Running your scenes

Running a session · guide 1 of 7

The Run screen is where you run a session. Your story, your notes and your shortcuts sit in one place, so you can keep your eyes on the table.

Open the Run screen

Press the map icon on the left, Run campaign.

At the top is your main quest: the plot thread you've marked as a main quest and set to Active, with its status and hook. Press it to open the thread. The big picture is never more than a glance away.

Start your first scene

Below it is the Current scene box. Before you begin, it says nothing running. Press Start, and Critsmith runs the first scene on your run sheet. You'll see running now, the scene's name, and its act underneath.

Running a scene also moves the party to the scene's location, and brings in everything you put in it. Those have their own guides: Moving the party and Filling a scene.

Read aloud, and your prep notes

Here's your read-aloud text, ready to read to your players word for word, so the right description is always to hand. Under it are your prep notes, your private reminders. Players never see these.

Move on with Next

When the scene is done, press Next. Critsmith moves to the next scene in order, and on into the next act when this one ends. Previous takes you back a step. At either end of the run sheet, the box tells you it's the first or the last scene.

Run any scene directly

Players don't always go where you planned. So you can run any scene directly. Open Scenes here, under the party's location, and press Run beside any scene set there.

If you gave the scene branches, they show as suggested paths at the foot of the box, and one press runs the path your party chose.

Show players where they are

Want your players to know where they are? At the top of the box, the pill says hidden from players. Press Show players.

Each player now sees a Now card on their sheet with the scene's title and act. They only ever see the title, never your read-aloud or your notes. It stays shown as you move from scene to scene, until you press Hide from players.

Your shortcuts

Below the scene box are your shortcut tiles: Party gold, loot and levelling, Reference, Generators, the Quest map, and the Campaign session log. Each is one press away, so there's no hunting through menus mid-game.

And the bar fixed along the foot of the screen is the session log, which has its own guide: Logging notes during play.

Press Start, read aloud, press Next, and let Critsmith keep your place.