Anyone know of a forum/site where I can get help world building for a novel I'm working on

The Game Room
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I’m writing a novel set in the near future. I’m talking 20, 30 years. I’d like to incorporate some of the ideas developed in this threadinto my future world, focusing not on the robots and what they do but on how displaced human beings cope with it. The idea is that it’s in the tail end of the early phase of post-scarcity society, where much but not all of the automation has occurred but not all the social changes that would be needed are in place. A very uncomfortable time to be a displaced worker. I’m interested in the sociological changes that will occur though some tech will be in there, too.

I have done a Google search of world-building forums, but they all seem oriented toward specific video games or video game platforms. I’m writing a novel, looking for people wanting to invent worlds from scratch. I believe I have read of groups/forums that help novelists with world-building on this very forum, and in any event, I think someone here may know of such forums/groups, so I thought I’d ask and see if anyone knows whereof I speak.

What say you, O solons of the Dope?

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At the OP’s request, I’m moving this to The Game Room to see if it gets some more responses there.

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This is a really good place to start for general idea building, but it may not help as much for a Sci-Fi type setting. Absolutely worth a look. (SFWA - Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions)

This is a really good forum on world building for idea generation and inspiration. Again, I think it’s mostly geared to a fantasy world, but might still be helpful (Mythic Scribes forum)

Any time you need a writing resource, there’s always reddit. It’s surprisingly useful to find other resources and find inspiration. There’s a particular subreddit for world building, but I haven’t lurked there much. I’m sure it’s handy. (Reddit - Worldbuilding)

These will probably help most with a custom world. I’m not sure if you’re going that route or not. But, really, the first question you should ask is if you need a custom world. You would be trading total control for a lot more work and a significant loss in verisimilitude/disbelief suspension. If you aren’t going for a custom world, you might just be better off getting to work on your “why” and “how” questions, from your idea backwards to the present. Then probably forwards again to the original idea.

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Thanks to the links to those resources, I will check them out.

I’m not sure what you mean by a “custom world” here. I’ve got about 30,000 words down on a novel, all of it about the protagonist at play in a virtual world a lot like Second Life. I want to now write some sections about her in the real world, and I thought it might be interesting to contrast her real world life with her virtual life. Which got me thinking about the near term future, and that’s when the automation/unemployment thing started to kick in, and I realized that would make for some great contrast.

So the world I want is the present day Earth, aged 20-30 years with much more extensive automation and robotics. But I’m MAINLY interested in the sociology: if everyone is unemployed and unemployable, what do they do with their time and their lives? Do they form gangs? Most can 't afford nice things: or can they? How would guys try to sort themselves out when they are all on the dole? What would a woman living off the dole look for in men who are also living off the dole, which would be her only dating pool? If she was very pretty, could she augment her income by using her attractiveness, and if so, how?

That sort of thing.

I have answers to all of those questions, but I guess what I would look for would be the ideas of people who are not me, who might see things I would not see. Do you think my needs are unfeasible for a world building group?

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You could try Spacebattles and/or its spinoff forum Sufficient Velocity. They have very active creative writing communities and are full of people willing to bury you in worldbuilding suggestions if you ask.

Spacebattles it should be noted is presently having server overload problems and can sometimes be unavailable during peak usage time (part of why Sufficient Velocity was spun off, actually). So if you can’t get on, that’s why.

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Thanks, I’ll see if I can get on.

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Thanks for the Reddit idea, I already have an account there and for some reason just didn’t think to check and see if they have a worldbuilding forum. I went there and posted about my novel, I’ll put the whole post in its own post here. The others seemed more SF oriented.

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I visited those sites, but they have a strong aversion to adult content. Since my story has some strong adult content, though it’s not just porn, I was hesitant to post there. Nothing in my request for help relates to adult content, as you’ll see in my post detailing my reddit request for help, but I didn’t want to find myself fighting with mods. I may have been overcautious there, what do you think?

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Hi, I’m Pat Powers, I have written several books, but I’m not going to submit a link for them because I’m new here and I don’t want to be accused of spamming. Point is, this is for reals, yo! I’m not a wannabe writer.

So, I’m writing a story set in the near future. I’m about 30,000 words into it. In the stories’ near future (10-30 years, maybe?) unemployment is WAAAY high due to automation, like, at 50% -90%. (For comparison, unemployment during the Great Depression was 25%). Although most people still manage to stay fed, housing has become a critical issue for many. Basic Income (check the subreddit for more) has been instituted to quell the rioting and various steps are being tried to prevent homelessness, like government housing and changing housing codes to allow multiple residents in what were formerly single family dwellings. I’m not sure how that would go, that’s one of the things I’m hoping to get help on.

What I really want help on is fleshing out the details of this near future, as accurately and interestingly as I can.

My protagonist is a young woman who is playing the more advanced, more immersive version of Second Life. She went there because she was interested in a guy in RL and was fearful of a relationship because of some as-yet RL romantic/sexual issues. So she found out he was playing in SL+ and who he was playing on, and sneaked an avatar in to play with him and find out what sort of person he is in SL+, figuring his guard will be down there.

I want to compare and contrast the exciting, interesting virtual worlds in video games, especially Second Life Plus (just a working name for it) and the life of the young people who have plenty of free time, enough to live on and get online because of Basic Income, but no real life jobs.

Questions I am hoping to get help on:

  1. In a world where most live on Basic Income, how do people sort themselves out? I figure there are gonna be four levels of wealth:
    A) The One Percent, the people who own all the means of production and all the land and most of the businesses
    B) Government officials and people who hold jobs in corporations that have not yet been automated: CEOs, perhaps some top engineers, repair techs that are not yet roboticized. (I am looking for help in figuring out which jobs will be the last to be automated).
    C) People on Basic Income who work what are called “gig” basically the equivalent of freelancing, temping, doing contract work or odd jobs. There are a lot of these jobs because you can get money from others on Basic Income, you don’t have to work for the wealthy. It would also apply to illegal activities such as illegal drugs sales.
    D) People who live on Basic Income and don’t attempt to supplement their income with other income. Either living on very thin means or pretty well, depending on where Basic Income is.

It’s groups C and D I am really interested in. How do people sort themselves into hierarchies when economically they are all the same? Will there be gangs, guilds, etc.?

Also will souped up video games become so involving that people build social relationships based on gaming rather than jobs or religion or such? MMOs are already the basis of plenty of social relationships, might they supplant others?

I haven’t really worked all this out for example, I am not sure if Basic Income will be enough to eke out a bare minimum existence or if it will allow a certain amount of disposable income. I am looking for thoughts on how such an economy might be structured, and how people might live in it. Yes, I have visited the Basic Income reddit and posted there, as well as the Futurology reddit, but I am looking for the nifty details that would bring the arguments there to life. For example, if everyone has Basic Income, how would that change families? Dad is not the breadwinner, neither is Mom, they don’t work, and their kids don’t have to either. So what happens?

I think a lot victimless crimes, especially those related to sex, will be decriminalized. I’m not sure prostitution would be an illegal activity or a legal one or a quasi-legal one. The protagonist, being very pretty, may indulge in prostitution, perhaps not the classic version but some new variant. I am sure she will be wealthier than average thanks to her good looks. Right now I’m thinking she is one of the rare ones who maintains a real job as a waitress at a high-end restaurant that employs very good looking human waitresses rather than bots. She may sleep with customers on the side for money. I’m not settled on that point. I think it might add some depth to the story but I’m thinking it might be a tangent that would overtake some readers’ minds and make them miss other themes.

The main thing I am interested in here is the sociological and human aspects of this future world. I’m not wanting to write a sociological tract disguised as SF, I want to tell a real human story of a person in this future society. I’ll post an excerpt of what I have so far here if it’s allowed/advisable.

There will be strong adult content in the story, but I hope no one thinks I’m just writing porn here. Also lots of humor, because that’s my gig, man.

And yeah, if you are thinking there might be some parallels between gamers struggling to get by economically and the people in my world … mmm … could be. But I am hoping that some of you will be able to help me build a more convincing and interesting world, if you are so inclined.

And yes, for the record I play on Second Life, specifically Second Life Gor. I’ve played Mechwarrior Online and Halo too. I’m not really good at combat, but I’m hella good roleplayer, you betcha. My official Second Life avvie is Bondo Quixote, but I don’t roleplay on him, because I like to save the RP for fun.

What say you, O solons of reddit?

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Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity are SF/fantasy/videogame/comics/etc oriented, not just sci-fi*. Although Spacebattles did start as a site largely concentrating on sci-fi space battle animations, thus the name; it’s actually rather like the Straight Dope in that it grew from a specialized fan site into a general forum.

*Probably the biggest single thing right now in the creative writing section would be the apocalyptic superhero/villain web series Worm, the author Wildbow even posts on the site fairly often.

EDIT: Although adult content is problematic at best, you’d want to avoid actually posting that on either forum.

EDIT II: Which I see you’ve brought up since I composed the above message

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Just don’t actually bring it up in detail on the site and you’ll be fine. It’s actually posting adult content that gets them riled up. Also, they’ve stated that if you are uncertain to just PM it to one of the mods for that subforum. The previously mentioned Worm itself probably wouldn’t be allowed to actually be posted on the forum, but they allow links to it all the time.