April’s here, so let’s take a look at all the development updates and community news for this month, including the return of Adventure April, our adventure writing challenge!
⚙️ World dashboard configuration
Customize your world dashboard! Select which widgets you want to see and where, and you can add a custom background image too. To get started, just open World Anvil and click the gear button at the bottom left of the dashboard. Check the guide for details!
⌛ Timeline updates
We made minor updates to timelines to improve its visual design and streamline event creation and management. It’s the same options and the same interface, but easier to use and more consistent with the rest of World Anvil! Learn more about timelines.
👀 Other minor updates
We’ve also made a bunch of minor improvements to World Anvil, including:
- Better view mode: The article view mode within the Article Manager has received minor improvement to make it more readable. Learn about the Article Manager.
- Manuscript access for co-owners: World co-owners now have access to Manuscripts of that world. Learn about co-authors.
- Portraits everywhere! You can use the portrait image field in many more article templates now, including Item, Geography, and Ethnicity. Learn about article templates.
Check the changelog for the full list of changes
🗓️ April events
Here’s everything going on this month!
- 🎲 Adventure April: We challenge you to write an RPG adventure! The winners will get a prize—or you can go for the Rebel goal and submit a short story. The challenge runs from March 28th to May 2nd. Check out the challenge page!
- 🏆 Worldbuilding Awards Ceremony: The winners of the 6th Worldbuilding Awards will be announced on April 18th! Join the Awards Ceremony live on stream to celebrate with us. Learn more about the Awards!
- 🎓 Sage Seminar. This month’s Sage Seminar will be on April 25th, since we’re doing the Awards Ceremony on the 18th. And this month, we’re taking a deep dive into RPG adventure writing!
- ☕ Inner Sanctum Coffee: if you’re a member of the Inner Sanctum, join the bi-monthly Coffee on April 18th, at 4pm UK/8am Pacific! Dimitris and Janet will be discussing the recent changes to the site, gathering your feedback, and sharing secret new projects! The link will be shared on the Discord channel on the day.
🔜 Upcoming Events on World Anvil!
Here’s a list of our upcoming challenges and community events, to help you get ready:
- April: Adventure April returns!
- May: A single-prompt competition: you’ll be challenged to write a single article answering a prompt, and two winners will be selected. Details will be revealed later!
- June: Summer Camp prep challenge (see last year’s for an example)
All our challenges launch first on community live stream, so follow us on Twitch to get the news first!
📹 YouTube video round-up
Need a little push to improve your worldbuilding? Or want some advice from a professional worldbuilder? Here are our latest YouTube videos:
- Avoid these fantasy name mistakes: Coming up with good names for your world is hard. Check out this panel of industry experts including Ginny Di, Stephanie Berchiolly, Laura Ann Gilman, and Wolfgang Baur as they discuss essential advice for name creation!
- Your D&D gods are boring: Worldbuilding pantheons is a MUST for GMs—because most D&D gods are a boring MESS. When deities are either totally off-screen, or so powerful your PCs feel insignificant, that’s a big worldbuilding problem. Here’s how to fix it!
- Irresistible DnD Side Quest Ideas: Your players don’t want to be fantasy Task Rabbits or Door Dashers, they want to be LEGENDS! Here’s how to make side quests more strategic, better structured, and meaningful enough to remember.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay on top of all our latest videos.
🌟 Community highlight: Worldbuilding Awards Nominees!
Explore some of the best worldbuilding on World Anvil—from fantasy to sci-fi and everything in between—in the nominees list for this year’s Worldbuilding Awards! Many Anvilites have worked hard to get their work nominated and, regardless of who ends up winning, every single one of them deserves a spot in your reading list. Check it out for the best does of worldbuilding inspiration of the year!
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