Summer Camp 2024 Reading Challenge

Introduction

Howdy all! August is here and yet another Summer Camp challenge is done and dusted. In other words, it's time to spread our wings, go and read one another's hard-wrought articles, and see what there is for us to learn from one another about the art and craft of worldbuilding. With that, I bid you welcome to my official Summer Camp 2024 Reading Challenge submissions.

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My Summer Camp Experience

I, for one, do enjoy participating in challenges here on WorldAnvil. I find that working from prompts and with a degree of time pressure forces me to keep up a (semi-)regular schedule, which, I hear, is an important trait to develop for an aspiring author. Clever prompts can expand my horizons and force me to consider aspects of my world(s) that I might otherwise leave unexplored. On the other hand, working on month-long, multi-article challenges like this also tends to sponge up all the time I would normally be spending on reading others' articles, pursuing other hobbies (i.e. I still want to learn Unity and C# programming), or relaxing and recharing from regular work. A more compact challenge, like this one, is nice because it can be stretched over a longer period of time and, thus, lends itself to better recovery.

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Article Reviews

Below, you will find a non-exhaustive list of articles that I came across in my journey through the Summer Camp submissions that I felt called out for a deeper review. The challenge page calls for at least 10 articles, but I may ultimately add more as the month progresses; there's probably thousands of articles to look through, so even focussing down on 10% would be a nigh-impossible task. So, without any further ado, let's see what we can find out there!

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Article I: City Ships by GreyTailZA

Prompt: A vehicle that, when introduced, caused social upheaval

I'm a big fan of megastructures and, coincidentally, had just finished reading Mortal Engines when Summer Camp was coming to a close. One thing I liked about this article was how it went point-by-point for both the ships' internal systems and, pertinently, how the article tied into the challenge prompt to which it had been assigned. The only thing that bothered me was that it wasn't immediately clear what kind of ship (space, air, sea, planar, etc) a city ship was until about halfway through, but I chalk that up to my being unfamiliar with the setting beforehand. Good stuff!

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Article II: The Adamantine Delver by DMSirSwank99

Prompt: Prompt: A vehicle that, when introduced, caused social upheaval

I feel like large-scale vehicles are under-utilized in roleplaying games; they present both interesting locations for adventuring action to occur and can serve as characters (whether protagonistic or antagonistic) in their own rights. I like that this article clearly sought to make use of all the prompts available to it in the vehicle template, but I also think my primary critique would be that this makes certain aspects of the article feel overwrought.

Still, it's pretty neat that all of these details were considered, and that the details that are put in place are thematically tight to the vehicle's purpose within the world. I'd probably make use of something like this vehicle in one of my own campaign materials.

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Article III: Stonesworn by Hanhula

Prompt: A faction of an organization built around belief

One thing that interested me about this article is that it examines a character concept that I just finished exploring in a long-running D&D campaign: someone who, in a universe with divine magic, receives no magical endowment despite a surfeit of faith in the divine. I like the notion that, while one might mechanically understand why a character or group wouldn't recieve powers from their devotion, the reason for this discrepancy is unclear to those actually living under those conditions. This also would give characters in the organization a more 'grounded' feel as, just like in our regular world, even the most sincere of intentions might not have obvious temporal consequences aside from what those intentions bear out through actions. I also liked the way that this article was organized and the overall aesthetic chosen.

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Article IV: Veiled Academy by Stormbril

Prompt: A building considered a refuge against the world

It wouldn't be one of my article reviews without at least one article from Cathedris, one of the most intriguing and elaborately presented worlds I've encountered here on WorldAnvil. While the Veiled Academy article is pithy in terms of its actual written content, the article has a strong visual 'pop' to it through a judicious use of CSS. This particular article also drew my attention because the building incorporates elements of what might turn out to be non-Euclidean geometry; as the guy who's most prominent world is a penteract with abstract interior connections between cells, I approve!

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Article V: Words Never to be Spoken by Deleyna

Prompt: Slang or a language associated with a religion or belief

The concept of words as power has a long-standing culltural basis in real-world folklore, religion, and philosophy, so it's always nice to see someone put a fresh spin on it within their own worldbuilding. The theme fits especially well in the context of written or spoken works - for are we not forging worlds with the force of our own words? In fact, I have a similar 'magic' system built into my Matrioshka Multiverse setting in the form of The Word specifically so that shadings of that theme can permeate into all the associated settings.

In this case, I like how the Words Never to be Spoken are actually a collection of words, rather than a single utterance, meaning that one could hypothetically build an entire villain origin arc around finding and collecting each word individually. One thing I'd like to see is more in-line referrence links or tooltips to clarify who all the major players in this story are, but there's enough in the content of the article to derive the necessary context.

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Article VI: Thesaurus Crab by KummerWolfe

Prompt: A species with protective anatomy

I like how the thesaurus crab is like an extrapolation of hermit crab behavior into a dangerous fantasy creature that doesn't just rely on size alone to provide monstrous qualities. It's one thing to simply make something bigger and stronger to turn it into a threat, and quite another to build out new abilities based on a new ecological niche. As an occasional Game Master, I like the idea of populating the damp basement of an abandoned wizard's tower or half-sunken coastal university with these little guys as protection for the valuable tomes in the restricted library sections beyond. The fungal component of the thesaurus crabs' biology also mirrors some of my own worldbuilding with regards to verdialization and reminds me that I should really write out more articles about verdialized creatures to flesh out the ecology of the Verdial Arc.

My only critiques of this article are grammatical in nature; for example, I feel that the paragraphs should be more condensed so that the demonstrative pronouns 'flow' better with the rest of the content

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Article VII: Yugangi, Rani of the Aswang by Kitoypoy

Prompt: An evil spirit or divine antagonist

This article is short but flavorful, conveying who this villainous character is, who she works for, and how she came to power in a relatively brief space. I like how articles in the World of Wizard's Peak often start or are interpolated with quotes from other characters in the world to lend the subject matter a bit of a multifaceted nature. The use of referrence links and in-text tooltips helps to situate the article in its worldbuilding context without unnecessarily cluttering up the main body of the article. I also feel like the aesthetic arrangement of the world in general has been cleaned up somewhat, making it more legible overall.

I do wish there was more to this article to read, but, given the time constraints of the challenge and the eldritch nature of this character in particular - I presume the Far Realm functions like it would in other fantasy settings - I'm happy with what we have here regardless.

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Article VIII: Preservation Matrix by Malkuthe

Prompt: A piece of tech that prevents decay

This article on the 'preservation matrix' puts an interestingly practical - even mundane - spin on the menacingly-titled concept of blood magic. I like the idea that, as fantastical as what we consider magical powers would be, they would ultimately find use in scientific applications and even consumer products as the mechanics behind them became better understood. One suggestion I would make is to add some imagery and/or make use of the formatting featrues found here on WorldAnvil to give the article a little bit more visual 'pop.' Still, I like the concept and the writing style on display here.

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Article IX: Reincubator by Kefkejaco

Prompt: A piece of tech that prevents decay

I think this article is interesting because of the "I've won, but at what cost?" vibe it brings to the subject. The reincubator as a concept asks how far one would be willing to go to achieve a reprieve from ones own mortality. Indeed, a device like this might make for an interesting backstory for a functionally undead creature, like a lich, inhabiting an otherwise science fiction or sci-fantasy universe. I would like to see more content in this article, as it is relatively short, but that also means it doesn't overstay its welcome.

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Article X: Boroxe by Alishahr

Prompt: A hybrid species intentionally bred

This comparatively short article is flavorful and provides for an interesting ecological contrast between the world of Valtena and our own. One imagines herds of these creatures having the potential to become an invasive species should they ever get loose. I'd like to see this article expanded upon a bit, perhaps with some visual garnishes and the application of the provided sections for anatomy, behavior, and so forth, but overall I like the concept of this species.

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Six Month Plans

As one would expect, my six month plan is to continue working towards the milestones I set for myself in my New Year's Resolutions. That entails participating in every major challenge, completing at least one State of the Manifold journal post per month, and pursuing my wordcount goals across both WA and the projects it enables (Catalyst: A Manifold Sky Story, The Fortress of Salt, and the rules for the BCGR tabletop roleplaying system).
Given that we're more than halfway through the year, however, this has been a good time to look back at that resolutions document and assess the feasibility of reaching each of these milestones. For example, I recently updated the WA wordcounts there and noted that I had already crossed the 100,000 word threshhold I set for one of my resolutions; if my pace continues or accelerates going into WorldEmber, then even the stretch goal of 200,000 words across all worlds might turn out to be under-ambitious. On the other hand, my attempts to work on the novels have been stymied by a sense that what I'm putting down doesn't have the right 'vibes,' and it's looking like there's a lot of cleanup work to be done on BCGR with regards to the player- and Game Master-facing sections that might require an outside reader's perspective. Regrettably, I didn't use Adventure April to build a New Generica adventure that I could put beta testers through in hopes of getting that perspective, so doing that in the next four months or so might have to be added to the list of things required to meet the related resolution.
I’ve come to an important decision regarding the Manifold Sky setting: there aren’t enough character articles to ‘humanize’ the setting and invoke the kind of emotional story progression that any fiction written in that setting would deserve, so one focus going forward into the rest of the year is going to be to create those missing characters. Craterhold is a particular victim of this - supposedly it’s run by a collection of self-appointed noble houses, but almost none of them are named? - and will receive additional attention. Ideally, every faction should have at least one named leader, at least one mid-level character for players and/or readers to interface with, and at least one ground-level character for players and/or readers to integrate into a story long-term. I may also go back to some of my earlier faction articles (i.e. Voxelia) and start cleaning them up using what I've learned about writing and WorldAnvil's BBCode/CSS formatting options, a process which may involve full rewrites for clarity.

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Closing Thoughts

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Did you participate in Summer Camp 2024, and, if you did, is there an article you're proud of that you'd like me to look at? As of the time of this writing, there's potentially time to add a few more articles to the review list above, and, as I mentioned above, this list barely scratches the surface of all the super-creative stuff that came out this July. Do you have comments or suggestions on what I could do better with regards to my own submissions? I'm always trying to develop into a better, more concise, more creative writer, and critique is an important part of that development cycle. In any case, let me know what you think in the comments below, and here's wishing you the best for the rest of 2024!
Regards,
BCGR_Wurth

My Submissions