Worldbuilding is literally about building a world on a macro and micro scale, in rich detail. The technique comes from (sci-fi and fantasy) storytelling and role-playing games, where the authors create whole fictional universes in which many stories can happen. In futuring, and specifically incasting, worldbuilding can add new dimensions to a scenario, as adding colour to a black-and-white movie. Worldbuilding is about fleshing out the scenario into a fully-fledged “world”, populated with cultures and events, maps of places and landscapes. This exercise can take from 15 minutes to months or years, depending on the world-building purpose.

A skeletal scenario or another type of sketch that came out of a visioning exercise should exist before beginning this exercise. Worldbuilding can be done in a workshop, or it can be a writing and visualising exercise that can continue online after the workshop. It can also be outsourced to writers or game designers outside of the group, or people who are a part of the facilitation team.

• A masterful worldbuilding of The Culture by Iain Banks
• Worldbuilding on Wikipedia
• how to begin and [[http://io9.com/7-deadly-sins-of-worldbuilding-998817537|what to avoid in worldbuilding
• Kate Messner on How to build a fictional world

• Worldbuilding in futures: Agoras Workshop with Pantopicon