: Re: Tools for science-based world building? I tend to lean towards science-fiction and fantasy, so world building matters a lot to me. A while ago, there was a question which asked how to go about

@Ann1701686

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First, as someone who has used world builders extensively, a warning: When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

World builders are all limited to certain things. None are as realistic as they say on the box, and you'll find yourself with a few odd looking flaws which actually damage immersion. I strongly suggest you design your world first and find the mechanics that explain why it works that way instead of rolling a generator and building the story around your results. You'll likely create less scientific flaws than if you ran it through a generator.

But to answer the question, some games do put a lot of focus on world creation. Civilization 5 has a nice system if you want to simulate terrains loosely.

The best so far is Dwarf Fortress. It was designed first-most as a fantasy world simulator, with the game built on top of that. It simulates incredible detail, from boiling points and chemicals to geology. It takes about a week to get past the poor interface. Though it doesn't simulate things like multiple moons and suns yet. There's also good modding capacity if you want to generate something very specific.

To wander a little off topic, Aurora is an incredibly detailed universe creator, which seems to be designed as a sci fi roleplaying game of some sort. It's not a direct world builder, but anyone who appreciates extreme detail and sci-fi worlds might find it useful. On the other hand, it might take around half a month just to learn how it works.

But this also brings up a second warning on world generators: They can be fun/distracting to play with in themselves and the more realistic a simulation is, the more work it takes to learn to use it.

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