Workflow for keeping secrets in your world

 

World Anvil offers a lot of options to tweak exactly what you want your players and readers to see. For example, you might want some of your players to have access to secret information, but keep other players in the dark. Or you could use these features to reveal behind-the-scenes content to your supporters.

   

Public and private content: the basics

If you simply want to make everything either public or private, just go to the world configuration page to toggle between the two states. However, keep in mind that:

 

• If a world is public, you can still have private content within the world.
• If a world is private, you can still give access to some of its content to the people you choose.

 

Privacy and co-authors

If you're using co-authors, keep in mind that they will have varying degrees of access to private content, depending on their access level. Co-owners and editors have access to private content, while writers don't have any special access to private content.

 

There's on exception though: by default, secrets aren't shared with co-authors. You can, however, enable "open secrets" in the world configuration page to give co-authors access too.

 

Subscriber groups: access to private content

With subscriber groups, you can give specific people access to private content if they have a World Anvil account (it can be a free account). You can either give access to a full piece of content (like a map) or to an item within that content (like a map marker or layer).

 

• As a Game Master, you could have different subscriber groups per party, or even one group per player, so you can share different secrets with every single one of them.
• As a writer, you could use subscriber groups to give access to spoilery lore to readers who've already read your book. And if you have multiple books or stories, you could use a different group for each one too!

 

To get started, click the gear icon and then the access rights icon in the sidebar. Check out the guide to subscribers for more information!

 

The secrets module

The secrets feature is a great way to... well, to keep secrets! Essentially, a secret is a piece of content that only you can see and that can be embedded in an article. For example, in a murder mystery setting, you could create a secret with the name of the murderer and add it to many different articles. Even if those articles are public, no one will see the secret unless you want them to!

 

You'll find the secrets module by clicking advanced tools and then the padlock icon in the sidebar. Check out the guide to secrets for more information.

 

Remember that, as with everything on World Anvil, you can also give subscriber groups access to any secrets you want!

 

Subscriber containers

 

With subscriber containers you can hide content within an article and reveal them to a specific subscriber group. Unlike secrets, subscriber containers are written as part of the article, so they can't be embedded in multiple places. But if you only need that information to be shared with a single group and won't need it anywhere else, it's much more practical to create it as you're writing!

 

Check out how to use subscriber containers for more details!

 

If you just need a way to add secret content in an article without sharing it with subscribers, you can use hidden comments instead.

 

Follower-specific content

 

Finally, you can make content appear only to your world followers. This is not meant to be used for actual secrets (since revealing them is as easy as following the world), but it can be especially useful if you're trying to monetize or build a community around your world.

 

Check this guide to learn more!