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We are occasionally asked for advice about the worldbuilding process. By its creative and imaginative nature, the process of worldbuilding doesn't have a single obvious starting point or a step-by-step process that is universally applicable to all worldbuilding efforts.

The answer below lists many worldbuilding resources that can help you with your, "where do I go next?" questions. We recommend that you review these resources before asking us, so that if you do need to ask, you know exactly what problem you need to solve.

Please note that there are many specific questions assigned the and tags. Most of them are too specific to be generally useful for the purpose of this post. We recommend reviewing them both for their content and to get an idea of the kinds of specific resource and process questions we answer here.

The answer has been created as a community wiki, which means everyone is invited to add resources. I and the moderators reserve the right to remove entries that we deem trivial or inappropriate. Everyone is welcome to help with formatting to keep the list neat and organized.

  1. If you have questions, please post them as a comment to this question. When addressed, please delete the comment.

  2. Please DO NOT post additional answers to this question. Answers other than the community wiki will be arbitrarily deleted.

  3. If your entry can reasonably be listed under an existing header, please do so. Create new headers only when absolutely necessary.

  4. Your entry must link to the resource (no non-link entries).

Clarification: Due to James' query about whether or not it makes sense for this question to exist here on Main, I opened a Meta discussion asking why it shouldn't exist on Main. The post on Meta is NOT identical to this post. My personal belief is that this question belongs on Main.

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    $\begingroup$ I don't oppose this effort but it doesn't really fit here. You could certainly include a list of resources/processes in the tag wikis. That being said I am willing to discuss whether this makes sense to keep on the site and open, but its probably worth a meta discussion. The resources/processes tags require specific needs and the answer a specific tool. $\endgroup$
    – James
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 20:10
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks, I don't mean to shoot the idea down...well I mean I do, but I also like the idea. Figure we can sort out whether an exception to the rule makes sense in this case. $\endgroup$
    – James
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 20:39
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    $\begingroup$ I appreciate you forcing the issue! The question has come up before (which I think I answered). Where's the Wiki and how do we edit it? $\endgroup$
    – elemtilas
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 21:31
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    $\begingroup$ Well no matter where you put it, please don't get rid of it completely. It's very useful, and I'm sure will cut down on lots of basic level and redundant questions. Mine included! $\endgroup$
    – Len
    Commented Apr 24, 2021 at 1:57
  • $\begingroup$ This list is in dire need of alt-history-specific resources. Re: this question, tools/etc for partially altering Earth's borders. $\endgroup$
    – rek
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 4:34

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Worldbuilding Lexicon

A Word about Copyright

General Guides

The First Step

The Last Step

Celestial Mechanics

Religion & Philosophy

Mapping

Climate & Weather

Geography

Flora & Fauna

History & Culture

Magic

Creature Design

Military, Weapons and Apparel

Cities and Societies

Economics

Food & Farming

Simulators and/or Games

This section is not for calculators. Please put calculators under the topical heading most appropriate above.

  • Solar System Simulator - A simple Sol system simulator demonstrating orbit speeds by distance and mass. Allows you to place known planetary bodies anywhere you want.
  • Solar System Scope - Simulates the Sol system in remarkable detail, but does not allow modifications to the system.
  • Solar System Simulator - One of the most fun, it simulates both the orbits and the gravitational effects. You can make multi-sun systems and try to create stable planetary orbits. Colliding suns make bigger suns. Limitations make it cumbersome to create specific systems, but a lot of fun.
  • Questions asked using the tag may have other options not included in this list.

Science and Technology

Science Calculators

Language

Youtube Channels and Podcasts about Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding Discussion Forums

We've been asked about places to go for discussion beyond mere Q&A. There are several excellent long form discussion forums focusing on worldbuilding.

Those are the main ones, and there are certainly other highly specialised forums as well.

World-Building Software

Software in this category is designed to help manage the process of worldbuilding rather than specific aspects of worldbuilding (e.g., climate simulation, mapping), which may be dealt with in greater detail with dedicated tools.

  • FrathWiki: a great place to store the articles you've written about your invented worlds, cultures, languages and histories; easy to use Media Wiki style, no unnecessary bells and whistles
  • World Anvil: Free tool (you can pay to remove ads). Allows you to consolidate your world building contents online. Covers timelines, geography, religion, allows for uploading and pinning maps, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
  • Scabard: Free with a private mode available for $40 yearly subscription. This is geared (heavily) towards RPG & TableTop campaigns but has many tools for general Worldbuilding. Offers: Map creation, Timelines, Event handling, Character/Group/Item/Location creation options, and graph options for mapping connections.
  • ChronoGrapher: a wiki-style notetaking and worldbuilding tool with support for deep time and history tracking. Features includes: interactive and interconnected maps, an infinite tilegrid editor, custom calendars and timelines, dynamic and automatic wiki articles, completely private projects and ability to collaborate.

Books

There are a very large number of books about or contributing to worldbuilding. This is not the place to list them all. It is the place to list those that have been mentioned in questions and answers posted on this site. Please list the book (with link to Amazon or the author's website), the author's name, and links to the WB.SE posts that cite the book.

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  • $\begingroup$ The Planet Maker link has since died, by the way. $\endgroup$
    – controlgroup
    Commented May 29 at 12:55
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    $\begingroup$ @controlgroup Thanks, I've removed it. Please note that you're welcome to make such edits yourself. Community Wiki answers are open to anyone for improvement. Cheers! $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented May 29 at 18:56

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