Kickstart your creativity
Nothing’s more intimidating than a blank page. World Anvil’s worldbuilding templates offer useful prompts to get you started (but only if you need them).
Best DM worldbuilding tool
LegendKeeper vs World Anvil
If you need a complete worldbuilding tool for versatile storytellers, choose World Anvil over LegendKeeper. Worldbuild your vision without limits, using layered maps, timelines, quest hooks, NPCs, monsters, and loot, plus a connected, searchable wiki.
Then, draw on a huge library of pre-made statblocks you can customize. Build your own roll tables and random generators. Get character sheets for 100+ TTRPGs, including Dungeons & Dragons, Daggerheart, Pathfinder and Call of Cthulhu. And run your game with a sleek virtual storyteller’s screen, that lets you share player handouts, manage your NPCs, and keep track of your party’s shenanigans ALL while playing atmospheric tracks.
Plus, a forever-free plan that’s enough for many DMs, with premium features for pros.
Why choose World Anvil over LegendKeeper?
Not just worldbuilding basics,
your complete DM toolkit.
An atlas for your homebrew setting
Combine articles and maps with timelines, family trees, and relationship tools to make a complex setting clearer to navigate.
A playground for your players & fans
Turn your session prep into an illustrated world to explore, while controlling access to which material you share (and what stays secret!)
Support for your creative spark
Guidance when you need it.
Freedom when you don’t.
When you compare World Anvil vs LegendKeeper, think about what happens when your tired brain draws a blank. LegendKeeper is a daunting, empty notebook. World Anvil’s templates provide questions to help you develop a culture, character, or settlement enough to make it memorable. To make it uniquely yours.
Use any worldbuilding prompts that appeal to you. Hide any you don’t need. Start by brain-dumping bullets, then add details as you want (or need) them. Other worldbuilding tools give you a blank page, or AI tools meant to replace your own creativity. World Anvil supports your imagination with smart questions that get you thinking.
Watch your world evolve
Not just maps & timelines.
A complex, visible world in motion.
Your worldbuilding only becomes clear when you can see the true scale of history—and how people and events shape a setting over time. Basic chain-of-event timelines, like LegendKeeper, only takes you so far. World Anvil’s timeline maker also has timescale mode, to show historical eras in proportional scale.
In World Anvil, your adventures impact the setting. Plan RPG Campaigns across time and space with Chronicles, to display how battles, treaties, and historical events shaped the map over time.
Autogenerate a family tree in seconds, without drawing anything! Then craft and share bloodlines for your vast dynasties and great houses, stretching generations into your world’s history. And, in seconds, display their current machinations using diplomacy webs.
Choose World Anvil for interactive visual aids that help your players understand your world, and help you grow it. Interactive maps that can shift over time, timelines with multiple ways to explore your world’s history, and family trees that show how power and influence moves through generations.
Control who sees what
You decide what to share.
World Anvil keeps it safe.
World Anvil helps you turn your session prep into a guide to your setting, or a portfolio of your creations, with illustrated articles, world themes, and linked lore that invite your audience to explore. Reveal specific information to a single player, or the whole party. Set up campaign permissions for one party, or several if you’re a pro DM.
If you create 3rd party content for D&D or other tabletop RPGs like items or adventures, you can make some content publicly available, while reserving others for Patreon or other subscribers. And trust that our secure backups will protect all your content.
Choose World Anvil when you want a professional-grade creative toolkit and security, with membership options for privacy and advanced presentation.
Worldbuilding Tools Comparison
What is the best worldbuilding
tool for gamemasters?
| Features | World Anvil | LegendKeeper |
|---|---|---|
| Everything you need to run RPG campaigns & write novels. | Basic worldbuilding & GM support. Not for authors. Limited privacy & display options. | |
| Worldbuilding Essentials | ||
| Wiki-style linked articles | Yes | Yes |
| Interactive maps (pins/layers) | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable templates | Yes | Yes |
| Fantasy calendars | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic timelines | Yes | Yes |
| Free-form flowcharts / whiteboards | Yes | Yes |
| Forever free option | Yes | No |
| One-time purchase option | Yes | No |
| Visual Themes & Custom CSS | Yes | No |
| Article autolinker | Yes | No |
| Article comments option | Yes | No |
| Expert-created worldbuilding templates | Yes | No |
| Content trees / taxonomy charts (automatic) | Yes | No |
| Subscriber groups for advanced privacy control | Yes | No |
| Diplomacy webs (automatic) | Yes | No |
| Family trees (automatic) | Yes | No |
| Game Master Tools | ||
| Session chat & notes | Yes | Yes |
| Character sheets & journals | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable roll tables | Yes | Yes |
| Support for 100+ TTRPGs | Yes | No |
| Virtual DM screen | Yes | No |
| Public stat block library | Yes | No |
| Player handouts screen | Yes | No |
| Discussion boards for Play by Post | Yes | No |
| Novel Writing Software | ||
| Manuscript editor | Yes | No |
| Publishing platform | Yes | No |
| Integrated world bible | Yes | No |
| Co-author support | Yes | No |
| Beta reader & ARC support | Yes | No |
| Monetization options | Yes | No |
| Professional Tools | ||
| Real-time collaboration | Yes | Yes |
| White Labeling | Yes | No |
| Patreon/subscriber exclusive content | Yes | No |
| Design & publish custom statblocks & SRDs | Yes | No |
| Advanced privacy settings | Yes | No |
| Professional seminars & support | Yes | No |
Not just bigger. Faster & easier.
One tool. 100+ RPG systems.
Limitless adventures.
World Anvil’s campaign manager keeps your player characters, NPCs, stat blocks, roll tables, and session reports in one easily searchable location. So when your party goes off the rails, you won’t panic. Update your plan, with just a few clicks.
Another advantage of choosing World Anvil vs LegendKeeper? True support for 100+ RPG systems, with pre-built character sheets and SRD stat blocks you can copy (and customize if you like). No building every monster and NPC from scratch.
Running games in different genres or systems? Or multiple campaigns or parties? No problem. World Anvil doesn’t just handle it. It makes it easier.
RPG Campaign Manager
- Session prep with styleDon’t just make handouts. Get players psyched!
- Build a campaign fastEmbed stat blocks, roll tables, maps & more in a virtual DM screen.
- Notes become loreThe session stream provides a record of epic character moments.
World Anvil advantages
A free plan with no deadline,
for a world that won’t stay small.
Can I stay on a free account as long as I want?
Yes. A World Anvil free account doesn’t expire, so you can build at your own pace and upgrade only when your project needs more room. LegendKeeper’s free trial lasts 14 days, and after that you need a subscription to keep creating your own projects. View the current plans →
What if my campaign grows into a web novel, web comic or litRPG?
World Anvil has dedicated fiction-writing tools, so the story can grow with the setting. Write your chapters in the novel-writing editor beside the characters, timelines and maps they depend on, and keep the lore behind your web comic or litRPG series in the same world.
Can I use World Anvil to build a TTRPG creator business?
Yes. World Anvil gives game masters and creators pro-level tools: stat blocks you can build or copy from the community library, secrets and subscriber groups to control who sees what, and publication and monetization features. Whether you’re sharing a homebrew setting or a full creator portfolio, you can run the campaign and the audience from one place.
Built with love, by geeks like you
Your world is always growing.
Your tools should keep up.
Always moving forward
Explore the World Anvil changelog to see our newest features and most recent improvements to the everyday experience of creating. We forge the path others follow.
Your ideas have a voice
Use community suggestions to share the changes you want to see and support ideas from other creators. Your experience helps shape what comes next.
Begin for free
Create a free account and start with a small project. Explore memberships when you need more capacity, privacy, or advanced tools. Choose the tools that serve your next step.
Should you use World Anvil?
Start worldbuilding
with the complete toolkit for every kind of storyteller.
You never know where imagination might lead. So why choose a worldbuilding tool that only does half of what World Anvil can? Get a software that fully supports gamemasters, novelists, game developers, and more.
For the campaign that keeps growing
World Anvil
vs Kanka
Bring your session prep, your player discoveries, your shared lore and your future adventures into one creative home. Get inspired by expertly crafted templates. See why pro GMs & published ttRPG writers use World Anvil.
Compare with KankaFor a dynamic world with deep lore
World Anvil
vs LegendKeeper
Connect your world’s map to timelines, family trees, characters and more. Dive into our library of customizable stat blocks & character sheets for 100+ TTRPGs. Oh — and World Anvil’s forever free plan won’t end in 7 days.
Compare with LegendKeeperFor stories too big for just one book
World Anvil
vs Campfire
Track world details for a series (or multiple series). Plot, draft & share your stories with Manuscripts. Turn your world bible into bonus content for your readers and let fans explore beyond the page.
Compare with CampfireYour next creative chapter
Follow your
next idea.
Explore our worldbuilding software, prepare your next adventure with the RPG campaign manager, or compare worldbuilding tools.
Begin with the part of your world you cannot wait to create. Give it a home, make a connection, and let the next idea follow.
Every great world starts somewhere
Let yours start here.
Start Creating! It’s FreeDive deeper and learn about how World Anvil can help you!