Worldember 2022 Preparation

Worldember is coming!

Prep Week 1 - Goal Setting

Cartyrion is a big world. While I hope to have the opportunity to publish all of it, that can't be done all at once. It needs to be done in chunks, and the first chunk planned is the Feywood. The broad goal is to prepare a Campaign Setting publication featuring all the places to adventure and the NPCs and creatures that could be encountered. Several adventure modules will also be available. Work on this project has been underway for some time, but the approach has been scattershot. It's time to focus down some of the components and get them done.

The area of focus for Worldember will be to complete the collection of Fey Creatures: the Nymphs, Gremlins, and others. While not necessarily unique to the Feywood, these are the creatures that give the Feywood its character (and name!)

Nymphs

I have identified 28 species and variants of Nymph to be included in the Bestiary. To date, only 4 have been described.

Gremlins

I have identified 29 species and variants of Gremlin to be included in the Bestiary. To date, only 9 have been described.

Tricksters

To date, I have only identified a handful of the Trickster Fey that will be included. More need to be defined; all need to be described.

Others

This is the section for beasts and plants that will still count as "Fey". I have not identified all of the intended entries here yet.

I would like to at least complete the descriptive entries for the Nymphs and Gremlins; this is my primary goal for Worldember. Secondary would be the identification and description of as many of the Trickster and Othere Fey creatures as I can manage.

Prep Week 2 - Mini Meta

The Feywood is a wilderness area that has long been occupied by Elves and the Fey creatures, with a few Goblins and Gnomes thrown in. Only recently have the other Folk of Cartyrion - most notably Humans and Halflings, but others as well - begun to colonize this region. It is a distant frontier from the civilizations these other races have established.

It is a place of promise and wonder, a place where folk can forge a bright future from themselves, far from the politics and constraints of established regions. There are dangers, and dark remnants of the past where evil lurks, but overall, the "vibe" of the Feywood is light and happy, with a touch of mystery thrown in.

Creating Bestiary entries for creatures will, of necessity, be somewhat encyclopedic. There is a standard "formula" that each description must follow to give potential Gamemasters and Players the information they need. That formula will be enforced using customized article templates that include 'prompts' for article structure. But there are opportunitites for a bit of "flair" to spice up otherwise dry descriptions of physical features and magical abilities. These will be delivered via quotes that accompany each description, attributed to one or two "famous" NPC adventurers. Each will have a unique style.

Prep Week 3 - Organization

Fortunately, the categories and tags that I need to focus on during Worldember are already in place. Articles that I plan on creating (or finishing) fall into one of four categories: Nymphs, Gremlins, Tricksters, and Fey Creatures... all of these are under a collective category simply titled "Fey", which is in turn under a top-level category called "Bestiary". The Bestiary will be one of the "books" accessible directly from the world home page.

The tag system I'm currently employing also identifies Fey, Nymphs, Gremlins, Tricksters, and Fey Creatures; at some point in the future, these will be used to create an index of the entire bestiary.

Prep Week 4 - Presentation

The CSS and general presentation code for the various Fey creature articles I will be focusing on is also already pretty much complete. I had decided some time ago to go with separate themes (side panels, main panels, header colors, etc.) for each of the regions of the world; and for now, all of the Fey articles will employ the theme developed for the Feywood region.

This may change during the month If time and circumstances permit. I am currently finalizing an agreement to work with an artist, and if that starts happening during Worldember, I may be creating a new theme either for the overall Bestiary, or at least for the "Fey" portion of it. I am not committing to this, however... the existing Feywood theme is more than adequate for the time being.

In Summary...

With all of this in mind, I am ready for Worldember to begin. I have selected a focus area for the collection of articles I will be working on. The necessary infrastructure is in place: in addition to organization and presentation, customized templates for the articles are even ready to go. And with that, I am prepared to make the following pledge:

I Hereby Pledge...

...to participate in World Anvil's Worldember 2022, and to complete at least 10,000 words of new worldbuilding. I will focus my efforts on completing the Bestiary portion of the Guide to the Feywood, a TTPRG Campaign Setting publication that I am working on.

— signed by RPGDinosaurBob on 28 November, 2022