40
$\begingroup$

Worldbuilding is beginning its fortnightly topic challenges. In that trichoplax wrote

As this question is already being used for answers on how to approach this, would it be clearer to have a separate "Theme suggestions" meta post rather than posting topics as answers here?

This is going to be that post.

So please, post suggestions! Only one per answer, though. The most upvoted answer each fortnight (not counting ones that have already been used) will be used in the next challenge. Heavily downvoted suggestions will not be used. See this Earth Science post.

Note that the answer suggesting a topic will be deleted when that topic is selected, to keep the answer space clean. A list for all to see will be kept under the "previous topics" heading below.

Current topic:

http://meta.worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/3401/fortnightly-topic-challenge-29-government (21 March - 11 April), suggested by ASCIIThenANSI

Previous topics:

1 - Space | 2 - Flora | 3 - Creature Design | 4 - Magic | 5 - City Design | 6 - Evolution | 7 - Economy | 8 - Apocalypse | 9 - Map Making | 10 - Time | 11 - Religion | 12 - Humans | 13 - Weapon Design | 14 - Hard Science | 15 - Worldbuilding Process | 16 - Warfare | 17 - Moons | 18 - Architecture| 19 - Politics | 20 - Language | 21 - Underwater | 22 - Geography | 23 - Santa | 24 - Near Future | 25 - Culture and Society | 26 - Mythical Creatures | 27 - History | 28 - Calendar

Question/Answer Generator: Provided by ArtOfCode for quick and easy generation of challenge questions and answers.

Update on April 12th:

http://meta.worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/3483/should-we-end-the-topic-challenges answer: regular fortnightly challenge is not needed anymore.

$\endgroup$
0

35 Answers 35

1
2
1
$\begingroup$

A new look at spheres. Atmo-, bio- and exo- have gotten enough attention. From the ground up^Wdown: How would a planet with an interesting layering have to be designed? Bring plenty of unobtainium!

$\endgroup$
1
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Suggestions should be tags that are already established, i.e. have already been created. $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868 Mod
    Aug 17, 2015 at 21:47
1
$\begingroup$

Evolution was already a topic; I'd be really interested to see questions more focused on body modification, long-term goals for genetic engineering (why bother terraforming a planet if you could live on its surface without a suit -- but what kind of physiology would that require?), etc.

$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ I like this suggestion but we need just one tag per suggestion... $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Dec 30, 2015 at 16:36
  • $\begingroup$ @TimB: Ah ok... maybe genetic-engineering would be the best one, then. $\endgroup$
    – Wingman4l7
    Dec 30, 2015 at 17:19
  • $\begingroup$ Well if you had two answers, one for genetic engineering and one for cybernetics I'd upvote both :) $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Dec 30, 2015 at 17:21
0
$\begingroup$

If Kirk saw push coming to shove, Scotty would modulate the phaser frequency. If Luke had to act hogwartsy, he'd use the force.

The plot device for world builders: unobtainium, the right stuff with that property you need but chemists haven't found to this day and which makes physicists throw fits.

$\endgroup$
1
  • 14
    $\begingroup$ I would argue that a part of what we do is to try to help people avoid using unobtainium. :-) $\endgroup$
    – user
    Sep 28, 2015 at 13:36
-1
$\begingroup$

Fish are delicious.

$\endgroup$
7
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ I'm surprised we don't have a fish tag. All I can find is underwater, and, as you suggested, fishing. We should definitely have a fish tag. $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2015 at 17:40
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @DaaaahWhoosh tags are (err) organic; when we have questions that warrant them we should create them. Do we have questions specifically about fish that are ill-served by the broader underwater tag? $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2015 at 18:02
  • $\begingroup$ @DaaaahWhoosh You could ask a fish question. $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2015 at 18:06
  • $\begingroup$ @MonicaCellio Well, there are a lot of underwater questions combined with other tags, like biology or creature-design or evolution, which might make sense under a fish tag. But I guess I just like saying 'fish'. $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2015 at 18:15
  • $\begingroup$ @DaaaahWhoosh If you put tags that don't exist in your questions using [tag:fish], high rep users tend to create them. Thats how fishing was created. $\endgroup$ Jul 27, 2015 at 18:36
  • $\begingroup$ This is a spam guys.Fish are delicious? $\endgroup$
    – user14789
    Dec 1, 2015 at 17:57
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @DaaaahWhoosh Late to the game, but there are plenty of underwater creatures that aren't fish. We could start with dolphins... $\endgroup$
    – user
    Jan 28, 2016 at 21:19
-1
$\begingroup$


Alternate mathematics. This is an interesting tag with great potential, but it isn't used much.

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ You really can't change the fundamentals of mathematics much. It's easy to change how those fundamentals are expressed, but like with so many questions on the form "what happens to X if I change fundamental aspect Y of our universe such that Z?", the answer to questions about truly alternate mathematics tends to be "everything breaks". $\endgroup$
    – user
    Mar 30, 2016 at 8:49
  • $\begingroup$ @MichaelKjörling there are ways to do it without breaking everything, i.e. changing the distance formula $\endgroup$
    – tox123
    Mar 31, 2016 at 1:17
1
2

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .