Tlcassis's Judging Short List & Reading Challenge

Summer Camp 2025

And... it's over!

At the beginning of Summer Camp this year I started with a brand new world Eryia that had no maps, no timelines, no articles - nothing but a meta that I built a couple days before Summer Camp kicked off. We closed Summer Camp, and I had another Diamond Badge, was 42 articles with art richer, have the beginning of a continental map, and the realization that I have no idea how to use the new editor and I've forgotten everything I ever thought I knew about BBC code. The world is almost ready for our Daggerheart campaign, AND I have an awesome concept for a new dungeon in Eryia.

You all worked hard at producing an AMAZING amount of work, and as a Judge in week one, and having been through my first couple culls of 217 articles, I will say there's some really great work out there - yes, lots of it is bare bones get the badge work, but your worlds are fuller and richer because of your efforts this past month.

In all, it was a great Summer Camp.

The Stuff I Did

Here's an article with the things I loved the most of the stuff I wrote. I love stories, so all the good stuff I'm pulling out is story based, not really wiki style except if I need it to set up the stories. So if you like stories in your articles, or if you like things that are funny, (because I do that too) check these out!

Here's my next 6 months resolution:

1 - FINISH Book 2 of the Adenshur Chronicles to Beta reader quality.

2 - I need to send out Book 1 - Got back beta reader feedback a couple weeks ago and they loved it, but I just can't seem to get my courage up enough to get it published - lots of rejection in the query trenches, and real life gets in my way. So maybe I'll add that to the resolution too...

Now for The Stuff You Did!

And... Here - in alphabetical order - are my top 12 articles from Judging "A profession related to Spirituality or Philosophy" and why they stood out to me!

This article by Jester% is very well done world building, with a thoughtful, clear, and compelling connection to the prompt, it's well written and beautifully styled with great art.

There are two articles in my top 10 this year which are TTRPG profession/class definitions from DMs for their homebrew games. This one by Javak uses the Traveller gaming system. If you have an interest in sci-fi TTRPGs, give this one a look.

This article by WreckerDwarf is short, interesting, and well written with cool art- the blending of dwarven craftmanship with spiritual guidance and comfort in death was a great take on the prompt. I found the "burial" method of dead dwarves with an "in your face" to the outcast population to be rife with story telling potential.

Dare I say that this article by Alikzander_Wulfe is both well written and very disturbing? A cult of hopelessness and death built around the sea, that everyone needs and uses, but no one (quite understandably) likes. You'd have to be crazy to pick this as a profession...

Myth-X wrote this, the other TTRPG article in my top 12, BUT this one is for both gamers and readers. This is an outstanding example of how to blend TTRPG material with general worldbuilding. The organization is great - Arc-Sagas has a "voicey" world style, the article styling is great with effective roll downs to keep it concise, the writing is well done, it's broken up into SMALL sections that are interesting and then are finished, and it's on topic. Great work.

This article by Tyrdal is beautiful and has some great CSS - a scroll that reveals a lovely story of a Karyln'ra or dream walker doing her job - rescuing a young creative from her internal self doubts and fears that are keeping her from doing the art she was meant to do. I wished as I read it that there were Karyln'ra irl with the ability to heal the dreams of soldiers with PTSD, or victims of abuse. When we world build, we process the real world around us. It was wonderful to see an article so beautifully done - and so filled with hope.

Callyxtus brings us a wiki-style article that - yes I KNOW it's his world of Yeia not the real world, but darn it, it just feels totally like I could hop on a plane and be there tomorrow hob-nobbing with the Yemuist and Reformed monks and helping them in a soup kitchen or something. Nice CSS, and a great world vibe feel that really works.

Tonarus has brought us a mike drop cool wild west style eldritch hunter who's doomed to die young or go crazy fighting the Other. This article starts with a well written story that grabs you right out of the gate like the OK Corral on Eldritch Pheromes. The lore dump manages to capitalize on all that engagement keeping up the narrative style and making you want to know all the tricks of the trade for this compelling character. Style was great and the art was consistent with the feel of the character (though I wish there was more of it) - use of quotes and headings broke up all the text nicely. Loved this, want to play one!

Heavy brought me an article that, without any doubt, is the absolutely most unique and interesting concept I saw in all 217 articles on this topic. I'm not telling you what it is because it's a very short article and you should just hover over this link and read it.

There are articles which show just exactly how passionate we are about our worlds - and inspired by the prompts. Scalenex has really worked hard on this article and it shows. With nine gods there's lots of territory to cover, but it's covered in spades. This article has tons on unique art, well thought out characteristics, quotes, stories and a delightful and effective sidebar I really liked titled "Three Clergy Walk into a Tavern" which helps you grasp the differences between these gods and their clergy in short order. Fair warning - this is a very long article.

If you've been following my judging for the last couple years, you're probably tired of me going on and on about Hanhula and how on point and beautiful and well written and well styled every single Istralar article I get to judge is. So I won't repeat myself here (...guess I just did) - I'll just say - another one done by the pro.

This is a gorgeous article - and I didn't even notice it's a TTRPG because the story telling is so strong. Tillerz has knocked it out of the park with this visually rich and enchanting article about mages who create magic with music.

Madmooncrow (Roger Davis) is someone I've never run across before, but OMG this article The Axis Custodian is crazy fun and I'm SO glad he submitted it. The concept is hysterical, the writing is excellent - playful and engaging, and the art is right in character for this zany world. And dammit, I think the Inn has decided that its my turn now... Definite read.