If you’re someone who loves crafting fictional worlds—whether for a fantasy novel, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, or a game—you already know that managing the depth and detail of your universe can get messy fast. Enter Kanka, a world building specifically designed to help you keep your storyworlds organized, dynamic, and accessible.

In this article, we’ll explore what Kanka is, how it works, who it’s best for, its standout features, and whether it’s the right world building tool for your creative journey.

What is Kanka?

Kanka is a free and community-driven world building and campaign management tool. It was created with RPG game masters in mind but has grown to serve authors, screenwriters, and creative teams who want to organize complex world data—from locations and lore to calendars and timelines.

Unlike generic note-taking apps, Kanka is purpose-built for fictional universes, giving you specialized tools to manage not just characters and places, but also relationships, timelines, maps, quests, organizations, family trees, and more.

Who Should Use Kanka?

Kanka is ideal for:

Dungeon Masters (DMs) running detailed tabletop campaigns

Writers working on fantasy, sci-fi, or historical fiction

Game developers building game lore or quests

Collaborative storytellers needing team access

World building hobbyists who enjoy fleshing out imaginative universes

Whether you’re building a small village or an entire galaxy, Kanka scales beautifully.

? Kanka’s Standout Features

Here’s why Kanka is so popular in the storytelling and TTRPG communities:

? 1. Entity-Based Architecture

Everything in Kanka is an entity—whether it’s a character, place, item, event, or race. You can create unlimited entities and interlink them in countless ways, building a web of relationships across your world.

? 2. Timelines

Track world history, story events, or even character lifespans. Kanka’s timeline feature lets you create detailed sequences of events with precise dates and linking.

?️ 3. Map Integration

Upload and annotate maps. You can pin locations, add tooltips, and visually represent your world’s layout. Ideal for campaign navigation or geographic consistency in novels.

? 4. Calendars & Custom Dates

Create in-world calendars, complete with custom months, week lengths, and holidays. This is especially useful for keeping time in fantasy or sci-fi settings.

? 5. Organizations and Families

Manage factions, houses, guilds, and royal bloodlines. You can create family trees and organization hierarchies with built-in visualization.

? 6. Advanced Search and Tagging

Filter and tag your entities for quick access. If you’re writing about “all characters in the Kingdom of Aeloria,” Kanka lets you find them instantly.

? 7. Collaboration & Permissions

Invite collaborators or co-authors and set granular permissions. Let your team edit, comment, or view only specific parts of your world.

? 8. Quest & Journal Tracking

Manage active quests, side missions, or subplots. Great for RPG campaigns or multi-threaded novels.

? 9. Version Control & Logs

See who changed what and when. Kanka keeps an edit history, so your creative work is never lost.

? 10. Theme Customization

Want your desert world to have a sand-colored theme? Or your sci-fi realm in neon blues? Kanka lets you customize the look and feel of your campaign.

? Is Kanka Free?

Yes! Kanka is free to use with generous features. But they also offer premium support tiers (Boosted Campaigns) that unlock:

Additional storage

Campaign themes

Image galleries

Custom dashboards

Faster support

Priority feature access

Boosting starts at a very affordable price, and one boost can cover your entire campaign.