Summer Camp 2025
Hello, world!
This year, rather than aiming for diamond or even copper, my goal is to participate. That could mean one prompt or it could mean all of the prompts. I'd love to get a shiny badge but I will be content if I can begin to put myself out there again.
scary good thing about reviewing old articles while refreshing my meta, I realized that certain articles contained completely different content that I previously believed. I'm glad I figured that out now!
I didn't complete the novel, but I did have an extensive PowerPoint with slides on characters, theme & imagery, plot beats, backstory, etc. And yes, there were many hyperlinks between slides because I was that kind of nerd. Not the best at school, but when I dove into things, I dove into them. At the time, that PowerPoint was just a guide. "World-building" wasn't even a concept to me. I'm sure I was world-building when I'd play fantasy games as a kid be it dressing up as witches or playing with Barbies or Bratz dolls, but I think that PowerPoint was the first time I wrote any of the worldbuilding down. Here are my thoughts from what I can remember:
While I doubt I'll ever finish that novel, I remember absolutely nerding out over the PowerPoint.
Clean, Clear, and Prep Desk
Clean, Clear, and Prep Dining/Gaming Table
Clean, Clear, and Prep Living Area Worldbuilding Resources
Gather Resources
Gather, Organize, and Consolidate my Old Tarantellia Notes (physical documents from Pre-WA days) Stub Collection
See Sidebar
On Discord ( Active on Discord, working on it)
Friends & Family actively ask me about Summer Camp. I've had a few people interested in joining but none have had enough time to make it happen yet. Maybe soon?
On a few Anvilite's Discord Servers ( Still struggling to put myself out there)
To achieve my goal, I need to show myself what I can do. But after years of running headfirst into a wall, I need to approach my goals more gently this year. It's not about a number, it's about effort. It's about taking a step and then another. I hesitate to call it accountability. I used to think of life as "do or do not, there is no try." I literally made a poster for my wall that said, "suck it up, go and do" when I was a kid. I was incredibly productive and built myself up into someone who was hyper-independent and reliable. Decades later, I struggle to exist. All I can say to that is 'life is weird.' But I still wake up and I still try. And I will keep trying until I physically am incapable of it. It's not about getting there today. It's about setting myself up for tomorrow. I'd love to finish summer camp. I'd love to be active and joyous in existence. For today, I will probably just keep my head down and take a few more steps. If you read this far, thank you for being here. I didn't set out to write a tome for my Summer Camp Prep, but here we are. Merry Summer Camp!
The Brain Board
So, I've reached my "1 Prompt" goal with Acque Morte.. I don't know if I'll complete enough to receive a badge. But I went ahead and made a mind map of all of the prompts and what I'd write about given enough time and bandwidth. Here's a lil peak. Rather than just focusing on one writing topic, I spread them out. 17 prompts for Priscilla's Potent Pastries, 12 prompts for La Chiave a Croce's heavy hitters, 4 prompts for the thought to be extinct Leaflings, 3 prompts for Vivace - the town known for painting, recuperation, and preparation, and 3 other prompts that fit into all and none of the other categories.Loading Summer Camp 2025 Whiteboard...
Week 1 : Nourishment
This Week's Theme & Assignment 1
In some places, like the port city of La Chiave a Croce, people have what they need. Their major concerns arise during environmental disasters or seasonal famines. That said, these occurrences affect people living in the outskirts of the city, more so than the city itself. Anyone who has aligned themselves with a guild or a major family in the city have more resources during the periods of lack. However, communities deeper in the wilderness have struggled to find balance since the Magic Implosion. The most dramatic case is Grimgate. The residents require assistance from external organizations to rebuild their homes, year after year.Renourish Your Motivations & Assignment 2
Tarantellia is my dearest world. When I run my Pathfinder campaigns, I run in Tarantellia. When I think about future stories I'd like to write, I think about how they relate to Tarantellia, even if the characters exist on another plane of existence. While I have other worlds that I'd love to create, Tarantellia is my "welcome home."
There are so many stubs and random ideas floating around in my head within Tarantellia and the Claw Continent, that I doubt I'll go far out from that space this summer camp.
Revisit Your World & Assignment 3
Welp, I went through my meta and gave the Drama section some much needed TLC. I'd still like to review my featured articles and any articles (completed and otherwise) related to nourishment on the Claw Continent. OneWeek 2: Roots
Roots: Mythology, Cosmology, Etymology, Ancestries, Plants
This Week's Theme & Assignment 1
Tarantellia has multiple types of ancestries and cultures informed by genetics and society, but also by a dash of magic. The standard ancestries more or less follow the Pathfinder 2e Remaster. Those ancestries don't have a historical component like the following.Forgotten Ancestries
These people explored the conflict between the deities on a continental scale, eventually wiping each other out. Their fanaticism, however, has left echoes in the minds of present-day Tarants.Dying Cultures
Peoples in this category have lived through perpetual tragedies while others stabilize and flourish.- Leaflings
- Grimmers
Isolated and Growing Societies
Both societies rely or have relied on secrecy for survival.Review Your Setting's Roots & Assignment 2
After reviewing articles during Week 1, I realized that I had misremembered a few things about what I had previously written in my world. Fortunately, I'm planning a complete overhaul. Starting with the homepage and campaign primer.Homepage
- Update Introduction Text (I may revist this text again soon. It's maybe too narrow for the world as a whole? We'll see!)
- Add E-mail Newsletter Sign-Up
- Streamline Featured Articles
- Remove Discussion Board, Timelines, & Maps
- Add Self-Assigned Roles
- Replaced Map Image, added drops to background
- Updated CSS for text legibility with my new ash lights (AKA, the drops)
- Added Current Projects in Tarantellia to the Homepage
Campaign Primer
This task is on the backburner since I'm not currently running a game. But I'd still like to complete it for future Lauren.- Choose 1 Primer: 2021 Circle of Worldbuilders or Campaign Primer
- Consolidate Primers & Update Information
- Decide on what's necessary to keep
- Base on needs for Parties the first, second, and thyme
Back to Your Roots & Assignment 3
In high school, I started writing a very-Mary-Sue romance novel. The main character was so dedicated to her studies that she didn't see the boy of her dreams who was right there all along.I didn't complete the novel, but I did have an extensive PowerPoint with slides on characters, theme & imagery, plot beats, backstory, etc. And yes, there were many hyperlinks between slides because I was that kind of nerd. Not the best at school, but when I dove into things, I dove into them. At the time, that PowerPoint was just a guide. "World-building" wasn't even a concept to me. I'm sure I was world-building when I'd play fantasy games as a kid be it dressing up as witches or playing with Barbies or Bratz dolls, but I think that PowerPoint was the first time I wrote any of the worldbuilding down. Here are my thoughts from what I can remember:
Mistakes to Avoid
- Leaned heavily into tropes (without transformation)
- Shared my work with the wrong people
- Rigid in my thoughts on writing
Good Ideas to Integrate
- Honed focus
- Created for the journey and love of writing
- Wrote with reckless abandon
Week 3: Metamorphosis
This Week's Theme & Assignment 1
Of the persisting peoples in Tarantellia, here's a breakdown of the adaptations and origins of change.Shaking Things Up & Assignment 2
While my obsession with c-dramas is less than a year old, I'd like to truly pivot for my inspirations in this assignment.Brainstorm of Ideas to "Shake Things Up"
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Ask my partner to pick out a new-to-me board game for game night.
Ticket to Ride - Interesting game! And fun to boot. Both San Francisco and Amsterdam had different aesthetics. My biggest takeaway, there's many ways to get from point A to B: when faced with a roadblock, try to find an alternate route. -
Read through a new-to-me RPG from his collection.
Numenera - This game fell off my radar over the past few years. Reviewing was Player's Guide gave me a lot to mull over, particularly how they deal with magic items. (Artifacts - multiuse, Cyphers - single use, & Oddities - curious functions but no clear magical uses).
Darwin's World - I enjoyed how they covered occupations, mutations & defects, medicines, & diseases. I was not particularly interested in the weapons, military hardware, or vehicles, but it could be useful for any war related prompts! -
Watch a sport that's not F1.
WNBA - I joined my partner in watching a number of WNBA games this week. The intensity levels in each of the games varied depending on the referees and the overall sports(wo)manship between the teams. It's fascinating to see the ways different teams dealt with Caitlin Clark's skills on the court...and how much aggression people thought they could get away with expressing. As someone who hasn't played basketball in over a decade, I found myself thinking it was overly excessive. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. -
Research artists outside my typical sphere
Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters, documentary - My normal art inspiration involves art nouveau, watercolor, or realism. Mike Mignola's art style is raw and evocative. Minimal linework and heavy contrast. While his art style wouldn't work with Tarantellia's overall vibe, I love how he cuts out the background and streamlines his art into what's most important. - Read some of the 10's of Webtoons my friend recommended to me last week!
- Read some books from my TBR that are outside of fantasy, romantasy, cozy fantasy, and memoirs.
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Listen to some new music. Maybe something more current than the 00s and 10s that's not a musical.
Old Habits - Ended up listening to 70's rock, 80's pop, and c-drama instrumentals. C'est la vie! -
Create a pinterest board with some of these new inspirations
I have too many boards on pinterest but I am happy to have a list of things that I've tried this week!
Learning from other Worldbuilders & Assignment 3
This list of articles grew and shrank a lot during the week but I finally narrowed it down. Each of the spoiler tags has 1-3 articles. The first two spoilers are organized by article type. The remaining spoilers are all by the same author. Each of these articles gave me a different reason to want to return to them. I hope you find them as inspiring as I did!Awesome Page Thanking and Highlighting Fans of Solaris
Having a dedication page along these lines is such a great idea! I love that it includes Fanart, a bit about Cameos, Comments, and Ko-Fi Supporters. The comments section is actually how I found a few other articles by Annie Stein that I'm including in this list.
Cool Uses for Subscriber Groups
In the following three articles, there are some pretty cool techniques using what I think are subscriber groups. The first article, by TJ Trewin, I will admit, I've seen previously. But it's such a cool technique. Essentially, there are little breadcrumbs throughout the world that allow readers to collect stickers. These stickers show up only on the associated user's account.
Similarly, in an article that is very much new to me, Mochi does this on a much larger scale. With this system, users can tell where in the Yonderverse they have found world easter eggs. It's compelling and I'm sure it excites readers to fall down the rabbit hole. I was so excited when I found my first stamp!
While researching CSS sidebar tweaks, I found this beaut! Similar to TJ and Mochi, Stormbril put together this awesome chest. I am about to fall down a rabbit hole in Cathedris. Decided to throw this article here in the meantime.
The final use-case takes a hard turn into character creation. I love the way Rin Garnett put together this character sheet. What a great way to share secrets with your readers! It's so engaging. I've yet to click the buttons because I have a bad case of "butwhatifichangemymindandpickthewrongthing" which, in complete transparency, is absolute silliness on my part. One feature with subscriber groups is that you can change them as needed, so there is no "wrong" choice. Perhaps that will be a challenge to myself this week!
A cute critter & an otherworldly archivist
So, you know how I mentioned Annie Stein has a comment section on the Awesome Page from above? Both of these articles were found there. CSS aside, I absolutely adore the artwork and templates on Solaris. That said, I picked these two articles for how they enchanted me. The mot are adorable and I want to make sure every single one has a loving home.
Next, I felt it necessary to include the Strobed Men. They have this creepy angels meets an avatar of the Eye in The Magnus Archives vibe and I'm here for it. I don't know what was the original inspiration for these entities, but I'm glad it exists. So many cool things happen at the intersection of passion and experiences. Both the mot and strobed men remind me of that.
It's a bird, it's a plane, (gasp) it's a military conflict!
So, I can't say that I'm "known" as someone who dislikes writing about military conflicts. But will admit that I definitely struggle with it. It feels like my brain shuts down as soon as that kind of topic comes up. I have to actively push myself forward into wide-scale conflict. I'm much happier in the "follow a single person" side of stories.
This article by Kerry held my interest from start to finish. Even though it followed that 'wide-scale conflict' that I mentioned earlier, it felt accessible in a way that would have made me enjoy history to the point of leaning into it with curiosity. For that, I say, "Bravo!" If anyone is needs a spark for how to write a military conflict, I highly recommend this article!
A little Apple Tree Summer Camp before WA's Summer Camp!
So, this next article pulled me in from the banner image. I had no idea banners could be gifs, too! I love the interactivity of this article. Lexi Con (WordiGirl) did an excellent job writing, organizing, and designing this page. You can tell how much passion goes into Wordigirl's articles.
A bit of Tea with your Craft
I love tea and I love witches. This article is *chefs kiss*. From the tea trade, to the drinking ceremony, to the way tea influences (and is influenced by) witchcraft, this article reads like Hatwolf thought of everything. I particularly enjoyed the bit about pet mimics used as walking teapots. It's such a fun idea.
What kind of Psionic Disciple are you?
We're going back to Wow That's a Lot of Stars by Rin Garnett for a moment. I've been trying to come up with creative uses for the Document template for a while now and have been more or less stumped. This article is fantastic. It's easy to read, interactive, and I had fun figuring out both my partner's and my own psionic abilities. My person is a mix between a Telepath and Telekinetic, but it's Metapsion and Biopsion for me! I like to think that means we balance each other out pretty well.
For any academic who has felt eaten alive by their education
I would be bananas if I didn't include a new-to-me article by the CSS wizard, Stormbril. Upon first skim, I will admit, I included this article in my "short list" (seeing how many articles I'm writing about there was nothing short about it but you get the picture.) because of the dice. You click on the number "rolled" and the space beside it provides information on a different faculty member at the school. It's brilliant.
Then, I read the article and goodness gracious, what an article! I am fascinated and terrified of this school. I just know that if I existed in that world and were 15 years younger, I would have fought tooth and nail to get into that academy...and would have been sacrificed to some experiment when my time there was done. It would have been a sad time to go, but science!
Then, I read the article and goodness gracious, what an article! I am fascinated and terrified of this school. I just know that if I existed in that world and were 15 years younger, I would have fought tooth and nail to get into that academy...and would have been sacrificed to some experiment when my time there was done. It would have been a sad time to go, but science!
One Beautiful World, Two Beautifully Written Articles
Another pair of absolutely stunning articles! These two were brought to us by Imagica, also known as Make lore, not war. The corals of Miraela’s Dream are a material in the world that is highly sought after. While certain organizations are respectful of the ecosystem, there are those who overharvest and sell whatever they can get on the Black Market.
The other article I selected is, I think, a Cameo article for another WA world. This story could be a fairy tale but it almost reminds me of a story you could tell around a campfire. Watching the flames dance and imagining the fire burning within Zeyra. It's that flame that brought her back to truest self.
A Beautiful Homepage
For my last article, I'm just putting a new-to-me world on the list. I love this homepage. It looks amazing, is well-organized, and the CSS is just incredible. I think the part that most surprised me was the article list section. It looks like headlines in a newspaper. It just looks so inspiring. I also really liked that when you scrolled down far enough, Zev Chafer included a section for world updates and its current status.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to do an article block for a homepage, so, here's a link to Àyrngáer!
Week 4: Tomorrow
This Week's Theme & Assignment 1
Artifact Acquisition has been monopolized by the Den of Papyrus and Weaver's Guild in recent years. By and large, people believe that these artifacts are the key to getting portals back on the Claw Continent, a prize for the wealthy, or a boon for the foolish. To that end, the four major families in La Chiave a Croce are actively working towards creating, repairing, or otherwise replacing portals like those previously destroyed in Grimgate. Leaflings try to strike the balance between going where they are needed and avoiding major fluctuations in magic energy. To many, they either inspire peace or leave devastation in their wake. But what do the Leaflings see in the dawn of tomorrow? The Children of Life and Death believe that Basi - or at least their avatar - will return to Tarantellia in the next century.Plan Ahead & Assignment 2
Writing Schedule Because of the necessary fluctuations to my days, I don't have a set time of day to write. Instead, I'm going to share my plans for different writing schedules depending on the requirements of the day. Writing SpacesClean, Clear, and Prep Desk
Clean, Clear, and Prep Dining/Gaming Table
Clean, Clear, and Prep Living Area Worldbuilding Resources
Gather Resources
Gather, Organize, and Consolidate my Old Tarantellia Notes (physical documents from Pre-WA days) Stub Collection
See Sidebar
Community & Assignment 3
On Discord ( Active on Discord, working on it)
Friends & Family actively ask me about Summer Camp. I've had a few people interested in joining but none have had enough time to make it happen yet. Maybe soon?
On a few Anvilite's Discord Servers ( Still struggling to put myself out there)
To achieve my goal, I need to show myself what I can do. But after years of running headfirst into a wall, I need to approach my goals more gently this year. It's not about a number, it's about effort. It's about taking a step and then another. I hesitate to call it accountability. I used to think of life as "do or do not, there is no try." I literally made a poster for my wall that said, "suck it up, go and do" when I was a kid. I was incredibly productive and built myself up into someone who was hyper-independent and reliable. Decades later, I struggle to exist. All I can say to that is 'life is weird.' But I still wake up and I still try. And I will keep trying until I physically am incapable of it. It's not about getting there today. It's about setting myself up for tomorrow. I'd love to finish summer camp. I'd love to be active and joyous in existence. For today, I will probably just keep my head down and take a few more steps. If you read this far, thank you for being here. I didn't set out to write a tome for my Summer Camp Prep, but here we are. Merry Summer Camp!
Pending Homework Assignments
Update Tarantellia's PrimersUpdate a few outdated Articles
Things I'd like to Do before Summer Camp
Figure out how to get the sidebar scrolling (and looking good)Consider Artwork (old and new) Here's my Pinterest Inspiration Board for this summer.
Table of Contents
Stub Collection
Placeholder Images
Images created for SC 2023
Artboard 1.png
Artboard 2.png
Hero Portraits 1.png
Hero Portraits 2.png
Hero Portraits 3.png
Map2.png
Map3.png
Map4.png
Placeholder Art
Best of luck for your Summer Camp! And have fun :)
Thank you so much! That's the goal. Summer Camps past have been so much fun, even when I didn't complete the articles, the prompts always left me feeling inspired. Good luck on your first Summer Camp! And thanks again for the kind words. <3
Thank you so much for mentioning my articles in your homework, especially next to some of the most amazing creators of WA!! You put a smile one my face :)
Happy to pass along a smile today. ^_^ Thanks for the inspiration!