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I have to say, I just stumbled upon this and I love the idea of the site and the quality of its contributors.

I wanted to know if some kind of FAQ exists.
Reason for this is I am interested in building a world/universe on my own and I lack a lot of common knowledge people who are into this genre already have.
Therefore I am looking for some list of principles/FAQ etc. to get a better overview of what to consider while contructing ones world. I would want it to be a futuristic semi-sciene based universe, meaning the laws of science should apply but speculations like FTL will also be used.

I know that you can filter be frequently asked questions which is quite literally my answer to an FAQ, but I meant something more like a guide/wiki style

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    $\begingroup$ The best thing to do is probably to visit the tour page: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/tour $\endgroup$
    – Philip Rowlands
    Jan 22, 2019 at 14:27
  • $\begingroup$ Hint: take a look at the footer of the site. $\endgroup$
    – The Square-Cube Law
    Jan 22, 2019 at 14:31
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    $\begingroup$ Have you tried googling for worldbuilding basics? $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Jan 22, 2019 at 14:35
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    $\begingroup$ @Renan I think they're more looking for basic Worldbuilding resources than a help page about the site. $\endgroup$
    – Bellerophon
    Jan 22, 2019 at 14:42
  • $\begingroup$ @Bellerophon exactly, and know I know this is not within the specific purpose of this site. So I will dwell in basic knowledge and then revisit :) $\endgroup$
    – InDaPond
    Jan 22, 2019 at 15:20
  • $\begingroup$ If you get to 20 rep you could visit chat. People there would probably be willing to give you some pointers. $\endgroup$
    – Bellerophon
    Jan 22, 2019 at 19:49
  • $\begingroup$ This is probably the closest thing I can think of: worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2594/… $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Feb 4, 2019 at 16:50
  • $\begingroup$ It's a bit more focused than you're looking for I think but you might find it interesting even so. $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Feb 4, 2019 at 16:50

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Welcome to the site. I'm glad to hear that you like it. I'm afraid there isn't anything here that resembles what you are looking for. We answer specific questions and so a large wiki or guide to general Worldbuilding principles would probably be closed. I think there was a discussion about making a series of posts about common worldbuilding elements but it was decided that this site wasn't the right place for that. If you have any specific question about something you're stuk with you could ask about that. I would recommend posting your question in the Sandbox first so people can help you make sure the question is the right fit for the site.

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  • $\begingroup$ "a series of posts about common worldbuilding elements" this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. $\endgroup$
    – InDaPond
    Jan 22, 2019 at 15:19
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We will never have Frequently Asked Questions on worldbuilding, because we have strict policy of not asking the same questions again. If someone asks question that was already asked, it gets closed as duplicate. Thus, each question can be asked once and only once here and concept of frequently asked questions is void.

If you want to know what topics are most frequently talked about, see https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/tags - list of tags, by default sorted from most to least frequently used. Ignore tags with specific use, like , or , and you'll have list of frequently asked topics.

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We have some canonical question posts that work to answer multiple questions that are frequently asked with just enough variation to keep open as separate posts. For example, creature design. Or perhaps it was just proposed here?

We most certainly do have frequently asked questions here, just not a FAQ. These are questions that are very common but not things you can just say are the same topic. For example:

  • Is my map realistic? (We'd benefit from a post pointing people to mapbuilding concepts.)
  • Is this species I invented realistic? (A post about biological constraints would be useful.)
  • Can a X ride a Y?
  • What should I bring with me if I'm time-traveling?

Etc.

Some common questions do get closed as duplicates, others because they're too broad or opinion-based, others because they're badly written. And many stay open.

A set of how-to-worldbuild posts would be extremely useful. As would a community post that was a list of pointers to other places around the internet that addressed these common issues...and pointers to existing posts here on WB that did that, since some have turned out to be comprehensive. List posts are discouraged here, but sometimes they're useful and, if done as wiki, should work well.

Each Stack Exchange site does it differently. Over on Genealogy, I'm working with someone to write some canonical posts about interpreting DNA results (because we find ourselves saying the same thing over and over). The idea is not that we'd necessarily close new questions as duplicates (though we might) but that we could have a post to point to for the basic answer, then give a short addendum about the specific case.

How do I get started with Worldbuilding? is a question that would never fly here. But as a canonical post authored by community wiki, it could be an extremely useful exception.

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    $\begingroup$ Since with my low reputation I cannot upvote posts yet, I just wanted to thank you for replying. I agree, I community wiki could be very useful because I think the standard of this site is extremly high. $\endgroup$
    – InDaPond
    Jan 28, 2019 at 9:00
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Check out this query. In my response, I give links to several geopoetic / worldbuilding forums that do actually discuss the kinds of questions you have and can offer the resources and supportive help you need. (Of those, I think CBB and Reddit are the two best options.)

As the others have said, Stack Exchange doesn't work this way.

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you for these! $\endgroup$
    – InDaPond
    Jan 28, 2019 at 9:00

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