#Tag · 𑐴𑐶𑐟𑐶

Charlie Stross @cstross@wandering.shop · 2 months ago

#WritersCoffeeClub 26: Do real-life events inspire your writing? Share an example.

As Ken Macleod remarked, "history is the secret weapon of the science fiction writer".

Not every time, not for every story element, but it's an *amazing* toy box that you can borrow from whenever you're stuck for an idea! Because fiction illustrates the human condition and humans get up to some really weird shit, for values of "you can't make that up" weird.

Coach Pāṇini ® @paninid@mastodon.world · 2 months ago

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@cstross
These #history deep-dives by #IsaacAsimov are great reads and illustrate your point about using our actual world for #worldbuilding in #SciFi.

HISTORIES BY ISAAC ASIMOV
Ancient
THE GREEKS
THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
THE EGYPTIANS
THE NEAR EAST
THE LAND OF CANAAN

Medieval
THE DARK AGES
THE SHAPING OF ENGLAND
CONSTANTINOPLE
THE SHAPING OF FRANCE

Modern
THE SHAPING OF NORTH AMERICA
THE BIRTH OF THE UNITED STATES — HISTORIES BY ISAAC ASIMOV Ancient THE GREEKS THE ROMAN REPUBLIC THE ROMAN EMPIRE THE EGYPTIANS THE NEAR EAST THE LAND OF CANAAN Medieval THE DARK AGES THE SHAPING OF ENGLAND CONSTANTINOPLE THE SHAPING OF FRANCE Modern THE SHAPING OF NORTH AMERICA THE BIRTH OF THE UNITED STATES

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 @Lazarou@mastodon.social · 2 months ago

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Downloading a pdf of the Rand Corporation's study on "Habitable Planets for Man"

They thought big in the 60s but not big enough to include WOman in their vision of the future.

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/commercial_books/2007/RAND_CB179-1.pdf

#Worldbuilding

Dave Dawkins (D. Harrigon) @golgaloth@writing.exchange · 3 months ago

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How will your world end?

#WorldBuilding #writing #AmWriting #ttrpg #dnd #authodons

A Little Golden Book featuring a cute puppy cooking something in a pot, a cheerful kitten sweeps the floor, and a baby rabbit (also officially called a kitten) dries some dishes. The title of the book is, "The Humans Are Dead. We Are The Humans Now".

Jürgen Hubert @juergen_hubert@thefolklore.cafe · 3 months ago

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As a reminder, when doing #ttrpg #worldbuilding , it's usually unnecessary to have human(oid) history go back "tens of thousands of years". If you need some justifications for old ruins and whatnot, it's easy to cram them into the last thousand years or less. Real world history is _full_ of interesting stuff happening in fairly short time periods, so it's not difficult to arrange the same for fictional worlds.

Besides, humans constantly come up with new ideas and new technology. If you _want_ human society in your fantasy world to have a typical late medieval/Renaissance-era tech level, then you will need to come up with some good reasons why they haven't developed further - and that gets trickier the longer the history of human civilization in your world is.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfTime

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 @Lazarou@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

Been manually entering the moons of Saturn into an Astrosynthesis map, the Application allows one to build a 'system orbit map' and you see here how the Saturnian system works, how little moons shepherd some of the rings.
The map reminds me of playing Frontier: Elite II back in the 90s, travelling the stars. Now I have the ability to make my own maps, a dream I had back as a youth. 90s me would love this shit

#Worldbuilding #Astrosynthesis

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 @Lazarou@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

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All these worlds in motion, the cosmic ballet continues....

#Worldbuilding #Astrosynthesis #Saturn

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 @Lazarou@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

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#Worldbuilding #Astrosynthesis

Astrosynthesis system orbit map

In the centre is the large globe of Saturn, you can just make out the hexagon at it's pole.
Encircling Saturn are thin blue rings (orbits) and the thinker grey rings of Saturn's actual rings.
Beyond the shepherd moons are the orbits of bigger moons such as Enceladus, Mimas and Calypso — Astrosynthesis system orbit map In the centre is the large globe of Saturn, you can just make out the hexagon at it's pole. Encircling Saturn are thin blue rings (orbits) and the thinker grey rings of Saturn's actual rings. Beyond the shepherd moons are the orbits of bigger moons such as Enceladus, Mimas and Calypso

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 @Lazarou@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

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This afternoon I shall be populating the Outer Solar System....

#Worldbuilding #Astrosythesis

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 @Lazarou@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

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Yeeaahhh, getting back into the ol' Astrosynthesis groove.
I still haven't found that map I spent years on, but in the meantime I always needed to make one for the Local Stars around us, and I shall begin by fixing Mars....

#Worldbuilding #Astrosynthesis

Screengrab of Astrosynthesis, a program for making 3d Starmaps for the purposes of Role Playing, Writing, or just Worldbuilding for the sheer pleasure of it.

There is a toolbar of options, and beneath which two big panels, the smaller one on the left as a list of object within the Solar Systems, some a highlighted (populated) others are not.
The main screen contains the 3d Starmap, a serious of lines, points and words, within that panel is a picture of terraformed Mars, population 4.5 billion. — Screengrab of Astrosynthesis, a program for making 3d Starmaps for the purposes of Role Playing, Writing, or just Worldbuilding for the sheer pleasure of it. There is a toolbar of options, and beneath which two big panels, the smaller one on the left as a list of object within the Solar Systems, some a highlighted (populated) others are not. The main screen contains the 3d Starmap, a serious of lines, points and words, within that panel is a picture of terraformed Mars, population 4.5 billion.

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 @Lazarou@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

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Bless the little cottage industry coders who honour a payment made in 2012, I purchased Astrosynthesis 2.0 many many machines ago and after delving into Traveller Lore these past few months it's time to dig out the old universe I made.

Now if only I could remember which one of these old hard drives has the starmap data on it.....

https://www.nbos.com/

#Worldbuilding #Traveller #SciencFiction