A Wild Month
July seems to be one of those months when we are both inundated with a million things to do. And of course, one thing that always sparks that feeling is Summercamp itself.
Both of us have been diamond lads for 8 years now, and this is the first year where neither managed to achieve Diamond. However, we aren't disappointed in ourselves.
Life is life, and when it comes down to what needs to be done, we all make those choices.
Barron
For me, the month started with Ademal announcing she'd be moving out, that, combined with work hitting some hard strokes, it all hit me real hard. I wound up going through some rough spots mentally.
It also hit me in the first two weeks. And for those first weeks, I aimed for Diamond. That meant I was coming home every day from work, straight into writing, then back to work at night before sleep.
I got exhausted, then I got burnt. I wanted to make something worthwhile. I felt like when I'm having to cut corners to hit 40 articles, Summercamp wasn't fun anymore.
I decided to only go for Silver and focus on making some of my articles shine.
Top lesson I learned: Six wonderful articles beats out forty half-done articles.
Barron's Top Articles
Derek is based on a real friend of mine. A real nerd who takes care of big cats by day and dominates Fortnite by night.
Throughout the process of making a character, I even asked Derek for feedback and ideas. Wiskonia was alllll him. He's a real character who does some very special and cool work and works with a bunch of just as sweet and amazing folks.
If you wanna learn more about Derek and the Rescue he works for:
Mah'hbum Cave came from the same part of the heart and mind that Mount Dau-Sajhrashi came from.
And by that I mean it came from jokes with Dimi and the World Anvil Community. I took it a bit further though, since I want to use it for my book.
I decided to take Mah'hbum seriously, and even went as far as to make a map for it from scratch! It was fun to look up caving videos for inspiration.
Qualic cooking I think was my second article this summercamp, and I had a fun with it because well I enjoy cooking! I ain't no world class chef, but thankfully you don't need to know that to worldbuild something good.
This piece became extra special because Hiive in the Discord was able to do a couple of really cool food pieces for it. Amazing how real art helps an article stick out.
I also took on this magical cooking topic because it's something I think my players in games will encounter very soon!
Making a smell substance, first thing that came to mind was soap. We had Slog for the Sazashi to use on their fur, but just as humanity has shampoo and conditioner, I felt they needed something more!
Then came along our sudden obsession with Jhoutaioan Slime, and that turned into whole 'nother set of articles that played in with the Holly Akifal!
It's always a blast to collab with Ademal, and it ends up being some of my best work!
So I didn't plan on doing the Metamorphis Species promt, but then Mochi came along and asked so nicely if I was going to enter their prompt.
Mochi being excited to read an article of mine made me want to test my limits and do something new. So I brainstormed a species with Ademal and set to work.
Damworms were a blast, because I haven't written a species that had multiple life stages before, and I particularlly enjoyed making the life cycle portion, even if they use my little paint arrows!
Ademal
I had to be very tactical with my time this SummerCamp. Shortly after it began, my partner found a place for us to move into together on short notice, which put me into moving mode. We've moved her in, and I'm working on building a yard-pen for my dogs. On top of that, I went on a family snorkeling vacation to Roatan for a week of it. Needless to say, I've been hella busy!
Being busy can't keep me from writing, however, and I'd've been damned if I was going to let anything stop me from participating in SummerCamp. I was determined to at least hit copper and to write a couple quality articles pertinent to my current projects. I'm proud to say... I did it!
My protagonist is born to the apocalyptic wastelands to the east of the San Joaquin sea in future California, and I've always wanted her to measure time by the seasons rather than a calendar.
With The Six winds, I feel like I've created a cool measure of the seasons, and with it have enhanced the feeling that our protag is a bit feral and wild. It's a shortie but a goodie, with some custom art anthropomorphizing the faces of the Six Winds.
This is one of the articles I had in mind before SummerCamp even began. I've always enjoyed slimes in various settings, but I feel like their true potential has been passed over except perhaps in the hands of a creative DM playing DnD or in the movie The Blob. To me, the idea of an aggressive, predatory, communal vermin is truly concerning. I think I've really captured their versatility in this article, and would love to know what you think!
One of the major cities of my story, Sunol is based on a real-life location of the same name. I'm proud of this one mostly for the prose at the beginning, which details the painstaking process of getting here.
There's a lot more to add to this article, honestly, but for a first appearance I'm very proud of it. I hope you enjoy learning about the city, and you find the journey there to be as... interesting as my protagonist!
A staple piece of equipment for every Jhoutiaoan, who have to deal with spore clouds covering their cities with some frequency. If you spend too much time in the wilderness without a respirator, you're likely to end up with lungs full of mold, so you better take yours!
To make this article more interesting, I made a nice big table of potential respirators of various qualities. Originally, Oscar had planned to illustrate each, but the time got away from us so now there's a duplicate bust in every slot. Just ignore those, but check out all the cool respirators you can get and tell me which one you pulled!
I honestly didn't expect to do this prompt, but inspiration hit me and I managed to snap this one out with some nice prose.
Congrats on Summer Camp, you two <3
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