The Quick Questions About World Building Thread

Unrelated question: How much power can a small and old nuclear powerplant produce, also, how much power would a small city, ala Omaha metro area, need to power stuff like streetlights, water, and public services/buildings?

Depends on what you mean by old and small. Newer ones are actually smaller, building large is easy miniaturizing is hard.

I don't have numbers for public utility power use, but it's not major. Biggest power consumption comes from homes, not street-lights. (unless there are factories, then possibly those)

Ok, thanks! All my power-googling was not being helpful.

Quick question: If I want to write a collection of world building articles, how should I arrange the contents?

Depends on what sort of articles you have in mind, doesn't it?

If it's things like "On the Weather" and "Why Vampires Lisp - On the Effects of Hypercarnivorous Dentition on Sibilant Formation", the obvious ordering would be by scientific disciplines. The former could go under an Earth Sciences heading, the latter either under Anatomy under Biology or under Pronunciation under Language under Culture, for example.

If it's things like "Top-Down or Bottom-Up" and "How to Avoid Cliches", it's probably more a question of putting them in the right sequence so that people get the most out of it if they read them in that order, or something like that.

I have two ideas currently in mind:

1. An introduction of an alien (but Earth-like) world.

2. A manual/guide to a fictional online compilation of video games.

Any suggestions?

edited 6th Dec '12 4:45:35 PM by murazrai

As to the first, an arrangement by scientific disciplines should work nicely. See my world's Table of Contents for an example - the difference is that that one isn't meant as an introduction, so most aspects aren't covered at all while a handful are covered in considerable depth, but the approach doesn't mind either way, it seems to me.

As to the second, I'm not sure at all, but might not something like that take the form of a simple alphabetical listing?

For the first, I'm more or less get the idea, except that I might focus more on what does life in said world entails like education, entertainment, business and laws etc (which wouldn't be an introduction but a fictional living guide for foreigners) than stuff like geography or astronomy. I might shrink this to a single country as a starting point, though.

For the second, it's more like a guide for people to know the compilation inside-out without actually playing the game, but I think that idea would be great (I think I'll arrange it in in-game popularity rating order instead, though). Then, there's culture, info about the devs and publishers, big name players and notable incidents.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the advice.

edited 7th Dec '12 2:06:30 AM by murazrai

I don't think it matters what kind of thing you focus on, for the first. All sciences have hierarchies of disciplines and fields, no matter whether it's social science or natural science, so you can always just borrow that structure from the real world and fill it in with your own worldbuilding. Take a look at Wikipedia articles on nations for plenty more examples. Here's the one for the US, which is likely to be the most comprehensive:

For the second, perhaps again have a look at some real-world manuals? It's not something one usually pays attention to, but I bet there is a standard way of organizing those, and that some thought has gone into figuring it out.

edited 7th Dec '12 2:17:28 AM by kassyopeia

For the first one, that is awesome, but I'll focus on the second one for now. There will be some unique things that is not available in real world manuals, though. Thanks again for the help!

Why would people still use paregoric in the future?

Fun? Same reasons we use it now, despite it having been in use for centuries.

Quick Q:

I'm working on a story principally set in and around a small town with one key, large-ish building as the main set piece. When working at this scale, do you guys generally use visual references and map out the locations in order to maintain consistency and so you know exactly where everything is relative to one another? If so, how do you do this?

At the moment, I've only really described the layout of the town square - highlighting the important buildings - with the plan to just play it fast and loose with everything else. Does this sound enough?

edited 22nd Dec '12 3:54:13 AM by peasant

Technically, you might need a BIT more detail, but realistically you're fine. A lot of people only really know the areas that they frequent and important landmarks in their hometown.

I need two things here, please.

First, a brand of famous, expensive, and high-quality Russian alcohol. Ideally not vodka, though if no alternatives present themselves...

Second, I'd like to know what crime someone could be charged with if they order a civilian massacre to quell civil unrest. The country is not in a state of war at the time, so I don't think the various war crimes would be that applicable.

Re: Question 2:

Look up crimes against humanity. You should be able to find what you're looking for there.

P.S.: Thanks Sharysa

edited 27th Dec '12 3:29:21 AM by peasant

Quick One: How plausible would immortal cyborgs be? Not ageless immortality but basically zombies with robot induced powers. Oh and if you thought of a name for the zombie-cyborgs that would be great too...

Fairly so, in my opinion. It depends on how far medical advances have progressed. The major blockades that would need to be overcome would be:

1. Keeping the person perpetually breathing (solved by mechanical ventilation and improving on current tech).

2. Maintaining the person's circulatory system (solved by a developing an artificial/mechanical heart and artificial blood). Also, the blood needs to not thrombose and cause strokes while still coagulate normally to stop bleeds.

3. Perfecting the immune system to prevent infection, which is a major issue with mechanical ventilation and a major cause of death independent of failure to breathe.

4. Cancer prevention.

5. Overcoming cell senescence. This will be the ultimate problem that needs to be overcome since most cells have a limited number of divisions after which they can no longer divide to regenerate/replace themselves.

edited 12th Jan '13 6:44:51 PM by peasant

Does flame shaped ice spells with burning cold sensation upon getting hit by them makes sense? I call one of them infernal freeze. Any other possible names?

I've heard frostbite sometimes described as a "burning sensation" except that it feels cold rather than hot. Plus, considering it's magic, I don't see what would stop you from simply decreeing that it works that way.

@Iaculus: To the first, while not technically Russian, Cristal champagne was originally developed for Tsar Alexander II, and is, if I recall correctly, pretty popular there. Meanwhile, in Ukraine and Belarus, there are any number of brands and makes of horilka. Some of these are quite classy; others are impressive but terrifying.

To the second, Peasant already mentioned crimes against humanity, although depending upon the circumstances, charges of sedition, terrorism and multiple counts of felony murder may also be applicable.

@kassyopeia RE: flesh wounds

I think a three weeks to a month is about right if the wounds are deep and numerous, a minor wound takes about two weeks to completely heal, a moderate cut (from personal experience) may still be sensitive after a week and a half. If you have deep wounds it takes longer, plus, the amount of wounds also affect the speed at which these heal, not taking into account possible infections that may delay the process longer.

edited 1st Mar '13 9:22:41 AM by mbartelsm

What would have to happen for a small jet to crash in a desert and both pilots to survived uninjured (if possible?)

"Crash" is extremely broad. Plenty of ways it could happen that everyone's fine (No injuries at all is somewhat implausible; there will be some bruises at least)

Crash as in be grounded and unable to... get ungrounded.

Hrm. The better condition they are in the better.