Summer's here! (At least in the northern hemisphere!) So as we get ready to enjoy this season, let's prepare too for one of the biggest worldbuilding events of the year. Summer Camp is next month, and this month we're focusing on getting your world and yourself ready. There's a badge to be won!
But... what is Summer Camp, exactly?
Summer Camp is a big worldbuilding challenge we hold every July. We release four waves of worldbuilding prompts, and you can win prizes and badges for completing them. The whole community gets involved in collaborating and sharing each others work, and some community members even sponsor prizes.
If you complete 8, 16, 24, or 32 prompts, you'll get one of the completion badges (copper, silver, gold, and diamond). Each wave will have eight prompts themed around a keyword, which will help you tie everything together—plus two Wild Card prompts not related to the theme, which you can use instead if the themed prompts don't quite fit your world.
After Summer Camp ends, there will be a prize raffle among all winners! Tune in to the Awards Ceremony to learn if you won a prize in the raffle or in one of the community-sponsored prompts. This year, Summer Camp will start on June 27th and will end on August 1st.
Weekly assignments
Every Saturday this month, we'll release a new homework assignment! These are the reveal dates:
- First assignment: May 30th
- Second assignment: June 6th
- Third assignment: June 13th
- Fourth assignment: June 20th
- Summer Camp launch: June 27th
Want to catch the assignments first? Watch the homework streams on Twitch on Saturdays at 1pm Eastern, 6pm UK time! Make sure you
follow the World Anvil Twitch channel to get notified when we go live.
How to do your homework
Summer Camp is a month-long worldbuilding marathon, so it's really important to prepare for it!
If this is not your first Summer Camp, keep reading because we're taking a different approach this year!
Every week in June, we'll release one of the Summer Camp themes and a new homework assignments to prepare... in the form of virtual hopscotch! Here's how the assignments work:
- Start by completing the overall assignment prompt.
- Then, roll 1d4 and answer the assignment prompt you got! If you get a double row, choose which space you prefer to answer.
- Hardcore mode: In true hopscotch style, roll 1d4 and answer all prompts from the first one to your roll's result (e.g. if you roll a 3, you answer prompts 1, 2, and 3).
- Warm-up prompt (optional): If you want even more homework, you can answer the weekly warm-up prompt with a worldbuilding article. These prompts are designed to tie into multiple Summer Camp prompts to give you a head-start!
To answer the homework, create a Generic Article and use it to write your answers. As we release new assignments, edit the same article with your answers. And feel free to adapt any of the assignments to your needs, or even add your own prep work! If you begin July and feel ready to achieve your Summer Camp goal, you'll have succeeded in the Prep challenge.
Week 1
This week's theme: Love
This year we're theming Summer Camp around the four seasons, and the first theme, based on spring, is
Love! Love doesn't have to be romantic, and it definitely doesn't have to be between people (patriotism, hobbies...). Before continuing, take a moment to think about various manifestations of love in your world.
Assignment: Pledge your goal
The first step to complete a goal is to set it! So, for your first assignment:
- Decide how many Summer Camp prompts you'll aim for.
- If you have more than one world, which world(s) will you participate with?
- Download and fill out the pledge document.
Then, add your pledge to the Homework article you'll submit.
Week 1 Hopscotch
This week's hopscotch is all about focusing on your existing worldbuilding materials!
If you
already have a world, use this week to review it and update it where necessary. Worldbuilding is usually a non-linear process, so it's very easy to end up with internal inconsistencies, information gaps, or outdated content. This step ensures your world will be ready for a bunch of new content next month.
And, if
you're creating a new one, establish its foundations now! Summer Camp is a great challenge for a new world as you'll be exploring many different topics throughout the month. However, in order to write so much, you need to establish solid foundations to support your worldbuilding. This is what this week is all about!
Text version
Roll a 1d4:
- Review and update your homepage and world primer.
- Review and update your world CSS and layout, OR Review your maps and timelines: Do you need new ones?
- Create or update your world's meta document.
- Update old articles from your world, OR Create some articles to get a feel for your world.
Answer the assignment and at least one hopscotch prompt in the Homework article. Then, submit it to this challenge by clicking the trophy button in the article editor.
Optional: Warm-up prompt
To start developing the theme of love in your world, we have a worldbuilding prompt for you! If you choose to accept this optional assignment, answer this prompt with a Settlement article:
Write a Settlement that's associated with love.
This could be due to a famous love story involving the city, because a loved person lives there, because of a festival that celebrates love, or anything else you can think of! When you're done, link the article in the Homework article you submitted.
Remember the goal of this challenge is to have fun! Be civil and kind in your interactions with the community, and always follow the
World Anvil Etiquette. If you have any complaints or concerns regarding another user, or about the challenge itself, please email us at
[email protected].