Ask Lemmy

Disco Elysium.

At first, I thought it was nothing more than a parody of Europe. But then I started talking to the corporation rep on the boat about the world you're in and holy shit. It's nuts how they give you all this insane exposition about how the world works, how physics are different, how there are literal swaths of VOID called The Pale that separate the isuldas and is described almost the same as how crossing space in Warhammer works. Like you need special tech and special protective suits to not lose your mind or be erased, and even then you want to limit your time in the pale. There are fantastical creatures that exist (you may even see one depending on how you play), incredible technologies, and even differences in real tech that become fantastical in the way they are different (like how they have something like the internet, but is dependant on using an actual phone to talk to an actual operator).

I am so dismayed at the fact there are like 3 or 4 Disco Elysium spiritual successors in development right now, but NONE OF THEM are actually going to be set in Elysium, because the world of Elysium would be amazing to continue to explore. 😮‍💨

I consider lore and worldbuilding to be related but different concepts. Lore is the details of your world, worldbuilding is the way you deliver those details.

My favorite example of worldbuilding is The Dark Crystal, both the film and series. The lore is standard fantasy stuff, but the intricacies of the world are so rich and they unfold so naturally. It felt like a real world, and I felt like very little of what I learned about that world was simply narrated to me. The world was built through tiny details, interactions and observations, throwaway lines of dialogue, and effectively so.

One that just popped into my mind... The Culture Series. I really struggled to get into Consider Phlebas and must have restarted it three times before I got it. After I did, it was very difficult to not think about it all the time. I stopped when life got a bit busy so I do need to pick Excession up again, or restart since it'll all be pretty fresh again by now.

MALAZAN

I'm only on the 5th book but the world building is Tolkien level of detailed. Writer Stephen Erickson is an anthropologist who brought he and his achaelogist friend Ian esselmont dnd world to written reality. Esselmont has books in the series too but not that far along yet.

It makes it difficult to pick up other books afterwards. Major caveat I didn't know what the fuck was happening until the second book. Then it clicked.

Wonderful writer and world building.

The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. Though, I guess what really hooked me was the idea that the future could be predicted, and guided toward an outcome that would benefit people. That, uh, doesn't seem to fit with reality. But it sounds real nice ☹️

Dark Souls

I've never played any of the games, but the wikis have so much reading material I can stay engaged for hours.

It's a universe populated by unfathomably evil undead beings. They farm humans for their flesh and their souls, and there is no chance humanity will ever free themselves.

It's an incredibly dark setting, but it's hauntingly beautiful. What kind of society would these creatures develop? Architecture, art, religion. Their civilization is an anathema to us but that's why it's so alien and captivating

Vampire The Masquerade.

Hands down best depiction of vampires, and what unlife is like for a vampire.

On Cinema at the Cinema.

Where my Gregg heads at?

Kipo and the World of Wonderbeasts is entirely underrated in so many ways. Worldbuilding is one. Music is another.

It was a short story, but I really like Faun by Joe Hill. The way the two worlds interact was really fun, and I'd love to hear more about it.

Dune is incredibly unique. Scifi without computers and genetic magic. All politics. The books are outstanding.

Caves of Qud was my first contact with post post-apocalypse. Can't even begin to convey how strange and magical everything feels in that universe.

serious answer: Discworld. every storyline starts out completely separate but through the years they wove together into a world rushing headlong into a new age.

shitpost answer: ace attorney. eat your hamburgers, Apollo.

LotR - it's really fucking hard to top especially when Tolkien was pioneering the field.

The Expanse or First Law

The Expanse.

I love the idea of sovereign nations Earth and Mars, and the political conflicts of not just diferent people, but different people living in different atmospheres, unlike different nations on earth, the difference between a Earther's and Martian's live is so different: Gravity, Breathable Atmosphere, the Ocean.

Also there are people that live outside of the planets in space stations that have never experienced a planet's gravity and their bodies and unable to survive on planets. The story expands to other star systems.

Its originally a book series but it has been adapted into TV, although they canceled the TV series before it was finished :(

But still worth a watch tho, the politics is more fun than irl politics.

His Dark Materials is worldbuilt very well, I also like ATLA for its worldbuilding, even if it's a bit simplistic at times.

Right now I'm way down a Brandon Sanderson rabbit hole, so I guess the Cosmere? I'd say Stormlight Archive, but Mistborn is really cool because they're set at the inflection points in the planet's history. The first arc is excellent, and it changes the world. The second arc is set in the future, with mythologies based on the first arc and scientific progress based on secrets uncovered in the first. The changes in the use of magic are really cool. There's a third arc planned to be set in the future from there.

But the Cosmere as a whole shares some core concepts and characters can move across it, and that comes into other standalone works like (3 of 4) secret projects and a bunch of other stuff.

The original StarCraft and Brood War. I’ve always hoped a movie would be made about the story/lore but hollywood doesn’t exactly have a good track record with turning games into movies.

Call me boring but Randland (The Wheel of Time).

Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi by Ryouko Kui.

It has wonderful world building introducing it slowly over time without info dumping, or better said, there is a nerd in the world info dumping on his friends, who don't always appreciate it =D

You know, I've always liked the Avatar:TLA's worldbuilding

Chinese xianxia and wuxia shows. I’m a brown person from the American southwest who grew up with mostly European mythology and fantasy stories. Learning about a very different world of myth and lore has been endlessly fascinating and exciting for me. I even homebrewed a ttrpg around it so I can share some of the cool concepts and stories I have learned.

The Elder Scrolls is probably the one I've had the most fun theory-crafting about, but I will admit that you have to pick and choose what to care about.

Also the old Wipeout racing games had a remarkable amount of background plot going on that was really pretty fun. The self-awareness to poke fun at Fusion's poorly-received changes as being the in-universe result of megacorp meddling for mass market appeal gave me a good laugh, but you can piece together a surprising amount of the world from random references in team flavour text

I've enjoyed the world building of the Warhammer 40k setting.i started out with the models in high school and moved into the books to not have to deal with sweaty, agro nerds wanting to rules lawyer the game into no fun. So many interesting stories set in the grimdark universe, and a ton of great characters to follow.

Peter F Hamilton is another good one, though his world building is rather dense. Hell tell you all about how the roads on some alien world are enzyme bonded concrete or how the magic paths traverse entire worlds and systems. Definitely not for everyone, but the audiobooks are great (John Lee has such a soothing voice) and I've heard them so many times they make a great media to fall asleep to when I'm traveling.

Most recently, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, had great world building and character development.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series.

Just a breathtaking setting that begins with the first hundred settlers and traces the intrigue, terraforming, conflicts, and dreams of the colonists. It's a sweeping epic written on a human scale.

BattleTech/mechwarrior. I think it started as a tabletop game? Lots of media came from it, and video games pop up every few years starting in 1989.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleTech

The series began with FASA's debut of the board game BattleTech (originally named Battledroids) by Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III and has since grown to include numerous expansions to the original game, several board games, role playing games, video games, a collectible card game, a series of more than 100 novels, and an animated television series.[3]

DrakeNier series: Starting by red dragon falling from sky in 2000s. Through guy in medieval, postapocalyptic 3400s trying to save his sister. Ending on androids in maid suits fighting a war against machine lifeforms and preparing Earth for return of humanity, in 11945.

Also I didn't tell about origins of the dragon, because I haven't played Drakengard series yet.

I really love Jack Vance’s world building. His Gaean Reach setting gives an endless variety of cultures, customs and beliefs. And the Dying Earth novels formed the basis for magic system of DnD.

But the real treasure is in how he can let these worlds come alive with his descriptions. Often he would spend a whole paragraph describing something that will never be part of the story but manages to perfectly set the tone of the local atmosphere.

I grew with these books (thanks to my dad’s impressive personal SF library) and they’ve always managed to spark my imagination like no other book.