My general idea for this group is that we would each be working on a setting that could hold many, many stories, and we'd expand these settings by setting up a few basic premises and trying to draw logical conclusions.
For example, if I were creating a sci-fi setting on a water planet, I might develop an underwater society starting with the following premises:
1) The primary inhabitants are humans who have been genetically engineered to breathe water.
2) The oceans these humans live in are comparable to Earth's oceans wrt depth, flora, fauna and dissolved nutrients.
Then, after discussing things with the group, I'd extrapolate other information from these assumptions, such as how the water breathing takes place, what depths these metahumans live at, and perhaps how living in three dimensions changes their arts and sciences. Eventually, I would officialize some of these decisions as premises, like so:
1) The primary inhabitants are humans who have been genetically engineered to breathe water.
A) Their gills are located on the torso, leading directly into the lungs.
B) They can swim about as fast as a dolphin.
2) The oceans these humans live in are comparable to Earth's oceans wrt depth, flora, fauna and dissolved nutrients.
A) They prefer depths that still allow light from the surface, but will make forays into deeper water sometimes.
B) They have imported sharks from earth for domestication as hunting animals.
3) Living in three dimensions has affected their architecture; all surfaces are easy to reach for decorating and cleaning, and shelves for storage are found in high corners of all rooms.
And so on. Any takers?
[This message has been edited by DeepShadow (edited March 31, 2007).]
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Hi DeepShadow. This is DeepDreamer from Hatrack. Don't bother trying to remember me; I was more a lurker than anything else. I'm emailing you because I'm unable to log in to Hatrack. Curse my fondness for hard-to-guess and harder-to-remember passwords.
No problem. Keep emailing me, and I'll post the responses here so we can gerate discussion with others and (hopefully) start a group.
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I love the idea of a world-building group. I really like the ideas you've come up with so far. I wonder if a creature really could have chest-gills and swim fast as a dolphin. With the pressure of the water, and that anatomical position, they'd have trouble breathing at high speeds and would be more the aquatic version of sprinters than anything else. I'm not sure if you're really going to go with this world or not, but it sounds like a great idea to me. =)
I'm sorry, but say that the scenario I proposed was cobbled from scraps of my main story-world, but was not a serious proposal. I needed to keep the example short and relevant to serve as an example. When the segment of my main world that most resembles this comes up for discussion, I'll be sure to point it out!
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I've been doing a lot of worldbuilding myself lately, almost to the exclusion of everything else. "Almost" being the key word there... I do remember to eat. Mostly. Enough to keep from starving anyways. I have a lot of world-building resources... lists, links, books, etc... that I'd be more than happy to share with the group.
Great! I've got a few, but I'm very very interested in more. Maybe we can start a list of recommended reading with brief reviews.
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Currently I'm going through Patricia C. Wrede's world-building questions with my main story-universe, which takes place mostly in the lands of Elecambria and Windward on the planet Rehá, in our galaxy. Or at least, there are references to planet Earth anyway. Beginning this week I'll be putting up information about the world and its inhabitants on my website (which has been saying "under construction" for more than a year now... shame, shame, shame on me...)
Sounds good. I look forward to helping you improve it.
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Do you have a main story-world, or do you come up with new ones for each story? With mine, I mostly keep to the same one, although I've done (or tried to do) ones in other worlds/universes too. I'm looking forward to creating new story-worlds with you, and strengthening the grip reality has on the ones I've already made.
I have a single story-world named Abraxas that I've spend over half my life building, improving, and deconstructing, and after putting it on the shelf for a few years I hope to dust it off and get back to writing some great stories in it.
So now we're two. Who else is with us?
Still new to Hatrack, are these proposed discussions going to be closed to a specific group? I ask because I can see the benefit to having a dedicated group working on things in a more secluded setting, particularly if we choose to work ideas into publication. Wouldn't want to run into the "you've already published those ideas online" problem.
But I'm game either way. I am mostly interested in the sci-fi end, near-future, realistic, etc., however I've read a little of everything and have DEFINITE opinions.
Well, we now have three, although one of our number may have to re-register if we don't opt for email. Email's fine with me, and I say three is a good number to start with. We'll track some parts of our progress here to keep attracting new members.
But count me in. Are we planning on doing it via email? Or what?
I was reading your topic post and thought it was really interesting. I've actually been working on a novel set in an all water world. I think it might be really helpful to bounce ideas in a group like this. Mind if I join?
scott
I've been working on the religious side of things in my world as well. It's been slow going, I don't know why... I mean, I have only four different groups to keep track of. 
It'll be nice to see someone else's work on the same subject. 
I'm hoping I can bring some useful knowledge to the group, and pick your guys' brains for pointers, too.
Looking forward to brainstorming with everyone there. :)
The address is worldbuilders.ebored.net. Come join us and we'll help each other hammer out our worlds!