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Reviews 236
Devon Ruscheinski
Dec 22,2021I've been using World Anvil since January of 2019, and what started as a simple place for me create timelines for an ongoing Pathfinder campaign very quickly became a place for me to creatively express myself like I've never done before. This service is deep -- really deep. There's a mind boggling amount of tools on the platform. I can see how it might be a bit intimidating at first -- but there's solutions to that as well, with a large number of very helpful tutorials and codex articles explaining features in depth. I was drawn into these features very rapidly, starting from the ability to link different parts of my world together within articles. I started with a journeyman account (I skipped the free account because I could already tell I wanted more), and very quickly upgraded to master soon after. For me personally, the best part about this tool-set of World Anvil, and the part that got me to upgrade to Grandmaster (with the intention of never leaving), is the incredible customization options you have for your work. They provide you with a good base to build your world via some templates, almost like building blocks, but then also allow you to entirely forgo that and let your imagination run wild. There's also CSS themes to pick and choose from as another easy way to frame your work, but once again at a high enough subscription level, you're allowed to take complete control and write your own custom CSS to make it uniquely yours. There's also the added benefit that the people running World Anvil are incredibly kind, constantly giving back to the community they're building. That same community is definitely one of the most welcome places on the internet I've found myself within, which I think stands as a testament to the quality of both World Anvil and those who make it.
Kelban
Dec 22,2021Worldanvil is great for getting your world for your roleplaying game in order, regardless of whether it's entirely homebrew or a customized version of an existing setting. You can create characters, locations, items, spells, wars, maps... and link everything with everything else, so you don't have to think twice about who that NPC with that strange name was again. What comes on top is the amazing and very active community of worldbuilders over on the WA discord, where you can bounce worldbuilding ideas around, read other peoples' articles for inspiration, or participate in contests to keep the motivation going. However, WA's streamlined process also makes it very easy to sink a lot of time into worldbuilding - far more than one might need for an RPG adventure - which can easily lead to burn-out. So be wary of that!
Jacklyn Rockwell
Dec 22,2021In 2017, after Google's changes to GSites made them no longer a viable wiki option for storing my world and campaign notes, I began working on a personal, local alternative. A short ways into that, I found WA. Even then, in its early days, it had more tools and control available to it than Google's janky html editor and limited styling, let alone anything I could produce. I joined the site as a Master subscriber, but have been a Deity-level subscriber for years now, and I don't regret a single penny. Try it for free. It's not a trial, it's just free. If you like it, buy a Journeyman sub, if you like that and find yourself wanting more of its tools, upgrade. All prices are pro-rated, so no money is lost. Take your time, and ease into it. World Anvil has become the home base for all things related to my setting, and has integrated well into my Discord social hub and successful related Patreon. Dimi, Janet, and the rest of the growing team are responsive, helpful people who take community feedback very seriously. The team is constantly adding features, some of which I could no longer live without. There are alternatives, but nothing with the same kind of raw worldbuilding horsepower under the hood. Do yourself a service and come join us on the Anvil :)
gajusmaximus
Dec 22,2021Hello there, in short, I can recommend World Anvil without hesitation. For more details, read on! For my background: I've been a gamemaster for almost two decades now. I love telling stories and I have high expectations of myself when it comes to consistency of the game worlds I create for my players or some short stories. So, when I moved to another town, my players and I had to play digitally. This was when I started to manage my game notes digitally, too. I don't know anymore, how I did it before. But at first, I had, as many others, countless documents, tables, even mind-maps and battlemaps lying around in a directory on my hard drive. It was a mess and I had serious issues keeping track of NPCs, Events and other stuff of my world. Since more than two years now, I use World Anvil (find my public world under "Novum" by gajusmaximus for reference). What does it do for you? Well first of all, it is very handy when it comes to managing your notes. In my opinion the most powerful tool is the feature to link an article of the world to another. The editor of World Anvil supports this by suggesting you the desired article when you type @ plus three letters of said article name. Other very handy tools are maps with integrated pins, said pins may be linked to articles or other maps as well. With the maps you can track the progress of your players (or characters if you are an author or novelist) or you can make notes for yourself. The third major feature I would like to mention are timelines. In timelines you can sort events (of course linked to articles and maps) to get a handy overview over the stuff happening in your world. I use timelines myself to track the events happening in my games, to sort the plan of my big bad and to synchronize two parallel storylines for a novel, which I'm writing. Benefit over other software? Now, there are many tools for managing your data. You could use wordpress, any wiki-software or basically any other knowledge database. But World Anvil has that little extra, which I didn't find with other companies. It is a closed system which benefits from being created as a whole. Every feature can create synergetic effects with the others. Still, after all that time, I still discover new ways to improve my experience with World Anvil even more. Another major feature, which I didn’t find somewhere else are the templates for all kind of articles. These templates suggest some details on the thing you are creating. For example, you can create a species, which is supposed to live in your world. The template comes with rather generic prompts like morphology, geographic distribution and so on. But it also comes with prompts like body tint, symbiotic species or social structure. Of course, you may consider all of it for yourself. But the prompts are figured out by many people, so I have more time for actual worldbuilding and less figuring out what to write next. I think, the templates are a good source of inspiration. Its alive! I also would like to mention, that World Anvil is a growing and breathing platform. It has a suggestion feature, which users can use to suggest features themselves. This includes new prompts for templates, ui changes or completely new features. Following that, the platform offers new features regularly. World Anvil has a living community, too. If I need help, I visit the official discord, where you can always find someone to help you with a certain problem. Even the devs hang out there most of the time. Once I had some issues with one thing or another. But I was helped quite fast in each case. Customization of the presentation: As you may notice when visiting the worlds of others, you can configure the presentation of your world quite freely. I've seen some real magic happening with some worlds using crazy CSS-stuff. There is a minor drawback when using World Anvil. If you want your presentation to look outstanding or if you have a very special taste, you have to learn at least the basics of BBCode and CSS (which is not hard, though). Nevertheless, you get a decent presentation without any coding knowledge. Some final words about pricing: You can use World Anvil for free. Sure, you can pay to unlock some neat features. But the most essential stuff works without paying anything. If you want to create a private world, which is not accessible by others, you have to pay at least for the Journeyman membership, which is 55 € per year. I use the subscription at grandmaster-level which is 115 € per year. I think the pricing is very decent, especially considering the quick service and all the features it comes with (listed above and much more). Therefore, I can recommend World Anvil, if you want to do serious worldbuilding or manage your world notes properly.
Ryn Clark
Dec 21,2021World Anvil is a website for world building and I love it! I use it for creating the worlds for my novels rather than the usual for TTRPG, but that doesn't make it any less useful. I've been there for about a year now and while there is a slight learning curve to getting started, it's not bad at all and once you're in the community you will never want to leave! I have never had such support for my creations, even from friends, let alone strangers. I really recommend joining and becoming an active member because that's where it becomes so worth it.
CB Ash
Dec 21,2021I have been playing table top RPGs since 1982. My first ruleset was the D&D Red Box set, followed quickly by the original Star Frontiers by the old TSR company. I think it was maybe a month later when I started writing notes for my own world using a paper notebook. The rest is history. Table top RPGs have been a lifelong passion and hobby of mine ever since. Since then, I’ve used Evernote, Onenote, Word, Google Docs, Tidlywiki, and other tools to store notes for games, and then later for manuscripts. They worked, but were clumsy, and in cases of Google Docs, might not always reliably load. World Anvil does all what those others could do and more. Where Evernote, Onenote, etc. are focused on ‘note taking’, ‘document composition’, World Anvil is focused on world building. It doesn’t matter if this world building is for writing a book, play, radio play, short story, or for table top gaming. Some background: I am long time senior software architect. So I can say in a professional capacity, and personal use experience, that World Anvil is a flexible content management platform that allows a user to customize the platform to suit their workflow. If you are a writer, this platform will help you as much, or as little, as you need. Your content is kept private and secure if desired, or public. There are options available to allow a writer to create their own ‘writer page’ with white-labeling. For a gamer? It is gold. There can be multiple campaigns run in a given game world. Interactive character sheets exist for the major game systems on the market. Recently, support for ‘play by post’ has been added to further enrich the platform. The platform uses ‘article templates’ based on concept ( species, organization, etc ) with optional prompts to help spur your imagination while creating. I have found this invaluable for creating content for sessions, games, and stories. Interactive maps that let you link pins on a map back to articles for players to read more details if they choose. I 100% recommend this platform. It really feels like the next best step for anyone wanting to store creative content in a secure environment for a book, rpg game, and such related items. Now, does it have any warts and down sides? Sure. All content management platforms have them. At the time I’m writing this, World Anvil is still in ‘Beta’ and is working hard to reach full release. During part of this work, World Anvil is under regular review and works to correct those flaws quickly as possible. The development staff are very transparent about the development roadmap and where the architecture is going. As a software professional, I can assure you this is not common. Most software-as-a-service businesses outside of World Anvil will not be transparent or will intentionally mislead you for business purposes. World Anvil is 100% honest and upfront on the direction they are developing in, why or why not they are making certain choices. The community on the discord is large but friendly. They are very willing to help newcomers get started in any area of World Anvil that may seem overwhelming. Customer support is available and receptive to hearing troubles and helping resolve them as best they can. I have tried dozens of platforms, software tools and more. But its World Anvil that has genuinely helped me with writing and organizational needs for gaming and writing. Again, I 100% recommend this platform.
Randall Dunigan
Dec 21,2021World anvil is a feature rich and well maintained app. Given the wealth of options and continuous development, I am surprised it id as stable as it is. I work in Software development myself, and I can say from experience that this app is excellent. As a GM, I can say that it is an essential tool. It is just too convenient to have a searchable world wiki. Not just for my players, but for me as well.
Qurilion
Dec 21,2021I've been using WorldAnvil since 2018 now and have wathed the tools evolve since those early days. Before WA, I used to keep all my tabletop RPG notes and writing ideas scattered across seventeen different physical notepads... Which was a nightmare, whenever I had to actually reference anything. For me, World Anvil has become sort of the central hub I use for almost all of my writing/notetaking - its easy to use, easy to share, and looks great with little effort. I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to get their notes in order. As a bonus, World Anvil has what is probably the nicest communities on the internet, with the developers active on the Discord and with regular streams. It's a great time, and I'm aiming for another million words written on there soon!
Denver White
Dec 21,2021I have been a World Anvil user for a few years now, and it has really helped organise my game world, link it all together and keep it generally neat and accessible. There are A LOT of features so knowing what bits will help you the most takes a little time to figure out, thankfully their discord community is amazing and you can usually get help for anything right away. Friendly staff, excellent development goals for new features and no issues with payments or subscriptions. Highly recommended, no other platform has managed to satisfy my world-building needs like this one.
Ben McGowan
Dec 21,2021I was charged for the renewal of an annual subscription without being notified in advance that the renewal was pending. I contacted the company within an hour of the charge for a refund, and was point-blank refused. This is essentially subscription-trapping, especially given they don't give fair notice of auto-renewal as stipulated by the "fair subscription terms" sheet produced by the AMC based on the Consumer Contracts Regulations. Avoid this company; they will take your money and politely laugh in your face if you try to get it back.
Jan Kaltenecker
Dec 13,2021Using this webapp for about two years now after trying almost any other similar pieces of software, including writing my own purpose-built implementation. It is opinionated in how to approach your world building but allows for a wide range of customization. The most important fact is that the base assumption is for an author having the wish to share with others. The community is extremely helpful, and the developers proactively engage with the user base to refine the experience, resulting in almost daily updates. There is even a built-in voting system for users to propose changes. Outside their product, the company was really helpful, taking care of me when I botched a purchase of a gift subscription by not reading everything the page said. The only big downside of this astonishing development cycle is that documentation can be on the thin side for some features, can be lacking or severely outdated. Joining the Discord Community should be seen as a part of using the Application. Pricing is appropriate to the number of features, with fine-grained subscription levels and prorated upgrades.
Fry
Dec 12,2021When I got into table top RPG's, and building my own world I started off with a Word document. I then transitioned into using Cherrytree, and even tried Onenote, Mediawiki and other systems. However: World Anvil has blown all of them out of the water for building a homebrew world, where I can make sure each thread is properly tied to the next thread, where I know which building has what owner, and when I quickly add something to a location or person, I know that during our next game I can click through the world to get where we left off. Session notes are just like that too. I still use notepad during games to make quick notes, but a simple copy into WA will immediate store it. Using a few @'s to add links to articles, and I immediately have everything at the touch of a finger. It's made keeping track of things that have happened so much easier, and using the same mention system I can easily add new articles based on my notes. The last thing where it's really helped me step up my game, is the link with maps and articles. Not having to manually add literal names to a map after the fact, but instead having an icon based system where I can draw out a map and then later on when my party has decided they want to venture one way or another, I can add a marker to show where that village is. Or when they have uncovered a secret lair in the middle of nowhere, no need to update the whole map. Just add a new marker, add a link to an article description of it and onwards we go. I can 100% recommend it. Does it have its flaws? Sure! Every system does. However unlike massively overcommercialised nonsensical systems, I feel heard and understood by people that share my passion for RPG's, for building proper well thought out stories, and other likeminded people. The community is honestly a blessing and I can say with absolute certainty that I am happy with it.
Bart Jansen
Dec 12,2021The first red flag is how you can start a subscription without any sort of "Are you sure?" popup. The real issue, however, is that when you cancel your subscription, they won't actually cancel it, I just got charged for a second year when I cancelled my subscription last year, I know I did because when I go to my payment page, it says I've unsubscribed - on both payments. I looked up if anyone else has been having this issue, and apparently yes, they do, what's even worse is that WorldAnvil will ask you to supply them with a copy of an e-mail they claim they've sent you with the cancellation of your subscription, which, spoiler alert, they never did. These guys will make it extremely easy to accidentally start a subscription by a misclick, and refuse to not only refund you, but also continue to charge you for future subscriptions, which you've already cancelled. Edit: They did end up sending me an e-mail agreeing to reimburse my payment.
Rin
Dec 09,2021I’ve used WA since February 2018 for my hobby (worldbuilding and writing). It has changed a lot over the years since it’s still in beta and it’s something that happens when the developer listens to their community. I’ve been a paying customer since around March 2018 and during that time it has changed payment platform once. From patreon to fastspring. I have to say that I preferred patreon since it was more transparent but I suppose that fastspring is more professional. I have a custom fee since I am also paying for my sibling’s subscription. It’s been working fine. :) The site has a steep learning curve for some users but I’ve always found it intuitive. I enjoy how the templates are split up and I’m looking forward to the new timeline feature. There’s several ways to use customer service. Back in the day I just chatted with the developer on the site. Now when the site has boomed and the developer is super busy it is easiest to get help on the discord from other community members (like me! :D ) or when it comes to payment issues it is easiest to mail them and ask their PA.
Cazantyl
Dec 02,2021Today I woke up to a $110 USD charge for a full year's subscription to World Anvil. I had previously subscribed a year ago, and while the service itself was great, I was shocked when I was hit with the charge, as I had previously cancelled my subscription with the company on the same day I did my one-year subscription. I always do this as a best practice with all services specifically to avoid situations like this, and have not had an issue with any other service I used along side it (D&D Beyond, Roll20, etc). I hadn't used the service in several months so I immediately contacted World Anvil and told them about the issue. I didn't think this would be a large deal as I had already cancelled previously and contacted them within an hour or two of the charge. I was told that unless I can produce an email they had allegedly previously sent to me showing that I had cancelled the services a year ago, they would not reimburse the charge, even though their website clearly shows my account in the cancelled status. I checked my emails and did not have a cancellation email from them from a year ago. Apparently the email is the only thing they will accept, regardless of account status. Because I brought up this issue with them, as punishment in retaliation they have now disabled my subscription and are telling me to delete my account, but they are not reimbursing the money they charged today. I've lost access to all of the content I had previously created as well with my group. I've now paid $110 USD for service I cannot even use for the year I just "paid" for, lost hundreds of hours of content created, and World Anvil still holds my payment information (they allegedly cannot delete my card info), and for all I know will do the same thing to me again a year from now. I brought up that they do not provide any warning about the significant charges and had I gotten a warning about the upcoming charge this would (or should) not have been a problem as I could have contacted them earlier about the error in their system. Their response was "we don't have to provide a warning as we're in the EU and so we don't". This is convenient for them, since they can now say that they've "not gotten written notification" about a cancellation and will charge users anyways, without recourse. This is apparently a fairly common issue with the company. You can check their responses to similar issues on their Reddit account, where they openly admit to deleting user's accounts that have run into this issue. Had I known about it ahead of time I would have only subscribed on a month-to-month basis to begin with (or not subscribed at all).
C/O Cruse & Burke 73 Park Lane, CR0 1JG, Croydon, GB
http://worldanvil.com
Alexander Pooley
Dec 22,2021World Anvil provides an outlet for creation beyond which any other site has the dedication to do this well. It has a simple to use interface with plenty of tools to help inspire you to create, such as prompts, manuscripts, and events that highlight great content from the amazing community. I have been using the site for about three years now, and over that time I have seen a massive effort to take on feedback and use it in a significant way to change the site for the better.