Summercamp 2025 Pledge

Camp Chill

As every year, I claim to be relaxing. I will gently stroll towards my goal of Silver, relaxing all the while. No burnout. Burnout is illegal, and punishable by cuddles and validation.   ... And then after I reach Silver, I probably will go feral and aim for 100% completion...  

Lance Breaker

  My primary setting this year will be revisiting my scifantasy setting Lance Breaker. I want to prep this setting enough to write on it during Novelember. So it's time to reacquaint myself with planet Ymir and its its tension between utopia and dystopia, where many parties are trying to walk a tightrope to keep control without being oppressive. A hard balance to keep. And there enters Valya.    

The Valley of Plenty

I already started GMing my PF2 Valley of Plenty setting, so all I really have to do there is catch up on the session logs and maps. But maybe there will be a fun prompt or two to fit in there.    

Week 1: Nourishment

With Lance Breaker, food is important. Sure, there is enough optimised production, but eventually non-factory production must be an option. Homesteaders try to make a self-sufficient living, serving as guinea pigs on what works and what doesn't. So it will be fun to put some focus there, especially with Valya's relations to several Homesteaders out there.   As for the Valley, food is needed as it is only a matter of time before supplies run out and the eastern nobles stop providing any. Before then, the valley must stand on its own, not just for its current residents, but also their families awaiting the all-clear.  

Homework

As before, I am setting a modest goal of Silver, aiming for 16 out of 40 prompts. A doable goal if life gets in the way, but also with enough room to go feral and chase higher goals if things go well. Let's face it: If I manage, I definitely will go feral near the end. But thanks to staying chill and holding to my schedule, I can afford to.   As for categories, tags, and meta: With Lance Breaker, I will probably reorganise the categorization. It would be fun to explicitly distinguish between the various sources of articles, from classified army intel to publicly shared tutorials.  

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Week 3: Metamorphosis

The obvious bit here for Lance Breaker is Valya herself. Now taking the superserum, she is growing into her new powers, trying to control them, as well as herself and the ticking voice in the back of her mind. But the entire society is also changing. Some for the worse, like those rebelling against the military society, or those that feel the army should seize control rather than slowly give it away to the civil government. And some, like the Homesteaders, ever for the better.   Meanwhile, the Valley is changing with the day. More hidden threats but also riches are discovered all the time. The people are learning how to fend for themselves, a skill absolutely needed with the ever-growing threats. At this point, they have yet to realise what they're really in for...  

Homework

My time is extremely limited, unfortunately, so I won't be able to spend a lot of time reading people's work. That said, I did read a bunch of books during my long vacation a few months ago. Back then I already thought of three new settings based on those experiences, but I might be able to fit some of that into Lance Breaker. Including a bit more focus on the secret romance.   But there also was the politics, and some scifi writing that quite frankly disappointed me in the way that writer treated the women vs the men. I need to learn from that. Valya is a badass, but she is way more than that. I need to really get that into my writing.

Week 2: Roots

There are three different cultures that matter greatly for the story of Lance Breaker. The military is focusing on protection, with different opinions on how best to handle that. They have seen the struggles and the opposition, which is why some are starting to radicalise towards wanting to apply more force.   The Battle Spears are focused purely on protecting their wards, the scientists. They came from the people, and they feel that scientific understanding of the planet is what is needed to improve life for all. And then there's the Homesteaders, flying free as they did on Earth, but welcoming and supportive to their own.  

Homework

Honestly, I feel like I don't have enough in Lance Breaker yet to properly style its homepage. The story primer there will do. And maybe I need to work on the css a bit.   As for my earliest worldbuilding project, when I wrote a few stories ages ago, I had zero worldbuilding in advance. That really is where I went wrong, not planning things in advance. Then again, pantsing it can be nice for stories. But there needs to be enough of a foundation to support it.  

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Week 4: Tomorrow

Homework

I cleaned my desk recently, including a nice soda+tea table next to me. So I got all prepped for Summercamp. Good thing too, because my laptop broke so I can no longer write in the train. That used to have me produce 4~8 prompts a week just during the commute of two office days...   Instead, I'll use train-time to write in a notebook for Shadowrun, while I'll have to use my evenings well for writing... Gonna have to make sure to not get stuck in a procrastination loop. My solution? Bribe myself. For every prompt I write, I'm allowed to type in 1 Shadowrun scene. And vice versa. I can procrastinate on my writing with my writing.  

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The Battle Spears help scientists explore Ymir, validating theories and building a better future. At the same time, their very existence is used by two opposing parties as an argument into how the world should be run. Should they serve the military, or should their abilities be shared with the people? Who gets to rule this world? Tomorrow may turn out way different than planned all those years ago back on Earth.   And ah, my Valley of Plenty... From birds of prey to wolves, from a rising undead threat to all kinds of corruption sneaking up on the people... Fear is growing, worry is escalating, but even then the people are doing their best to hang in there. Despite the growing threats, they still think past tomorrow.