CIMG6975 Worldbuilding panel 2007

Panelists Alexis Glynn Latner (left) and Samantha Henderson at the worldbuilding panel at ArmadilloCon 2007

Every ArmadilloCon has a world-building panel, where the panelists and the audience “create” a science-fictional or fantasy world by collective brainstorming. Artist R. Cat Conrad often participates by drawing scenes from the world-in-progress on a whiteboard.

For starters, the panelists and the audience decide by voting: are they building a science fiction or a fantasy world? The audience is almost equally split between the two, but, but science fiction prevails by a small margin.

To keep the scope of the task manageable, we’ll focus on one city in this world we are building. The city is half-submerged in water. Or it may be fully submerged and exist under a dome of a force field. What kind of inhabitants will it have? What kind of conflicts will arise in this society? They may arise from the different species’ fight for dominance, or natural cataclysms. What kind of religion will they have, and what part will it play in the conflict? What myths will this society tell itself? And finally, some silly touches.

ArmadilloCon is a speculative fiction convention that takes place every year in Austin, Texas.

Austin, Texas, July 2007