3000 World Building Prompts: The Art of World Building, #8

By Randy Ellefson

From his best-selling series, The Art of World Building, author Randy Ellefson provides more than 3000 World Building Prompts to inspire creators for everything they might want to invent.

 

Creating Life - species/races, gods, monsters, word figures, plants, animals, and undead.

 

Creating Places - planets, continents, land features, sovereign powers, settlements, land travel, water travel, space travel, time, history, and places of interest.

 

Cultures and Beyond - cultures, organizations, armed forces, religions, the supernatural, magic systems, items, names, legal systems, education systems, commerce, health systems, and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randy Ellefson
• Release date: Dec 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781946995711

Book preview

3000 WORLD BUILDING PROMPTS

by Randy Ellefson

Copyright © 2022 Randy Ellefson / Evermore Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About Me

Free Book

Templates and Newsletter

World Building University

The Podcast

YouTube Channel

1 - Creating Life Prompts

Analogues

How Many Worlds?

The Gods

Mortality

Relations

A God

Species

A Species or Race

World View

Relationships and Family

Habitats, Settlements, and Home Life

Their Bodies

Their Minds

Magic and Technology

World Figures

Status

Relationships

Abilities

Appearance

Monsters

Its Life

Motives and Behavior

Plants

Animals

Undead

2 - Creating Places Prompts

Planets

Moons

Habitable Moons

Continents

Land Features

For All Land Features

Mountains

Forests

Wetlands

Deserts

Sovereign Powers

Population

Government

Magic and Technology

Military Might

Location

Relationships

Business and Work

Settlements

Population

Location and Characteristics

Neighbors

Defenses

Daily Life

Land Travel

Water Travel

Air Travel

Space Travel

A Ship

Defenses

Operations

Time and History

History

Time

Places of Interest

3 - Cultures and Beyond Prompts

Cultures

Social

Dining

Architecture

Clothing

Greetings and Farewells

Folklore and Superstitions

Social Classes

Special Events

Organizations

Members

Possessions

Relationships

Armed Forces

Reputation

In War

Locations

Behavior

Members

Religions

Behaviors

Places and Items

Locations and Relations

Adventuring

Members

The Supernatural

Supernatural Energies

Supernatural Lands

Magic Systems

Training

The Practitioners

Types

How It All Works

Spells

Items

Artificial Intelligence

Lifespan

Portability

Capabilities

Names

Health Systems

Information Systems

Legal Systems

Laws

Punishments

Education Systems

Monetary Systems

Games and Sports

About The Author

Randy Ellefson Books

Randy Ellefson Music

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Art of World Building series inspired all of the prompts in this book, so if you’re struggling to answer a question, volumes 1-3 may help you find inspiration. These prompts are also organized by those volumes and chapters, and are presented in the same order.

About Me

By profession I’m a software developer, but I’ve been writing fantasy fiction since 1988 and building worlds just as long, mostly one planet called Llurien. Yes, I am crazy. But I love what I do. I didn’t intend to work on it for so long, but when life has prevented me from writing, I’ve worked on Llurien. I’ve done everything in these chapters and authored two hundred thousand words of world building in my files. Llurien even has its own website now at http://www.llurien.com.

I’ve written several novels and more than a dozen short stories over the years, and began my publishing career with a novella that you can read for free (see below). Also a musician with a degree in classical guitar, I’ve released instrumental rock albums, a classical guitar CD, and a disc of acoustic guitar instrumentals. You can learn more, hear songs, and see videos at my main website:http://www.randyellefson.com.

Free Book

If you’d like to see a free sample of my own world building efforts in action, anyone who joins my fiction newsletter receives a free ebook. That’s a separate newsletter from The Art of World Building at https://artofworldbuilding.com/newsletter/.

Templates and Newsletter

Effective world building requires having written down details about the created world. To help you organize and jumpstart your efforts, each volume in this series includes templates in the appendices. This volume includes seven: gods, species, monsters, world figures (heroes, villains, and more), plants, animals, and undead.

Rather than typing these up yourself, you can download these templates for free by joining the newsletter for The Art of World Building at http://www.artofworldbuilding.com/newsletter/. As each volume is published, whether you’ve bought the book or not, subscribers will automatically receive an email with links to download the templates as Microsoft Word files, which you can repeatedly use.

World Building University

World Building University (WBU) has online courses that provide step-by-step instruction on how to create all aspects of great fantasy and science fiction worlds. Each includes a series of video lessons, quizzes to test your retention of what you’ve learned, and assignments designed to make your creation a reality instead of a dream. Courses are intended for both authors, game designers, and hobbyists.

To learn more, please visit www.worldbuilding.university.

The Podcast

The Art of World Building podcast expands on the material within the series. The additional examples offer world builders more insight into ramifications of decisions. You can hear the podcast, read transcripts, and learn more about the episodes at http://www.artofworldbuilding.com/podcasts.

YouTube Channel

The Art of World Building YouTube channel now has videos that also expand on the material within the series. Check out the growing playlists and subscribe. Videos include replays of webinars that feature a Q&A, lessons from the books, previews of WBU courses, and tips from the book, 185 Tips on World Building.

1 - Creating Life Prompts

Everything we need to know about how to create gods, species/races, plants, animals, monsters, heroes, villains, and even undead is included in Creating Life (The Art of World Building, #1), which inspired the prompts in this section.

Analogues

The following prompts come from Chapter 1 of Creating Life.

Are you using an analogue?

What is your analogue primarily based on?

What three things can you change to make your analogue less recognizable?

Are you using a familiar name for your analogue, or inventing a new one for your creation?

What can you combine your analogue with to make it unique?

How Many Worlds?

The following prompts come from Chapter 1 of Creating Life.

Do you intend to use this setting for more than one book series or a gaming campaign?

How many books will the series be?

How many worlds are in this story?

If multiple worlds, will you develop some more than others?

Is this an Earth-like planet or very different?

If different, in what ways is it so?

How do the differences affect the story?

Why do you want to make it different?

Does the setting have a significant impact on the story or could it almost be any fantasy or sci-fi setting?

The Gods

These prompts come from Chapter 2 from Creating Life.

Do you want or need gods in the setting?

Are the gods real or imagined?

How many gods are there?

Are the gods part of a pantheon, like a family?

Are the gods equally powerful?

If not, how many tiers of power are there?

What is the difference in power level between tiers?

How many gods are in each tier?

Which ones are in each tier?

Do gods at different tiers have different rights and abilities?

Can gods go up or down a tier?

If so, what causes that to happen?

Has it ever happened before?

Are there are a set number of spots in a tier?

If so, why is that?

In order for someone to rise, must another fall?

How is the falling deity chosen?

Can they protest this?

What is the result of a dispute?

Who arbitrates the dispute?

Is a ruling binding or customarily followed?

Is one god considered the most powerful?

If so, who and why?

Has that always been the case?

Is one god considered the leader?

If so, who and why?

Has that always been the case?

How many pantheons of gods are there?

Are they equal in the number of gods or power levels and abilities?

Is one pantheon rising while another is falling?

What is causing their respective trajectories?

Is each god gender fluid or do they remain a specific gender?

Do the gods ever appear as animals?

If so, what is the rationale for their choice(s)?

Do they appear as objects that others can use?

Do they become more vulnerable in another form?

Do the gods have astrological signs? What are they?

Mortality

Are the gods able to reproduce?

Are some able to reproduce and others aren’t?

Which ones and why?

Can the ability to reproduce be gained or lost? How?

Has it happened before? With whom?

How did this affect that deity and other gods?