World Anvil News: June 2025

This month, we bring you a newsletter jam-packed (June-packed? …sorry) with development updates, information about Summer Camp, and even a really fun opportunity to create a sitcom episode concept on World Anvil!

The devs have given us so many new toys this month! Check them out!

📝 Major article edit upgrade

With the new article model you can add prompts a la carte, style your articles, and more! Here’s what the new toolbar on the article modal looks like:

From this toolbar, you can…

• Use article template prompts & custom content sections (click the “+ Prompt” button)
• Change article settings & styling (click the gear and art palette buttons)
• Access article comments and other social features (click the speech bubble button)

This last one is also a brand-new feature for articles in general! You no longer have to switch to viewing the article if you want to check the article’s comments. How cool is that? See the release blog for more details!

🎲 New RPG systems!

Thanks to Tillerz, an amazing Anvilite, we now have character sheet and statblock support for two new systems!

• Daggerheart: Make bold choices, create unforgettable characters, and tell stories that last long after the dice and cards are put away with the new game by Darrington Press. Check an example character.
• Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition: Explore the confines of the universe and boldly go where no one has gone before with this game! Check an example character.
• Final Fantasy XIV TTRPG: Step into the shoes of a heroic adventurer, forge your own unique stories, and explore the world of Eorzea. Check an example character.

⚙️ Article editor migration

Some time ago we introduced the ability to switch text editors (Visual Editor and Advanced Editor) article by article. But this came with a big red warning: converting from the Advanced Editor to the Visual Editor was risky.

Well, no more! Now, when you switch editors, you will be warned if the article has any BBCode tags that the Visual Editor doesn’t support. Just go to article settings to switch editors and see this feature in action. Learn more here!

💻 Variables UI update

Variables have been updated to the new interface! The new design is faster and easier to use while keeping the same functionality. Create and copy variables from anywhere on the site without opening a new page! Variables are an advanced technical feature; read the Guide to Variables for more information!

👀 Other quality-of-life updates

We also released other minor quality-of-life updates, including…

• Press Alt+N (or Ctrl+N on a Mac) to create a new article right from the keyboard!
• When searching for an article, its template will now appear next to its title so you have more context on the results!
• Secrets now display the articles they belong to within the edit modal. Check the Guide to Secrets.
• You can now link Chronicles from an article using the Visual Editor. Check the Guide to Chronicles.
• Some icons in the left sidebar have been refined for better clarity and accessibility.

Check out the Changelog page on World Anvil for the full changelog.

🗓️ June events

The Summer (Camp) season is here! Summer Camp is one of our yearly worldbuilding events; during July, we challenge you to answer between 8 and 32 prompts on your world—read more here. Here are this month’s events!

• 🍨 Summer Camp Prep challenge: every week this month, we’ll release a new assignment to prepare for Summer Camp… as well as reveal each of the four Summer Camp themes! Check the challenge page and submit your homework to get the homework badge!
• ✨ Community Day: this month’s World Anvil Community Day will be on June 21st! Here’s the programme:
  • 🎓 Sage Seminar: Introduction to SEO (and World Anvil) (5pm UK/9am Pacific): This month’s Sage Seminar, Kat, our amazing content & marketing expert, will join us to tell us all about SEO and how to use it on World Anvil! Find the link in the Professional Portal (Sages only).
  • ☕ Inner Sanctum Coffee: if you’re a member of the Inner Sanctum, join the bi-monthly Coffee, at 10am UK/2am Pacific and 4pm UK/8am Pacific! The link will be shared on the Discord channel on the day.
  • 🙌 Community Stream (6pm UK/10am Pacific): This will be the last theme reveal before Summer Camp launches… and your last chance to submit your homework!

Follow us on Twitch to learn when we go live!

🌟 Community highlight

Ever wanted to write your own sitcom episode? Well… now you can, thanks to this month’s community highlight by eccbooks! It’s a really creative use of random tables, put together in an article so you can create the premise of your own episode for the Bards sitcom. Here’s what Chris, the author, had to say about it!

Bards is a perfect example of two things I try to keep in mind with my worldbuilding these days. The first is to focus on entertaining myself first and worrying about the outside world later. The second is to build things during WorldEmber and Summer Camp that will be useful to me in whatever writing project I’m currently working on.

With Bards, I set out to create my first truly interactive article and used my exhaustive knowledge of the real world TV show Friends as inspiration. I wanted some form of entertainment that folks from all over my world would be familiar with, and so I came up with the idea of a traveling improvisational show—something the WA reader could participate in themselves with roll tables and whatnot.

When it won the Plot Special Category award for WorldEmber 2023, I was giddy with delight that even one person had thought it fun. When it won a World Anvil Worldbuilding Award this year, I was stunned. And to see folks play with it live on the award stream was one of the most rewarding experiences of my creative career to date.

The community voted this as the best plot in the 2025 Worldbuilding Awards! Check out the Bards now!

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