Summer Camp Pledge

Introduction & Motivation

My name is Ashley May and I'm co-lore writer for Fantasy Feasting, the fantasy cookbook project coming to Kickstarter on June 28th. As it just so happens, World Anvil's Summer Camp kicks off right as our crucial first 72 hours of the Kickstarter draw to a close. Participating in this creative exercise seems like a great way to keep momentum and interest going for the project while also directing my creative energies somewhere to keep myself from going stir-crazy while waiting out the remaining 25 days of crowdfunding. Our recipe and mechanics design teams have already come up with so many spectacular world-building ideas for Fantasy Feasting that I can't wait to expound upon.
Fantasy Feasting is a combination 5th-edition fantasy roleplaying sourcebook and real-world cookbook, or as we lovingly call it a "saucebook". The published book will feature 30 recipes, paired with creative and thought-provoking lore, as well as mechanics you can use in your own games, including magic items, spells, and even subclasses. The design intent is focused on making sure you can utilize these mechanics in your own home games without much tweaking at all, but we would also love to draw interest to Fantasy Feasting's own unique setting and story. Stretch goals will increase the recipe count, along with additional game materials. The accompanying World Anvil project for Fantasy Feasting will remain free to browse. Of course, further stretch goal funding may also enable us to hire additional writers to help flesh out the world even more, and include more of the world building "fluff" in the saucebook itself.

Goals

Creative Goal

I want to flesh out the cities and towns along the highways that make up this food-centric world, as well as a timeline of events that brought civilization and adventurers to where they are now. The first iteration of our map of the "known world" has been finalized, and I'd like to make sure each dot on the map has an associated article to explain why this point-of-interest is so interesting!
Having never participated in World Anvil's Summer Camp before, I don't fully know what to expect from each of the prompts and templates. I'm hoping that it forces me out of my comfort zone, and into working on aspects of the Fantasy Feasting lore that I had not previously considered.

Challenge Goal

I'm prepared to go big or go home. While the Kickstarter team is busy working on recipe design and writing, I'm going to put my nose to the grindstone in pursuit of the Diamond badge with a minimum goal of 10,000 words, and a dream goal of 31,000 words (or 1,000 words per day/prompt).
As an aside, I'd like to try to include at least one free recipe and one free game element (spell, feat, magic item, etc.) in the Summer Camp project, not including the free ones being released with the Kickstarter. If possible, I would also like to highlight some of the incredible artwork being produced for Fantasy Feasting by our phenomenally talented art team.

Obstacles

It wouldn't be a "challenge" if I expected everything to go smoothly. Though the Fantasy Feasting Kickstarter will have already passed one of its most complicated phases by the time Summer Camp begins, it will still require a lot of attention and maintenance on both the social media front-end and the production back-end. I'm pulling double duty as the layout artist for the book and its social media manager, and I also want to contribute to the book's production by assisting with peer review and recipe testing. My co-lore writer, Isaac A. L. May, is the project's manager and will be even busier than I am, and if stretch goals are reached, he'll be focusing on selecting additional recipes for the book, and I'll be focusing on keeping him running on all cylinders. Self-care can be a struggle for writers, especially those with ADHD, so we're really going to need to prop each other up during this time. Furthermore, stretch goals may see us adding more co-writers to the World Anvil side of the project, and while they may not begin writing on WA until after the saucebook has wrapped production, I'll still need to prepare for them to join and make sure they have a strong foundation to work off of. July is going to be a wild month!