World Anvil is an online platform for worldbuilding, GMing, and writing. (In our opinion, it’s the best!)
But World Anvil has a fantastic community around it: the World Anvil community. We (that’s Janet and Dimitris, the founders and creators of World Anvil) have done everything we can to support and grow it into a lovely space for creatives (and nerds) like us.
For reference, an “Anvilite” is a member of the World Anvil community. Which probably means YOU are an Anvilite, too!
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How can the World Anvil community help me?
The World Anvil community is a large group of active users of the World Anvil platform who help and support each other: both creatively, and with using the World Anvil platform.
That support comes in a variety of ways:
- Technical support
- Challenges and Competitions to grow your skills and have fun
- Providing new ideas for using World Anvil
- Helpful Critique and Feedback to improve your work
- Camaraderie, Friendship, and Emotional Support
Technical support
World Anvil is a powerful and robust tool set, and newcomers can find themselves looking for help with some corners of the platform.
As well as our Learn section (which you’re in right now!), hopping into the community to ask for clarification from fellow users is a great way to quickly get the help you need to continue, worldbuilding, writing, or building your campaign setting.
The best place to ask for help is the #help channel on our Discord. If you’re not a fan of Discord, try our Reddit.
Challenges and Competitions
As I mentioned, we do everything we can to support our community and help it thrive! One way we do that is by running Worldbuilding Challenges and Competitions throughout the year. These are designed to be fun, but also help you grow as a worldbuilder. They're also a great way to get involved with the community, and get new eyes on your work!
Why participate in challenges and competitions?
- They’re really fun!
- You get to share and discuss a common goal with the community
- They’re a great way to grow & develop your skills
- If you’re not sure what to work on next, they can help you focus
- You can win amazing prizes (including - and I’m not joking - actual CRUISES!)
Topics for Challenges vary from month to month, but our two biggest challenges - WorldEmber and Summer Camp - happen every year. You can see all of our past and current challenges here.
Like the idea of competitions? You’ll need to engage Competitor Mode in order to rank in competitions and win prizes!
New ideas for using World Anvil
We built World Anvil to give you creative freedom - after all, you’re a creative!
Our community is constantly coming up with amazing new ways to use the pre-existing tools. They’re a constant wealth of inspiration for getting the best out of the World Anvil platform.
Great places to find new and advanced ways to use World Anvil are:
- The Best of World Anvil pages
- The daily featured articles on the website
- The #showcase channel on Discord
- The World Anvil newsletter - we love sharing your amazing work too!
- Past World Anvil challenge and competition submissions
- This Learn Section and our Blog!
Helpful Critique and Feedback
Most of us have a drive to be better. One of the best ways to achieve that is through constructive feedback and critique.
A simple way to get feedback is to ask for it right on your article! Use the Author’s Notes section at the bottom of your article to request feedback in the comments section. (You can find that in the Full Edit interface, under the “Sections” tab.)
Another great way to get feedback is to share your work with the community. Wherever you share your work, remember to 1) state that you are looking for feedback and 2) if possible, state one or two specific areas you’re looking to improve.
Here are some good places to share your work:
- Sage Tier Exclusive: get feedback from the founders of World Anvil! You can do this on the Professional Portal, through the “Sage Seminar Request” form.
- Share your work in the Discord Community! Good places to do this are #showcase, #challenge-discussion (if it’s related to the current World Anvil challenge), and #worldbuilding (if you’re asking a worldbuilding-related question or for worldbuilding feedback)
- Show your work on our Reddit
- Show your work on our Facebook Group
- Share your work on the World Anvil website using a Global Post.
- Join a Chapter! World Anvil chapters are subgroups of like-minded creators, often rallied around a common practice (like Game Masters) or goal (like Publishing a Novel).
- Some streamers offer read-alouds and critiques of other people’s articles. You can find World Anvil streamers on the Discord in the #anvilite-streams channel
Remember that critique and feedback is a two-way street. A good rule of thumb is to leave at least one (if not two) critiques for every one you receive. Giving critique is another great way to learn, so you’ll get a lot out of this exercise too!
Camaraderie, Friendship, and Emotional Support
Being a creator can be LONELY. So why make it a solitary hobby?
World Anvil is full of people like you - that is, people who like worldbuilding, writing, gaming, and creating. It’s a great place to share your creative successes and woes (looking at you, writers’ block and imposter syndrome) with people who really understand them.
If the whole World Anvil community is a bit daunting, consider joining a Chapter; smaller spaces, almost like clubhouses, within the community.
Or why not join our Livestreams, or those of our community (you can find those on the Discord in the #anvilite-streams channel). Streams are great places to hang out and participate at your own comfort level (or lurk, if you prefer) and still feel connected to others.
Where can I find the World Anvil community?
The World Anvil community is spread across a lot of different spaces! You can find them on:
- The World Anvil website! Connect with them through Global posts, journals, and comments. Explore their incredible articles, worlds, novels and stories on the website and be sure to leave a like and a comment on others’ work to start the conversation.
- The World Anvil streams! World Anvil goes live on Twitch twice a week (usually Friday & Saturday at 1pm Eastern US, 6pm UK time). Our streams include write-alongs, feature announcements, and interviews with world-renowned experts in worldbuilding, writing, and game design. (You can see all our past interviews on our Podcast!)
- The World Anvil Discord: probably the biggest World Anvil sub-community outside the website, the Discord is our most active community hotspot. It’s a big Discord, but each channel is carefully labeled and Anvilites are really friendly, so ask around if you’re confused!
- The World Anvil Facebook Group: a private group of like-minded Anvilites on Facebook
- The World Anvil Reddit Group: a great spot to share articles, ask questions, and get tech support with World Anvil
How can I contact the Community Team?
If you want to report problematic content on World Anvil, please use this form.
Otherwise, if you’ve already read the LEARN section and still need help, you can email us at [email protected].
