This section is full of different questions to help assist you through the worldbuilding process. I have them written down on the site as well as on links to a document where you can make a copy of it. I will also probably be creating little work sheets that people can print out in order to write out on paper with the worldbuilding and character creation questions at some point in the future.
Outline Starters Google Document- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IQIh1fOy28dNxHGanrUXX3siqPYXgDbCVMhAUC2_2Zk/edit?usp=sharing
Nation Information Outline Spreadsheet- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jhOnuV2aNrGmRsYnebyfUtVLkDAK-SBxXChIS8TEpV8/edit?usp=sharing
Worldbuilding:
Healthcare-
- How is healthcare funded in your world?
- How does healthcare functionally differ between the wealthy and the poor? (i.e. can only the wealthy go into hospitals? Do poor families often have to rely on back-alley procedures?)
- Where are health centers organized in your cities?
- Does it differ in smaller towns?
- How does this affect people’s ability to get healthcare?
- Is healthcare magical, and if it is, how does that affect the healthcare system?
- If healing is instantaneous, how does that affect people’s views on injury, illness, and chronic ailments?
- If you have both magical and physical healthcare, which one is deemed superior and how does that affect society?
- What illnesses are common in your world?
- How does this affect daily life?
- What do the people in your world think illnesses are?
- Is it a miasma theory?
- Humour theory?
- Demons?
- Do they know about biological viruses and bacteria?
- How does this affect healthcare?
Resources-
- How do people get water?
- Is the water sanitary and if not, how do they sanitize it?
- How does agriculture work?
- Is it large corporations or individual farms?
- What sort of agricultural technology exists in your world and how does it affect food production?
- Are farmers wealthy or poor?
- What sort of natural resources does your world/ countries have and how are they obtained?
- How does this affect the average wealth of the country?
- How does this wealth affect the culture?
- What livestock or beasts of burden are most valued? Least valued? Why?
- What is considered a luxury good vs. a regular good?
Transportation-
- What forms of transportation does your world have?
- What classes use what forms of transportation?
- How far has the average citizen traveled, given your transportation limitations?
- Which cities are most accessible and which are the least? Why?
- How do popular transportation methods change how cities/ towns are laid out?
- Does your world have public transportation? What is it?
- Is there a coming-of-age aspect to travel?
- Describe your world’s postal system or whatever equivalent there is.
- Who pays for it?
- How reliable is it?
- Are there emergency methods for transporting information?
Economy-
- How does your world keep time? (i.e. watches, sundials, water clock, etc.)
- Does your world have a currency system, barter system, or something else?
- If you have multiple countries, do different currencies have different values across said countries?
- How does this affect travel?
- Do you have banks in your world and if so, how are they run?
- Who owns the banks? Government? Wealthy? How does this affect the economy and/or class system?
- How does credit operate in your universe?
- Does your world operate more on big corporations or small business? Perhaps something in between?
- How are workers/ labourers treated in your world?
- Are there workers unions and if so, what are common views on unions?
- Describe your tax system. If you don’t have a tax system, explain why and how your world is affected by that.
- Can certain social classes not own property, certain livestock, certain businesses, etc? Why?
- How are business records kept? Are business records kept?
- If your world has technology, does your world prioritize developing entertainment tech, communications tech, transportation tech or something else entirely?
- What does this say about your worlds?
- How does this affect your economy?
Politics-
- To the closest approximation, what type of government does your world have?
- How are rulers/presidents/nobles put in place?
- How much power does an individual ruler have?
- Is there a veto process?
- If you have multiple countries, do they have different types of rulers?
- Describe any large-scale alliance that present in your world. (i.e. countries, factions, etc.)
- How did they come about and how are they maintained?
- Are they strained or peaceful?
- How does it affect the greater politics of your world?
- Describe how wars are fought both internationally and nationally.
- Do methods of war differ between countries/ races?
- What about philosophies about war?
- If there is a military, what is its hierarchy structure?
- How does the military recruit?
- Is the military looked upon favourably in your society?
- What weapons are used by each country/type of people during warfare, and how does that affect war strategies?
- Describe the sentencing system of your world.
- Is your accused innocent until proven guilty, or guilty until proven innocent?
- How are lawbreakers punished?
- If you have prisons, describe how they are organized and run, and who owns them?
- Does differing ownership change how the prisons operate?
- What are the major ways in which laws between countries vary?
- Do laws between cities vary? If so, how and why?
- How does citizenship work in your world? What rights and privileges do citizens have that others do not?
- Can certain classes or races not become citizens?
- Are there certain taboo subjects or opinions that artist/authors/musicians are not allowed to depict? (i.e. portraying the official religion in a negative light, explicit sexual material, etc.) What does this say about your society?
- How do people get around these censorship laws?
- What is the official hierarchy of duty in your world? (i.e. is family the most important, or patriotism? What about clans?)
- How many languages are there in your world, and how many languages share a common origin?
- How many people are multilingual?
- Which language is the most common?
- How is multilingualism viewed?
- How are different languages viewed? (i.e. is one language ugly/ barbaric while another is romantic and sensual?)
Porscha Aubrey 