Today we’ve got a guest writer in our blog: Phil Zoshak, an expert RPGer who started playing when he was 14. He’s the founder of Hero Spark, an amazing non-profit that teaches kids life skills through role-playing games! He’s written a World Anvil review, explaining his experience with us and how he wants to use it with Hero Spark. So let’s get right into it!
Forging worlds: a World Anvil review
First impressions are always important. My first impression of World Anvil was as follows:
WHOOOOOOAHH!!
HOLY CATS! There is SO MUCH to this system, it’s almost overwhelming. However, my advice is to take a deep breath and start looking through the tutorials. You’ll soon realize that this is a robust and easy tool. And it’ll help you get organized for your next RPG session, book, or just the fun of creating worlds.
Organization is a keyword here. I struggle with organization. I am creative by nature, and I tend to have things scattered about, both in real life and in my mind. World Anvil has done an amazing job of creating a fun organizational tool for creative-brained people like myself.
To start, I clicked the create button in the left-side toolbar and saw two tutorials made by the creators themselves: Janet and Dimitris. Their enthusiasm and cheeriness led me through the first steps on how to get started. This is probably a good time to point out that Janet and Dimitris were kind enough to donate a Master Worldsmith account to Hero Spark, so we can create our new game world, Psuterra. I suppose this means my post should come with this writer received a free copy of the product disclaimer, but I believe this speaks volumes of Janet and Dimitris’ kindness. They mentioned it’s a small operation and I am even more grateful they chose to help us!
From a single article to the whole world
As this was my first time creating an article, I was a little nervous I’d mess something up. I selected Geography, where I was going to put my first continent Ealdia in. Then, I tried to see if I could write articles for the individual kingdoms that make up Ealdia (Spoiler alert, I can!). From there it felt like a breeze, and the very act of intentionally writing about Ealdia gave my brain a boost as to how the history of the land unfolded. In about an hour, I had a well-organized plan for Ealdia and some lore I could use for my games I had going on today!
I truly think World Anvil is a lot of fun to keep digging in and playing with. Janet and Dimitris really knew what they were doing when they put it together. The most important factor of World Anvil is they found a way to make the tedious items of world creation into something fun and lively! Rest assured, I will keep playing and tinkering with World Anvil and will write updates on my thoughts soon! I definitely see World Anvil as a path to not only create the Hero Spark game world but to allow our students to participate as well!
Happy Worldbuilding, all!
About the author
Phil Zoshak, or “Mr. Phil” as his students call him is a lifelong nerd and avid gamer. He started playing RPGs at 14 years old when a friend invited him to join her game, and he hasn’t stopped playing since! In 2015 he founded Hero Spark, a nerd nonprofit that teaches kids vital 21st-century skills through roleplaying games. When he isn’t gaming, he is either working on his garden, petting his retired racing greyhound, or devouring some book.
Hero Spark is a Nerd nonprofit that teaches kids how to learn through games and gaming. Hero Spark focuses on teaching the 4C’s of 21st-century skills, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Every program is infused with these skills so students can understand that learning is a life-long, fun endeavor.
