Comparison

Dungeon Diary vs Notion

Stop building your campaign manager from scratch. We already did.

Notion is a fantastic general-purpose workspace — and it's one of the most popular "campaign managers" DMs use, via community templates. But every DM ends up reinventing the wheel: building NPC databases, quest trackers, and session logs from scratch. Dungeon Diary gives you all of that out of the box, with D&D mechanics built in and AI that understands your world.

Feature
Dungeon Diary
Notion
AI & Automation
AI for D&D
Campaign-aware AI — generates NPCs, encounters, lore using your campaign context
Generic AI writing assistant (no D&D awareness)
Character Management
Character Sheets
Full 5e sheets with multiclass, spells, inventory
DIY databases (no mechanical integration)
Encounters & Combat
Encounter Builder
Combat, social & exploration with live tracking
Build your own tables (no combat tracker)
Session Tools
Live Session Tools
Real-time initiative, HP, dice sync via Ably
No real-time game tools
World Building & Tracking
World Building
Regions → Settlements → POIs → Shops, all cross-linked
Flexible pages & databases (requires manual setup)
NPC Tracker
Motivations, secrets, relationships, per-player visibility
DIY NPC database (no visibility controls)
Shop System
30+ shop types with buy/sell commerce
Not available
General
SRD Library
Complete 5e SRD with homebrew monsters & items
No SRD — copy/paste everything manually
Setup Time
Create a campaign and start playing in minutes
Hours of template setup and customization
Pricing
Free during beta — no credit card required
Free tier + $10/mo for Plus

The Verdict

Notion is a great tool — but it wasn't built for D&D. If you're tired of maintaining template databases, manually cross-referencing NPCs and locations, and wishing your notes could generate content for you, Dungeon Diary replaces the DIY approach with purpose-built tools that work out of the box.

See for Yourself

Free during beta. No credit card. Create your first campaign in minutes.

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