If you’re looking for your next worldbuilding tool but can’t decide which one to choose, then you’ve come to the right place as we’re comparing two notable options: Legendkeeper and Campfire. Each has their own advantages, which we’re going to outline and pit against one another to help you make the right choice.

What is Campfire and what does it offer?

Campfire is a worldbuilding app and publishing platform. This means that you can concept and design your own worlds, before publishing your work as either a worldbuilding plan or even a complete book/s that other users can read. 

Campfire’s worldbuilding app features a collection of different tools that you can use to create your worlds, such as manuscripts for story outlines, profiles for characters, world maps and loose-form articles for more general worldbuilding. 

Whilst Campfire does include a free version, it comes with heavy restrictions like a word limit and strict restrictions on tools. Subscribing to a paid version of Campfire, allows you to customize your platform with worldbuilding elements you want unlimited access to, with every tool costing a certain amount per month/year/lifetime. 

All Campfire users have unlimited storage, collaboration, as well as the ability to export and publish.

Though Campfire includes worldbuilding tools, it’s a platform that’s geared more towards novice book authors than RPG campaign designers - which may not work for you. 

What is Legendkeeper and what does it offer?

Legendkeeper is a worldbuilding website that focuses on campaign worldbuilding over book publishing . 

With Legendkeeper, you’ll be able to imagine and create awesome worlds using its many tools; craft comprehensive characters with the wiki and editor functions, make interactive maps and use boards to brainstorm ideas with your players. You can create an unlimited number of pages and projects through Legendkeeper, as well as upload as many images and files without limits to number or size.

LegendKeeper worldbuilders are able to export their projects and publish them so they can freely share them with their TRPG players, as well as other worldbuilders. At the same time, your projects are kept secure and can only be accessed if you choose to share them with a link. Projects made in Legendkeeper may be collaborated on by multiple users/guests at the same time, with the option to keep any parts of your project a secret from visitors. 

For DMs, GMs and campaign planners, Legendkeeper is a comprehensive, easy-to-use and secure worldbuilding platform that avoids unnecessarily complicated systems, so that you can focus on doing what you do best: creating.

Why is Legendkeeper a better worldbuilding alternative to Campfire?

You hopefully now have a clearer picture of what Campfire and Legendkeeper are and what they can offer individually - let’s see how they hold up when compared against each other.

Legendkeeper is a more flexible, cleaner and interconnected platform

Though some worldbuilders might certainly prefer Campfire’s approach to organizing its platform by different worldbuilding resources, others could find that the platform feels rigid and over-catalogued. Users are forced to keep characters, maps, religions, magic systems and other aspects of their world inside separate sections. Though links can be added to certain things like maps and article pages, the structuring of Campfire’s platform provides a less open-ended, free-flowing and creator-driven approach. 

In contrast, Legendkeeper’s platform offers a more interconnected and flexible creator experience, where users’ different worldbuilding parts are separated by documentation type: allowing you to put languages, history and locations in the same section, if that makes sense to you. Legendkeeper gives you the reins when it comes to how you want to format and organize your projects, as well as the option to quickly link different elements to one another, or even nest them in another page: like put entire maps in a relevant location page for example.

Legendkeeper is accessible and easy-to-use

If you’re someone who likes using a busier platform with tons of options available from the off, then Campfire could be the worldbuilding app for you. However, if you’re looking for a more accessible and easy-to-use platform, Legendkeeper is definitely the way to go. Legendkeeper’s uncluttered approach, will mean that you spend less time trying to work out how to use it and more time actually creating - especially with its fast formatting features. 

The option to make templates from your existing elements and pages, means that you can quickly jump into creating new parts of your world. Having access to a collection of ready-made starter maps, could help you to skip the parts of worldbuilding you don’t like, in favour of the ones you love. Additionally, brainstorming ideas for your world is even easier with Legendkeeper’s boards tool, which allows for more free-flowing expression that’s perfect for cutting through any writer’s block you might have. 

Legendkeeper has a more straightforward and affordable subscription model

Yes, Campfire has a free version. However, anyone looking to create a vast epic world, or multiple worlds, is going to struggle to get far with this. The restrictions on the number of the key modules - like characters and maps - mean that Campfire’s free version is not a very viable option for the long term. Furthermore, whilst some users might appreciate the customizability of Campfire’s subscription model, others may resent how complicated it is.

By contrast, Legendkeeper offers a single, extremely straightforward subscription that contains everything you need - no choosing between modules required. Additionally, in order to unlock the unlimited versions of all the features offered with Legendkeeper’s single subscription, Campfire users need to sign up to 9 different modules which collectively cost $15.50 a month. In comparison, Legendkeeper costs just $9 a month on a monthly subscription, and only $7.50 per month on an annual subscription.

These are just some of the things that make Legendkeeper a great worldbuilding tool, find out more by visiting our features pages or signing up right now.