🧙 What makes a good Space/Science-Fantasy story/setting? 🚀

[aqua03]

I've been working on a sort of Sci-Fi/Fantasy setting called the Empyreverse (It's the setting the Dragoons and the Tales of Phaeton gang are from among others) and I've been wondering how you can make a good combination of fantasy and sci fi tropes?

I know I can;t do like the super hard "Everything has a super in-depth explanation for every single molecule" type of worldbuilding because I simply don't have the brain for it it seems, but I do want to be able to at least provide a decent set of "Rules" for things so that things remain consistent throughout the settings and stories.

So what's a good way to balance those two genres in a way that works, but also doesn't cause me to break trying to get everything down to the last microscopic detail? Basically, how do I find a good mid-point between Hard and Soft worldbuilding systems?

Also, if you know of any good Sci-Fantasy webcomics or media that you feel does the hybrid thing well, please feel free to share it.

Thanks guys.

[TedGravesArt]

I make a science fantasy comic called Heaven Hunters. I like to have all the world-building canonized in my head or in my notes, but I don't expressly reveal the inner rules of the universe unless it becomes important for the reader to know. This keeps the storytelling mechanisms pretty light on the surface, but since the rules stay consistent under the hood, they prop up the characters and events in the story and give subtle hints to the depth of the universe. The trick is knowing how and when to be explicit with info so that your audience can keep up. This allows you to drip-feed world-building to your reader over the course of the story so they don't get blasted with clumsy info dumps, and it keeps the momentum of your plot moving. I don't think most people care about world-building unless they care about your characters and the plot first. Even if you spend years on a universe and the concepts are incredible, the reader's eyes will glaze over and they'll tune out because you haven't given them a reason to care yet.
Regarding balancing science fiction vs fantasy, I like to root everything in some kind of science, even magic. That way the laws of physics keep it consistent, but since it's clearly fiction I can bend those laws pretty hard. Sometimes those limitations bring me opportunities for plot points! I'd recommend absorbing a lot of material on legitimate science. There's a lot scientists don't know about the universe, and there's even more that normal people don't know. These are all great loopholes to slot in some fiction and play around.

Read Heaven Hunters | Tapas Web Comics

[TheLemmaLlama]

I'd argue it's actually possible to keep things consistent even if you don't start out with a system of how things work from the get go. Basically, every time you introduce a new rule in the plot, make a note of it so you know not to contradict it later. You'll probably end up writing yourself into a corner at some point, but I think that can actually be a good thing; the most interesting and unexpected solutions come to you when you're cornered! Limitations breed creativity, and all that

[DokiDokiTsuna]

So what's a good way to balance those two genres in a way that works, but also doesn't cause me to break trying to get everything down to the last microscopic detail?

I think a good place to start would be to not normalize that kind of insanely detailed worldbuilding. ^^;
Like, being able to imagine everything in your fictional universe 'down to the last microscopic detail' is fine; in fact it's pretty cool and impressive, but imagining things and creating a story are two different things. Related, but different.

You don't need that level of detail in your setting. Your readers aren't entitled to it, nor should they be forced to sit through it in lieu of an actual plot. Ideally, you shouldn't even have time for it: you're not writing a textbook, you're writing a story. Any information that doesn't enhance and facilitate the telling of that story is unnecessary.

Basically, how do I find a good mid-point between Hard and Soft worldbuilding systems?

how you can make a good combination of fantasy and sci fi tropes?

One thing to take note of is that these aren't the same question. :T Soft Sci-Fi exists, the same way Hard Fantasy does. It all depends on how seriously you take the rules, and how much those rules are emphasized within the story itself.

Now when it comes to combining genres, I think the best thing to do is just take one element you like from each, and force them to coexist. Spaceships and pirates, or knights and cyborgs, or magic and computers...just mash them together, and then worldbuilding will consist of explaining how they can work together. I write a lot of science-fantasy, so I have plenty of experience with this~

For example, magic and computers-- the most basic science-fantasy combo. It's a simple concept with endless potential...which probably tempts many authors to go all the way down the wormhole and use it as an excuse to make a magic system that's as intricate and structured as possible, the way we conceptualize computer science IRL. Which, again, is fine, but there are other options. ^^; For example, instead of forcing magic to play by computing rules, you could try making computers play by magic rules.

Imagine a computer whose workings are literally unknowable. Like, the average person doesn't really get how their smartphone works, yeah...but what if that ignorance was universal?? What if we grew computers out of the ground or hatched them from eggs or had them handed down to us from the gods, and there were entire fields of science dedicated to figuring out how they function and why they exist, to no avail?

Or, imagine a computer that plays the role of a mysterious wizard or fairy in the plot. It's the only object of its kind, hidden in a secret place far from the rest of the world, and you can go up to it and ask it questions that no mortal being can answer. Maybe you have to collect a series of secret treasures in order to get it to work (like its batteries ^^; ), or maybe it can refuse you or trick you if you aren't careful.

Or, or...what if you used magic entities to recreate the functions of computers? This is a pretty common tactic...for instance, in one of my stories, the lingering, semi-conscious souls of the dead are the main power source for society, and their psychic abilities are used to make them into appliances. Souls that can detect people's presence are used for security; souls that can detect energy are used as meters; souls that can read minds are used for long-distance communication, and to create user interfaces for everything else.

I think if you're specifically looking to avoid a complicated setting, ^that's the way to go: take a technological concept and use magic to simplify it. You don't have to go into detail explaining how things work if the ultimate answer is 'because magic said so'.

[darthmongoose]

If the aim is to make a setting that a wide range of people can get into, not just really, really hardcore Sci-fi fans, I'd say a really important thing is:

"It's relateable but different".

So whatever the tech is like, you should show characters doing things that a human can relate to. They should sleep, eat, have relationships with other people, wash, get dressed etc. They might have fancy ways of doing these things, like their food comes out of a replicator or they eat from pouches or something, but showing them doing these everyday things will really help ground the setting. Even in the incredibly weird, gothic, grimdark universe of Warhammer 40k, characters still crave a cup of "recaf", ie. they still drink coffee, and they sleep in beds and wear clothes.

Often sci-fantasy makes certain concessions to make storytelling easier and make things visually more recognisable to a modern casual human audience (and also easier to film). For example, scientifically, a space ship would not have windows; they'd be functionally useless and a liability. It certainly wouldn't have a big window on the bridge like it's a truck or a boat, but it "feels wrong" if there isn't a window to "look where you're driving" so creators usually put one there. A space ship probably wouldn't have gravity, and so wouldn't have a floor or doors; it'd probably be tubes with ladders and hatches... but again, that's hard to relate to, and most science-Fantasy spaceships have a "gravity generator" and everyone walks around through doors like they're on a boat.

The aliens as well tend to be based on very recognisable things from our world, so they're either like "humans but blue/with forehead bumps" OR they resemble something from our world like "a walking tree" or "a cat person" or "a floating jellyfish". And their cultures will nearly always relate to something from our world or our mythology, because if things are too alien, they get hard to relate to.
So in Mass Effect, we have the Turians; they're bird or dinosaur people (easy to relate to) and their culture is basically ancient rome, complete with roman-sounding names. We have the Asari, who are an all-female race of sexy blue ladies who look like humans with tentacle things in place of hair, and they're basically space elves with names that sound like Fantasy European feminine names, so that's easy to understand, and then we have the Krogan, who are a warrior race of space rhinos with names that sound like classic "Fantasy barbarian names". Finally there are the Quarians, a race of space-faring travellers who have become very sensitive to germs and bacteria whose name sounds vaguely like "quarantine", and as a pariah race of mysterious travellers they have an aesthetic, culture and even accent that evokes a mixture of marginalised travelling peoples from our own world. Basically all the aliens in Mass Effect are based on something recognisable; they're never just completely alien. Also they can largely breathe the same air as humans, have hands with opposable thumbs, two sexes corresponding to two widely recognised genders (the Asari being the exception as "all female") and communicate by speaking from their mouths.

So the best piece of advice I can give is even if the story is full of aliens and happening in space... make it function like things your audience can relate to. "Captain bob got out of bed, put on his shirt and pants and walked to the bridge to talk to the bird-man, picking up a cup of coffee along the way." is a heck of a lot easier for most people to follow and relate to than "Captain bob unstrapped himself from the wall where he slept, sprayed a layer of coverant on his body and floated up to the translation suite to read the translation of the latest missive from the colony of sentient microorganisms held in a pressurised environment room in the hold, picking up a sachet of caffeine-water along the way." If every single thing the characters do is absolutely alien to the audience, even if that'd be realistic, they'll feel too exhausted from just processing your setting to follow the actual plot and get into the characters. Avoid the temptation to appeal to hardcore Hard Sci-Fi fans. Just adding a touch here and there of realism or attention to detail, or explaining things with "oh, there's a gravity generator on the ship" or "Ah yeah everyone's wearing a universal translator; it has a powerful computer that translates the aliens communication into natural sounding speech" is usually the best way to go.

[allenT]

I recommend small scaled & limited approach.
It's good to have limitations on worldbuildings because it forces you to do work-arounds, giving a different perspective & focus on narratives other than the same overused approach.

Just look at the worlbuilding of recent popular game Stray.

• It limits to a cat as protagonist. It forces the story to be creative on its narrative. There-- a fresh perspective!
• It limits to just a place (city) but not the entire world/galaxy...
• The world's lore was told through the settings, the items, the people, dialogues. (it does not shove you expositions at the beginning)

I do prefer small-scale, bottom-up worldbuilding because of its non-intrusive expositions-- being told through the knowledge of main character/s, slowly feeding the audience, building intrigues.

A sci-fi setting don't have to be grand it can be small scale too, think about how intimate you can design your few focus areas/settings instead of many but hollow "placeholder" continents & countries.

[irresponsiblepics]

Was about to write the same. Cohesion is important so getting bogged down with minute world building details can detract from the core story/characters.
Use details when needed.

[powerplantanimations]

I sorta cheated with That Stick Figure Isekai since I'm reusing rules from my other stories. I have this rule where "all of my stories must be connected" so it doesn't feel like I'm wasting time on a project. This helps me familiarize myself with my concepts, allowing me to pull all sorts off crazy stuff. You'll naturally become this lore writer by doing this method.

I also get my mystical stuff from the Bible and mythology since it's... admittingly easy. As for science, I sorta just bullspit my way to explain certain stuff because physics gives me the BIGGEST headache and honestly, I'm afraid of coming off super pretentious to try to be as realistic as possible when I'm making the goofiest aliens.

Still whenever you establish a rule, be sure to make a list to stay consistent.

Read That Stick Figure Isekai | Tapas Web Comics

[scottlincoln689]

The vast majority of world building is purely for the writer to have consistency... which is to say most of it never actually shows up in the story, but it's like a security blanket to those writing.

The truth is people like people. How your world affects the characters in your story is what really matters, that usually means conflict. For instance a character who fears drowning finds themselves on a water planet or a character who is claustrophobic is stuck on an over crowded space station. Readers are willing to suspend considerable belief IF they enjoy spending time with the characters on their journey.

[aqua03]

Thanks for the advice guys. It's been really helpful. I feel I guess I've been trying too hard to make something that's super unique and foolproof that gets all the nerds singing my praises and that sort of thing. (Learning most of my worldbuilding and storywriting skills from a guy who straight yup invented a math equation for how magic works in his world doesn't help probably....) I feel that if I do have a solid enough core for rules and interesting story, then it probably doesn't quite matter if I don't have a 100% hard explanation for how Flinkle-Flonkle and utiliaze the Slapp-a-whatsits thanks to the use of Kerflooky Atoms from the bardooblely dimension.

[Legendofgenii]

I always thought some of the Final Fantasy games did this quite well. Traditional fantasy with sparkly magic and monsters, but there’d be guns, motorbikes, and ruddy great spaceships flying about too.

[aqua03]

Bumping this topic I guess.

[Darth_Biomech]

Keeping consistency is relatively easy, actually. You'd need to bring up a wiki, or wiki-like (some people can make do with a heap of Google Docs) fact repository about your setting, and write your ideas and worldbuilding there. From that, all you need to do is to just check your new ideas against that repository, if they contradict them or not, or if they introduce some undesirable consequences for earlier stuff (i.e. "if X was always a thing, why the hell didn't the heroes did that to solve the Y problem before?!").
I'd just suggest that whether you do soft scifi, hard scifi, or fantasy scifi, it is always beneficial to research as much as you can, prioritizing the most important or most prominent elements of your world. So, if you are not going the hard route, knowing which rules you can skip up on is always better than not knowing any rules and just doing whatever. You can, for instance, keep all the tropes of space opera, with the exception of "artificial gravity" - it can make up for interesting designs, scenes, and plots as a consequence.

[adkahdj]

I can't tell you what makes a good Science Fantasy story setting but I can briefly explain what mine is as an illustration.

The story takes place in a typical fantasy world except for one tech element. Some special stones can be engraved and incorporated into bracelets. Once engraved the stones can send messages to other stones and a gem on top of the bracelet displays the messages . That is obviously a metaphore for a mobile phone.

That allows me to explore how the introduction of the phone transforms the world, to make fun of some current online trends whilst still telling an epic story.

[aqua03]

Gonna hit this with the ump because it's interesting to talk about.

[system]

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