Summer Camp Prep 2024

It's almost time for Summer Camp, and I couldn't be more excited. This will be my second Summer Camp event, and last year I managed to get all the prompts, and some of the articles that came from that event proved formative in the setting. This year, I'd like to try and get all of the prompts again. I might have to scramble a bit for it - the first week in July is busy for me - but I'm going to make the attempt.

Summer Camp Prep Homework: Week 1

Assignment 1: Change

The Million Islands is designed for highly episodic roleplaying. Come up to an island, and be immersed in an environment that is very different from all the others you might have visited, including the culture, the language, and even some of the local rules of magic. Taking that into consideration, the most common changes are for the characters when they move from one place to another - almost everything can and does change. And, if all goes well, the players leave change in their wake. So I think I'll try and focus on that element - the changes people leave behind them when they go to a new place. A new person from somewhere else will bring new ideas, new foods, and new challenges - I'll take an approach of seeing how the intermixing of people and cultures alter the status quo.

Assignment 2: Goal

Last year during Summer Camp, I decided to write at least 300 words a day. I stuck to that during the event, and kept it up after. Then I upped my daily writing goal to 325 during WorldEmber, and so far I've been managing to keep the streak going for nearly a year. Writing every day has been good for me, and it's gotten easier to do the longer I've done it. So my goal for this Summer Camp is to stay the course and write at least one article a day, with the overall goal to answer all the prompts and achieve the Diamond level.

Assignment 3: Categories & Tags

I did some work on categories recently that I'm happy with, but I'm really not using the tag system at all. So now's the time to think about it. I've tagged a few articles that were associated with individual challenges, but I'm not clear what would be the best use of tags outside of that. I think I'm going to go research that, and then come up with something to test out on the new Summer Camp articles.

Assignment 4: Meta

Simple enough. I hadn't really looked much at my Meta in over a year, and now I've revised it. It was still mostly accurate - and now it is more so. If you want to check it out, you can find it here: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-million-islands-demongrey/meta

Summer Camp Prep Homework: Week 2

Assignment 1: Refuge

So when I think about Refuge in the world of the Million Islands, I think about the Ring of Light. This is a network of thousands of lighthouses, each the home of a small god and attendant clergy, that share the general goal of helping those who sail the Great Ring find their way. Some focus on the way home, while others look towards other kinds of safe harbor, but they all promise a form of refuge for the wanderer. I've defined a few of the lighthouses and their gods so far, but I can definitely build more of them out during Summer Camp this year!

Assignment 2: Accountabuddity

Well, I've got this one covered in spades. Between my chapter (Articles Anonymous and the Storyteller's Circle Discord run by Myth-X, I have plenty of great people who help me stick to my goal of writing daily.

Assignment 3: Styling

This isn't going to be a focus of mine this summer. I've spent some time getting the world to look like I want it to, and while there's room for improvement it isn't something I have the time for in addition to actually writing. I'm going to come back to that when my life outside of WA is a little less full.

Assignment 4: CSS

Pretty much the same answer as I gave for Styling - not right now. I've been taking mental notes while I read many of the worlds here about the kind of CSS that I like and would want to pursue, but to tackle it now would be biting off more than I can chew.

Summer Camp Prep Homework: Week 3

Assignment 1: Belief

This topic is one that couldn't be a better fit for my world. Last Summer Camp I wrote about the Egregoric Force, a metaphysical law that is all about the power of collective belief to shape the world. It's the origin of my gods, and the foundation for a lot of the world's history. In a very real way, belief is at the core of what makes the Million Islands tick. The specific area I'd like to look at this summer in this area is an expansion of Folk Magic - the way that the beliefs of a community can create a metaphysical environment that empowers everyday rituals with magical power. From the protective dances of the Duffian Foresters to the unusual magic of Kurikum, this is an area that I can expand on almost indefinitely.

Assignment 2: Inspiration Bank

Where do I begin? I'm an obsessive reader, and I'm usually going through 2-3 books a week. I also listen to a lot of podcasts, which gives me more grist for the writing mill. I haven't listened to as much music recently as I would like - that's something I should try to find more time for. There are a couple articles in the world that sprang directly out of songs I was listening to; if I'm struggling to find inspiration during Summer Camp, I'll try and remember that I can kick back with a few tunes to see where they take me.

Assignment 3: Visual Inspiration

Maps are a key part of my iterative inspiration process. I have a good friend (Daernhelm, who is an excellent cartographer and has been building all the maps for this world. In the process, he adds details to what I've written, and I look back at them and bring them into the descriptions. This loop has proven important in the process of making the world what it is, and it will be continuing until there is no more land to be mapped.

Assignment 4: Review your Inspirations

I did this when I went through the Meta for week 1, and I'm still happy with the selections I made there. Of course, what's in the meta only scratches the surface - I spend a lot of time reading about various bits of myth, folklore, history, science, and fiction, all of which find their way into one aspect of the world or another. I keep an eye out for places in the world that fit many of the things I like and find inspiring, and as a result there are fun details scattered all over the world.

Summer Camp Prep Homework: Week 4

Assignment 1: Decay

Oh, this could be interesting. There are many areas of decay that could be explored, but I think I'm going to narrow to two for the moment. One is about ruins and ancient places. There's a bunch of places in the Million Islands where ancient and unexplained ruins hint at something much older than anything the inhabitants understand. Those are literally decayed remnants of something that once was, and is now gone, and I could explore those if the prompts align.

The second area for decay I want to explore is the decay of the eidolon as they are forgotten and fade. The decay of memory itself, if you will. I explore a little bit about this in Death and What Comes After, but this theme could provide inspiration for some specific cases or of memory decay and how that manifests in the Dream.

Assignment 2: Optimize your environment

Limited options here, unfortunately. I do most of my writing in my home office, and I have two small children and a full-time job and a spouse, all of whom want my attention at least some of the time. My spouse is reasonable and helps me find my writing time, but work and kids? Not so much. However, I've gotten pretty good at handling enviromental issues over the last year of writing daily - in fact, I'm writing this in an airport right now, which is...less than optimal, but I'm getting it done.

Assignment 3: Homepage

OK, took a quick run and edit on the homepage. I'll probably want to do that again as I continue editing the world and it evolves, and it's definitely a place where I'll need to do some design work when I undertake learning CSS.

Assignment 4: Author Page

So mine was entirely blank, and now I've added a paragraph about me to it. I'm about to board another plane, so that's going to be all I spend on that for now - I'll get back to it the next time homework comes around to the Author Page.