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Worldtable vs Friends & Fables
Both give you an AI game master and a table of friends. Worldtable is built around the world you make: your rules in plain words, a map the narrator can't redraw, and people who remember what you did. Friends & Fables is built around D&D 5e.
The short version
- Worldtable is a place to build a fantasy world in the World Studio and set its rules in words. An AI voices everyone in it, and a simulation underneath keeps the map, travel, fights, money and memories. It isn't a 5e game.
- Friends & Fables is a D&D 5e game with an AI game master called Franz: dice, tactical turn-based combat on battlemaps, spells and monsters, plus world-building tools, voices and images. The host subscribes and friends play free.
- Pick Worldtable if you want to make the world, and its rules, yourself. Pick Friends & Fables if you want D&D as you know it with an AI running the table.
Side by side
| Worldtable | Friends & Fables | |
|---|---|---|
| Rules | Its own engine; each world's builder picks up to 20 rules in plain words, enforced in code | D&D 5e (and other systems) |
| Combat | Describe what you try; the engine grades and rolls. Every fight, solo or party, plays on a battle map with telegraphed enemy attacks; party fights run in rounds that resolve at once | Tactical turn-based combat on battlemaps |
| The world | A generated map you shape: coastlines, rivers, roads and named towns the engine holds, with taverns, temples and keeps you can walk into | World-building tools, map makers and character generators |
| Travel | Real distances: walking, riding and sailing take days that pass, set by roads and terrain | Up to the game master |
| People | Every named character keeps a file on you (what they saw, what they heard, how far they trust you), and word of loud deeds reaches other towns days later | Long-term memories |
| Group size | As many players as the builder invites, sharing the same towns; parties of up to six, a size the builder sets | Set by the host's plan |
| Who pays | Free to build; 50 free credits per account, then each player buys credits for their own turns (from $5 for 200), or the builder brings their own AI key and players play free | Free tier with a daily turn limit; the host subscribes, friends play free |
| Choice of AI | Any OpenRouter model, any OpenAI-compatible provider, or the builder's own local model through a tunnel | Their models |
| Voices and pictures | Read-aloud narration, portraits and scene pictures (on OpenRouter) | Text to speech, image generation |
Where Worldtable is different
- Your rules, not a rulebook. When a hero falls they die for good, or they're beaten and wake later. The most dangerous thing the world may bring. How fast heroes grow and what makes them grow. You choose in words, and nearly every rule is held in code, not left to the storyteller.
- A world that holds still. The map is generated from the land you shaped and held by the engine. The narrator can't move the tavern or shorten the road to bail anyone out.
- Getting there is most of it. Pick a place on the chart and walk. The clock runs, prices move, and trouble you left behind keeps developing while you're away.
- They remember you, specifically. Open any NPC's page and read their memories of you in their own words, with dates on them.
- Pay the AI provider, not a subscription. A world runs on its builder's own key at the provider's prices, on whichever model they choose. That can be a model on the builder's own computer: run it with something like Ollama, LM Studio or KoboldCpp, put it behind a tunnel such as Cloudflare Tunnel or ngrok, and paste the https address into the world's AI settings.
See the whole Studio on the World Studio page, or read every rule a builder can set.
Where Friends & Fables is the better pick
- You want D&D 5e. Classes, spell slots, dice and stat blocks you already know, run by an AI.
- A bigger community and ready-made worlds to jump into without building anything.
Questions
- Does Worldtable use D&D 5e rules?
- No. Worldtable has its own engine: you describe what your character tries, the AI grades it for tactics and risk, and the engine rolls and applies the result. Each world's builder sets its rules in plain words, such as whether heroes die for good. If you want 5e specifically, Friends & Fables is built around it.
- Is Worldtable free?
- Building is free, and every account starts with 50 free credits. A turn costs one credit, and each player pays for their own turns: packs start at $5 for 200, or $12 a month for 650. A builder can instead run their world on their own AI key (OpenRouter or any OpenAI-compatible provider), paid to the provider directly, or on a model they run on their own computer; then nobody in that world spends credits.
- Can my group play together?
- Yes. The builder invites players with a link, or lets people ask to join from the world's public page. Everyone shares the world: you can walk into a town and find other players' characters there. Where the builder allows parties (up to six players), a party travels together and fights on one battle map in rounds: everyone declares, then the round resolves at once.
- Can I build my own world?
- That's what Worldtable is for. The World Studio drafts a world from six questions, then lets you shape the land, write peoples, magic, a cast and lore, and pick rules the engine enforces. Pick one of fourteen shapes of land, or draw your own coastline.
- Is there a game master I can talk to out of character?
- Yes. Put a note in brackets, like (OOC: slow down, I want to explore this town), and the storyteller adjusts pacing and tone. It won't hand out gold, items or a win because you asked.
Build a world and find out.
Six questions get you a drafted world in a minute or two. Building is free, no API key needed, and you start with 50 free credits.
What this page says about other products comes from their own public pages, read on 9 October 2026. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us on Discord and we'll fix it. Other names belong to their owners; Worldtable isn't affiliated with them.