What are Components?

Good question! Components are the basic building blocks of Islands. Anything might be a component -- a person, a shop, an ancient artifact or a local ninja clan.

If you're creating an island, use components to describe each "thing" on your island. If you want to describe a fearsome pirate captain, give them a component. If there's an incredible hoard of treasure lying in a seaside cave, describe the cave and the treasure in a component. A monster statblock? Make a component for that, too.

What's the point?

The thing to consider is that when people are searching for a specific TYPE of thing, they search components -- especially component tags. Tags let you identify your components so that people can find them easily. If you create a ninja clan, add the "ninja" and "clan" tags to the component and folks looking for cool ninja clans will find yours. If you put together a statblock for a powerful sorcerer, add the "statblock" tag to the component and again, anyone looking for statblocks (maybe they have a game to run tonight) will be able to find it easily.

Also remember that components can be re-used from one island to the next. Sometimes that might not seem to make sense, but for things like new monsters or artifacts or whatever, it's helpful for other folks if they can build directly on your ideas. And you, of course, can build on theirs.