At the table — Campaign Guide

Getting there

From Campaigns (/Campaign/List), tap the green Play icon on the campaign row. The app loads that campaign and opens Play campaign (/Campaign/Play). Once a campaign is loaded, Game Master nav Active campaign returns you to the same Play screen without going through the list again.

If you see "No campaign is currently loaded", go back to the list and hit Play (or Edit first if you need to save work).

Tablet at the table, phone in a pinch. The encounter screen goes immersive on small screens (footer chrome hides while a fight runs).

Session setup

Before anyone rolls initiative, the left rail shows Session setup:

Party — autocomplete of parties in this campaign. Pick who's playing tonight.
Zone — autocomplete of zones. Pick where the scene is set.

Once a party is selected, you'll see the character names listed as a sanity check. Encounters stay disabled until a party is picked — the app needs someone to hit.

Your plot outline can stay on index cards. The app needs party + zone (or at least party for custom fights) to run combats.

Location view

With a zone selected, the main panel lists locations. Choose where the party currently is — not always the Start entry point if they're deep in the dungeon from last week.

Inside a location you get:

Exits — link buttons with direction labels; tap to move the party.
Jump to... — menu to hop to any other room in the zone.
Encounters — one button per encounter template on this location, plus Custom encounter to pick NPCs from the catalog ad hoc.
GM notes — inline notes stored on the location (optional if you prefer cardboard).

Location with no templates? "No predefined encounters here — use Custom encounter to pick NPCs on the fly."

Running an encounter

Starting a template or custom encounter opens the Encounter runner — the full-screen fight UI. Header shows round number, location name, and turn-order caption.

Typical flow:

Roll or sort initiative / speed for PCs and NPCs (header buttons guide you: roll missing ranks, sort by rank, new round, continue round).
Select a participant to act — action panels for PCs and NPCs (attacks, damage, etc.).
Advance rounds until the fight ends.
End encounter returns to the location view.

Footer while in Play (when not immersive): Exit play saves the campaign, clears it from active memory, leaves Play mode, and returns to the Campaigns list. If save fails (validation errors), you stay on Play so you can fix them.

Mechanical details: Combat · Combat moves · Damage, armour & recovery.

What the app does not do

Sync to players. They run Player Game on their devices; you run this screen.
Replace your voice. Outcome scale says how well a roll went; you say what it means.
Force every note into the app. Index cards, dry-erase maps, and suspicious hand gestures remain legal.
Run without prep. Empty NPC catalog → empty custom encounter picker. Build (or import) stat blocks first.

Common mistakes

No party selected. Encounter buttons stay disabled. Set party in session setup.
Wrong zone. You'll stare at an empty location list. Pick the zone that matches tonight's dungeon.
Forgetting to import the zone on your tablet. Built on PC? Export/import before session — see How it works.
Ending Play instead of End encounter. Exit play bails out of the whole session screen; End encounter only closes the fight.

Ready to run

Load the campaign, pick party and zone, and roll for initiative.

Open Campaigns →