Zones & locations — Campaign Guide

Where zones live in the workflow

Zones are the heaviest screen in the builder. NPCs and templates are lists; a zone is a three-pane graph editor that wants elbow room.

Mapping seventeen rooms on a six-inch phone is a boss fight you can win — but your desk (or a tablet in landscape) is the humane choice. Build on a PC, then use live Send zone / Receive zone (or clipboard export) to move the map to the device you'll run from. See How it works » PC to tablet.

Don't need a full graph tonight? A one-room zone and your index cards are fine. The app still shines for encounter buttons once templates and NPCs exist.

The zones roster (campaign editor)

On Edit campaign, expand Zones. Each row shows the zone name, whether it's the active zone, and actions:

Edit — opens the dedicated zone editor.
Delete — removes the zone after confirmation.
Export (per row) — copies that zone's JSON to the clipboard.

Footer actions:

Add zone — creates a draft zone and jumps to the zone editor.
Receive zone — starts a live exchange session and shows a 5-character code (letters and digits). The other device uses Send zone.
Send zone — pick one zone, enter the receiver's code, and push it over the network (includes templates + NPCs).
Import bundled zones — pick starter maps from the fantasy pack (Inn, Whispering Depths, Walled Manor, How Zones Work). Nothing is auto-seeded; only the maps you check are imported.
Import zone (clipboard) — paste a zone export when live exchange isn't available.

The zone editor

Edit zone (/Campaign/Zone/Edit) layout:

Zone identity (collapsible) — name and description.
Locations overview (left) — list of rooms; Add location, delete, Start chip on the entry point.
Location editor (middle) — name, Entry point for the zone, description, encounter references, GM notes.
Link inspector (right) — outgoing links, add links to existing or new locations, direction labels.

Edit catalog on the location editor jumps back to the campaign editor with encounter templates and zones panels expanded — handy when you need to fix a template mid-map. Save zone first if you care about persistence; the shortcut can leave unsaved graph edits in memory.

Footer on the zone page:

Save zone — writes the zone to local storage.
Export zone (clipboard) — full payload for co-GMs or your tablet.
Back to campaign — returns to the five-panel editor.

On mobile the three panes stack vertically — another reason to draft on a widescreen.

Encounters on locations

Each location can reference encounter templates by name. In Play, those become one-tap fight buttons. No template on the location? Use Custom encounter to pick NPCs from the catalog on the fly.

GM notes on a location persist with the zone — good for boxed text you'd rather type than ink on an index card. Or skip them and keep the cardboard; we're not judging.

Import and export

Prefer live Receive zone / Send zone between devices on the same RpgMeister host. Zone payloads still bundle the zone graph, referenced encounter templates, and the NPCs those templates need. Import asks Overwrite existing zone, templates or NPCs? when collisions appear — read warnings before you confirm.

Live zone transfer (recommended)

On the receiving device: Edit campaign → Zones → Receive zone. Share the 5-character code.
On the sending device: Send zone, enter the code, pick one zone from the list, tap Send.
On the receiver, open Incoming, tap Import, and confirm overwrite if the app finds collisions.

One zone per send. Codes use letters and digits (ambiguous characters like 0/O are avoided). Large payloads surface errors in the in-app validation log (about 1 MB; soft caps on templates and NPCs).

Clipboard fallback

Per-row Export or the zone editor's Export zone (clipboard), then Import zone (clipboard) on the other side. Empty clipboard shows "Clipboard is empty. Copy a zone export first."

Common mistakes

Forgetting Save zone. Navigating away without saving drops unsaved graph work (saved zones reload from storage next time).
Using a party or roster code for a zone send. Each receive button creates its own session type — start Receive zone for zone transfers.
No entry point. Mark one location as Entry point for the zone so Play shows a sensible Start chip.
Broken template references. Renaming or deleting templates after hanging them on locations leaves dangling refs until you fix the location editor.
Building the whole world before session one. One zone for tonight's dungeon is a valid shipping strategy.

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