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[Question] [ I'm writing a story that happens on a dry and arid planet that has only a few oasis's where life can thrive. Life on this world either lives in the oases or lurks in the sand waiting for migrating animals to pass by. The inhabitants of the world are also nomadic, spending some time at each location befor...
[Question] [ Related to [this question](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/207395/mechanics-of-infrequent-meteor-attacks/207421). A lot of the discussion there got sidetracked from the question of orbital physics, into questions about alien motives and what the humans would do, so I want to start a new...
[Question] [ **This question asks for hard science.** All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this requirement might be removed. See [the tag description](/tags/hard-science/info) for more information. A ch...
[Question] [ In my fantasy world I have a species of reptilian humanoids. * Their body mass, lifespan and overall intelligence is about the same as humans. This probably means similarly sized brains. * They are NOT cold blooded. They have a human-like metabolism. * The female gets internally fertilised and then lays ...
[Question] [ My previous questions of this type (one concerning [Plops](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/196649/how-can-i-protect-medieval-villages-from-plops), the other [Chompers](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/197028/how-can-i-protect-medieval-villages-from-chompers)) concerned ...
[Question] [ Here's the gist, my power armoured marines are going to be equipped with full-auto 8 gauge shotguns (in other words a quarter bigger then your average 12 guage shotgun). Now the marines are much more armored and heavily armed than their opponents but the marines are out numbered. Their enemies are coloni...
[Question] [ Yet another question for this world: [Rail Transportation with Races Described Below - Specifically, Seating](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/190955/rail-transportation-with-races-described-below-specifically-seating) One race specifically, the Phanerae. They are 6-8 feet tall, and 250-...
[Question] [ I'm trying to determine the evolutionary viability of a sentient race with "reversed" function of front and back limbs. Their front limbs would be used as legs primarily, and their back limbs for fine motoric movement and object manipulation. [Dug race from Star Wars universe.](https://static.wikia.nocoo...
[Question] [ Simply put as the title says. I'm going to handwave that the planet is held together with magic, but I want to know how a magnetic field would work on a toroidal planet- assuming such is even possible. Specifically, I want to know where a 3D compass would point based on where you are. I see a few possibi...
[Question] [ Yet another odd question. Now, in one of my worlds, I am creating cultures for cats with human intelligence, but this question applies to essentially all quadrupeds. I wanted to introduce dancing into their culture, but this brought up the question, how would quadrupeds dance? Perhaps spinning little cir...
[Question] [ In my fictional story I am playing with the idea of a sort of density gloves that can change density while keeping volume the same. Obviously you can punch people with diamond hard gloves with these things, but what are other uses? How dangerous are they to the people on the punching end? Since increased...
[Question] [ The main issue of spin-gravity space habitats is that at some point the centrifugal force will overwhelm the tensile strength of the construction materials, even if perfect graphene were available. Thus, even the biggest spin habitats can't deliver more than a continents worth of living area per drum. On...
[Question] [ **This question already has answers here**: [Is it possible to kill all life on Earth?](/questions/147882/is-it-possible-to-kill-all-life-on-earth) (21 answers) Closed 3 years ago. I need a completely empty Earth. I need: * a natural phenomenon, * some local or extraterrestrial disaster, * some in...
[Question] [ I know [color charge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_charge) has three types: red, green, and blue. There is also just one type of electric charge, with there being negative and positive electric charges. I was thinking of a universe, in which there is a charge with a number of types that is greater...
[Question] [ Assume my kaiju is around 200 feet tall, weighs around 4,000 US tonnes and resembles a large lobster with two giant claws for its front legs and long spindly limbs with tiny pincers on the ends for its second, the latter being the ones it'd use to carry a person. [Answer] If you are just relying on fr...
[Question] [ So, when it comes to humanoid races, this has been a problem for me for quite some time. Sure, mammals (werewolves, gnolls, minotaurs, centaurs) are a no-brainer. I even decided to give tengu something. Though fairly small and don't have to be censored, as they are just two round sacs that produce and st...
[Question] [ Space explorers have landed on an Earth like planet and, to their surprise, the place is luscious and covered in life, to the point of resembling some earthly tropical atoll. What they don't know yet is that the entire biochemistry of the planet they are exploring has opposite chirality with respect to t...
[Question] [ In the large pillar forests of planet x, a group of vertebrates, in order to hunt down the fast climbing creatures that inhabit their habitat, rather than developing speed as well, went on another evolutionary path than its fellow vertebrates: they became ambush predators, making use of 2 (or more) spinn...
[Question] [ In my setting there is a tidal island fortress similar to [Mont-Saint-Michel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont-Saint-Michel) that is the refuge of important nobility and is therefore a target for an invading army. The fortress also has a library containing an extremely valuable manuscript that the in...
[Question] [ I want to write a science-based story which includes grey aliens. To clarify, grey aliens are seen to be either shorter or taller than the average humans, and sport a bulbous like head. their head has two big black eyes and have two smaller holes that are the nostrils. Lastly, the body of the aliens see...
[Question] [ I'm currently working on devising a magic system in which all the standard laws of physics are upheld (Conservation of mass/energy, thermodynamics/entropy, and more). **'Powering' the Spell:** To keep it brief, my magic system allows spellcasters to convert one state or type of energy to another and pro...
[Question] [ A [recent question](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/164203/62241) here on SE:WB reminded me of a short story I wrote a long time ago, and has inspired me to revisit the idea. The premise: A race of massive alien creatures travel from planet to planet, solar system to solar system, via large wo...
[Question] [ OK, still in my Victorian Steampunk Shadowrun setting, we've got some underwater cities (care of a certain [Prince Dakkar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Nemo)). They're on average 50m below sea level, with a couple being deeper at 150-200m. They are "open" to the sea, so are at higher pressure th...
[Question] [ So, I was recently watching *Stargate: Atlantis,* and I saw a very interesting concept. In one episode, the villainous Replicators use the stargate network to fire what is essentially a high-powered laser at Atlantis. My question is, *is this scientifically feasible?* For reference, the weapon in mind pr...
[Question] [ **This question asks for hard science.** All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this requirement might be removed. See [the tag description](/tags/hard-science/info) for more information. In m...
[Question] [ I'm writing a story in which the characters (and society at large) have to deal with a recurring natural disaster (like hurricane season or the common winter, in a way). What I want to know is how long can I space out the occurrences of this disaster while still having it be a force that shapes the daily...
[Question] [ I'm building a magic system where magic isn't just controlled by human brains, but is actively produced there. As a byproduct, when casting a spell, the brain generates a large quantity of visible light (but not infrared light or heat). I don't know much anatomy, but I would imagine that, since human ski...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by [editing this post](/posts/152095/edit). Closed 4 years ago. [Improve this question](/po...
[Question] [ A Chimera is a creature made up of two different animals that are fused together in a process known as polymerization. This spell can combine animals to create an entirely new animal which contains the best traits of both parent species (bat radar, dolphin intelligence, sharks ferocity, etc). There are m...
[Question] [ From my understanding shkadov thrusters, they use huge mirrors built on the scale of a dyson sphere, to reflect all the radiation of a star in one direction, accelerating the star as an enormous star-ship. As the acceleration is initially slow, the planets around the star will stay in orbit (I think); m...
[Question] [ A group of people from a particular family are born with an ability to see into the past. They would like to exploit this for money but there is no obvious way to do so. **Details** By closing their eyes and by an act of will they can see, hear, feel, taste smell in perfect detail anything that happened ...
[Question] [ On [Blue Planet 2: The Deep](http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/planet-earth-blue-planet-ii/season-1/episode-02-the-deep) (at least, that is the title in the US version), there is discussion of crabs that grow bacteria on themselves as a food source. In the show, they kind of looked like they were wearing s...
[Question] [ As usual useful TVTropes: > > Superweapon Surprise > > > [...] > > > Comes in at least six flavors: > > > Break Out the Museum Piece: It doesn't matter that there hasn't been > any fighting for a long time. Their weapons are safely stored away and > always ready if needed. > > > OK, the real qu...
[Question] [ **This question asks for hard science.** All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this requirement might be removed. See [the tag description](/tags/hard-science/info) for more information. Litt...
[Question] [ I am currently working a humanoid roughly deer-like species in a sci-fi roleplay setting, and one of the developments I have had with such species has me stuck trying to explain it in a way that makes somewhat of sense. Furthermore, I apologize if this question breaks any rules, I am still rather new to ...
[Question] [ As seen on others questions biological radio could be a thing. [How to evolve biological radios?](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/27108/how-to-evolve-biological-radios#) [What would a species require to be able to inherently transmit and receive radio waves?](https://worldbuilding.stack...
[Question] [ So I've got a fantasy race of people with four arms. Their second pair is able to reach behind them like how our arms are able to reach in front of us, and so could work with things behind their backs just as well as in front (I've already got their arm anatomy worked out). The only problem is, they'd ne...
[Question] [ Between a species that is hermaphroditic and a species that has males and females, then what would be the pros and cons of either one from a biological standpoint? Anything not regarding the biology itself—culture, language, interspecies relations, etc—can be handled on my own. I just want to know the pr...
[Question] [ Okay so in the novel I am writing there’s a Third World War fought by the nations of earth against a human space empire (I am overly simplifying this ) . Now the thing is the empire uses transhuman supersoliders as their main fighting force but as the war drags on and becomes a stalemate the space humans...
[Question] [ Let's assume that this hypothetical alien crawled out of the identical primordial ooze to the point where they share significant genetic similarity with humans, and due to either evolution or outside intervention, evolved to be similar physiologically to humans if not in appearance. They have stronger mu...
[Question] [ I'm working on building a post nuclear war society in a nuclear winter where northern countries have risen to dominance through a combination of being non-primary targets in the nuclear war and having access to mining infrastructure as well as glaciers and ice caps. The idea is that these societies could...
[Question] [ [EDIT: this question is about life on Earth surviving, not the physical destruction of the planet] Could the Earth survive a gamma ray burst if that burst occurred in our galaxy and the Earth is in the Sun's shadow? The main factors of that question are: if the Sun is massive enough to block it and if th...
[Question] [ Setting: City similar to the City of London. Oppressive government. People live in fear and merely trudge on in their dull lives. My characters: Part of a cell of a large national resistance group. They live in a small flat in an apartment on a main street. (I don't really know how to describe it, but th...
[Question] [ Could a creature like this exist? Jellyfish or cephalopod-like creatures that live in 'swarms' underwater. They float aimlessly around in a net formation. When one member detects prey below the formation they send a signal to the rest of the swarm. A single member is 'elected' to be sacrificed in hunting...
[Question] [ In Warlords poorer families in the belt or some of the colonies are not able (for whatever reason) to pay for 'gravity treatments' or possibly helpful drugs and are forced to live and raise their children in micro gravity. Now I think a freakishly tall human with his legs and spine having a visible brace...
[Question] [ Eskimos in space! Let's say, just for contextual concerns, that a band of water-rich comet miners want to use water-ice found in the outer Solar System as the main structural and functional component of their spacecraft. That is, the spacecraft and perhaps some of its basic support functions (internal at...
[Question] [ Diseases in nature tend to naturally become less virulent over time, in part, because the disease vector changes and in part because the host population develops immunity to it. How possible is it, in theory, to accurately predict the time period until immunity to the disease or its decreased virulence c...
[Question] [ I had an idea of a wind tree that can create wind but it is not man-made) in a fantasy world. Then I began to think/wonder of ways it could realistically work without any magic. So thats where I'm stuck. Hope this clears up the confusion. It's like an off category of the [Anatomically Correct Series](htt...
[Question] [ I was not entirely sure how to word the title question, so allow me to put my question into more detail here: Suppose there was a planet with just the right conditions to allow humans to live there (atmosphere, close by, livable temperature, etc.), and there were valuable resources giving them reason to ...
[Question] [ I've seen this question raised in several different bits of sci fi media. In games its often that low gravity = lower construction cost or some such. But I've begun to wonder, is it really that cut and dried? Obviously, high gravity has some applications. Defensively, it could make it annoying for enemie...
[Question] [ A book that I'm currently writing called Surge features [an enemy faction called the Degenerates that are heavily inspired by the Scythians](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FantasyCounterpartCulture) (Indo-Iranian horse nomads that ruled the Eurasian Steppes and Central Asia from the 9th centu...
[Question] [ The smallest type of dragon in my world is a bipedal dragon about the same size as a moderately sized bird, maybe about a falcon. In addition to its breath attack and high intelligence, this little dragon is armed with a powerful venom whose primary effect is powerful and persistent hallucinations. This ...
[Question] [ One of the first things noted about pretty much any humanoid race with horns or antlers is that the neck would not be able to support the weight, making the idea unfeasible. However, some horns are larger than others, and I find it difficult to believe the idea of horned humanoids is entirely not plausib...
[Question] [ As many here likely know, one of the factors that make both Mars and Venus uninhabitable to humans are their lack of a magnetosphere to keep solar winds out. In the setting I am working on, I wanted Mars and Venus to be terraformed. Among the steps taken in the terraforming process; they would each have ...
[Question] [ I'm intrigued by the use of Cyber- or Electronic Warfare (short EW) in a space combat scenario. Basically something that is very rarely (if at all) seen in *Star Wars*, *Star Trek*, *Babylon 5*, *Battlestar Galatica*, etc., but is a major player in today's reality on Earth where Cyberwarfare has huge eff...
[Question] [ My friend is writing a book, and I volunteered to create a planet for him, one with an epic mountain extending far above the clouds. The planet features lush jungles in the lower elevations and enormous towering mountains. If possible, I would like to have a mountain so high it extends well into a typic...
[Question] [ My story involves a groups of colonists from a near post-apocalyptic Earth settling on a nearby, newly discovered habitable world, each colony separated and unknown to the others initially. Throughout the years, these colonists populate the planet and expand their colonies eventually discovering each oth...
[Question] [ I need to create a world with some very high plateaus and some very deep depressions. The sides of these structures should be very steep and unclimbable. They need to provide an obstacle sufficient to ensure that the the plateaus and depressions are only accessible from the surface by air transport. The...
[Question] [ I'm working on a sci-fi Western scenario on a habitable [desert planet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_planet) along the lines of [Tatooine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatooine) from Star Wars and [Arrakis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrakis) from Dune. For it to be habitable there has to be ...
[Question] [ I know that certain animals have the ability to see in darker areas but not in pitch black due to a special ability they have in their eyes which also gives them that glowing effect. Could elves have the same thing? [Answer] ## Possible in fantasy, but of dubious utility The *[tapetum lucidum](https:/...
[Question] [ **Closed.** This question is [off-topic](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- This question does not appear to be about **worldbuilding**, within the scope defined in the [help center](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help). Closed 6 years ago. [Improve this que...
[Question] [ A small (initial population in the order of 10k) human colony has been established on an Earth-like planet in a solar system far from their home world. Due to resource limitations, ships traveled round-trip; that is, once colonists and cargo were offloaded on the new planet, they promptly returned to the...
[Question] [ What are possible economic systems for use within a space-based industrial settlement? The different approaches are to be weighed by the competitve advantages they offer to their respective communities. Many science fiction stories are written about the space industrial settlement or colony as a “company...
[Question] [ **This question already has answers here**: [How long would it take to remove all trace of a civilisation, with malice and intent?](/questions/4494/how-long-would-it-take-to-remove-all-trace-of-a-civilisation-with-malice-and-in) (11 answers) Closed 6 years ago. I am trying to generate broad ideas ...
[Question] [ **This question asks for hard science.** All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this requirement might be removed. See [the tag description](/tags/hard-science/info) for more information. **Cl...
[Question] [ **The Scenario:** A technologically advanced mother culture wants to manage mass outbreaks of virulent disease in its technologically regressed colonies, who are inclined to resist most of what the mother culture does, good or bad, as a basic principle. The mother culture, for their own part, treats dise...
[Question] [ This is a follow up to the creature 'griffins' I sort of created here: [Anatomically Correct Griffins](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/25281/anatomically-correct-griffins/25387#25387) The idea of the final griffin was a small tree based species that will leap down on much larger prey an...
[Question] [ This plant I am designing grows on earth, in locations where competition between plants is fierce, water is scarce and also nutrients in the soil are diluted. The dilution requires the plant roots to be developed at least in 1 cubic meter of ground to be able to sustain the plant life. This plant has dev...
[Question] [ The [Snakebot of Doom](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/37248/defeating-the-revised-snakebot-of-doom) - now dubbed [Jormungandr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6rmungandr) by the first humans to encounter it and survive - is busy steamrolling New York into rubble, having first nuked...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by [editing this post](/posts/76123/edit). Closed 6 years ago. [Improve this question](/pos...
[Question] [ I'm poking through information and searches on calculating ranges for artillery weapons, and I'm finding a lot of simple ballistic calculators, which don't fit what I want, or calculators for small arms, which may be accurate enough but don't allow for the correct values and/or use values for which I don...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by [editing this post](/posts/73761/edit). Closed 6 years ago. [Improve this question](/pos...
[Question] [ In my second book, based on *Space Gladiators*, portal technology is a staple in their universe. I need a logical explanation about how portals work. Is it based on quantum physics, dark matter, wormholes, or what? What would be the most logical way to describe the mechanics of a portal? Assume that the...
[Question] [ [In one of my more recent questions,](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/65480/little-green-earth-men) one Xandar The Zenon commented that a mutation that creates the gene for red or orange pigmentation on the human skin is more likely than green, blue or purple. But wait. You might think,...
[Question] [ We've established that you can't simply [scale up animals](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/316/can-you-simply-scale-up-animals) because as the creature gets bigger the square-cube law (if you double the size of your animal the weight increases eight times). This quickly becomes unsustai...
[Question] [ In Medieval England how would a stronghold town be laid out, and what would their defenses have been? I'm putting a city together and one important point is that it is secure from attacks. Attacks from both people and creatures. I first contemplated a big wall surrounding the town or city with guarded ...
[Question] [ Let's imagine an Earth clone devoid of naturally occurring fissile materials—and, for comprehensiveness' sake, also devoid of fertile materials like thorium and americium that could be used to produce fissile isotopes artificially. I suppose the first part of the question is: Could we have gotten to the ...
[Question] [ **Picture a setting similar to that of many fantasy works:** a relatively low level of technology among the general population, lots of manual labor, agriculture or hunter/gatherer society, and that most people are generally content with the way of life. *Note that this particular world does not have mag...
[Question] [ Gliding is a relatively simple trait to explain in a species' evolution, much quicker than flight or becoming aquatic. But what environments support an animal in the evolution to flight? For example, are redwood forests better than jungles? Are mountains better than mesa? What environmental features hel...
[Question] [ Following up on [Effects of "know before you vote" political system](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/46025/effects-of-know-before-you-vote-political-system) One controversial aspect of that question was: *who writes the knowledge test?* Top answers pointed out that such a test "could [n...
[Question] [ In my *con-world* I went lengths to introduce a [plausible lighter-than-air element](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/19630/is-this-concept-for-an-lta-gas-associated-element-lifecycle-feasible) and did rather large amounts of [thinking about landmasses](https://worldbuilding.stackexchang...
[Question] [ **This question already has answers here**: [Are there techniques for creating alien or foreign sounding names?](/questions/3478/are-there-techniques-for-creating-alien-or-foreign-sounding-names) (13 answers) Closed 7 years ago. I feel vaguely silly asking this, but I'm stuck. I'm writing a short ...
[Question] [ Our hero has arrived on a distant continent in the land of Ar-Piji. The Eternal Empire that reigns here is particularly exotic by his standards, however one aspect stands out in particular. A founding tenant in the Empire's theocratic government is that **writing and other forms of records are strictly f...
[Question] [ If I have a mountain that is, say, 3,000m high, how could I work out how wide it should be? Does anyone have any guidelines that would let me work out the bounds for the width of a mountain given its height? [Answer] You'll need to also look at how old the mountain is, and how strong gravity is on you...
[Question] [ Everyone familiar with Godzilla should know of his iconic blue atomic breath. I've seen "theories" (technically not really theories) on how Godzilla's atomic breath works on the web. However, what about a [green atomic breath](http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/the-american-godzilla/images/0/05/Atomic_B...
[Question] [ Let's say the world is about to deteriorate to an uninhabitable state; and will become fully uninhabitable in 2100AD. Humanity realises that we have to leave this planet and go to [Titan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon))**1** and the best time to do it is in 2080AD; we all have to get there at...
[Question] [ In the vision of its creators, the Dr. Watson AI would gather multiple live feeds from its insurance buyers, overcoming privacy concerns through friendly advice (`I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't let you sit on the couch, you have not fulfilled your daily step quota yet. The TV stays off.`) and ridicul...
[Question] [ The human race has colonized the solar system with permanent settlements on all of the inner planets and outposts beyond. Vast space stations pepper the voids between orbits and massive mining/refining facilities stand vigil along the frontier. Interplanetary travel is routine and 25 Billion prosperous h...
[Question] [ Somewhat related to [this](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/10102/how-would-multi-race-humanoid-evolution-happen). I've already decided that both orcs and humans are subspecies of homo sapiens (homo sapiens praepotens and homo sapiens perpessio, respectively, because both species are abu...
[Question] [ In countless series of the world of science fiction we see something that we all accept as realistic but makes no sense. Holographic controls. We simply say that since it's the future that it makes sense. But the problem is that I see no way how this could work. If it was a classic hologram then our hand...
[Question] [ Assume that a person is shielded by magic. The *only* thing this magic does is to keep air away from that person (ignore for now any consequences to said unfortunate individual). Aside from this, the magic can be ignored. This has the result that the person is encased in a sheath of empty space, about 2-...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by [editing this post](/posts/22083/edit). Closed 8 years ago. [Improve this question](/pos...
[Question] [ Assume a race of intelligent humanoids, possibly far more intelligent than human beings. They have evolved and survived using nothing but their intense intellect, developing new weapons and various armaments to fight off their enemies and nature whenever the opportunity presents itself. (I'll probably de...
[Question] [ Is it possible to have a planet where the atmosphere is mostly water vapor instead of mostly N + O2 with solid ground, so not a gas giant? In the sense - how close to the center star(s) should it be for water not to exist in greater bodies of liquid water or in any solid state as a result of water freezi...
[Question] [ I would like to create a steampunk world which society has the following base structure: * Power is pretty decentralized to cities or small areas containing some cities * There should be no great wars (small conflicts between areas might be possible, but nothing that would deserve the name *war*) I am tr...
[Question] [ Considering a distant future where mankind has spread and inhabits lots of star systems. Would there be a justification for inter-system trade or exchanges ? FTL travel may be considered, but with at a significant energy cost. Most materials being available everywhere in most systems, and production capa...
[Question] [ [My answer to this question](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12354/what-would-a-space-fighter-look-like/12369#12369) essentially came down to the pilot being in a sphere with anything large jutting out of it. Some of the arguments made against me I feel are true if we assume fights like...
[Question] [ We always think of some technology as being more advanced than others, e.g. (space rocket) > (aeroplane) > (car). To what extent is such a scale absolute, and to what extent does it just come from the order of development in our history? A specific example I'm thinking of is nuclear vs. conventional expl...
[Question] [ Help me, you benevolent geology nerd! This is a question I'm trying to find a workable (but not necessarily precise) answer for a colony-building sci-fi RPG game that I am GMing for some of my friends. So, the setting is on the harder sci-fi spectrum where faster-than-light travel is impossible. Players ...
[Question] [ I have a villain whose superpower is allowing energy flow/interaction between distant objects - in particular, what matters right now is that he can put two objects (or areas) in direct thermal contact at a distance, near-instantly equalizing the temperature of the affected region. (It's worth noting tha...