LegendKeeper Review: Note App That Will Change The Way You Create Your Worlds
"This is not a sponsored post, but I wish it were. Because damn, this app is that good."
Not so long ago, I wrote an article on which Note/Worldbuilding app DM's should use for their games. And the thing was, I didn't hear about LegendKeeper at that time, but afterward, after getting a couple of recommendations, I tried it. Previously, I said it's not worth migrating your notes into a new app if it's not good enough since it takes a lot of time and effort. And boy, oh boy, my notes are flying off into LegendKeeper for a good week now, and probably will not stop for a good while.
So what made me change when it comes to LegendKeeper instead of Evernote? Well, let's find out.
The moment that I saw Legend Keeper, I was pleasantly surprised. From the first glance, It seems incredibly simple, easy to understand even for a smooth-brain person like me. Okay, but why should you care?
The Notetaking
When you start, you get two things, a Templates folder and a World page and Images. Of course, being a labradoodle, I decide to delete everything I can and start fresh by making some notes, but I quickly saw that I couldn't delete the templates folder. And then I realize why LegendKeeper is great at that moment of utter bewilderment and confusion. Templates is why I think this Note app shines, since I can make different custom templates, either it's a city, character, shop, inn, quest, location, side quest, and other things I come up with while building my world.
And then it clicked. This minor, insignificant-looking feature meant that I could create worlds and note structures and reuse said structures if I needed. And this makes me have fewer interruptions while worldbuilding every single day. This small feature changed many things in how I write notes, one of them being of the utmost importance - I wanted to write more in LegendKeeper.
Notes Features
I started looking at the things like the @Mention function, which lets you link notes together. Then, when you hover on your mentions, see the main page with the most relevant information, either it's a combat condition in encounter or details on a character.
And what's great is that you don't need to start over again with copy/pasting tables and dividers or making new ones and wasting time doing so when you decide to modify the existing template. Instead, when you change it, every new page created with the template will have that structure. And this makes the DM life easier if you want to improve your structure over some time.
For those who work with the IT sector(For example - JIRA Software), you will feel at home since the functionality reminds you a lot of the editing when you press the " / " key, which is convenient and easy to use to make beautifully looking notes.
So concluding the editing part, LegendKeeper Note-taking has a great flow with very approachable functionalities useful for editing notes.
Juicy LegendKeeper Features
LegendKeeper is probably one of the best note map editors because it lets you decide what kind of DM note structure you need and provides the tools to do so. Some might think that these features are relatively simple. However, how they work together is what I was searching for for a long time in the TTRPG note editors.
Adding your players - This a simple one, but by inviting your players into your world, you can hide the relevant notes and quests or just give the world map with pins, which makes this app useful not only to the DM but also to the players.
Secrets - Rather simple hidden text block that you can reveal to your players if you want or keep as a separate stat block or just a note to yourself.
Page - Whenever you are writing up a chuck of new lore, and an idea pops into your head, instead of just leaving that into a block of text, you can easily create a new page with a link going into the idea page. Page feature is great since you don't need to divert your attention from the lore bit at the given time, and a new page appears that you can easily find and build upon later.
Links - It's a straightforward feature that lets you put external links, perhaps to soundtracks or other various valuable links.
Layouts - This is for those that like to make their notes looking more beautiful. And it just does that. I also found that it's also beneficial while making custom things like shop inventories, character sheets, and similar things. What's also great is that the @Mention feature supports the layouts and makes them easily readable in a session when you hover on the mentions.
Besides this, there are more features like table, subpage table, expand, and others, which are also helpful when creating notes.
Note Navigation
When it comes to the navigation of the notes, it's really good and easy to use. Things like adding subfolders to your pages make it possible to make any note system you want and change it on the fly. Searching for notes is also not bad since the mention function works very well with connecting pages. While even though I missed it at first, the search bar does its function and is comfortable to use.
EDIT:
“It would be good to have a simple search bar that would find a page you are searching without the mention function, but I think it's a minor feature that will be integrated into the future cause sometimes it can get messy when you build a big and complex world…”
And they did that… And I completely missed it. Ctrl + Enter or by clicking the magnifying glass you can search for your notes. And it works great!
The Worldbuilding
The other aspect that I haven't talked about is the brilliant yet straightforward map system LegendKeeper uses. You put the map inside the LegendKeeper, assign a page, and then put down pins of interest. What's great is that you can make a map without names on it and create as you go, which gives this exploration element to your game. In addition, you can hide and reveal the pins with attached pages which is excellent not to drop a tome of lore on your player's head from the start and show it gradually.
This is also great since if you have a huge map, you can create pins with ideas for your world and hide them from your players, which is excellent for any sandbox campaign.
And it works great with big file 8K maps if you plan to make the ultimate all-encompassing map with all the pins in it.
If you’re looking for high-quality battle maps to add to your world check out: scifi battle maps
The Images
The image hosting in LegendKeeper is also a noteworthy addition. So far, I have not encountered a roadblock when it comes to storage. This feature is great since you can use some of the photos for your templates, characters, or various maps that your world needs. And the navigation adding the images is simple yet comfortable to use, whether you are importing many photos by dragging them into the web application or you need to add one while editing a note. LegendKeeper also supports folder creation, which means things will be less likely to get cluttered.
So should you try LegendKeeper?
The creators of LegendKeeper are constantly updating and adding more features to this application, and it is constantly growing. The price of 5$ or 10$ a month for LegendKeeper is a steal. Anyone searching for a note-editing application dedicated to TTRPGs and an app that could flex with the notetaking app giants like Evernote or OneNote is a great combination.
Another major thing about LegendKeeper talking in an abstract way is that it lets you create not only the world bit by bit but also lets you create the note structure in a way that is tailored to you and your needs which is rather rare compared to other similar products. One good example was Evernote, which I used for a long time. Even though I still think it's a viable DM note app, I still have some quirks that remind me that sometimes there is just a small layer of hassle to go through when writing notes. And that burns energy and time while coming up with ideas and notes.
And since I already don't have infinite time and energy while writing in LegendKeeper, features and overall functions make it that I can create way more and more fluidly with the time I had. And that, for me, is priceless.
When thinking about the limitations of LegendKeeper, I could say that maybe there could be more icons or something along those lines, maybe more intuitive functions, but I do have faith in how quickly the LegendKeeper team is working on this project, and this is just a matter of time when they will expand on it.
So if you're looking for a great notetaking app with a great map tool and an overall great package, I think you will not be disappointed by trying out LegendKeeper.
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