For the third Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2020 Preparation Challenge, we’re talking LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!
Worldbuilding a whole setting at once -whether for a campaign or a novel – is tricky and can be overwhelming. And after all, the devil’s in the details when it comes to worldbuilding – that’s where the unique flavor of your world really shows! Adding boundaries to the breadth of your worldbuilding will really help you during Worldbuilding Summer Camp!
In this challenge, we’re getting you started with scale, scope and location!
Why does limiting worldbuilding scope and scale help?
Very few world settings actually span a whole planet. For example, Middle Earth is roughly half the size of the USA according to some calculations. Westeros, the setting of Game of Thrones, is a smaller planet than Earth, and the known world is about the scope and scale of medieval Europe.
There’s a reason that these famous authors, and hundreds more, limited the scale of their worldbuilding to a continent. After all, limiting the scale of your worldbuilding can help in a number of ways. It will make your worldbuilding richer by helping you develop more spicy, unique details! It’s easier to keep track of connections between different places (even if you’re using a worldbuilding tool like World Anvil!) And of course, limiting the scope of your worldbuilding can prevent you from feeling overwhelmed.
How do I take part in this Worldbuilding Challenge?
In this challenge, we’re encouraging you to limit the scale of your worldbuilding. Depending on the scope of your world (Space Opera will be different from medieval fantasy, for example!) draw a line around your active worldbuilding area by creating an article. This doesn’t mean you ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT write outside of this area during Worldbuilding Summer Camp, but we recommend that you start by trying to answer the prompts within this space. It’ll make for a more detailed, unique and connected world setting!
- Consider your worldsetting. Is there are part you’ve been hoping to build out on? Is there an area you’re excited to explore?
- Create a World Anvil article using the Geography Template, detailing the scope and scale of your active worldbuilding for Summer Camp. It might be a solar system (for a space opera) or a continent (for an epic fantasy setting) or maybe even one city!
- Add some of the details you already know about this area, but don’t create secondary articles (that’s what Summer Camp is for!). Remember you can always use the World Anvil notebook if you want to keep notes about some of your initial thoughts!
- Post the URL of your article into the comments of this blog post!We always recommend checking out other people’s entries too, to get more ideas!There are no prizes and no judging for these challenges – it’s just a super chill assignment to help you get yourself and your world ready for Worldbuilding Summer Camp! We’ll show off a few of our favorites on the next Worldbuilding Summer Camp Preparation Livestream, on 28th June at 7pm UK / 11am Pacific time, on our Twitch and Youtube channels!If you have questions, why not tune into our Tuesday Webinar live streams (Tuesdays at 7pm UK / 11am Pacific time), where we’ll answer you live!
Want to catch up on our previous challenges? Find Week 1 and Week 2 here!
^^ Wanna check out some of that sweet, Summer Camp Merch? Find it here!
This river basin has a lot of places to explore, secrets to uncover, and species to eat (or tame)! I am eager for the chance to write more about them during summer camp!
Have a read here: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/13-mgatta/a/juuriki-article
Here’s my homework ehtry:
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-world-of-cartyrion-dinosaurbob/a/the-feywood-article?preview=true
I will probably have to expand this a little, but here goes: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/manifold-sky-bcgrwurth/a/the-human-arc-28summer-camp-2020-prep3A-challenge-329-article
I’m already pretty far into building my world, but I still feel that explicitly stating my scope was helpful!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/salan-tuisku/a/the-scope-of-the-current-story-28summer-camp-2020-prep3A-challenge-329-article
Here’s my homework for this week: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/etrea-serukis/a/scope—summer-camp-2020-article 🙂 It was really helpful to narrow my scope even more.
Ah, well, I’ll chime in with this one. I kinda alread had written it before. Thought about expending it for this challenge (and might during the challenge), but then I decided to let it stay and not start working on it before the challenge even starts: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/tetheril-wormysqueue/a/iflanora-article
There we go: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/artificial-paradise/a/the-inner-circle
Re-focused my map entry it for Summer Camp! https://www.worldanvil.com/w/world-of-wizard-s-peak-kitoypoy/a/kirinal-concordance-zone-article
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/esporia-callesa/a/aria-28x-31-y7729-article
The character I’m writing about is feeling homesick, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to explore his home region.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/saeric-lands-brinsmead/a/the-vuurfelde-28the-firefields29—worldbuilding-summer-camp-2020-prep2C-challenge-3-article
new world it is: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/concrete-shadows-spacetrash/a/sc-2020-prep-33A-location2C-location2C-location-article
World #1: feel okay about this article so far, I think I need to make a few changes to make it feel a bit more compelling
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/teldir-mightylemur/a/the-scope-of-teldir-article
World #2: I solidified some of my major changes to my old world, and I’m so far proud of what I’ve done with these changes
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/solstice-mightylemur/a/the-scope-of-solstice-article
I hope to get some more idea’s to add to the article, but here is what I got so far. https://www.worldanvil.com/w/ealdwyll-rynn19/a/west-eghea-article
Daire Ada is the area of Inanta I’ll be working in for Summer Camp 2020. https://www.worldanvil.com/w/inanta-katsanders/a/daire-ada-article
I redid an article for this, I don’t know if its focused enough, but as my world consist of a single star system I plan to focus on one planet for summer camp, which is the planet earth. https://www.worldanvil.com/w/takashi-mike1027/a/earth-article
Seems like a perfect time to start a world. https://www.worldanvil.com/w/interstate-0-redwooddown/a/interstate-0-article
Thanks to the home work, I finished the map I will be building on and have a lot of ideas. Thank you.
Here is the place I am building. Narrowing it down was the key.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/dragons-of-night/a/blackwood-county-article
Xalier’s scope! https://www.worldanvil.com/w/xalier-evanarix/a/the-scope-of-xalier-article
I was already planning to write this one this week, convenient!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/qet-timepool/a/rqet-article
Just gonna stop staring at this and post. It’s something!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/meridis-jessesinclair/a/garden-of-leif-article
The perfect excuse to finally work out the geography of Ranul! Here is the area I will be focusing on:
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-kaleidoscope-system-kaleidechse/a/mustik-hamesi-article
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/daione-shazr/a/hedeon-article
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/evermoore-gamez/a/kingdom-of-koultrek-article
I love these challenges, this one I found particularly challenging.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/atiz-caseyjones/a/the-forest-of-the-maze-makers-article
Here comes a region for a new world for summercamp!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/iphars-catoblepon/a/branul-article
A brief overview of the City i shall be honing in on for summer camp https://www.worldanvil.com/w/bones-laurabones/a/city-of-salike-article
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/godai-enazel/a/mikazu-article
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/octisafell-mergandore/a/octiria-article
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/creus-travakh/a/the-stagonids-article
There’s a lot more to this area, but this is good as a general starter.
Managed to actually get some homework done! Narrowed my scope down to three specific countries within Cathedris:
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/cathedris-stormbril/a/the-three-superpowers-of-cathedris-article
I’ve finally done one on time!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/realms-of-the-sun-ljh/a/sundered-lands-article
It took me a while, but I wanted to get it just right: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/eskC78DvaEIs-amelianite/a/the-winter-pine-forest-article
Summer Camp 2020, here we come!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/tarantellia-lnphysics/a/orie-country-article
I did it on tiiiime 😀
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/todolistadventures-daniadventures/a/lutetia-article
Almost forgot to post this week, oops! Wrote about a huge lake, whose surrounds I hope to detail more during Summer Camp 😀
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/tiyu-amara-isaac-thompson/a/lake-strelish-article
My work is done! 😀 https://www.worldanvil.com/w/terraloga-adcheryl/a/east-coast-of-south-estisia-article
My second summer camp contribution!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-talented-world-fianaclare/a/talented-nashville-article
Finally got round to writing the location challenge! https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-world-of-acuthan-tcats/a/the-world-of-acuthan-locations—summer-camp-2020-article
Here is what I have thought out for one of my continents.: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/agpe-ac-snow/a/aventa-article
Got my Location set and can wait to flesh them out.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/chronicles-of-unsu-nevarrblue/a/geography-of-the-edge-article
Last minute addition, my location article is more of an outline of what I want to do and where I want to go 🙂 Hopefully, by the end of SC this will turn into an overview of the lands and places with less notes and more pretty prose 😀
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/rudolphina-tris/a/rudolphian-europe-28meta29-article
Taking way longer with these then I’d like. Still happy to get it done!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/wasteland-of-ohm-spacesuitian/a/the-copper-mountains-article
I need to get on these sooner if I want to participate in this summer camp!
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/wasteland-of-ohm-spacesuitian/a/the-copper-mountains-article
(Also this may be an accidental second comment but I’m not seeing the one I tried to post earlier. If I did post twice then I am sorry.)
Having watched tonight’s stream I think the size of my scope was too large! So I’ve paired it down to one country. https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-world-of-acuthan-tcats/a/the-nation-of-churiss-article
One small sliver of a world, a fragment of a region. https://www.worldanvil.com/w/charron-mutterwolf/a/the-harrowland-article
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/mandus-zectorman/a/the-scar-of-suran-article
I’ve been having so much fun with this so far. Thanks for helping to keep me focused!
I already had this article, but I was keeping it private because I wasn’t quite finished adding everything. Now I know that it’s perfectly fine to publish an article in progress. I can always edit and update.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/Wynsumheord/a/wynsumheord-article
This is the planetary body that Az-Atla, Realm of the Lost Moon is located on. It is one of two major landmasses.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/az-atla-realm-of-the-lost-moon-vantozexwes/a/ao-ahara-dyal-article