Worldbuilding Questions

Biosphere creation

Here are some questions about The Biosphere Project and the Biosphere itself you may want answer when creating your world.

Your Biosphere

• What does your Biosphere look like? What are the advantages/limitations to its design? What type of power is used to power the Biosphere and why?
• Where is your Biosphere set? What surrounds it? How far away is the closest bit of civilisation? What did the rewilded area look like now/how does it compare to before?
• Where do the people who work at the Biosphere live? What facilities/buildings/departments might they have?
• Is there any in-game vetting process for people wanting to join the Biosphere? Is there any criteria they have to meet? Do they have to apply to join? Has anyone ever been turned down? If yes, on what grounds?
• How much do Biosphere authorities communicate with the world outside?

Threats

• Does the climate outside pose a threat to the Biosphere (if yes, how do they protect it)?
• Are there any specific people, groups or organisations that may threaten the Biosphere? What do they seek to do and why? What weaknesses in the Biosphere might they exploit?
• Have any experiments during the development of the Biosphere gone wrong? If so, how and what happened after (were any lessons learnt from that experience)?

Protection

• How is it protected? Is the rewilded area surveilled? If so, by what methods? What are the limitations to any protection or surveillance it may have?
• Do they have any specific safety protocols? What would happen if there was an emergency?
• If your Biosphere’s protection and surveillance relies on technology and things go wrong, do they have manual protection or protocols as back-ups? If yes, what sort of things? If not, why?

The Biosphere Project

• What events led to it being founded? Does it have a philosophy or principles it was founded on? How was it funded?
• Is it owned or founded by anyone? If you asked the, in-game, creators of the Biosphere project what it's purpose is, what would they say? Is it affiliated with any in-world organisations? Is it a politicised endeavour?
• What does it aim to do? If it had a 10 year goal, what would it be?
• What does the world outside think of the project? How do the views of people inside working for the Biosphere, differ to those looking in?
• What does rewilding look like for the Biosphere Project? To what extent do humans intervene and try to control the ecosystem e.g. reintroducing species (plant or otherwise), boosting population numbers, disease control etc.? What does looking after the land look like to Biosphere workers (what sort of tasks do they do)?

General Worldbuilding

Society & Politics

• What is society like in the wider world? How polarised is it? What are the major divisive issues? Are there any dystopian elements?
• What does civilisation outside the Biosphere look like? How do they sustain themselves e.g. where do they get resources like food and water from?
• What does politics look like in 2050? Who or what are the most influential or powerful authorities?

The Environment

• What is the climate like outside the Biosphere? To what extent is it able to support life of all kinds? How different is it to ours today? How much damage has climate change done? Have there been any apocalyptic-level natural disasters?
• How much does the rewilded area differ from land outside the Biosphere? If it's quite similar, what makes the Biosphere project important in the world you're creating?

Science & Technology

Technology level

• How advanced is the world's technology? How much is it capable of? What are its limitations?
• How has it technology progressed to that level? Is there anything preventing it from developing further?

Power

• How is power generated? How much of it is sustainable/renewable energy? Does everywhere use the same type of power (why or why not)?

Science

• Are there any new fields of study? What's the dominant scientific field? Have they discovered things we haven't (if so, how)? What are the largest scientific debates in 2050?

AI/Robotics

• Do they exist? How advanced are they? What types are there? How are they created? What do they do?
• How much do humans/society trust any AI or robots? What are the ethics/debates surrounding their existence (are they any different from the ones today)?

Medicine

• How different is medicine in 2050? How much can it help with? Can it cure things that currently can't be (how does it do that)? How much of medicine is based on new technology?

Bio-engineering

• Is it possible? Have any species been bio-engineered? Were there any unintended side-effects/consequences?