World building is something that I often talk about on my blog (obviously!) and I love to world build. And by love, I mean I LOVE LOVE LOVE doing all things world building. Worldbuilding is basically my bread-and-butter. Did I mention that I love to world build? I’m obviously just having fun with you all, but since I love to world build, I was hunting for the best tools to use to facilitate my world building experience. Of course, you can just use a pen and paper, but if you’re a tech savvy person, you probably want to know what online or computer-based world building tools you can use. So, I’ve compiled a list of ones that I’ve personally tried, tested, and loved to make a list about the top best worldbuilding tools. This includes paid and free options, and I will label each accordingly of course!
As a writer, I world build a ton and it’s the core behind why my stories connect the way they do. My series, The Fallen Age Saga, is very intensive on the world building front, and I really enjoy every step of it. I’ve also been getting into DND lately after Baldur’s Gate 3, and I know that all of you DND people out there also love to world build too. So, that’s why I’m going to share with you all the tools that I found of the most use to worldbuilding!
Before you start world building, check out my ultimate starter’s guide for beginner tips and tricks!
(affiliate disclaimer: some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means that I make a small commission at no additional cost to you when you use my links)
1. Google Drive
I know what you’re thinking: Zainah, why are you mentioning Google Drive? How on Earth could you possibly world build with Google Drive? Well, I’m glad you asked, because I have the answers to your questions.
Google Drive is basically a free online productivity suite made by Google. All you need to access it is a Google account (Gmail account) and then an internet connection. You can work offline though, by the way.
Google Drive has a system where you can use folders to organize your work and documents. I, of course, use this a lot because I would otherwise be a very disorganized writer. It was also very helpful back when I was still a student, but that’s a whole other topic for discussion.
If you want to world build with Google Drive, what you need to do is create one main folder. This is where all the information will be placed for your specific world, country, city, etc… Whatever it is that is your main thing, just create a folder for it.
Within the folder, this is where you will create documents about your world, subfolders for specific things such as characters, cities, religions, magic systems and more. The neat thing about Google Drive is that you can upload pictures and videos, so you can insert any images that you think are relevant to your world without needing to start an entire document for them.
I made an example world build in Google Drive to demonstrate what I’m talking about:
Best part about the whole thing? It’s free! And super easy to use and set up! If you’re someone that likes to take control of your world more, then this is a perfect way to do just that.
2. World Anvil
World Anvil is a great and versatile tool for world building, but it is a freemium option that you can use. Basically, there’s a free version and paid versions but the free version is a bit limited in what you can do compared to the premium versions of World Anvil.
World Anvil is amazing in that it includes things that you may not have even thought about using for your world. World Anvil splits the world building system into “articles” which you use to fill out information about certain aspects of your world.
I tried it for a story I was writing a while ago and I created some articles about characters and lore in it. I thought that it was honestly a bit too complex for beginners to world building. It can easily overwhelm you with how much stuff is in it.
The nice thing is that World Anvil has video tutorials explaining how to do everything and how to use the site, but if you’re someone like me and you don’t have the patience to sit through tutorials, this may be rough for you.
Now, if you use the free version, you will have to deal with ads and any lore/articles you publish are online for anyone to see.
As you can see, this screenshot is directly from an article I made. You can see the ads (love how much is about finance, guess Google knows what my program of study is) and that can honestly be a bit annoying to deal with.
This is what the main dashboard for your world looks like:
It’s pretty cool, and if you’ve been world building for a while, it’s an excellent tool. For pricing, it depends on if you’re paying monthly, yearly, or a lifetime subscription. My pricing is in CAD, but this is the yearly subscription prices:
3. Fantasia Archive
Fantasia Archive might be my top choice on this entire list, because it gives you the benefits of a premium world building tool while being totally free, and totally offline! So, no internet connection required. That’s because it downloads directly to your computer and you can access it like any other app you use on your laptop or PC.
Fantasia Archive is really cool because it offers a premium experience without any additional cost. It’s also really easy to navigate once you get the hang of everything.
Fantasia Archive allows for you to explain your worlds, characters, religions, countries, cities, lore, etc… all within documents. Once you’re done, you can also export your entries in Fantasia Archive as a PDF document so you can print and store it in a binder if you really want to.
Seeing as it is a free passion project someone started, there are some issues here and there but realistically speaking, it’s really good for being a free software. I can’t really ask for more from creator Elvanos. He’s really done a great job with it!
Fantasia Archive’s website shows pretty much what everything looks like in the app, but I’ll put a picture in here to show you how the interface is. It’s the same thing once you download and use it:
I personally highly recommend Fantasia Archive. I’ve used it a lot and I think it’s a great tool to use for world building.
4. Campfire Writing
Another freemium on the list is Campfire Writing. Now, I think Campfire is a pretty cool software and it’s super easy to use. It may not have the same depth and breadth as World Anvil, but it’s more accessible for beginners in my opinion.
Campfire looks pretty similar to the other tools on this list, at least in terms of its dashboard:
It’s really neatly organized and super simple to use. For example, I decided to add a new culture to my story, and this is what I got:
So, you can add and remove things as you want, since it’s really versatile like that. It’s just an easy system, which I think is its positive. It doesn’t necessarily offer more or less than the other programs on this list, but it offers flexibility and accessibility in its ease of use.
Now, the pricing model for Campfire Writing is a bit different. They call it Flexible Pricing. You basically pay for the modules you want to use but you get to try them for free first. Then, you can either pay for a standard version or just pay for the stuff you actually need.
I personally am not a huge fan of the flexible pricing, because I think it can get a bit confusing trying to figure out what you actually need, but it’s definitely a cost-saving option compared to World Anvil. Though, you get what you pay for, and you do get less in-depth features like you do with World Anvil.
5. OneNote
Another free and easily accessible software is literally Microsoft’s OneNote. OneNote is similar to Google Drive in that it is simply an organization productivity tool that you can customize to your needs. So, there’s no preset options and wikis and all that.
What you do in OneNote is you can start a new notebook. Then, each notebook has sections that you can label and fill in with whatever it is that you want. It’s pretty easy and each page in the notebooks are infinite. They expand in all directions, so you can mindmap, paste pictures, etc… Formatting options are great and you can really make each page unique and to your liking.
OneNote is a pretty popular one with world builders, especially because you can use it on both Windows and Apple devices, so you won’t have to worry about compatibility issues.
6. ChronoGrapher
ChronoGrapher is a really interesting world building tool because it acts literally like your own Wiki where you can write whatever you want about your world. Not only that, but it looks like a Wikipedia entry, which is really cool!
ChronoGrapher stores all data in Google Drive, so it’s totally yours and nobody else can access your information. Additionally, ChronoGrapher has some cool features like interactive maps that you can design.
It employs a similar system to OneNote in the infinite notes, so you can just keep writing until you don’t really feel like writing anymore.
Since it’s a Wiki engine-style platform, you can link pages to each other. So, if you reference a character on one Wiki article, you can link it to that character page. Just like in Wikipedia!
To access ChronoGrapher though, you do need to subscribe to the Patreon of the developers. It’s just like any other monthly subscription, but it’s just through Patreon this time. There is no free option, you can just try out the tools but nothing will save in the “Playground” mode.
7. Obsidian
Obsidian is another really great platform that a lot of people recommend. It’s not necessarily only for world building, but you can use it for really any other type of notetaking.
Obsidian is probably one of the more complicated ones on this list because Obsidian works off of plugins in order to tailor the experience to your own thing. For the most part, the base version of Obsidian is really just basic notetaking like you’d see on the Apple Notes app.
In order to really get the full experience for world building on Obsidian, you need to install some plugins.
It also utilizes the infinite space system so that your notes can keep going on as long as you need them to. This is obviously great for brainstorming and for people that like to really mindmap a ton.
Obsidian also stores all your work locally on your device and can work on more than just a computer, which is really cool. That also means that your work is private and apparently not even the Obsidian devs can see what you’re writing.
Its linking system also allows for a sort of Wikipedia-style article writing to take place, which is great if you like to link multiple pages together.
But of course, Obsidian does have that learning curve to it so if you want to try it, take your time. It’s really versatile though and I do recommend it because of that.
8. Notion
Another great and versatile tool is Notion. Notion is awesome as it’s not just an app for world building, but it’s an all-in-one tool. You can take notes, write your manuscript, create calendars, keep track of your school work, etc… and it’s really easy to learn.
Notion does have a paid version, but I’ve never really felt a need for it and I’ve had a great time with the basic version. If you’re not planning on doing way too much with Notion, the free version is much more than enough.
With Notion, you can customize each page to your liking and you can download other people’s templates so that you can use similar strategies as they do.
I mainly use Notion for university purposes, but it works really well as a worldbuilding tool because of how customizable it is.
It also has a built-in AI system so that you can ask it to write whatever you want. Nowadays, with AI tools like ChatGPT, there’s a lot of potential to help with world building. I’ll talk about that later though. Now, I don’t encourage you to rely WAAAY too much on AI, as I do think AI is very simplistic and doesn’t have much of a creative artistic voice, but it is a helpful tool.
For the sake of filling a Notion page, I did use the AI just to show you the interface:
It’s pretty cool, and you can do way more with it than just this.
9. Kanka
More tailored to table-top RPGs and DND, Kanka still works as a great world building tool for authors all the same. At the end of the day, DND and writing books has a lot of overlap, let’s be fair.
Kanka is a freemium service but its free version is very comprehensive and you realistically don’t need more than the free version as an author. It includes at least 20 different modules so that you can design your world the way you see fit. It also has campaign dashboards, which is where that RPG stuff comes in play.
I would recommend Kanka the least for authors though, just because it’s really a great system for DND and TRPGs, but it’s got extra features that authors don’t need like campaigns and tracking player turns. That’s not really something you need as an author, unless you’re maybe writing a book about DND stuff then maybe that’ll help you, I dunno.
The world building tools are awesome though, especially the timeline system!
10. LegendKeeper
LegendKeeper is another great tool that has a really in-depth wiki system that you can use to create Wikipedia-like entries about the features of your world. You can really add as much information as you want and you can upload huge images too so you can put in those awesome maps you’ve been designing. Speaking of maps, stay tuned for my best map builder list soon!
The maps can be interactive in LegendKeeper, meaning that you can pin locations on it and write about that location. It’s an interactive atlas basically, which is sweet!
The Wiki system is focused on getting you to write as much as you can and you have as much room as possible to do so.
You can share your work publicly if you want to, but it’s not a requirement to use the platform. However, it does run on a subscription model. There is a 14-day free trial, but after that you do need to pay $9/month or $90/year.
It’s similar in look to OneNote, but you do have more worldbuilding focused tools at your disposal within LegendKeeper than OneNote.
Ultimately, these are the top ten best worldbuilding tools that I think are useful and helpful for writers or even RPG-enthusiasts. For the most part, you don’t need to pay money just to world build and at the end of the day, you shouldn’t feel pressured to if you don’t want to.
Some of the premium services do provide more in terms of cool features, but if you’re a simplistic person, Google Drive, OneNote, and Notion are perfect free tools that keep it simple and totally in your hands.
I personally use a mix of Fantasia Archive, a real notebook on my desk, and my iPad (Goodnotes). I have tried most of the other tools for my own writing, but I didn’t really stick to them. Of course, it ultimately depends on your personal preference. Each person really has their own thing that they like to do, so pick what works for you and don’t worry about it!
I’ve also started to use Scrivener for writing my books and world building, so I recommend you check out this post I made where I give information on how to use Scrivener for books and world building.
Happy world building!