🥪 Worldbuilding and Story Planning - Tools and Websites 🥪

Fantasia Archive - Offline Worldbuilding Organization Tool

This is a free tool that can help organize characters, chapter outlines, locations, and a multitude of other things. It’s perfect for those of us who like to have everything sorted into its proper place. I haven’t personally used this tool, but it has some advantages to Campfire Blaze, so I wanted to list it first.

Campfire Blaze - Online Worldbuilding Organization Tool

Like the above tool, Campfire is great for organizing notes and documents for your story. Unlike the above tool, it isn’t free. There’s both a subscription-based and life-time purchase option, and you can purchase which modules you actually need (for example, if you don’t create conlangs, you don’t need to buy the language module). It’s not too pricey compared to some similar tools, but I’d still suggest looking for promo to take a little off the price.

I’ve listed this and not World Anvil because lifetime price options start at $880 for World Anvil, while Campfire’s maximum price is $375. With most Campfire modules going between $30 and $7.50 each, and likely not all of them being needed, you probably won’t even reach that high in price. The subscription prices for World Anvil are a little better than their lifeline prices, but that doesn’t help if you’re like me and don’t like subscription models. Also, note that each Campfire module is permanently accessible through a trial mode, where you can use it with limited elements. So if you’re only creating a single magic system for your project, you don’t even need to buy the Magic module.

Blaze stores your project in the cloud, but there is also an offline version of the program available if you’d prefer that. You will need to go online once a month and verify your purchase, even if you bought lifetime access. If the offline project file is different from the one stored in the cloud, you can select which one overwrites the other. There is also a Campfire mobile app currently in beta testing (as of writing this, July 16th 2022), which I’m sure will be great for the lunatics like me who write books on their phone.

Also, I don’t know if Campfire Pro is still available for purchase, but don’t buy it. It’s no longer supported. Just get Fantasia Archive instead, as Campfire Pro is basically just an always-offline, older version of Campfire Blaze anyway. So if you don’t need cloud storage or a companion mobile app, I’d look at Fantasia Archive first.

Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator

If you’re looking for a tool to create a world map, this one is quite in-depth once you get the hang of it. Though it’s a great tool as it is right now, AFMG is still in active development. You can modify everything from heightmaps and landmasses, to cultures, to town locations, to societal borders, and even weather patterns. If you don’t like the map that’s generated, you can even wipe out the whole thing and start painting landmasses from scratch.

Vulgar - A Fantasy Language Generator (Conlang tool)

I’m personally not a conlang enthusiast, but this tool is a quick and dirty way of getting a constructed language going.

Family Echo - Family Tree Maker

A tool for easily creating family trees. You can add details like birthdays and death days, surname changes, bios, interests, and other things. Unfortunately for writers like George R.R. Martin, it does not allow users to mark out incest, meaning this isn’t a good tool for writers looking to create worlds with a monarchy that emulates the typical marriage habits of the real world royalty.

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I have also compiled the above resources into a single Google document, if you would prefer to browse through the lists that way. The link can be found here: Sandwich's Writing Resources Compilation Link