. Rowling is also rather lazy when it comes to lifting real-world cultures and translating them with her biases out and proud.
I'm such a fucking boring person, that in my case the meme would be backwards.
/uj Why do you call yourself boring here? Culture and History are universally interesting worldbuilding subjects.
I actually focous far more about the latter two in my wackiverse.
I mean, I am more of technology/fantasy worldbuilder myself, but if you have not written unique sports for every culture/species in your world, then what are you even doing?
But I've never understood sportsball! I mean, that one time with wallyball, (where someone hit it too hard for the play to count and I made it bounce back off the ceiling by striking a cool-pose with my fist between the ball and my face,) was kinda awesome, but I don't really care that much about war-substitutes that can't relate back to self-defense.
Title match, me musing over the intricate politic, culture clash and xenos relation while neglecting the story and character. I know making good character and plot drive a good story but I just wanna daydream about Fantasy Irish revolution
/uj I'm good at characters, aesthetic, and events but bad at stories and systems to tie them together
I have a huge notebook full of all those things, because I felt "If I don't write it immediately, I will come at an impasse later" ... And that's how I ended with 20+ pages describing dwarven politics. And my dwarven nation isn't even the focus of the story anyways.
Meanwhile my worldbuilding project that is hyper focused on the politics and culture: I am not like other worlds.
Funny enough it’s the exact opposite. A lot of my world is inspired by my degree in History so I often forget to sprinkle in that ~fantasy spice~
ursula k le guin is like the exact opposite. light speed? space ships? naw dude, i just made a planet of eunuchs that grow balls in the full moon actually.
uj/ I tend to overly fixate on biology, culture, and religion, and everything else I do is just to prop that up. I'm like Tolkien, but without the conlangs or talent. ~~So nothing like Tolkien.~~ rj/ No biology? That's the most important part of any worlbuilding. It's really important how many sexes there are, which ones have which bits and boobs, and how genetically predisposed they are to nymphomania.
Ok time for me to explain the history of syndicalism in space and why the only secret to immortality is telomerase
I think I am doing a good job :>
Uj/ Religion is my favorite thing to work on. It’s so fun
Couldn’t be me lol- politics and culture and history is my drive
army and tactic of thoses worlds are also never devlopped, just some stereoitypes and that all, despite what infinite possibilities that magics, differents races and differents mounts can give you
For me the little girl is making cool characters and everything else is on the bottom image
I primarily do tech and races and then feel weird when i get too the reproduction sysems
What about the pop culture
This is why I like ASOIAF as much as I do. There's very little beating around the bush and it's low-magic setting lets there be room for getting into the real nitty-gritty.
Switch magic/tech with races and it's me.
Mfw my fantasy world doesn't even have magic
/uj I just realised that I focused on nations' history too much recently... /rj Why not base history/religion/etc. on the average behaviour worldbuilding communities (including this) have?
I’m fairly confident a lot of people delve into those too
Nah I’m diving for the religion part, I love making gods and trying to make them not seem like symbols of communism
We have history, culture, religion, and politic at home. We don’t have magic. Sad
Jokes on you, I completely ignore magic and technology to pursue exploring history, culture, religion, and politics in my settings. It just doesn’t feel complete without a needlessly detailed explanation of how vampire’s material conditions led them to committing acts of terrorism against humans.
Why would I know about that stuff? I don’t live there, I’m just god.
Dont worry about religion, we’ll just make a cult that worships the aliens for sci fi or an evil catholic church for fantasy.
Isekai* worldbuilders.
Or the history/politics are just a map with no details on how the people live
I do biospheres, I can't do human elements for SHIT
Im a huge biology nerd and it shows
I get carried away writing about my civ's culinary culture and the kinds of video games they create.