Now let us talk about how tools can help you.

Summon Worlds is built for shared fantasy worlds. It gives you AI art, character builders, AI chat, and a clear world structure with worlds, locations, and entities. That means your story world maps are not alone. They sit inside a full system of people, items, and events.

👇Here is how that supports your themes.

First, worldbuilding map creation becomes faster. You can generate images for key locations. City gates. Desert shrines. Mountain fortresses. You can attach these images to entities so each place feels real. That visual cue reminds you to use the location in scenes.

Second, fictional map power dynamics become clearer when every city and region links to people. You can create rulers, guilds, or monsters tied to a location. You can add backstories that explain why they fight over that pass or that harbor.

Third, geography in storytelling becomes easier when you can see it in your workspace. Worlds in Summon Worlds have a clear structure. Worlds hold locations. Locations hold entities like characters, items, and spells. When you view a location, you see who lives there and what matters. That makes it much easier to design scenes that fit the land.

Fourth, AI character chat lets you test your map logic. Talk to a border guard character. Ask how long it takes to reach the capital. Ask what trade route they fear losing. The answers, shaped by the lore you add, highlight gaps in your map plan.

Fifth, the coming world features and real time collaboration will let groups build shared maps and power webs. Game masters can plan campaigns. Co authors can agree on borders and roads. Everyone works from the same shared world, not separate notes.

✅In short, using modern tools does not replace your map. It helps you keep it active. You move from a single image to a full network of places, people, and stakes. That is the real goal of using maps for story structure.

Conflict should never feel random in your story or campaign. It should feel like the natural result of everything that came before.

When you treat worldbuilding lore as active memory, not dead text, you get that feeling. You create fault lines in history. You use backstory as a threat, not a trivia sheet. You shape myths so they still bite in the present. You make lore and plot development move on the same track.

Summon Worlds helps you hold all of that in one place. You can create factions, myths, and characters with AI, test them in chat, and link them across worlds and locations so the pressure never drops.

If you want your world to push your cast toward honest, sharp conflict, not safe wandering, now is a good time to start.

Summon Worlds is not just a database. It gives you tools that support real AI-assisted storytelling.

📍Instant Lore, Items, and Locations

Summon Worlds can generate worlds, characters, spells, items, and lore from short prompts. You might type:

“Ancient desert city built inside a dead titan.”

The app can suggest:

• City districts
• Power groups
• Trade goods
• Rumors and secrets

You choose what fits and edit it to match your tone.

For a busy writer, this feels like having a fast research assistant who only works on your setting.

🦸Characters You Can Talk To

You do not just create character sheets. In Summon Worlds, you can chat with any character you or the community has built. The chat keeps track of world lore and the character’s background, so the answers stay in context.

You can:

• Test dialogue before you draft a scene
• Ask how a character feels about an event
• Explore how two characters might argue

This makes revision easier. You catch flat lines and weak reactions before they reach the page.

Read our article about AI roleplay vs traditional RP

🖼️Art That Locks the World in Your Mind

Words are powerful, but images stick.

Summon Worlds lets you create high-res art for heroes, monsters, items, and places in many styles, like anime or dark fantasy.

This helps you:

• Keep character looks consistent
• Picture key set pieces during action scenes
• Share visual mood boards with co-authors or players

You no longer search the web for “almost right” art. You generate images tailored to your own lore.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑Built for Teams and Long Projects

Many stories are not solo efforts. You might work with a co-author, a game group, or beta readers.

Summon Worlds supports real-time collaboration, so several people can build in the same space. A case study of the app showed that adding real-time collaboration boosted user engagement for creative teams.

You also get:

• Mobile access, so you can build on your phone
• Social features to share and discover creations
• A system of “mana” so you can plan how much AI generation you use each day

All of this keeps your story world active and growing, even when life is busy.

Let’s be honest. You’re not adding time travel just to show off a diagram. You want time travel plot twists that make your table or readers scream.

Loops and paradoxes are not bugs. They are weapons.

Time-travel mechanics can power branching timelines, moral questions, and wild reveals when used with intent.

Here’s how to use them well.

♾️Use loops to reveal hidden truth

A loop works best when it reframes the story:

• The party caused the very disaster they’re trying to stop.
• The “mysterious mentor” is a future version of one of them.
• The villain’s empire exists only because the heroes once failed.

You see hints early:

• Old scars that match new wounds
• Legends that match your group’s actions
• Items that your players will later bring into the past

When the loop reveals, your players don’t feel tricked. They feel clever, because the clues were there.

🧩Use paradoxes as emotional hits, not just puzzles

Paradoxes hit hardest when tied to relationships:

• A character has to erase their bond with someone to fix the timeline.
• A parent chooses a future where their child never exists, to save millions.
• A hero realises their happiest memory is from a timeline that got erased.

You don’t need complex charts. You just need:

• Who gets hurt by this change?
• Who remembers the “old” timeline?
• What do they lose that no one else knows about?

That’s where your readers or players feel the weight.

1) Summon Worlds: Best all-around for writers and DMs

• Why it stands out: Mobile-first worldbuilding with AI creation, character chat, and image generation. You can build characters, items, spells, locations, then talk to them in-app. It supports community sharing and discovery. Great for fast prep and story inspiration. 
• Good for writers: Draft lore, generate art, and chat with characters to explore voice and backstory. 
• Good for DMs: Create NPCs, items, and locations on the fly, then roleplay scenes before game night. 

2) World Anvil: Best wiki powerhouse

• What you get: Wiki-style articles, interactive maps, timelines, and a full RPG campaign manager. Many templates. Deep structure for big settings.
• Good for writers: Built-in novel planning tools plus timelines. 
• Good for DMs: Campaign features with player-facing content and secrets. 

3) Campfire Writing (Campfire Write): Best modular system for authors

• What you get: A set of modules for characters, cultures, magic, languages, and more. Choose what you need. Works on web, desktop, and mobile. 
• Good for writers: Strong planning tools and publishing options for sharing with readers.
• Good for DMs: Use character and location modules to organize factions, regions, and lore. 

4) LegendKeeper: Best for clean, fast campaign wikis

• What you get: Lightweight wiki, map pins, timelines, and whiteboards. Unlimited free guest access for players; only the owner pays.
• Good for writers: Keep a tidy lore hub with auto-linked terms.
• Good for DMs: Share a live atlas with secrets hidden from players. 

5) Kanka: Best free, modular campaign manager

• What you get: Entities for characters, locations, families, items, quests, journals, calendars, and more. Toggle modules on or off. Strong collaboration.
• Good for writers: Track arcs with journals and events.
• Good for DMs: Build full campaigns with roles and permissions. 

6) Obsidian: Best local-first knowledge base

• What you get: Markdown notes, bidirectional links, and graph view. You own your files. Huge plugin scene for timelines, maps, and TTRPG workflows. 
• Good for writers: Simple, fast drafting with strong linking.
• Good for DMs: Great for session notes and quick lookup during play. 

7) Notion: Best for flexible databases and templates

• What you get: Databases, linked views, and many wiki templates. Easy to model worlds as databases and views (e.g., locations by region, NPCs by faction).
• Good for writers: Use templates for style guides, glossaries, and chapter trackers.
• Good for DMs: Build a player wiki with tags and filtered views. 

8) Inkarnate: Best browser map maker for fantasy

• What you get: Web-based map creation for worlds, regions, and cities. Pro plan allows commercial use of maps. 
• Good for writers: Create setting maps for pitch decks and reader guides. 
• Good for DMs: Fast battle map backgrounds and regional maps for travel arcs. 

9) DungeonFog: Best battlemap builder with VTT-ready output

• What you get: Online battlemap editor with asset libraries, campaign mode, and regular updates (e.g., V5 editor). Good for quick, printable maps or exports to VTTs. 
• Good for writers: Visualize key set pieces. 
• Good for DMs: Build, share, and reuse maps across sessions. 

Read our article about How to Create Campaign Worlds

10) Scabard: Best simple campaign wiki with auto-linking

• What you get: Straightforward campaign manager with a wiki style and a “Proper Noun Detector” that builds and links pages fast. Easy sharing with players. 
• Good for writers: Fast setup for small settings.
• Good for DMs: Quick logs, timelines, and secrets. 

🕰️The old way

You juggled five tabs, a notebook, and a last-minute generator. NPCs felt thin. Images didn’t match the vibe. You rewrote backstories after every session.

🚀The new way

You can generate a stat-ready NPC, talk to them, and drop art into your notes in minutes. Summon Worlds moves beyond traditional chatbots. It’s not just talk. It’s talk tied to game assets, stat blocks, and campaign structure. That cuts prep time and keeps tone consistent across sessions. 

Prep eats my week

• Summon Worlds: Generate a 5e-ready NPC with stats and a backstory in minutes. Then tweak on the fly. That covers the crunch and the flavor in one go.
• Talkie: You can roleplay scenes to spark ideas. But it doesn’t generate 5e sheets or encounter stats.

My NPCs feel generic

• Summon Worlds: Use character chat and voice to test tone. Add world knowledge so the NPC remembers lore. Result: consistent, in-world replies.
• Talkie: Great for quick banter and voice calls with a persona. It’s fun, but not tied to your campaign rules or your world’s canon.

We need art for tonight

• Summon Worlds: Make portraits and scenes in many styles (anime, dark fantasy, more). Use them in your world right away with generated AI assets.
• Talkie: Google Play lists image/video/audio/music creation tools for creators. Good for community posts. Not a focused TTRPG art pipeline.

This section is here to save you time, especially if you’re testing Perchance for the first time.

Real messages you may see on Perchance (and what they mean):

1. “perchance generates warnings … it’s valid perchance syntax … feel free to ignore these warnings.”

👉🏻This appears when the editor spots unusual, but allowed, code. If you know what you’re doing, you can move on.

2. “If you click the button below, it will load a list of older versions … in case you accidentally deleted your code … or your computer crashes and you hadn’t saved.”

👉🏻This is the built-in backup/revision area. Use it to recover past copies. 

3. “There was some sort of server error … check your internet connection … post on the forum if the problem persists.”

👉🏻This shows on revision history errors. Try again, then post if needed.

4. “sign up or login to create your own generators … we only email you at your request … too many requests (can be caused by vpn browser extensions).”

👉🏻This is the auth page text. It also hints at why rate limits can happen.

5. “request reset code … we just sent a password reset code … check your spam folder.”

👉🏻This is the reset flow text. Follow the steps shown. 

6. “load backup revision history.”

 👉🏻That’s the action that pulls your saved copies. 

If you hit those notes, you’re not doing anything wrong. These lines are part of Perchance’s own UI and help text.

Here’s a short map of parts so you can write better prompts and get better ai images.

👥Head and Face

• Kabuto (helmet): iron bowl with a crest (maedate). Many shapes exist; keep it simple and readable. 
• Menpo (mask): adds intimidation and protection; often lacquered.

🕴🏻Torso

• Dō (cuirass): the chest armor. For a plate look, name okegawa dō or hotoke dō (smooth surface). 
• Kusazuri (skirt tassets): plates hanging from the dō to guard the hips and upper legs.

🦾Arms and Legs

• Sode (shoulder guards) and kote (sleeves).
• Haidate (thigh guards) and suneate (shin guards). These complete that full body coverage. 

✨Variants worth knowing

• Tatami gusoku: folding, lighter armor; good for scouts and ashigaru looks. 

Use these names in prompts. Your generator will “snap” to the right shapes.

Control space, and you control the round. Many wizard spells turn the ground into a problem.

• Grease (1st-level) turns a 10-ft square into difficult terrain; creatures risk falling. Great for doors, stairs, and chokepoints.
• Sleet storm (3rd-level) makes a large area icy and difficult terrain; it also knocks foes prone on a failed save and breaks concentration. Strong mid-tier control.
• Evard’s black tentacles (4th-level) make the area difficult terrain, restrain on a save, and deal damage. It is hard control plus space denial.

Use these to split groups, guard retreats, or stall brutes.