2023 Worldbuilding Resolutions

Thoughts & Resolutions for 2023

While WorldEmber did not end in burnout as it has in the past, I find myself very much caught up in the overwhelm that comes from this community and the size of Isekai, and what is still left to be done. January is meant to be a month of reflection and yet I've only found myself stymied and lost every time I tried to look forward at what all needs to be done. Articles for this reflection have been chosen and goals are written, but I've sat on this article for nearly two weeks debating on if I really wanted to do this, or rather if I could.
Reading resolutions from others so far this year has really shown me that I need to show myself more grace. There is much more complete in Isekai than I lead myself to believe but I want to use these goals and thoughts to move forward better and complete more than I have at this point.

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Peach Tree Dish

Articles written by Tillerz are guaranteed to put a smile on your face with his constant talk of Gnomes, but this article caught my eye for a different reason. Many cultures are centered around the food and drink that are special to them and that is something that I feature when I write culture articles for our many races. Peach Tree Dish is a "sweet" example of how all culinary articles should be written!

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Forged of Theydim

Lyraine Alei has a great approach to culture in the Forged of Theydim. I find myself reading the answers to questions I didn't have originally about how the Forged are different from most humanoid species or how their interactions may be comforting or unsettling. Having a similar race in our Greater Golems, it was amazing to see how a construct could have an established culture in a fantasy setting. As I work on cultures throughout the year, I will be returning to this article for inspiration.

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Avast Library

George Sanders takes a very imaginative look at a building in his world and the story within has me hooked. While many of my articles begin with a short section of prose, George takes this to a new level in the Avast Library and gives the reader and great experience.

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Kingdom of Arsavela

Polina "Line" Arteev creates a magnificent article in the Kingdom of Arsavela, giving the reader a view of the kingdom while also drawing them in with fabulous artwork and a stunning layout. I had expected an organization article when I first stumbled upon the Kingdom of Arsavela but with the use of custom headings and information, I was quickly swayed away from those thoughts toward the enjoyable experience of this article.

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Eldritch Army

Articles involving military factions can often be as complicated as writing a conflict, but Chris L seems to have created one with ease. Having our own Eldritch things in Isekai, this article caught my eye and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of detail, including the snippet about the daily life of one in the army. His articles are always very well laid out and enticing to the eye, something I strive for while also including a great deal of information. A lovely article to read and another I will find myself looking back on for inspiration.

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Battle of Netter

Every time I see a conflict article from Mihkel Rand, I am automatically awed and remember how I need to step up my game. The Battle of Netter is impeccably written, from formatting to content, the reader is drawn into all aspects of the battle. Having a background in military history, I just love reading these types of articles because it makes everything so real, even when written in a fantastical world. Another article I will be coming back to as I work on bulking up Isekai's content in certain areas.

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Tea Witch

Professions are often an article type that I feel is ignored by most people but sometimes a gem just appears. Emily Armstrong put together a beautiful article in the Tea Witch that captivates the reader, ties in some RPG features, and has a beautiful section of prose. All professions should be laid out this amazingly!

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Magic in Niorath

Magic is often a prominent part of fantasy worlds and how to explain and categorize it can be rather important. Kefkejaco created a wonderful overview of magic in Niorath that makes me want to delve into the magic of the world much like a scholar would. I would love to create something similar in Isekai to address our colors of magic.

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Elven Schools of Magic and Thought

Rarely have I seen someone delve into the schools of thought surrounding magic in their world as much as Callyxtus has and this was a refreshing experience. It seems in most worlds that the ideas surrounding magic are not simple or straightforward, causing many different groups to make their own assumptions, something not even the people of Isekai can get away from. Reading this article gave me some greater ideas on how to deal with a spot of lore in Isekai relating to how various races in the world view magic and some of the research that has been done on the topic.

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Magitech

Fantasy worlds rarely blend magic and technology but that is exactly what Tim de Roos does in this article. As someone who has a high fantasy world with a bit of technology thrown in, Magitech gives me ideas on how to move forward with implementing and categorizing technologies in Isekai that may be a bit closer to magic than tech and vice versa.

2023 Events

Making goals for the year definitely requires knowing what is upcoming in terms of events and challenges. While we don't know the full event schedule for the new year, we can make some guesses based on past years to help us better plan to reach our goals.

Jan	New Year's Resolutions/Reading Challenge World Anvil's Worldbuilding Awards Submissions WorldEmber Awards Ceremony
Feb	Unannounced Challenge
Mar	Unannounced Challenge Worldbuilding Con World Anvil's Worldbuilding Awards
Apr	Adventure April
May	Unannounced Challenge
Jun	Summer Camp Prep Month
Jul	Summer Camp Isekai & RiverFang's 4th WAnniversary
Aug	Reading Challenge Summer Camp Awards Ceremony
Sep	Unannounced Challenge
Oct	Spooktober World Anvil's Birthday
Nov	WorldEmber Prep Month Mapvember
Dec	WorldEmber

While I may not take part in everything listed above, this will help me better plan some of the bigger goals that I have listed below and stretch them out through the year.

2023 Goals

With 2022 behind us, it's time to look forward to the new year and all the possibilities for worldbuilding. With Isekai coming to its 4th birthday since its creation on World Anvil, I want to take a hard look at what has been done and what still needs to be done and continue focusing on moving forward with what already exists.
Reach 900,000 words in the world
Both word count goals noted in my WE21 Reading Challenge and SC22 Reading Challenge articles were smashed and we continue ever forward. Currently, the new goal is roughly 125,000 words away but I don't want to get ahead of ourselves and say we'll make it to a million this year.
Polish & Organize
While I'm always in a constant state of cleaning up the world and making changes to make things better, I want to be more intentional about it this year. This means focusing on working through stubs and half-finished articles to make them complete. It also means focusing on some of the fringe parts of WA that I somewhat avoid.
Organization Sub-Goal: Updates & Rewrites
This is still an ongoing process. Clear back in 2021, we reorganized Isekai and made a lot of lore changes that are not fully reflected yet. Our article backlog has increased, but hopefully, this project will be coming to an end soon.
Organization Sub-Goal: Squash Stubs
As part of the cleanup, I want to focus heavily on stub squashing. I know that every article I write spawns even more stubs, but we really need to work through more of the stubs that are core lore or are linked heavily. I honestly plan to work on little more than existing stubs throughout the year.
Polish Sub-Goal: New World Map
This is a really big sub-goal and has a lot of ifs attached to it. Isekai's original map was created in Wonderdraft on a computer that could barely handle the program and it took literal days to recreate it from our hand-drawn first attempt. While I do have a much better computer, I'm waiting for a couple more pieces of Project Deios to be released before I jump headfirst into this project.
TTRPG System
The work ever continues! Playtesting is really no closer than it was in August of last year, but mechanics and rules are actually being written now so that's a step forward. Work will continue and we'll see how far we get by the end of the year.
TTRPG Sub-Goal: 2nd Completed One-Shot Adventure April and the one-shot I created last year were far too fun and I can't wait for it to happen again. My goal is to use an expanded lite version of our rules for another adventure this year, but we'll see how everything works out.

Accountability

Between a crazy Excel sheet and about 10 boards in Todoist, my list of things to clean up and work on in Isekai is long. I use both of these as personal checklists to see what has been done, but how can my readers see what has been accomplished, especially if I don't push notifications for every little edit?
As part of my goals I will be building out this index so keep an eye on it for new articles!