Summer Camp 2023 Pledge & Homework

Homework Week 2: Frontier

I had the honor and privilege of being Dimi & Janet's guest on their stream announcing this week's homework. I got to sit with them live and unpack the Frontier Theme with them. I'm super grateful that they chose to spend that time with me!

Summer Camp 2022 Homework Week 2 Stream by Chris L

My world is mostly a setting for me to play RPG's with my friends and family. I run D&D 5E (for now) and allow my players a lot of agency in my world. As a result of their in-game decisions, they have opened up several new frontiers in my game.

New Moons

For most of history there was only one moon, but mythology said that there were originally seven moons. Two new moons have recently appeared in the sky as I've run games the past few years.

• The Hidden Moon is a magitech "Death Star" raised by a cult devoted to the God of Lies and the Dark Patron of the Soulforged.
• The Silversong Moon is shaped like a silver icosahedron and the domain of the newborn god Jenevieve. So far, only two of its facets show signs of life.

Monstrous by Chris L

The Space Between Dreams and Wakening

The title Exalted of Dreams has recently passed to another. The "Elf That Dreams" has great power over the Realm of Dreams and lives in the space between the Asleep and the Woke. The new Exalted is a teenage boy who doesn't quite know what he's doing. Unfortunately, this untested youth holds the desting of elvenkind in his hands.

Socio-economic Frontiers

Those in power are loath to share it and those without power seek ways to claim it. These are the frontiers of wealth, status, and law. The poor seek to become rich. The unpopular seek fame. Outlaws may seek to return to civilization. You knonw the stories: the peasant boy who wants to marry a princess, the invader falling in love with the native, and the merchant seeking to buy his way into nobility. These are all people breaching the frontiers of their society.

Homework Week 3: Relics

I'm very excited for the week 3 theme! Relics are such an important part of my world, the weapons of the Order of Tridensers, the regalia of the Lich-King, and the various artifacts and magical items from my world's long past.

Reliquary of 1000 Worlds

I'm also very excited about the possibility of my "Museum of 1000 Worlds" that I came up with during this week's stream. Thousands of different worlds have appeared in the Kirinal Pit and there's a whole economy around salvaging through the ruins of other worlds. My mind is full of fun things that I can put in the museum: strange fossils, broken obelisks, malfunctioning tech, cursed items, maybe a broken lightsaber!

Chadimus Plunder the Relic Hunter

Another idea I had during the stream was for an anti-Indiana Jones entitled colonizer relic hunter. I'm playing around with variations of the name. I'm really considering making him a tertiary P.O.V. guy in my world. I'm getting these suggestions from our super helpful Discord:

• Chadimus Peevtun Liberimus Under
• Chadimus Plunder Liberius Under
• Chadimus Plunder Loot Under
• Chadimus Pete Larry Under
• Chadimus Paul Under
• Five time winner of the Sir Archibald Gimmeweather Prize for Ouutstanding Achievements in the Field of Top Archeaology
• Prof. Dr. Chadimus P.L. Ünder IV, Esq. First of His Name

Thank you to nnie, Verti, Owen, Rin, and M.H. Biscup.

Article Ideas

I have somehow gotten this far into the homework without listing out my actual article ideas! With that in mind, here we go:

Power

Frontiers

Relics

Communications

Best of Camps Past!

Here are some articles that I wrote for SC that have become building blocks of my world.They wouldn't have existed without Summer Camp! I'm also including the prompt that inspired me!

Ident-a-hedron

I had no plans to create soul-linked identification that look like RPG dice, but here we are. They've become a cornerstone item in my world and are SO useful! I treat them like magical cell phones. They give me so many story-telling role playing opportunities.

Myconid Mother & Oak Father

I remember when we got these prompts, I had two characters that I had just created for a one-shot for The Great GM just a few weeks earlier. The Myconid Mother is the sentient and benevolent part of a larger more insidious mycelial civilization. The Oak Father was in the prompt that Guy gave me for my adventure.

As I ran the adventure, they became a romantic couple as the plot progressed. I had no idea when I began that this was the case, but it came out in play. They have since become a fixture in my campaign world and I loved being able to "flesh" them out that year.

Homework Week 4: Communications

I have so many ideas about how communication works in and between the Worlds of Wizard's Peak. My area of focus is very cosmopolitan and very "maharlitech" advanced. They have magical devices for communication between people, large Hex Crystal powered speakers for announcements, and a full range of newspapers, bulletins and magazines.

The rest of the worlds are significantly behind in technological development. They're at the equivalent of the Rennaissance to the Napoleonic era of technology relying on a combination of magic, relay towers, and train/skyship/ship post. The rich, governments, and organizations would have access to near-instantaneous communications. The middle class and the less wealthy have access to relatively expensive "telegraphs" and a post system.

Ident-a-hedrons

The number one thing that jumps to mind is the Ident-a-hedrons that everyone who visits the Zone must carry. In the Zone and amongst those who visit they're ubiquitous. But everyone else in the world has no reason to have them. For most of my players and NPCs, they're a daily part of life. But once they leave the Zone, they're fascinating objects of curiosity.

The Post System

I have put almost no thought into how non-hedron communications work in my world. I haven't had to before now, and this is why I love these challenges so much!

I'm thinking of an intercontinental system who's reliability is completely dependent on where the mail is going through. Just like our own world! The pieces of the system available for use are:

• A rail system connecting all the nations that participate in the Concordance for Survival.
• Teleport circles for far-flung nations that are activated on a daily-weekly schedule of some sort. Kiris is the main user of these.
• Skyship transportation
• Traditional ships and pack caravans.

The Clacks

I'm SUPER tempted to include an optical semaphore system strictly based on my love of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. It would be good for communications between non-Concordant nations. It would be super cool as the primary comm between the world and the Moons! Much less expensive than magic, and they have to generate a light source bright enough to be seen! Ok, I'm loving this one.

The News

I have several ways that news gets around my worlds. I've written articles for two newspapers: Aleph Zero Revelations and The Beacon. But I need some others to balance them out.

I'm also thinking of the "Hedron Network" that sends news to those with ident-a-hedrons. There's also the Diver's Cypher that's used to announce the status of the Manifest in the Zone every day.