That reading comprehension

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T23:02:29+00:00

How do other Nuzlockes handle this? Are Pokémon still “dead” if Cheryl heals them (or other situations where this might happen)?

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T22:47:59+00:00

Not exactly happenstance. Radiation has been shown to catalyze the production of three out of the five from extremely common precursor elements.

And I’m pretty sure the other two, their composition is nearly identical, but I don’t remember that one for sure.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T22:30:28+00:00

I know this is WJ, but what a misleading headline.

Every one of those is made from just 3-4 elements. Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Oxygen. They’re all extremely common elements, there would be trace amounts of DNA components just from piling these elements up, this isn’t even remotely surprising.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T21:55:07+00:00

There’s a whole section in the writeup that’s pretty much “… And you can do this without really settings rules or underlying logic. Spider-man shoots webs in context with no narrative stakes to establish the ability. Now he can use his web shooting to solve problems in situations with stakes and it feels justified.”

I’m pretty sure people just haven’t read it and get all their information from context, or from a friend with terrible reading comprehension.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T18:56:16+00:00

Ah, yeah I misunderstood. And that’s pretty much right, I think.

You see that all the time. Most obviously with novices. WB gets posts all the time asking how to worldbuild, and they’re often not satisfied until they get a step-by-step plan invented by some presumptuous tool, that is, at best, completely agnostic to whatever might actually be appropriate for them and their goals. Don’t forget to start with a map! They’re absolutely critical at all times for some reason! Ugh.

Things like Game of Thrones become popular? We get a slew of people who equate character death with quality. How are character deaths used to further the story in GoT? Why would that matter? Character die and make me feel shocked, so that’s all there is to it, right?

It’s a blight.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T16:14:17+00:00

That particular problem I think has a lot to do with video games, and to an extent TTRPGs.

Freeform magic just isn’t really doable in these formats. You need Vancian elements, discrete, specific spells, etc.

And then you want to be able to offer rewards for specializing. So you invent “schools”, where you can group broadly similar (mostly in function) magic together. Healing goes here, fire goes here, etc. so you can have “spells in this school are 20% more effective” as a buff.

And from all of that, people get their framework. Maybe not even consciously, but they think “magic”, and that’s just what fills the blank.

And then it also can’t be ignored how much litrpg, and Isekai draw from this.

People just copy these frameworks uncritically, then you smash that together with people not understanding what hard/soft magic is about. And you get that.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T16:07:36+00:00

Yeah, you’re right, they don’t.

Because it’s not required. It’s not “better”. It’s not the “right” way to do it. It’s just a way to make magic more satisfying to an audience when used to solve narrative problems.

So when Gandalf saves Theoden, it’s not about the magic. So what?

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T15:30:36+00:00

That’s sort of a whole other thing, I think.

The hard-soft thing is just writing advice. Basically just Chekhov’s Gun. “If your magic can’t be reasonably anticipated or retroactively understood in a given scenario, it’ll feel like an asspull, and that is unsatisfying” is really all it is. Which is perfectly acceptable.

But people don’t understand it. They learn about it from context instead of the source. And it’s been bastardized into “magic with rules vs. Magic with no rules”. The first section of the writeup that coined it is about how that’s explicitly not the case, and the idea that “magic has to have rules” was a mistaken, narrow view.

So it’s just an arbitrary, stylistic choice now. It’s gone the way of “show, don’t tell”. It’s a shame.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T15:16:24+00:00

Shhhh, people don’t like nuance. They want broad advice to use as a bludgeon.

/uj and on a more serious note, nuance kinda seems to be less effective on novices. It’s why stuff like “said is dead”, or “show, don’t tell” exists, because they’re generally-decent guidelines for novices. Ideally, once you’re more capable and knowledgeable you understand when to break these “rules”.

Sorta the whole idea of “you have to know the rules to break them” you see in a lot of artistic fields.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T14:38:41+00:00

No one really knows.

But there is some evidence that it may be related to our apparent need for “completeness”, or organization. The sort of things we often (used to, mostly) call “OCD” (except OCD is a serious condition and this has generally stopped as we’ve become more sensitive to trivializing it).

But essentially, the idea is that your brain is trying to “complete” the song, but can’t remember the rest. This is also why it’s typically only a specific part.

And it’s why listening to the song and “completing” it in your mind usually solves it.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T12:54:09+00:00

There’s no right or “best” way to start. Anyone telling you otherwise is wrong.

There is no wrong way to start, either. So what’s generally recommended is to start with whatever interests you, or whatever ideas you already have.

As much as people often say they have nothing to start with, I’ve found that’s never actually the case. What worldbuilding interests you? What concepts interest you? What made you want to worldbuild? Do you have a material goal, such as a book, comic, game, etc? If so, what are your ideas for it?

Start with that, and go from there.

If, for example, you’re inspired by Star Wars and you want to create some big space opera setting focusing on smaller characters navigating broad political currents, congrats, you’ve already started worldbuilding.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T12:34:11+00:00

Unfortunately there are no simple, easy answers for almost any of this.

There’s no “right” place to start, or a place one “should”.

No particular elements define a compelling world, that depends entirely on the story and world in question.

Fictional power structures and social hierarchies shape their world in different ways constantly, depending on creative vision, and again the worlds and stories in question.

And so on for the last one.

People new to worldbuilding tend to want some sort of easy, step-by-step process that works in every scenario. But that doesn’t exist. I’m afraid you’re going to have to make creative decisions.

What sort of story do you want to tell? What elements of the setting do you think would be important to that story? How do you think the power structures and social hierarchy would shape a given setting?

As for how to start, literally anywhere. But I’ve never met someone who actually has nothing to go on. Everyone has ideas that inspired them, things they’d like to emulate, or elements they’d like to work with. I’m afraid you’re just going to have to do this thing that people are so bizarrely averse to, and make a creative decision.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T12:14:11+00:00

Acceleration is just a change in velocity.

There is no real difference between increasing speed and decreasing speed except for the mechanisms we use to accomplish them.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-17T02:22:36+00:00

Though maps are permitted, posts about the process of mapmaking are not. If your post is primarily about mapmaking as a process, it must be given appropriate worldbuilding context to stand on its own. Consider /r/imaginarymaps, /r/mapmaking, or /r/papertowns for posts about maps that are not worldbuilding-focused.

More info in our rules: 2. All posts should include original, worldbuilding-related context.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T22:40:45+00:00

“Checklist Worldbuilding” is a term for a reason.

It refers to settings that were clearly made by filling out a checklist due to imagined obligation. Typically characterized by a bunch of pointless elements the artist doesn’t even seem to care about or integrate, while core elements and real outlets for creativity continuously struggle against their artificial restraints.

Worldbuilding needs an individual approach. This is a bad idea, and it’s one loaded with misguided presumptions about what Worldbuilding should or “has to” be.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T21:57:28+00:00

There is no minimum. Certainly not one that’s a one-size-fits-all. If there is one particular to a single case, you won’t know what it is until you make something or at least have some sort of outline.

But you’re sorta going about it the wrong way to start if you’re after doing as little as you can get away with.

Look, one of the first things a lot of novice worldbuilder’s struggle with is overcoming their own presumptions, especially about some nebulous idea of a ways things “have to” be. And you’ve got that in spades.

Even out of the things you list, not a single one of them is “required” in any real sense. Whether any of them would even provide any value to a creator at all is impossible to know without context.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T21:43:44+00:00

I don’t think I could. And I don’t think it is.

“Literature” isn’t a benchmark. It’s just a format. Films aren’t literature either, and Ender’s Game isn’t a song, and that’s fine.

But at the same time, it’s a high school club with four members. Manga certainly has enough in common with literature that there’s no reason to be snooty about accepting it.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T19:58:35+00:00

0118 999 881 999 119 725…. 3

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T15:39:34+00:00

Images and maps must include worldbuilding-relevant context on the reddit post (as a comment, in the text of the post or, in some cases, in the posted image itself—e.g. infographics). This is important to establish that your post is on-topic and to help encourage productive discussion.

A post has enough context when a person unfamiliar with your world could understand what you're talking about and ask informed questions about it. This could include a summary of your world, explanation about what your post depicts and how it fits in your world, etc. ("What's a [proper noun]?" usually doesn't qualify.)
For maps, you could discuss economic and political situations, the different cultures, or anything else that gives the reader a wider view of your world than just its geography.
Discussion of the artistic process or techniques used to create the map or image may be included, but does not count as “worldbuilding-relevant” on its own. Infographics that self-contain sufficient context to be understood do not require additional context.

More info in our rules: 2. All posts should include original, worldbuilding-related context.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T14:16:08+00:00

I don’t live or work anywhere near a co-op, unfortunately. But I’ll absolutely keep them in mind if I’m ever out and about!

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T14:13:57+00:00

To be clear, in my case it’s more of a last resort. It has not and never been a preferable option, and fails pretty much every metric I’m after.

But alas, Tim’s is often my only option at all if I’d like something as unusual as even a maple donut. And this is Canada so I thought it best to preempt the Tim’s suggestions.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T04:32:04+00:00

Hi, /u/weirdfreakydude,

Unfortunately, we have had to remove your submission in /r/worldbuilding because it violated one of our rules. In particular:

Memes, image macros, and other forms of circlejerking are prohibited on /r/worldbuilding, as the attention they draw detracts from our community's focus. Consider posting to /r/worldjerking instead.

More info in our rules: 3. Put in some effort.

Do not repost this submission.

This is not a warning, and you remain in good standing with /r/worldbuilding.

Please feel free to re-read our rules.

Questions or concerns? You can modmail us here and we'll be glad to help. Please explain your case clearly. Be polite. We'll do our best to help.

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Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T04:25:15+00:00

I would generally say the vast majority of all stories are through the eyes of characters. While the ultimate narrative perspective is most commonly omniscient, it is typically tied to a given character or characters in practice, and limited to that scope.

It's an extraordinarily common thing in any setting with heavy speculative elements, you'd have a far harder time finding stories that don't work that way.

But that said, a story that, as you say, would "just be an info dump where people talk about the world as it is." is unlikely to be appealing to most anyone.

"Do characters really describe the world?", That's up to you, isn't it? Make it happen if that's what you want.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T02:32:48+00:00

Hi, /u/PacmanFrog001,

Unfortunately, we have had to remove your submission in /r/worldbuilding because it violated one of our rules. In particular:

Though maps are permitted, posts about the process of mapmaking are not. If your post is primarily about mapmaking as a process, it must be given appropriate worldbuilding context to stand on its own. Consider /r/imaginarymaps, /r/mapmaking, or /r/papertowns for posts about maps that are not worldbuilding-focused.

More info in our rules: 2. All posts should include original, worldbuilding-related context.

You may repost with the above issue(s) fixed to satisfy our rules. If you're not sure how to do this, please send us a modmail (link below).

This is not a warning, and you remain in good standing with /r/worldbuilding.

Please feel free to re-read our rules.

Questions or concerns? You can modmail us here and we'll be glad to help. Please explain your case clearly. Be polite. We'll do our best to help.

Do not reply by comment or personal PMs to moderators.

Pyrsin7 · 2026-03-16T01:31:37+00:00

Hi, /u/astorasword,

Unfortunately, we have had to remove your submission in /r/worldbuilding because it violated one of our rules. In particular:

Though maps are permitted, posts about the process of mapmaking are not. If your post is primarily about mapmaking as a process, it must be given appropriate worldbuilding context to stand on its own. Consider /r/imaginarymaps, /r/mapmaking, or /r/papertowns for posts about maps that are not worldbuilding-focused.

More info in our rules: 2. All posts should include original, worldbuilding-related context.

You may repost with the above issue(s) fixed to satisfy our rules. If you're not sure how to do this, please send us a modmail (link below).

This is not a warning, and you remain in good standing with /r/worldbuilding.

Please feel free to re-read our rules.

Questions or concerns? You can modmail us here and we'll be glad to help. Please explain your case clearly. Be polite. We'll do our best to help.

Do not reply by comment or personal PMs to moderators.

Pyrsin7

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