World Anvil Worldbuilding
@worldanvil.com
Worldbuilding software, campaign manager and novel writing software. Created by two nerds, run with love & passion, supported by the friendliest community on the internet 🥰🥳 Learn more at www.worldanvil.com
30 side quest ideas that add variety to your campaign without derailing the story you spent hours crafting.
30 DnD Side Quest Ideas to Expand Your Campaign
Side quests offer variety without derailing your carefully-crafted campaign. Here are some ideas to transform an ordinary session into an unforgettable one.
academy.worldanvil.com
A pantheon of gods with no actual influence on your plot is just decoration. Here's how to make yours matter. academy.worldanvil.c...
Most worldbuilders describe what their setting looks like. The best ones make you feel like you're standing in it. Here's how to use senses most writers forget exist.
Sensory Details in Writing: How to Make Your World Feel Real
Most worldbuilders describe what their world looks like. The best ones make you feel like you're already there. Here's how to use all five senses — and beyond — to create more vivid settings.
academy.worldanvil.com
If you write speculative fiction, your story is probably living in third person whether you planned it or not. Here's the guide for going beyond the basics.
3rd Person POV: The Fantasy Writer's Complete Guide
If you're writing in the SFF genre, there's a good chance your story will live in 3rd person POV. This guide is for SFF writers who want to move beyond the basics.
academy.worldanvil.com
There are only 6 types of subplots, and most novels use them badly. Here's how to balance and track them so readers can't put your book down.
How to Write Subplots (And How They Make Your Novel Better)
Sub plots are the secret to a novel readers can't put down. Learn the 6 types of sub plots, how to balance them, and how to track multiple plotlines.
academy.worldanvil.com
Worldbuilding politics feels like a minefield until you realize it's actually a source of the richest conflict in your setting. Here's the step-by-step guide.
Worldbuilding Politics: Using Types of Government for Better Storytelling
Worldbuilding politics doesn't have to feel like a chore, or a minefield. When you get it right, a rich vein of juicy conflict will run through the very bones of your setting. Here's a step-by-step guide.
academy.worldanvil.com
That Tarot deck you bought in a Kickstarter has been sitting in a drawer. Here's how to turn it into one of your most memorable DnD tools.
How to Use Tarot in D&D
Tarot cards can make your D&D sessions more mysterious, immersive, and dramatic — and there’s a full spread of ways to use them in your campaign! If you’re ready to find a use for that Tarot Deck you got in a Kickstarter, read on!
academy.worldanvil.com
We're thrilled to announce Janet will be attending @laworldcon as a ✨Featured Guest!✨ Her full schedule's below. If you're in the LA area (or will be in August), join us for this incredible event sure to level-up your skills as a storyteller. www.lacon.org/featur... 1/2
If every member of your fictional species or culture feels the same, your audience already checked out. Here's the fix, and it doesn't require overhauling your world.
How to Fix Flat Cultures in Your Worldbuilding (And Avoid the "Planet of Hats" Trap)
When every member of a species or culture feels essentially the same, your audience checks out. The good news? You can fix it without overhauling your entire world.
academy.worldanvil.com
Second worlds are the most common setting in fantasy, and also the easiest to get wrong. Here's the checklist that cuts through the overwhelm.
The Second World Checklist: Essential Elements for Building a Traditional Fantasy Setting
Second worlds are the most common type of setting in traditional fantasy, and the most ambitious. This checklist cuts through the overwhelm by focusing on what actually matters.
academy.worldanvil.com
How do you make horror work in tabletop RPGs, where players are powerful, genre-savvy & armed with darkvision & decades of monster lore? Janet's joined by Wolfgang Baur & Celeste Conowitch of Kobold Press to talk Running Horror in RPGs pod.link/1589611826/...
So excited to be sending @worldanvil.bsky.social to Worldcon to share her love of worldbuilding and writing expertise! Come on out and meet her! 🫶
Los Angeles Worldcon@laworldcon.bsky.social · last wk.By day, Janet Forbes is the CEO and founder of World Anvil, @wordanvil.com, the award-winning worldbuilding platform, novel writing software and RPG campaign manager with more than three million users.
Every DnD quest is secretly one of a handful of types. The magic isn't in inventing new ones, it's in how you combine them.
DnD Quest Types (And How to Combine Them Into Unforgettable Adventures)
Understand how DnD quest types actually work, and how to layer, nest, and subvert them so every session feels fresh for your players.
academy.worldanvil.com
Dragon riders shouldn't work. The physics, the logistics, the sheer implausibility of it all. Here's how to make them work anyway.
Dragon Riders Make No Sense — Here's How to Make Them Work Anyway
Dragon riders remain one of fantasy's most enduring and electrifying archetypes. So how do you build a world where dragon riders make sense? Here are your options!
academy.worldanvil.com
Solarpunk asks a question almost no other genre dares to: what if we actually fixed things? Here's why it might be the most underused setting in speculative fiction.
Solarpunk: the Most Exciting Genre You're Not Worldbuilding... Yet
Solarpunk is a speculative fiction movement — part aesthetic, part political philosophy, part genre — built around one electrifying premise: what if we actually fixed things?
academy.worldanvil.com
There's a reason the Evil Empire keeps showing up as fiction's default villain, and it's not laziness. Here's how to build an empire with a perspective instead of a costume.
Why Are Fictional Empires Always Evil? (And How to Build Better Ones)
Why does the Evil Empire keep showing up as fiction's go-to villain? And more importantly for worldbuilders, how do you create a fantasy or scifi empire that doesn't feel like a cliche?
academy.worldanvil.com
Most DnD campaign advice hands you a starting point built for generic worlds. Here's the alternative that actually leads somewhere memorable.
How to Start Building your DnD Campaign Setting
A lot of worldbuilding advice for dungeonmasters gives you a starting point that leads to generic, unmemorable settings. There's a better way to start building your homebrew world; here's how.
academy.worldanvil.com
Hidden societies collapse under their own logic more often than they get discovered by outsiders. Here's the checklist that keeps yours standing.
The Secret World Checklist: How to Build a Hidden Society That Actually Makes Sense
Urban fantasy, paranormal mysteries, dark academia, spy thrillers — the secret world is one of fiction's most versatile settings. Here's what you need to know to build one without breaking it.
academy.worldanvil.com
Every revolution in history follows a shape almost nobody writes into fiction. It's called the J-Curve, and it explains why most fictional uprisings feel fake.
Worldbuilding Revolutions: The J-Curve Hypothesis and the Five Pillars of Rebellion
Revolutions and rebellions are a staple of fantasy and science fiction for good reason. Here's a guide for how to write - and subvert - them in your stories and games.
academy.worldanvil.com
Your fight scenes aren't boring because of the choreography. They're boring because of what's missing around it.
How to write a fight scene
Fights scenes can add conflict and action to your stories. But they're more than just choreographed violence, they're storytelling tools. Here are some important things to consider.
academy.worldanvil.com
Most fictional apocalypses skip the part that actually matters: what happens after. Here's the real anatomy of a worldbuilding cataclysm.
Apocalypses, Blow-ups & Cataclysms: The ABCs of Worldbuilding History
Here's how to make your world history a fascinating mystery, including five ways to destroy your ancients like a wrathful god, and the tools to make sure your audience is dying to know what really happened.
academy.worldanvil.com
A world without belief systems feels oddly hollow - but building religion from scratch is daunting. Here's a practical framework to make it less overwhelming. #Fantasy #Worldbuilding
Worldbuilders Guide to Fantasy Religions
Religion can be a source of motivation, magic & conflict for the characters in your game or novel setting. Here are some resources for worldbuilding one!
academy.worldanvil.com
Can you actually build a scientifically believable werewolf pack? Janet sits down with comic creator Kel McDonald (Sorcery 101, The City Between, Misfits of Avalon) for a conversation that goes way deeper into werewolf lore than you'd expect. pod.link/1457068992/...
Head-hopping between POV characters is one of the fastest ways to lose a reader's trust. Here's how to manage multiple perspectives without breaking immersion. #WritingTips #Fantasy
3rd Person POV: The Fantasy Writer's Complete Guide
If you're writing in the SFF genre, there's a good chance your story will live in 3rd person POV. This guide is for SFF writers who want to move beyond the basics.
academy.worldanvil.com
A world full of landscapes and no people doesn't have stories - it just has scenery. Here's how to populate your setting with cultures that feel real. #Worldbuilding #Fantasy
Populating Your World: Sapient Species, Cultures & Commerce
Without people - sapient species & cultures - your setting isn't a place where stories can happen. Here's how to start populating your world.
academy.worldanvil.com
Travel scenes shouldn't be the part where everyone checks their phones. Here are 5 ways to make overland journeys as engaging as the dungeon itself. #DnD #TTRPG
5 Tips for Making DnD Travel Interesting
Travel is a part of most D&D campaigns. Here are 5 tips (and bonus video) for making the journey more fun!
academy.worldanvil.com
If every villain exists to oppose your hero and every NPC exists to help them - your world isn't a world, it's a snow globe. 🔮 Here's how to fix it. #Worldbuilding
Avoiding Snow Globe Worldbuilding
Snow Globe worldbuilding is when your setting feels like it only exists to serve your main characters. It's also called Mary-Sue worldbuilding. Here's how to spot - and fix - it.
academy.worldanvil.com
The Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards voting is still open until August 8th at 12 pm Pacific! Don't forget to submit your ballots if you're an Attending, Virtual, or WSFS member. If you don't have a membership yet, you can sign up through our site now: lacon.org/register
A cataclysm that happened "a long time ago" and doesn't affect anything is wasted worldbuilding. 🌋 Here's how to make past disasters feel present and consequential. #Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding an Apocalypse, Cataclysm or Disaster
From epic disasters to mysterious collapses, cataclysms can layer your fantasy or sci-fi setting with legendary ruins, lost history, and compelling secrets.
academy.worldanvil.com
Describing what your world looks like isn't enough to make readers feel like they're there. Here's how to use all five senses to close that gap. #Worldbuilding #WritingTips
Sensory Details in Writing: How to Make Your World Feel Real
Most worldbuilders describe what their world looks like. The best ones make you feel like you're already there. Here's how to use all five senses — and beyond — to create more vivid settings.
academy.worldanvil.com