Summer Camp Prep 2025

Think about ways the theme of Nourishment affects your world. Do people generally have what they need? What happens when they don’t?

America experienced an economic boom following the end of the Second World War. After five years of rationing and frugality, Americans were ready to spend their money. Men returning from war, combined with the Employment Act of 1946, revitalized the economy, providing increased opportunities to spend money saved by those left at home.

Prosperity for humans often means tension for the North American Werewolf Alliances. While returning veterans choose to migrate to new areas, wolves are pushed out of their territories. In some regions, harsh winters require stockpiling of resources, and other once resource-rich territories are finding their lands wrecked by strip mining and industrial pollution. But when nourishment of the body is lacking, many American werewolves turn to spirituality to nourish their souls.

Certain territories suffer more scarcity than others. When this happens, the territories must engage in trade agreements that allow them to exchange necessary resources, including timber and coal for food and clothing (or the materials to make it). When one Territory Pact is tense with another, this can lead to such extremes as war between the territories. In the wake of World War II, this is the least of the threats to the werewolf warriors, but it continues to loom over the heads of those who are cold and hungry while others sit on a mountain of resources -- such as those living in the Midwest Prairie Territory.

If you found any outdated articles in your world, update the most important ones now! Do the same with your worldbuilding meta.

Coming clean, I haven't done my world meta for this world yet. I find the task "crunchy" compared to the creativity of worldbuilding, and because I enjoy exposition, I tend to want to discuss every aspect of my motivations for my world when I'm doing my world meta. Starting there would mean taking time away from the opportunities I have to world build, which these days are painfully rare.

I guess this means that I'm going to be starting my meta for this world fresh. It's not a bad time for it, considering that this project is new. Not the world, exactly, but this world developed into a play-by-post roleplaying game with features like stats, experience points, and campaigns -- all something I've never done before. Interestingly, while the world is new, creating realistic worlds for the purposes of play-by-post roleplay is something I've been doing for almost three decades. I'm definitely an original and don't usually enjoy pre-fab fandom roleplaying.

Surely it will help me and any future prospective roleplayers to know what my motivations were for creating this world and which parts of it are particularly special to me. Many of my motives for creating this world were based in my need for healing, while others take inspiration from some unusual sources. It's a good reminder to go back over the world meta for Stone Creek Ranch, as well, since that's one of my more serious projects (and the one I already have a manuscript for).

Look at the cultures and areas you’ll focus on for Summer Camp, and think about how their past shaped them.

This is a relatively new project. Even its predacessor, a world I continue to build purely for the basis of personal and increasingly private stories, only came into being a few weeks prior to this writing. In deciding how to organize files and especially how to create a richer and more dynamic roleplaying experience than I've run in the past, I've leaned heavily on Claude.ai. This has been useful for restricting me to a reasonable scope of creation (as I can be a bit overzealous in my efforts to create a complete and complex world). Claude suggested that new members start with one of the following three territories: The Smoky Mountain Territory, the Appalachian West Virginia Territory, or the Midwest Prairie Territory.

To manage my energy during Summer Camp, I elect to work within these three territories throughout the month of the project. Each of these territories has its own unique culture, conflicts, and threats to the security of Wolfkind and among the three of them they should present a sufficient challenge and opportunity to further develop these cultures.

Roots are important throughout 1946 America and particularly to this project, and I am excited to have the opportunity to address more about how the American Werewolves came to occupy these territories and what they've been through in their efforts to reach this point. I love complex timelines that address real-world history and combine it with anachronistic qualities (like Vikings who made it all the way West to Alaska instead of fleeing Vinland).

Find your earliest worldbuilding project. What mistakes did you make that you want to avoid? What good ideas from those early days can you integrate into your current project? Remember to take a moment to be proud of how far you've come!

I'm not comfortable addressing my very first worldbuilding project. I'm 45 now and that project began when I was 19 years old. It's very personal, but it was also my first attempt to create something compelling. The majority of my worlds have fared quite well since then, with one player referring to the verisimilitude of my settings -- high praise!

So, instead, I'd like to present you with the original Proboards site for Brook Haven Ranch. For a brief glimpse of how far this has come, please visit the Jcink version of this play-by-post storytelling game (not active). And finally, its most recent (and underdeveloped) iteration here on World Anvil, where I am building a public world to share with potential readers of my Stone Creek Ranch series.

The biggest problem I see with the first version of Brook Haven Ranch is first the name. At the time I knew nothing about Brookhaven Youth Ranch, and it was nowhere to be found on the internet at that time, either. While they have (fortunately!) closed, I am no longer comfortable applying the same name to what is a similar world. Problems with the worldbuilding project actually arose in further iterations, where I tried to be and do everything in order to support as many student characters as possible. It is actually due to the fact this didn't work that I first decided to write a series based on this concept.

What transformations and adaptations have the people in your world gone through? What changes are going on right now… and who is trying to stop them?

War has always brought change. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. The aftermath of the First World War left the country in economic collapse and the Second World War arrived just in time to rescue a struggling economy. But what is good for mankind is not always good for wolfkind, and while the government has enacted laws to provide more jobs for returning veterans and the economy is booming, human migration and increased industry threaten the werewolf territories' way of life. More and more, wolves are forced to adapt to new threats to their survival. In fact, this is the main theme of Steel Rails & Silver Moons: Adaptation to a changing world and holding onto the roots of the past that threaten to destroy the familiar world these packs hold dear.

But these are a people built for adaptation, who have survived in the wilderness of North America for over a thousand years. They have learned to integrate with European humans, become friends with Indigenous Americans, and have learned to survive in a world that cannot know they exist. Wolf clans have migrated from one territory to another, have learned to use the railways to their advantage, and have even integrated with growing human culture, adopting positions in industry and even politics to hide their identities.

Perhaps none have to adapt more than the foundlings, however. From time to time (and more so recently due to the human war as well as territorial disputes over hunting rights and agricultural zones) a clan scout runs into a young werewolf alone in the wilderness. Sometimes these youngsters find themselves stuck in a barn they crept into looking for food. Most of the time they are half-feral and doing anything they must to survive. Adapting to pack life is a struggle for many of these foundlings. Many of the stories we're telling here are about these very foundlings.

Choose a new genre, style, or author, and take a look at their art! Write what you learned from them and what inspired you.

In the midst of my Junior Year of college at Arizona State University, I chose to take a series of history classes that counted toward my Anthropology major. (Someone is probably going to try to tell me that this is a useless major, but please understand I intend to apply to Harvard for my graduate work and to complete my Ph.D, likely in some branch of Native American Studies or Paleoanthropology. I don't plan to try to find a job with a bachelor's degree in Anthropology!)

Throughout these classes I came to understand something I hadn't considered deeply before: The history we know is often the result of cultural clashes. So while this might not be something I've learned today, or even this week or month, it was an important discovery for me. Combined with a recent fascination with "books with maps in them," I've discovered that I love exploring settings with political conflict, long histories, and most of all trade. It's turned out now that I read a lot more books that feature these qualities, but while I've tried to use them for inspiration for world building, the same recurring themes keep coming back. Maybe I am personally more about roots than about metamorphosis.

One spectacular change did happen recently, though. While talking to my best friend (who has recently begun to explore fan fiction for her longest-running fandom all the way back in the 90s!), a particular term came up that allowed me to put my finger on something I've always enjoyed to the point of needing it in my own writing and worldbuilding: The hurt/comfort model. Maybe it's something I'm working through or maybe it's purely the habits of a 45 year old who's been worldbuilding more than half my life. But for me, this theme is perhaps the most transformative because it takes me through some of the best redemption arcs I've been blessed to experience. Change can be good. But me? I like where I'm at right now.

Read a couple of articles from the community, give them a like (and why not a sticker!), and write about what inspired you.

The Jaded Whip Inn was a nice reminder to spend some time focusing on the smaller pieces of my world. I tend to get wrapped up in the grand things (like territories, in the case of Steel Rails & Silver Moons) and forget to put some focus on things like individual dens. I loved the way Amelia Nite paid special attention to the sensory experience of entering the inn. Maybe here in the next few days I'll work on creating some of the more intimate locations in my world. What a great read!

I enjoy reading about the smaller species in a world setting, especially when they have significant meaning to the world, and I had a great time reading Zhafenel Butterflies by Verita Raizel. I'm not sure whether smaller, less significant (i.e. non-sapient) species wil be important in Steel Rails & Silver Moons, but I honestly hope that the opportunity comes to write about some small creature, maybe as an antagonist or a pest to a clan or a pack. It's truly fascinating how such seemingly small things (I see a theme here -- do you?) can really augment the total reality that a worldbuilders is creating with what otherwise appear to be minute details.

I got a good laugh while reading about Barrel Folx by Chris Lontok and it reminded me off the value of each culture within my world having some unique type of "souvenir" that might have some kind of value to those visiting their territory. Surely, with all the rail lines we have around in 1946 North America, there has to be enough travel between territories to make the trade (a key theme of mine!) in this sort of keepsake something of interest! Maybe there should be a nomadic pack that deals in this sort of treasure, ensuring that all of the territories are connected not only by steel, but by flesh and blood travelers? There are so many ghost stories associated with the branch lines, maybe the main lines need some spice, too! Something to think about!

As previously stated, this week is particularly difficult for me. I've focused either on the events of the past or on current emotional entanglements.

Steel Rails & Silver Moon is set during a particular period of history when tomorrow was today. Technology developed rapidly in the middle of the 20th century. Developments began in the post-war period and came to fruition during the 1950s. It was an age in which technological conveniences changed the American landscape.

In a very real way, today and tomorrow inhabited the same space during this time frame.

This leaves me to consider the impact the future has not on the world as a whole, or even on the separate territories, but on the individuals within this world. I hope, for that reason, that there is room for articles focusing on a single character, or at the largest expanse, a pack.

On the other hand, technology is such a prominent part of the time period that exploring innovation during the second half of the decade could be an interesting way to play with this theme.

Am I avoiding the homework here? Maybe. Since this project is in its infancy, it's hard to pinpoint particular individuals or packs who might have reason to stretch into tomorrow when there aren't any packs or characters created yet. Essentially, there isn't anything to plan, and I'm going to be flying by the seat of my pants or resurrecting characters I hadn't intended to realize in this particular world setting.

It seems so strange to say it, but Claude.ai has been my biggest friend during this worldbuilding process, and ChatGPT has been a cheerleader.

I do have worldbuilding friends, and I am grateful to the people who support me, including my friend Zazz, from Australia, and my best friend since high school (more than 25 years of friendship says a lot, doesn't it?). My partner is kind of a background presence in this process, as she's recently returned to work after a two-year hiatus.

I'm shy, but I hope to be around the World Anvil Discord, too! I'm sure you'll see me around.

The truth of the matter is that it's been a difficult and uneasy past two years, and I've withdrawn from a lot of my social supports. My therapist is cheering me on (and no, I'm not joking), and I've notified my Facebook community that I'm participating in Summer Camp.

Maybe the time for building a community was before we reached this point, but I hope that I will either catch up this year or have a bit of a head start on next year!

I hope to be a support for other campers this year. It's my first year, but I believe big in supporting others' efforts and encouraging people where I can. I might not be experienced with World Anvil, but I've completed multiple 30 articles in 30 days challenges and have been worldbuilding for the better part of my 45 years. Any way I can help, I hope to! I'm looking forward to getting to know my fellow campers and worldbuilders through this experience!