Welcome to World Anvil - READ ME FIRST
Welcome to the very beginning of your world!
It's going to be an exciting adventure
Take it slow, there is a lot to do and nothing great has been built in a single day
We have created an introductory structure of categories for you. This is intended to help you get started. Feel free to delete, rename or move these categories as you wish!
Where to start
Establish the Meta of your world
1. Fill your world's meta. It will help you focus and inspire you.
2. Use your meta as a jumping point to create articles about things which you mentioned there.
Organize your categories
Once you reach about 30 - 50 articles things will start to get hard to manage, but that also means you are making GOOD progress!
We have already created some categories for you to give you a push but, you certainly know better how your things need to be organized.
Head to your Articles & Categories section and create a skeleton of how you'd like your content to be organized.
Setup your map
IF you haven't already, it might be time to upload your first map. and start linking and organizing your content, especially the one under your Atlas, in a more visual way.
If you don't have your own map but you want to create one and do knot know how, we have created a list of software you can use here 5 BEST Map-Making Software for Worldbuilding
Once you have your map uploaded make sure you take a look on our video tutorial and documentation for maps. You probably have figured most of it on your own, but there are some cool tips and tricks that can really bring your maps to the next level.
Write the history of your World
There are some basic timelines setup to record the history of your world, but they are currently empty.
Timelines are a great way for you and others to explore your worlds history in a linear fashion. It can also serve as a way to chronicle a RPG Campaing with your players.
Making it look right on "Theme"
Where to find help
There is plenty of help to go around, and our community is there for you. World Anvil might look difficult, but as with all great things, it\s a state of mind. Once you get the idea, it will become super easy really fast.
If you need help you can find it in:
- The Codex, our community led Documentation
- Our YouTube Channel
- Our Twitter Feed
- Our Discord Server
Join our World Anvil & Worldbuilding Tutorials
Dimitris & Janet are going live every
Thursday, Friday and Saturday
at 11am PST | 2pm EST | 19pm GMT | 20pm CET
On our Twitch Channel
Join us so we can answer any question you might have about how to do thing on World Anvil, on how you can organize your worldbuilding.
Get to meet people with the same goals with you and take part in raffles for worldbuilding goodies
Pro Tips
Be patient, stay focused
Building a world is a massive and complicated task. There are worlds in World Anvil with over 6000 articles and hundreds of maps.
Focus on what you need to play your game and always ask yourself "Do I need to be doing this right now?" if the answer is no or "I don't know" ask yourself what you must be doing
to ensure that your next session will be awesome and that the players have what they need.
Be careful with your time, keep in-session notes
If you are building this world for a campaign, write a paragraph or two per article, no more. After each session think back on what you needed, check your seeds and grow those articles even more.
There are always articles that will need to be more expanded to begin with. Main locations, important NPCs and plots will be the exception, but do not write 5000 words on "elven shoes" unless you have a player who is an elven cobbler and obbssessed with them, you simply do not need it. Spend your time on what matters the most and you will be much happier for it.
From our Documentation
If you need some extra help on where to go from here, read this article!