Happy new year, Anvilites! I hope you all had an amazing holiday season and are ready to continue on your creative journey this year. Here’s what’s new on World Anvil this month. From new features to challenges—let’s start this new year with a bang!
As always, our team has been busy improving World Anvil this month!
⚙️ Switch text editors, article by article
A few months ago we released our new Visual Editor—and since then we’ve been working to make the editing experience even better! You can now switch your text editor on an article by article level. This is really useful, as you get to choose if you want a simple and straightforward writing experience (with the Visual Editor) or if you want to use complex formatting (with Euclid). Read more about this update!
⚙️ The Advanced Editor is back, baby!
Euclid Users, rejoice! Also a few months ago, as part of the new UI rollout around the release of the Visual Editor, the Advanced Editor (aka Euclid) was temporarily only accessible via Advanced Edit. BUT IT’S NOW BACK on the main Edit interface, AND it’s seem some upgrades too! You can read more about the Advanced Editor upgrades here.
Cute dragon says hi!
✨ Spread the love with digital stickers!
Read an article and love it so much that you feel a like isn’t enough? Well, now you can gift stickers to articles with your Anvil Coins! Stickers are limited in both time and quantity, so get them while they last. Here’s everything you need to know about them!
🎲 New character sheet: Hunter the Reckoning
Thanks to the amazing Graylion, we’ve added the Hunter the Reckoning character sheet for World of Darkness 5th Edition! Enter this dark world to protect the world from the supernatural and the hordes of monsters that prey on humanity. Check out this example sheet!
Check out the Changelog page on World Anvil for the full changelog.
🗓️ January events
We have several awesome events this month, to inspire you and help you achieve your goals!
- 🏆 5th Worldbuilding Awards: submit your best worldbuilding to the Worldbuilding Awards (WAWA) and find your place among the best worldbuilders! You have until February 8th to submit for a shiny participation badge —check the event page for details!
- 🔥 New Year’s Resolutions: start this new year by setting realistic and achievable goals for your creative projects. Check the challenge page to learn more!
- ✨ Community Day: every third Saturday of the month (18th January) is World Anvil Community Day! Here’s the programme:
- 🎓 New Year’s Resolutions & Strategies for seeing them through (5pm UK/9am Pacific): Join this month’s Sage Roundtable to discuss setting goals and how to achieve them! Find the link in the Professional Portal (Sages only).
- 👻 How to enter the Worldbuilding Awards (6pm UK/10am Pacific): we’ll have a chat with some Worldbuilding Awards veterans to give you the best tips and advice to enter!
Follow us on Twitch to learn when we go live!
🙌 Register your unofficial challenges for Friendship February!
Planning to run an unofficial challenge in February? We’ll be shining a spotlight on the challenges organized by YOU, so fill out this quick form! We’ll share a selection of unofficial challenges in a blog post and other community spaces.
🎥 YouTube round-up
Looking for some Worldbuilding Tips from a pro? Here are all the videos we released last month—check them out for tips, inspiration, and advice to power up your worldbuilding!
- Using hive minds in your worldbuilding—they’re hard to get right, so here’s all you need to know to get started!
- What’s the cobra effect? And why is it so useful to make your worlds more believable?
- Let’s talk macguffins! Do your quest objects fascinate or distract? Here’s how to improve.
- How to measure a Sci-Fi Civilization, and how can the Kardashev Scale help you control the scope of your project?
Subscribe to our channel to see when we post new videos!
🌟 Community highlight
This month we’re featuring a map! Bridgeport is a bustling city in Alana, by Tillerz, and its amazing map won the Cartography Award 2024! Here’s what they had to say:
I have been worldbuilding for many years, starting with scribbled notes on scraps of paper kept in a binder. Later, I tried using a wiki, but managing it often felt more time-consuming than the actual writing. Now, my world, Alana, has found its proper home on World Anvil, where it’s finally taking shape in the way I always envisioned. Having my work recognised through the World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards is incredibly rewarding, and I deeply appreciate the support.
But this is just the beginning – there’s so much more to come. What started as a personal reference for my own storytelling has grown into a rich pool of ideas designed to inspire and support anyone who is a game master. I’m excited to continue expanding and sharing this world with others. And also making more sheets.
If you’re looking for a map that not only looks good, but is also packed with lore and information about the city, check out the Bridgeport map now!
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