TSP-009 · 01 Write & shape
Worldbuilding Template
A story-first worldbuilding questionnaire at two depths — sketch a world in an evening or build the full bible for a series.
TSP-009 · Worldbuilding Template · Free / no account
The ten questions that make a world usable in a draft. Answer these and you can start writing; everything else can be discovered on the way.
Note ⊕Answers save in this browser per depth, so you can sketch fast now and build the full bible later without losing either. Every question is story-first — if an answer creates no conflict, constraint or cost, push it until it does.
What is the one thing about this world that is different from ours — the change everything else flows from?
What does that difference cost, and who pays it? (Free magic and free technology flatten stories — price them.)
Where does your story physically happen — one region, city or ship you can describe with all five senses?
Who lives there, and what do they argue about among themselves? A culture with no internal disagreements is a costume, not a people.
Who is in charge, how did they get that way, and who wants it instead?
What are the three hard rules of your magic or technology — what it can do, what it cannot, and what it costs?
What happened here a generation ago that people still will not discuss at dinner?
What do ordinary people eat, fear, celebrate and owe? Stories live at street level, not map level.
What is getting worse right now — the change or threat that makes today different from last year?
Where does your protagonist fit into all of this, and which of these answers is about to become their problem?
Most worldbuilding templates are encyclopaedia forms: fill in the currencies, name the moons, and somehow still have no story. This free worldbuilding template asks story-first worldbuilding questions instead — every answer is pushed toward a cost, a constraint or a conflict your plot can lean on. Choose the 10-question quick sketch to make a world draft-ready in one sitting, or the 22-question full world bible for a series worth of depth.
Your answers save in this browser per depth and export as a clean text file for your writing software. When the world has rules, give it people with the character backstory generator, shape the story with the novel outline builder — and for the method behind the questions, read our guide to worldbuilding.
- Build only the world your story visits — the rest can stay fog.
- Every power needs a price; every culture needs an argument.
- Answer 'the recent wound' first — it is the question plots come from.
- If an answer creates no conflict, it isn't finished yet.
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Choose your depth
Quick sketch (10 questions) makes a world usable in a draft tonight. Full world bible (22 questions) covers geography, cultures, power, faith, economy and history — built for epics and series.
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Answer story-first questions
Each question comes with a prompt explaining what makes the answer useful — the costs, limits and tensions that turn setting into story fuel, not trivia.
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Save, sketch, deepen, export
Answers persist in your browser separately per depth, so you can sketch now and build the bible later. Copy or download the whole thing as text when you draft.
Common questions
- What is a worldbuilding template?
- A structured set of questions that walks you through inventing a fictional world — geography, cultures, power, magic or technology, and history. A good one, like this, is story-first: it keeps asking what things cost and who disagrees, because conflict is what your world is for.
- What questions should I ask when worldbuilding?
- Start with five: what is different about this world, what does the difference cost, who holds power, what happened a generation ago that nobody discusses, and what is getting worse right now. Those answers generate plot; the moons and currencies can wait.
- How much worldbuilding do I need before writing?
- Less than the hobby suggests. The 10-question sketch is genuinely enough to start a draft — most published fantasy began with less. Deep worldbuilding is a joy in its own right, but it is also the most comfortable way to avoid writing chapter one.
- Does this work for sci-fi, or only fantasy?
- Both, and for historical and speculative settings too. The questions ask about 'magic or technology' as one thing because they play the same structural role: a power with rules, limits and a price. A starship drive and a spellbook are the same question wearing different clothes.
- What is a world bible?
- The master reference document for a fictional world — the rules, places, peoples and history you check so book three doesn't contradict book one. The 22-question depth here produces a compact one, and the export gives you a file to keep growing.
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