Best D&D Campaign Planning Tools Compared

Every GM hits the same wall. You're running a campaign. The world has grown. There are NPCs the party forgot about, plot threads you forgot about, and a capital city you described differently in sessions four and twelve. Your players remember everything. You can't find your own notes.

So you go looking for campaign planning software. And you find a dozen options with overlapping feature sets, wildly different pricing models, and fan communities that each insist their tool is the right one. The truth is simpler. These tools solve the same problem with different assumptions about how GMs think, organize, and prep. The right one depends on your brain, not your budget.

I've run campaigns in all six of the tools below. Some for months, some for years. This is what I'd tell a friend who asked me which one to pick.

The Six Tools

The tools in this comparison: World Anvil, Obsidian, Notion, Microsoft OneNote, Campfire, and Kanka. Each one represents a distinct approach to the same problem. I've organized them by philosophy rather than alphabetical order, because philosophy is what actually determines whether you'll stick with a tool past the first session.

World Anvil: The Encyclopedia Approach

Price: Free tier available. Paid plans from ~$5/month to ~$15/month billed annually.
Platform: Web-based.
Learning curve: Steep. Expect two to four hours before you feel oriented.

World Anvil treats your campaign as an encyclopedia. You create articles for characters, locations, organizations, magic items, historical events, species, religions, and about forty other categories. Each article type has a dedicated template with specific fields. A character article prompts you for physical description, personality traits, relationships, goals, and secrets. A location article asks for geography, population, government, and notable landmarks.

The strength here is comprehensiveness. If you want to document every aspect of your world in structured, interlinked entries, World Anvil gives you the architecture for it. Every article can link to every other article using @-mention syntax. Your dragon's lair links to the dragon's character page, which links to the faction that hired the party to kill it, which links to the city where they got the quest. Over time, your world becomes a navigable wiki.

The secrets system is built for GMs running active campaigns. You can write a paragraph in any article and mark it as a secret visible only to you, or visible to specific players. Your players can browse your world wiki and see everything you've published. The information you're holding back stays hidden until you reveal it in play.

World Anvil's interactive maps let you pin locations and link each pin to its article. Click a pin on the continent map, and you're reading about the Dwarven Holds. Click the Dwarven Holds, and you're reading about the king who rules them. For worlds with complex geography, this layer of spatial navigation is genuinely useful.

Where World Anvil Struggles

The interface is dense. Menus nest inside menus. Features hide in settings panels you discover weeks after signing up. New users frequently create a few articles, get overwhelmed by the options they haven't touched, and abandon the tool. The power is real, but so is the learning curve.

Formatting uses BBCode for advanced layouts. If you want columns, callout boxes, or styled sections, you're writing code that looks like old-forum markup. For GMs who just want to type notes, this is friction.

CSS customization requires actual web development knowledge. The default themes look fine, but making your world's presentation match your vision means writing stylesheets. Most GMs never bother. The ones who do spend time they could have spent prepping sessions.

The free tier is limited enough that serious use requires a subscription. The subscription is reasonable for the feature set, but it's an ongoing cost for as long as you run campaigns. If you stop paying, your content is still accessible, but editing and advanced features lock.

Best for: GMs who run long-term campaigns in densely detailed worlds. GMs who enjoy the worldbuilding process as much as the game itself. GMs who want their players to browse a campaign wiki between sessions. If you've compared World Anvil and Campfire before, the campaign management features tip the scale toward World Anvil for TTRPG use.

Obsidian: The Connected Notes Approach

Price: Free. Sync ($8/month) and Publish ($16/month) are optional paid features.
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android.
Learning curve: Moderate. The basics take thirty minutes. The plugin ecosystem takes weeks to learn well.

Obsidian stores your campaign as plain Markdown files on your computer. That's the entire pitch. You own the files. They're readable in any text editor. They'll exist in twenty years regardless of what happens to the company.

For campaign management, Obsidian's bidirectional linking is the standout feature. Create a note for each NPC, location, faction, and quest. Every time you mention "[[Lord Varn]]" in any note, Obsidian creates a link. Open Lord Varn's note, and the backlinks panel shows every session log, location, and plot thread that references him. You build the index by writing. The connections assemble themselves.

The community plugin library has over a thousand options. For GMs, the most relevant are: Dataview (query your notes like a database), Templater (create structured templates for NPCs, locations, and session logs), Kanban (track quest status on a board), and Leaflet (embed interactive maps). Install these four and you have a campaign management system that rivals purpose-built tools.

A Dataview query like this pulls every NPC the party has met, sorted by faction:

```dataview
TABLE faction, status, last-seen
FROM "NPCs"
WHERE met = true
SORT faction ASC
```

That query updates live. Add a new NPC note with met: true in the frontmatter, and the table includes them automatically. No manual list maintenance.

Session prep in Obsidian looks like a note with links to the relevant NPCs, locations, and plot threads. During the session, you type notes in a session log. After the session, you create notes for anything new the party encountered. The vault grows organically as the campaign progresses.

Where Obsidian Struggles

There is no player-facing component out of the box. World Anvil and Kanka let your players browse a wiki. Obsidian is your private vault. Sharing information with players means exporting, screenshotting, or paying for Obsidian Publish. Most GMs who use Obsidian maintain a separate channel (Discord, a shared Google Doc) for player-facing campaign info.

The blank-vault problem hits GMs hard. You open Obsidian for the first time and see an empty folder. No templates, no structure, no guidance. You have to build your own system, and building systems is a procrastination trap. Some GMs spend weeks designing the perfect vault and never prep a session.

Sync across devices requires either Obsidian Sync (paid), iCloud (Apple only), or a cloud storage workaround that occasionally creates file conflicts. For a deeper look at Obsidian's setup process and plugin workflow, the fiction writer's guide covers the technical details.

Best for: GMs who want full ownership of their data. GMs who enjoy building systems and customizing workflows. GMs who already use Obsidian for other purposes and want their campaign notes in the same vault. Tech-comfortable GMs who don't mind a setup weekend.

Notion: The Flexible Database Approach

Price: Free for personal use. Plus plan $10/month for extra features.
Platform: Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android.
Learning curve: Low to moderate. Drag-and-drop interface. Database views take practice.

Notion treats your campaign as a collection of databases you design yourself. An NPC database. A location database. A quest tracker. A session log. Each database has properties you define: name, faction, status, alignment, last session appeared, whatever fields matter to your game. Each entry is also a full page where you can write as much or as little as you want.

The killer feature for GMs is linked databases with filtered views. Your NPC database might have sixty entries. Create a filtered view that shows only NPCs in the city the party is currently visiting. Create another view that shows only NPCs with unresolved plot hooks. Create a view for each faction. The same data, sliced six different ways, each view answering a different question you'll have during prep or at the table.

Notion's sharing model works well for campaign groups. Share a page with your players, and they can see what you've published. Keep your GM notes in a separate, unshared section. The permissions are simpler than World Anvil's secrets system but easier to manage.

Templates in Notion let you standardize entries. Create an NPC template with all the fields you track, and every new NPC starts with the same structure. The consistency makes your campaign notes searchable and queryable in ways that freeform notes can't match.

Where Notion Struggles

Notion requires an internet connection for full functionality. Offline mode exists but it's unreliable for anything beyond reading cached pages. If you prep at a coffee shop with spotty wifi or run games at a location without internet, this is a real problem.

Performance degrades with large databases. A campaign that runs for two years and accumulates hundreds of NPC entries, session logs, and location pages will start feeling sluggish. Page loads slow down. Search takes longer. The tool works best for campaigns that are still growing rather than campaigns with years of accumulated data.

There's no native interlinking as elegant as Obsidian's bidirectional links or World Anvil's @-mention system. You can create relations between databases (link an NPC to a location), but discovering connections you didn't explicitly create requires manual work. Notion organizes what you structure deliberately. It doesn't surface hidden connections.

Best for: GMs who think in spreadsheets and databases. GMs who want to share selective information with players without managing a separate wiki. GMs who already use Notion for work or personal organization and want their campaign in the same ecosystem.

Microsoft OneNote: The Digital Notebook Approach

Price: Free with a Microsoft account.
Platform: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Web.
Learning curve: Very low. If you've used a physical notebook, you can use OneNote.

OneNote replicates the experience of a physical notebook with tabs and sections. Your campaign notebook might have tabs for NPCs, Locations, Quests, Session Notes, and Random Tables. Each tab contains pages. Each page is a freeform canvas where you can type anywhere, paste images, embed files, and draw.

The freeform canvas is OneNote's defining feature. Click anywhere on a page and start typing. Drag an image next to your notes. Draw a rough map with a stylus. There's no template enforcing structure. Your session notes can look however your brain works in the moment. For GMs who prep by scribbling, sketching, and brainstorming spatially, this freedom matters.

OneNote's search indexes everything, including handwritten notes and text in images. Two years into a campaign, you can search "Baron Aldric" and find every page where you mentioned him, whether you typed his name or wrote it with a stylus on your tablet.

Sharing works through Microsoft's ecosystem. Share a notebook with your group, and everyone sees the same content. No secrets system, no per-player permissions. If you want to hide GM notes from players, keep them in a separate notebook.

Where OneNote Struggles

The complete lack of structure means organizational discipline falls entirely on you. There's no NPC template prompting you to fill in motivation, secrets, and connections. No database views filtering your entries. No automatic linking. Your campaign notes are only as organized as you make them, and after sixty sessions, most GMs find their OneNote notebooks have devolved into searchable chaos.

OneNote has no TTRPG-specific features. No secrets, no interactive maps, no random tables, no encounter builders. It's a general-purpose tool pressed into campaign service. It does a fine job at storing information and a mediocre job at helping you use it.

Syncing through OneDrive occasionally creates conflicts, especially with large notebooks. Sections can fail to sync and require manual intervention. This is rare but devastating when it happens the morning before a session.

Best for: GMs who want zero learning curve and zero cost. GMs who use a tablet and stylus for prep. GMs who already live in the Microsoft ecosystem. GMs who prefer freeform note-taking over structured databases and treat their campaign notes like a physical notebook.

Campfire: The Modular Toolkit Approach

Price: Free base. Individual modules $5-$15 each. Full bundle approximately $50-$100 depending on sales.
Platform: Web and desktop app (Windows, Mac).
Learning curve: Low. Clean interface with focused modules.

Campfire lets you buy individual modules for the types of content you actually track. Need characters and maps? Buy those two modules. Don't care about timelines? Skip it. Each module does one thing with a clean, focused interface. The Character module shows characters. The Map module shows maps. There are no submenus to get lost in.

The relationship mapping feature is Campfire's standout for GMs running politically complex campaigns. Draw connections between characters: allies, enemies, rivals, family members, secret alliances. The visual web shows you the social landscape of your campaign at a glance. When a player asks "wait, how is the baron connected to the thieves' guild?", you have the answer on screen in two clicks.

Campfire also includes a timeline module that lays out events chronologically. For campaigns with complex histories or time-sensitive plot threads (the ritual happens in three days, the army arrives in a week), a visual timeline keeps you honest about what happens when.

Where Campfire Struggles

Campfire was designed for fiction writers, and the TTRPG-specific features reflect that gap. There's no secrets system for hiding information from players. No interactive map with linked pins. No session logging or encounter design features. You're using a worldbuilding tool for campaign management, and the seams show.

Module costs add up. If you want every module Campfire offers, you'll spend more than a year of World Anvil or Kanka subscriptions. The modular pricing saves money only if you're selective about what you buy.

There's no built-in community or player-sharing features. Campfire is a single-user tool. If you want players to access your campaign information, you'll need to export or screenshot.

Best for: GMs who also write fiction and want their worldbuilding in a tool that works for both. GMs who value a clean interface over feature depth. GMs running homebrew campaigns where the worldbuilding is the point and the game system is secondary.

Kanka: The Open-Source Wiki Approach

Price: Free tier (generous). Premium from ~$5/month.
Platform: Web-based.
Learning curve: Low to moderate. Similar to World Anvil but with a simpler interface.

Kanka occupies the space between World Anvil's feature density and Notion's simplicity. It's a TTRPG-focused wiki with entity types for characters, locations, organizations, quests, journals, items, and more. Each entity has customizable attributes, and entities link to each other through typed relationships (ally, enemy, member of, ruler of).

Where Kanka differentiates itself is in the permissions system. You can grant individual players access to specific entities. Player A sees the NPCs they've met. Player B, who joined later, sees fewer entries. You can reveal information to specific players at specific times, which is exactly what running a campaign with secrets requires.

Kanka's calendar system lets you create custom calendars with custom months, weeks, and moon phases. Track the in-game date. Log events on specific dates. If your campaign world doesn't use the Gregorian calendar (and it shouldn't), Kanka handles this natively. World Anvil does this too, but Kanka's implementation is cleaner and available on the free tier.

The quest tracker lets you define quests with objectives, assign them to characters, and mark progress. It's a lightweight project management tool shaped for tabletop campaigns. When your party is juggling five active quests and you need to know which ones have unresolved objectives, the tracker gives you the answer.

Where Kanka Struggles

Kanka's community is smaller than World Anvil's. There are fewer tutorials, fewer community templates, and fewer examples of well-built campaigns to learn from. You'll figure things out through experimentation rather than YouTube guides.

The mapping tools are basic compared to World Anvil's interactive maps. You can upload maps and pin locations, but the pin interaction and layering options are more limited.

Advanced features like the dashboard, entity abilities tracking, and some attribute types require premium. The free tier is genuinely usable (more so than World Anvil's free tier), but power users will hit the paywall eventually.

Best for: GMs who want World Anvil's wiki approach with a simpler interface. GMs who need granular player permissions. GMs running campaigns with custom calendars, multiple quests, and complex faction politics. Budget-conscious GMs who want the most features at the free tier.

How to Choose: A Decision Framework

Stop comparing feature lists. Every one of these tools has enough features to manage a campaign. The question is how you think about information.

If you think in articles and wiki entries, use World Anvil or Kanka. Your brain wants to create an encyclopedia of your world, and these tools match that instinct. Choose World Anvil if you want community features and interactive maps. Choose Kanka if you want a simpler interface with better player permissions.

If you think in connections and linked notes, use Obsidian. Your brain wants to see how everything relates to everything else. Bidirectional links and backlinks create the web of relationships that structured databases can't replicate. Accept the setup cost. The payoff compounds over time.

If you think in databases and filtered views, use Notion. Your brain wants to sort, filter, and slice your campaign data from different angles. Notion's database views let you answer questions like "which NPCs in this city have unresolved plot hooks" with a saved filter. If you already use Notion for other things, the transition cost is zero.

If you think in freeform spatial layouts, use OneNote. Your brain wants a blank canvas, a stylus, and the freedom to put information wherever it makes sense in the moment. Accept that your notes will be less organized. Search compensates for a lot.

If you think in focused modules and visual maps, use Campfire. Your brain wants one tool per task with a clean interface. Buy only the modules that match how you prep. Accept the trade-off of fewer TTRPG-specific features.

The Hybrid Approach

Most experienced GMs use more than one tool. A common setup: Obsidian for personal prep and session notes, plus a shared Notion page (or a Kanka wiki) for player-facing campaign information. Another combo: World Anvil for the world wiki, OneNote on a tablet for at-the-table notes during play.

The hybrid approach works when each tool handles a distinct job. It fails when you're duplicating information across tools and struggling to keep both copies current. If you go hybrid, define a clear rule: this tool holds the source of truth for X. That tool holds the source of truth for Y. Never let the same information live in two places without a clear primary.

What Matters More Than Your Tool

Your session prep structure matters more than your campaign management software. A GM with a clear session structure and a messy Google Doc will run better sessions than a GM with a pristine World Anvil wiki and no prep framework. The tool stores information. The framework tells you what to do with it.

Specifically, these habits determine whether any tool works for you:

Update after every session. Spend fifteen minutes after each session logging what happened, creating entries for new NPCs and locations, and noting unresolved threads. If you skip this, every tool devolves into outdated notes within a month. The tool can't remind you to use it.

Prep situations, not scripts. Your campaign tool should describe what's true about your world right now. The duke is planning a coup. The dragon's hoard contains a cursed artifact. The thieves' guild is running low on members. These are situations your players will interact with. How they interact is their job. If your notes read like a script ("first the party goes to the tavern, then the blacksmith tells them about the dungeon"), your tool is holding the wrong kind of information.

Separate world reference from session prep. Your tool should hold two kinds of notes: reference material (who are the NPCs, where are the locations, what are the factions doing) and session prep (what's the hook tonight, what could escalate, what's the potential cliffhanger). Keep these distinct. Reference material is permanent. Session prep is disposable after game night.

Use your tool at the table. A campaign wiki you only open during prep is half a tool. The full value comes from having it open during play. When a player asks "what was that merchant's name?" and you can search and answer in five seconds, the tool has earned its place. When you can't find the answer and say "I'll figure it out later," the tool is failing.

The One-Week Test

Pick one tool from this list. Spend one week with it. Create ten NPC entries, five locations, and one session prep document. Then run a session with it open on your laptop or tablet.

After the session, answer three questions:

Could you find information when you needed it? If you searched for an NPC during play and found them in under ten seconds, the tool's organization works for your brain. If you fumbled through menus and gave up, it doesn't.

Did you enjoy adding information to it? If updating your campaign notes after the session felt like a chore, you'll stop doing it within a month. If it felt satisfying (watching your world grow, filling in a character's profile, linking a new location to the map), you'll keep going.

Did the tool help you during prep? Pull up your NPC list before the next session. Did having structured entries help you spot plot hooks, remember unresolved threads, or notice connections between NPCs? Or did you end up ignoring the tool and prepping from memory anyway?

If any answer is no, try a different tool. The investment is one week. The cost of committing to the wrong tool for a two-year campaign is far higher.

Start tonight. Open the tool, create your first ten entries, and prep your next session in it. Your players won't know the difference yet. You will.