SummerCamp 2025 at Game of Tomes
It's SummerCamp time again! World Anvil's SummerCamp is a really popular event for those of us at Game of Tomes... since most of us are "Anvilites," and we're intimately involved in the World Anvil community (which is where this website is hosted and created), and since the event happens simultaneously to our July Tourney of Tales event, the two often go hand-in-hand for us around here! Since we're in the process of revamping the website, and since I have about 50 articles in my "to do" folder, I figured it was a good time to get things up to date, and I'll be plunging into SummerCamp with that intention.
I'm concentrating on Game of Tomes specifically because we're in a process of renewal and updating. There's been some changes among our team, and we're taking a new approach and working towards incorporation and probable non-profit status. There's a lot of our Lore that hasn't been updated in a couple of years because we've been bogged down with bottlenecks and other struggles. Now we have forward momentum, people are excited, and it's time for our website to reflect that.
Not much that I'm going to be working on in our co-created universe is actually new. It's more a matter of cataloguing and archiving what already exists in our heads. My focus is "the stuff that isn't anybody else's focus." Each of our Houses has their own Librarian, and my job is to track the Lore that doesn't fall under their jurisdiction.
What does that mean? It means I will be concentrating on the things that, by definition, either affect those who fall outside of the House structure, or the things that affect everyone. I will likely be dealing with a lot of treaties, locations, and battles, and a fair bit of technology as well. There will be NPC characters who don't fall neatly under the House structure. From time to time this may also include stories, onboarding information, and game rules, or titles that apply across multiple Houses.
House Ailurus: Just recently lost their Monarchs. With no heirs, they are electing a new one. However, the one they have chosen was our most recent Night Monarch (Undead Dark Lord). Most of the House was also undead in the last war, and they have those bonds to sustain them, as well as the camaraderie of their fun-loving House. But... yeah, that makes it complicated.
House Avis: The Regent has been resisting coronation because she has a negative history with royalty and aristocracy. But she's going to have to succumb soon, since the previous Monarch has been missing for some time, and if they don't have a Monarch soon, they will lose legitimacy.
House Chiroptera: The Bats lost a bunch of people who were part of The Missing, but now two of them have returned, with no memory of what happened to them. What does that mean?
House Lapin: They've been through a lot. The queen has recently lost her sibling and two of her children, and one is still missing. But there's also happiness: her sister has just gotten married. They'll be looking at rediscovering joy after a history of tragedy. Hope may be found in The Iron Tome, currently in their possession, which recently spoke at last! — and in family and friendships with other Houses.
House Meles: The monarchs and the heir have been missing for some time, but it turned out the previous monarch had two illegitimate daughters, who had already been involved with, and proven their dedication to, the House. One is about to be crowned queen.
House Mollusca: Traditionally, the Molluscans have been extremely mysterious and isolationist, but the current Monarch is breaking with tradition, and is much more active and cooperative with the other Houses.
House Sauropoda: You'd think the Dinos would have the easiest time in maintaining their roots. But their King is off on a personal quest, their main stronghold was smashed two wars ago and they're still rebuilding, and the remnants of the catastrophe of the Missing are running around like headless chickens, trying to do seven jobs at once.
We streamlined a lot of the information
We added links to quick guides to the Houses to make engagement and play easier
We compressed some of our social media links
We removed information that wasn't necessary
Overall:
We've got a whole new look, with more colour and life, that more accurately reflects our "urban fantasy/military fantasy" feel
We've changed the formatting of our article headers and continue to update older articles as we go
We've resorted how articles are organized to make it easier to find what you're looking for. With such a big site, this was really important
We've recruited a team of "Librarians" to help maintain our World Lore and make sure it's available on the website
My thanks to ShyRedFox who masterminded this project!
Track my SummerCamp progress here!
Week 1
Big theme for us, this one, and probably it couldn't work out better. In the GoTverse every November, a zombie apocalypse is narrowly averted (so far, anyway) by the actions of Literomancers, who can loosely be described as "wizards of words." This world is a modern, urban fantasy one, which diverges most significantly from our own in 2020. The zombies... well, they're hungry. Regular zombies need brains, and Tome Zombies (literomancer-zombies) need Literomantic Power. There are also other types of undead who might feed on blood (vampires) or emotional energy (ghosts). So to a significant degree, the Politics of Scarcity drive events. The undead hunt the living to get what they need. In the meantime, the living, who are under siege and in wartime conditions every November when the Undead Horde rises, must consider how to preserve those resources, such as food and water. And since Literomantic power fuels magic, and only literomancers can generate literomantic power through creative works, the literomancers themselves are a resource that must be preserved. Effectively, they are heavy artillery in the battle against the undead, and their "ammo" is not unlimited. In order to generate literomantic power, they must write and create, and they must nourish their own physical, mental, and emotional resources in order to do so.Assignment 1
Think about ways the theme of Nourishment affects your world. Do people generally have what they need? What happens when they don’t?
Assignment 2
Download the pledge document and fill it out with your goal for Summer Camp!
Sable's SummerCamp 2025 Pledge Document by World Anvil
Heh. You're funny. There's sooooo many... but we're working on it. My major updates this week have been to articles relating to The Undead Horde. I also updated the World Meta. Some examples:Assignment 3
If you found any outdated articles in your world, update the most important ones now! Do the same with your worldbuilding meta.
Week 2
Since I'm archiving existing ideas and events so that we can move forward, in general I'll be focusing on this theme. With my focus being the "overall world stuff," it will be a little bit more difficult to address this question. But since I just addressed the World Meta, and our focus is generally the Houses, here's a brief look:Assignment 1
Look at the cultures and areas you’ll focus on for Summer Camp, and think about how their past shaped them.
Well, that's fun! We just did a total site revamp! On the front page:Assignment 2
Go to your world’s homepage and imagine you’re a new reader discovering the setting for the first time. What should you change to make the experience more engaging?
Heh. My earliest worldbuilding project was some 35 years ago. I was a teenager, and I started building information for my Dungeons & Dragons world, Draconia. Of course this was long before World Anvil, so I can't point you at a link. What I did was get a bunch of similar spiral notebooks, and chronicled information in them. Maybe, if I get a chance, I'll photograph some of it to show you — I do still have the notebooks. And I still use things from that world! Draconia has now become part of the Toy Soldier Saga universe (one of many planets and systems) and the actions of those original characters set the stage for that world, which has become its own universe and (soon!) series. Mistakes? I tended to put things in the book as they came to me, and being an ADHD poster child, it did not occur to me to make an index... yeah, not doing that again. I also started a lot of ideas and didn't finish them, and often, things were so messy I had trouble reading them later. In these days, which at the dawn of the internet (I know! Gasp!) I made character art by scanning and printing photos, and mixed them together in collages, almost, before scanning them and printing them again. I think that was clever, considering the ghetto equipment I had to work with. But I still use a lot of the techniques I used then... Many of the pages in those notebooks were taken up by character profiles, which included a character image, some vital information, and important history... you know, just like the World Anvil character template. :D There's something to be said for analogue media, and I've been rediscovering that this past year... I really ought to do more collages. And writing things down with a pen can make it stick in the brain more effectively. I should do more of that, too. In my "copious free time" - ha! Still, though... One more thing I learned from that time that I still use: co-created worlds are more fun. Let the people who interact with that world (partners, co-writers, players) shape it, too, and run with the things they create. You'll never be able to come up with all the brilliant ideas on your own, and having fresh minds to look at it can give it a vital, dynamic, "living world" feel without having to work at it.Assignment 3
Find your earliest worldbuilding project. What mistakes did you make that you want to avoid? What good ideas from those early days can you integrate into your current project? Remember to take a moment to be proud of how far you've come!
Week 3
Assignment 1
What transformations and adaptations have the people in your world gone through? What changes are going on right now… and who is trying to stop them?
Heh. Changes. Okay, so picture this:
Up until November 2020, this was, essentially, our world. Maybe some brand names were different, but otherwise, mostly the same. At least as far as anyone knew. Then suddenly:
Zombies were running around
Some creative types suddenly had the power of wizards, and it's hard to know where the line of "creativity" and "magic" actually is
Society as we knew it fell apart in the wake of a zombie apocalypse
There was a massive shift in the continents. Half the Eastern Seaboard sank. The UK ended up connected to mainland Europe. Millions of people died
Society, for the most part, reorganized itself under the leadership of the wizards (Literomancers) who helped fight the zombies, and got rid of them. The wizards organized themselves into The Great Houses and monarchies became more common. The North American nations carved themselves up under the new system of House Protectorates. Elsewhere in the world, Protectorates were also formed, but people handled things differently
The zombies then returned in November 2021, and have every November since
There is an artefact called The Iron Tome that has the power to not only make magic happen, but literally change the nature of reality. Writing in it is necessary to restore the dead to life in November, but every time the literomancers do so, they risk vast transformations — like the big geography changes
Magical and mythological creatures have started returning to the world in visible numbers
That's the TL;DR of what's changed so far. Current changes that the world is grappling with:
Magic is rapidly becoming an integral part of life and technology
Attrition is high among literomancers. They often die permanently or go missing, due to the magical hazards they must deal with. Most Houses have established a system of Bodyguards to try to protect their leadership
Politics are still in upheaval, this only being five years ago that everything transformed. Borders are still being renegotiated. The tone of politics shifts as different House Leaders emerge
Different Undead Hordes have different strategies and characters, depending in part on the Night Monarch, who also changes every year. Living forces are still adapting in the ways they approach the November threat, from battle tactics, to infrastructure, to magical approaches
Not everyone is happy with the undue influence and power that literomancers have. Some think it would be better if there were none at all, especially since the Night Monarchs always come from their number. They are looking for ways to either limit their power, limit their abilities, or get rid of them altogether
The literomancers themselves would really like to not have to risk their lives, or the lives of countless others, in a conflict against Undead every year. They are actively experimenting with, or researching, ways to either limit the extent of the threat, or hopefully, remove it completely. If they can't do either, they would at least like things to be a bit more predictable so they can combat it more easily
I'm a hard nut to crack with this assignment. The fact is that there's not much I won't try. Maybe it's an ADHD thing, but I actively seek out novelty. So my friends had their work cut out for them when I asked for recommendations. Even among those who listened to some pretty obscure music or enjoyed obscure art, I often found when scrolling their playlists that it was more that I was being reminded of some stuff I hadn't heard in a while than discovering completely new things. But there were exceptions.Assignment 2
Choose a new genre, style, or author, and take a look at their art! Write what you learned from them and what inspired you.
Music
I am concentrating mostly on music because time is short and this was a particular interest: I like music going in the background that captures the mood and tone of what I'm writing, and Game of Tomes is difficult to classify. A lot of our Tome Knights find inspiration in fantastical music with a semi-medieval feel, the kind of stuff you'd listen to for a DnD game, but I find it doesn't quite fit for me because we're more modern. On the other hand, the darker tone of "typical" urban fantasy preferences doesn't quite fit either. I think there's more light and hope, and we don't focus on a world in the shadows. Our literomancers are right in the front lines, and tend to be people of interest in this universe, whether they want to be or not. But there were some things that totally fit the bill.
Clockwocket pointed me at a couple of songs I found quite inspirational:
I was already familiar with S.J. Tucker, a filk artist, but I hadn't heard this song in particular, though I'd heard of it. This perfectly fits the bill of Game of Tomes. I suppose a persistent theme is the outsider who suddenly finds themself a hero in a world that previously rejected them. The players of GoT tend to be like that, and I think I'm no exception. Maybe we're all a little crazy. But it's fine to be different, even an asset in many situations. I love the playfulness of the lyrics and the metaphors are full of double meanings: perfect in a world in which writers can literally do world-saving magic.
Now this was a good choice. I don't know much about Eurovision — I tend to get most of my information secondhand. The incredible creativity is deeply inspiring! I would like to watch more closely.
And this song was a ringer. "We are the heroes of our time" is also a persistent theme in this universe. Most of our characters are ordinary people who suddenly find they can do magic. And there's an existential threat that faces the world every year that magic is necessary to combat. Are they going to step up, even though most of them are terrified and faced with the world's biggest case of imposter syndrome? But if not them, then who?
"We are the heroes of our time..." If not you, then who?
A few more recommendations from Clockwocket:
Here's a Pagan artist I'd never heard of! Hard to find... and I love this piece in its primal simplicity. The cycle of death and rebirth that is a reality for many of the characters in the GoTverse speaks to ancient myths.
This song was apparently quite popular with Clockwocket's Changeling LARP group. There's definitely a World of Darkness influence in Game of Tomes, and I found this song, and even more importantly, this sound, to be right on target. These guys remind me of a goth band I used to listen to back in the day called the Cruxshadows — sort of a dark techno sound, lyrics that are more poetry than song and often quite philosophical, even the slightly-nasal tenor tone of the singer. I find myself wondering if that was an influence of this band, too, or the other way around? Either way, it's a sound I find deeply inspiring for this universe, and the lyrics of this one capture its liminal feel. It's a balance of grounding in solid, ordinary things... that could be swept away at any moment by dramatic, magical changes. I'm going to look up more music by this band.
Kitoypoy recommended the Sinners movie soundtrack and the Arcane movie soundtrack while I was in the course of writing this article.
I think I knew what I was in for when the very first song on the playlist, "This Little Light of Mine," switched from the American gospel classic that I already knew and loved, to a swinging blues tune. I deeply appreciate blues. This is fantastic! I think I have to watch this movie. I don't know if it says Game of Tomes to me, but I love it.
Kitoypoy also recommended the Arcane movie soundtrack. (Note: add thoughts once you've had a chance to listen offstream)
Notes: Party Cannon (Vailreth)
Art
One of my Twitch viewers, QualityImprovision by handle, pointed me at an artist named Jeszika Le Vye. I'd never heard of her, but I love her work! She addresses a lot of fantastical themes, and yet her figures seem grounded, solid, and mostly human — or solidly inhuman, if that was her intent in the painting. "Imaginative realism" is what she describes it as, and yes, that's very much the GoTverse, too. She does a lot of nature themes that are like the most intense moments of nature, with themes and palettes that bind her subjects together in ways that say more than just a still life would. As I observed on stream, she has a wonderful grasp of the contrast between light and shadow, and her images often use an unusually dark palette that makes the lighter elements more intense and vibrant. I love the liminal intensity of her mind and style.Assignment 3
Read a couple of articles from the community, give them a like (and why not a sticker!), and write about what inspired you.
Clockwocket shared his SummerCamp prep article with me, which inspired me to get to work on my own. I liked his three column format, thought it made things readable and easy to find, and decided to emulate it on my own article where it made sense to do so. I like how he thought deeply about the questions asked, and have tried to do that myself.
I respect Bob, a personal friend, as a worldbuilder. He's been on point for years and I'm always eager to read his work. Bob took a very personal tone that clearly communicated his excitement at some of the upcoming themes and how they relate to his world, and I appreciate that! I have tried to approach it in a similar way. I share his excitement.
Dazz is another worldbuilder I deeply respect. I have real excitement and enthusiasm for her developing Meaty Bones setting, which is not only an interesting world with plenty of RPG play hooks and opportunities, but is also using a system, entirely of her own creation, that really streamlines the process of character creation and play in a deeply practical way. I suppose I've had my fill of "crunchy systems" after Pathfinder, and I don't have as much time as I used to. It's a difficult task to create a system that is rules-light, and yet still maintains all the beautiful ROLEplay aspects of RPGs that have hooked me most of my life, rather than turning into a video game without the visuals. But I think Dazz has managed it. Can't wait to play this!
And if you want a sample of her cleverness and sense of humour, don't miss this one. I'm not going to say any more than that because it would be too much of a spoiler. There's plenty of inspiration in this for the fun aspects of Game of Tomes.
Week 4
The Tomeverse has spent the past several years concerned with the immediate needs of survival in the face of dramatic changes. As I can tell you from personal experience, when you need to consider the basic foundation of the Hierarchy of Needs, looking to the future becomes incredibly difficult. Not only do you lack the mental and physical spoons, but since things are so dramatically in flux, it's hard to predict and work towards a particular outcome. The human brain is wired for immediate survival needs, too, and hampers the sort of long-term logical thinking that makes building a legacy and a future possible. Even so, people have managed to roll with the punches. Now, at least, it's predictable that every November, there will be a new Night Monarch and a new Undead Horde. The world is much more prepared for this than they were in 2020. People are at least reasonably confident that their society will survive the threat. Infrastructure and social systems have been built to help each other through these difficult times, whether through individual government systems, tech, magic, military resources, or mutual defense treaties. Some are not prepared to accept this ongoing state of affairs. Several Houses are trying to find ways to defeat the Undead Horde once and for all, and they are doing everything from extensive research through caches of ancient knowledge,, to embarking on personal quests to realms unknown. Some have been willing to make Faustian bargains to try to fight this grim future. Others are beginning to move towards acceptance. Theories have been proposed that perhaps the Night Monarch is simply a force of nature, as inevitable as Death. They think that perhaps the benefit of having magic in the world again — which has led to a dawning era of mutual cooperation and even, for the most part, world peace — is worth the price. For the first time in recorded history, for example, unless it is November, there is almost no war anywhere in the world. Great strides have been made towards fighting climate change (although magical warfare brings its own hazards. Massive exchanges of technology and knowledge are underway. That's a future that might be worth fighting for.Assignment 1
Think about current events that will impact the future. Who is working to create a specific kind of future?
Because Game of Tomes runs three times a year, making things ready is a yearly routine for me now, as much as "spring cleaning" or getting the tires changed for winter. I've been spending the past two months, since the end of the last event, making ready. Most important articles have been updated, I have reorganized my writing space (and have been managing to keep it clean!) and I've done a lot of event prep stuff behind the scenes. This won't be the only time I'll be writing (I tend to spend a lot of time on it during event months, aiming for daily word count goals and persisting until I get them) butAssignment 2
Make sure everything’s ready—from your writing space to your writing schedule—before Summer Camp begins!
I stream World Anvil and writing content on my Twitch channel Tuesdays through Fridays, year round, starting at roughly 12 pm / 12:00 Pacific Time (3 pm Eastern, 8 pm in the UK, 5 am Wed-Sat Australian Eastern Time).
Game of Tomes also has an official Twitch channel, and will be streaming a relaxing co-writing lobby 24/7.
It was members of the World Anvil community who founded Game of Tomes. As a result, World Anvil continues to hold a special place in our hearts. We have a form for our players to submit their SummerCamp articles so that we can showcase them on our Results Streams (Saturdays, 1:30 pm Pacific Time). We have a dedicated channel for sharing and feedback on World Anvil articles in our Discord server, and most of our streamers also showcase World Anvil articles on their streams. You can find a list of scheduled streams on our Game of Tomes Event Calendar or go to this URL, maintained by Satrium, to see which of our streamers are currently live. The Game of Tomes community continues to be a strong focus in my accountability strategy. We're good at encouragement, and we also encourage breaks, getting enough sleep, all the good things to keep you happy and healthy while you're writing. Of course, I will also be interacting on the World Anvil Discord server. Because I am an Inner Sanctum member, I find a lot of encouragement from those who are as deeply into World Anvil as I am. On a personal note, I have found creative bullet journaling to be a really effective strategy in helping me keep track of everything I need to do. Game of Tomes offers free goal trackers for those trying to achieve a word count goal to support us during our ongoing events, and even if you don't play with us, you are welcome to snag it for yourself! I tend to write a hand-drawn version into my journal to keep track of things as I go, and I also have a word count graph for individual projects.Assignment 3
Who or what will help you achieve your goal? What will your sharing strategy be during Summer Camp?
Track my SummerCamp progress here!
Best of luck for summer camp! Hope you will have loads of fun..and I'll have to check out that Tourney of Tales.
Thanks! Best of luck to you too! And we'd love to have you!