Summer Camp 2025 Reading Challenge

It's been another productive and exhilarating Summer Camp for me! I was able to use the prompts to flesh out some of my oldest stubs, including the big bad from my oldest recorded campaign! They were in the first iterations of my website when it was on GeoCities and when I built it with MicroSoft FrontPage!

I got to flesh out characters, technologies, and battles from my most recent campaigns. Best of all, one of my players/co-DMs finally started fleshing out his world Karos that I've been playing in since 2020! I'm super happy to have an IRL friend embracing World Anvil to this extent!

Best of all are the happy spontaneous creations inspired by the prompts. I'm happiest with Dula-dulas and Axolotl Extraction, which both came from community comments after I'd mentioned axolotl-folk in one of my settlement articles. They are now a thing in my world and I ended up making them into a playable 5.5E race!

Summer Camp 2025 Hub
Generic article | Nov 2, 2025

My Summer Camp 2025

Reading Challenge

For a change, I'm not rushing through my reading challenge and shortlist, so I'm going to separate them this year! I'll be judging the prompt " A substance known for its unique smell" Let's start with some articles that I loved from this Summer Camp.

The Birth of Anselm

I'm starting with an article from my IRL friend wraithgard565. I'm picking this article for selfish reasons, since this is lore that I came up with my character's religion in his game. It's cool to see it filtered through the lens of another writer!

Shared Brain

Another one from another good friend, eccbooks. He and I often joke that we share the same brain cell and this mad genius went ahead and wrote an article about it!

Mah'hbum Cave

Barron is one of the most popular worldbuilders on World Anvil and a favorite of mine. Here he's describing a dark stinky place with a too appropriate name. Lots of fun to be had here in the wacky world of Ethnis.

Sea Scamp

Another perennial favorite and friend, strixxline can always be counted on for cute creatures and wonderful art. They don't disapoint with this article about seagull analogues. As a native Floridian, I of course hate them. (But it's a great article.)

Bonfire Night

A cozy and comfy article by one of my favorite comfy writers, Serukis. I particularly like the bit where it's also a ritual to protect the vulnerable from evil spirits in the cold of winter. That's a nice little detail.

Soul Cage

One of my favorite newer writers on World Anvil is , and they've put together some horrifying thoughts that would fit well into my own worldbuilding. What is there to do if death means your soul can be corrupted and your body becomes undead? When death isn't an escape, all you can do is trap your spirit in a cage of ribs.

The Eldritch Moon

Demongrey has a fun article here about one of my favorite subjects, weird alternate moons that just show up randomly! I have a couple of these in my world and this is a fun take on the concept.

Coco the One-Toothed Wonder

You go into this article by Rin/Those2Nerds with the content warning helpfully on the top letting you know that there are feels incoming. You steel yourself against said feels, but then, like "Up" you realize that you've experienced a life in the span of a few minutes. You're sad, but happy to have felt the feelings. Go read it.

The Radfrijan

You can always count on Hanhula to deliver interesting multi-layered articles with more going on underneath the surface than you realize at first. I really enjoyed peeling back the layers of the onion on this article.

Yonderhythm Song Contest

I had a hard time picking from Mochi's oeuvre of articles this year, but this one is clever, fun, and beautifully decorated, much like Mochi themselves! There's a reason that they won "Best Worldbuilder" a few years back, and this article is a wonderful reminder.

 


Cover image: Summer Camp 2025 Hub Header by Chris L

Comments

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Aug 6, 2025 15:59 by Han

aaa thank you for including my Mother-Maidens! They were an absolute blast to write. I've been looking forward to catching up on your works too - the dula-dulas sent my partner on a whole 5e rant because he adored them and it got him on a roll x)


welcome to my signature! check out istralar!
Aug 7, 2025 13:49 by Chris L

Thank you! I'm glad you liked them. I am of course going to come up with some ancestral feats and a few more goodies for them. Keep your eyes peeled!

Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!

Aug 6, 2025 16:14 by E. Christopher Clark

“ooh,” says the mad genius, who is apparently also a pirate this morning, “these be some tasty articles, matey.”

Aug 7, 2025 13:50 by Chris L

"Ayyyyy, delicious trets for thee and meeee!"

Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!

Aug 6, 2025 16:18 by Imagica

Thank you so much for including o e of my articles in such an incredible list of creators!! I am very glad you liked my creepy tech :) Congratulations for the shiny too, you wrote some awesome things this month <3

Worldember is finally here!! Here is my pledge!
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Come visit my world of Kena'an for tales of fantasy and magic! Or, if you fancy something darker, Crux Umbra awaits.
Aug 7, 2025 14:20 by Chris L

I liked it AND it was creepy, so bonus points!

Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!

Aug 6, 2025 20:37 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

Aw, thank you for including my article. Some great other choicese here! <3 Glad you had a great Summer Camp.

Emy x
Explore Etrea | WorldEmber 2025
Aug 7, 2025 14:20 by Chris L

You're welcome and congrats on your Summer Camp!

Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!

Aug 7, 2025 09:22

Thanks for including the Eldritch Moon! I’m glad you liked it!

Come see my worlds: The Million Islands, High Albion, and Arborea
Aug 7, 2025 14:21 by Chris L

You're welcome. I enjoyed the vibes of it so much!

Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!

Aug 7, 2025 19:38 by Mochi

AAAA thank you so much for featuring Yonderhythm!! I'm so flattered, you said such nice things aaaaaa   I am so excited to dive into all of your entries for my reading challenge! <3

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I hope you have a great day!   Explore the endless planets brimming with life of the Yonderverse! Go after creatures, discover new places, and learn about the people you find along the way. While you're at it, come visit the A to Zoo, the Yonderverse's largest zoo!   Come prep for WorldEmber with me!
Aug 7, 2025 19:54 by Chris L

It was so much fun!!

Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!

Aug 9, 2025 15:25 by Rin Garnett

Great job knocking out some of those old articles! I've found it hard to go back to those articles after just five years, I can only imagine what it's like when a tad bit more than five years has passed.   Thank you for the feature, as well. I'm glad to be able to share some Coco love ❤

⭐ Cause problems in wow that's a lot of stars
✏️ Add yourself to the World of Worlds
Aug 9, 2025 16:49 by Chris L

You're welcome! It was your reward for having the audacity to make me feel feelings. (I love it when writers make me feel things, so it's ok.)

Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!

Aug 21, 2025 03:48 by Asmod

Keep on keeping on

Aug 21, 2025 14:42 by Chris L

I shall!

Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak. Visit my Worldember 2025 Hub as I work on 50,000 words in December!

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