What resource does everyone need but only a few groups control, and what workaround has developed around that control?
18 Worldbuilding Prompts Prompts
These prompts create a starting constraint, question, or situation. Use one as written, combine two, or change the audience, setting, objective, or limitation to make a new exercise.
Which law makes sense because of an old crisis but creates problems under present conditions?
How do ordinary people prove identity, ownership, age, citizenship, or professional status?
What everyday job exists only because of one unusual feature of the world?
Which public service works surprisingly well, and what political arrangement keeps it functioning?
What is expensive in this world that would be cheap in ours—and what is cheap that would be expensive here?
How do people travel, and which groups are excluded by cost, geography, law, or biology?
What event appears in every school textbook but is remembered differently by one region or community?
Which religious, scientific, or magical belief changed after a discovery no institution could ignore?
What kind of information is difficult to verify, and who profits from that uncertainty?
How are homes designed around climate, danger, family structure, labor, or social expectations?
Which food is associated with status even though it began as a poverty food—or the reverse?
What happens when a person cannot repay a debt in money?
Which language distinction matters socially: formal/informal address, rank, age, kinship, profession, or something invented?
What technology or magic created a job category that older generations resent or distrust?
Which border is easy to cross physically but difficult to cross legally or socially?
What does the society consider private that another culture in the same world treats as public?
What recent reform solved one injustice while creating a new conflict no one anticipated?