The table
Everything that happens in a campaign happens at the table. On a wide screen it is two columns: the story on the left, the side panel on the right, with a rail of tabs on the far edge. On a phone the tabs become a bottom bar and the same panels open one at a time.
The chronicle
The story column is the record of the campaign, in order: the Dungeon Master's narration, what each character said and did, every roll and its result, damage and healing, conditions taking hold, chapter titles, and out-of-character chat if the table keeps it inline. Narration renders bold and italic as type, in the campaign's table language. A quoted line goes to whoever the prose says spoke it and carries their name, and with narration on, is read in that speaker's voice. Your own messages posted while the DM is thinking wait for the following turn; they are not silently folded into a reply already being written. When a shop opens in the story, its line in the chat carries Browse wares, which opens that shop in the Market. A menu on each Dungeon Master passage offers read-aloud, and for the party lead, the story controls (reroll, continue, fix, rewind).
Long campaigns are split into chapters. A chapter closes on a completed story beat, not on a message count, and each close awards experience, extracts facts the Dungeon Master will remember, writes a summary, and takes a snapshot the lead can rewind to. The Story tab holds the archive as a book whose pages turn.
Do, Say, OOC and Direct
The message box has four modes. The highlight slides to the one you pick.
- Do: an action. "I search the desk for a hidden drawer." The Dungeon Master decides what it takes and asks for a roll if one is needed. Messages are intent, never outcome: writing "I kill the guard" does not kill the guard.
- Say: words spoken in character, in quotes. NPCs answer.
- OOC: out of character, outside the story. At an AI table, address a question with @DM for a public out-of-character answer at once; use Ask the DM for a private answer.
- Direct: an instruction to the Dungeon Master from the party lead. "Start an encounter with both husks and roll initiative." Used to steer, not to play.
The two buttons beside the box are raise hand (a request to speak when the table uses voice floor rules) and the microphone for push-to-talk transcription, shown when the server offers speech recognition. Hold the button or your configured Dictation key to speak; review the text before sending. Configure that key in Audio and dice or Account settings. Voice chat has its own push-to-talk control.
Waiting for the table
At a table the AI narrates, the Dungeon Master waits for the whole party before it answers. Every player who has the table open, or plays through a connected agent, acts or presses Pass (nothing to add this beat), and then the DM answers everyone in one turn. A banner names whom it is waiting on. A quiet table holds it for five minutes by default, and every post or pass restarts that clock; whoever steers the story can press Go on now to stop waiting. A player alone at the table is answered at once and sees none of this. The lead can switch it to Answers the first post, or change how long it waits, under Settings, Players and permissions, Pacing.
Taking a break
Anyone in a seat at a table with someone else can call a break: Pause the table in the header, or in the phone's Table menu. A banner under the header names who paused and counts the time. In-character play and narration hold while table talk goes on, and the person who paused, the lead or the DM presses Resume. The X-card still works during a break, and a break survives a server restart.
Ask the DM
A strip above the message box opens Ask the DM: a private question to the narrator that does not enter the story. "What do I know about the Ninefold Gate?" "Can I reach the ledge with a dash?" The answer draws on the campaign's lore, your sheet, the party's hit points and the recent dice as the server holds them, uses the cheaper utility model when the server has one, and is yours alone.
At any AI-narrated table, a player who thinks a ruling was wrong can choose Dispute this ruling on that passage. The table sees the dispute, and whoever steers the story upholds it, overrules it, or puts it to a vote of the players.
The side panel
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| DM | The Dungeon Master's console: everything waiting on the seat, and every ruling the engine can make on its say-so. Only the DM seat sees it. See The DM console. |
| Lead | The party lead's desk: the floor, notes waiting for approval, invites, the story tools, sending a stuck turn back in, focus pings and the lead seat. Only the lead sees it. |
| Party | Every character's portrait, hit points, armour class, passive perception, initiative and class resources, with condition chips. Tap a card for the full sheet, or Play as on one of your own when you field several. Your own dice look is editable under your character. Also here: the Party story the table wrote, bonds, factions, and the Market of shops the party can trade with. |
| Battle | The battle map, while a fight has one up. See Maps. |
| Map | The region map, the places the party has found and the current location's picture. Enlarge it into a lightbox. |
| Story | The tale so far: chapters and recaps, quests, the timeline, handouts, the relationship graph, the archive, and the audited log of rolls and stat changes. |
| Notes | Story notes any player can suggest. The party lead approves them into the record. |
| Chat | Side chat between players, which the Dungeon Master does not read. At a human DM's table, a whisper to the DM lands in the DM's Whispers to you inbox here. |
| World | The campaign's own WorldForge world: the wiki, the web of links, the timeline, the atlas and its secrets. Only story authority sees it; Reveal to the party turns a secret into lore every player can read. |
| Context | What the Dungeon Master was actually sent last turn, block by block, with each block's cost against the model's context window and anything the budget cut. It includes the secret arc, so only story authority sees it. |
| Settings | Campaign details, bringing in prep, grouped table settings, Story AI, rules and ending the campaign. Available actions follow your role. See The Settings tab. |
The table header carries the campaign name and the initiative ribbon during a fight, the Voice dock with its mute and volume controls, the Sound control for ambience and music, the Dice menu, Pause the table, the Rulebook (the whole SRD 5.1 as a searchable book, opened over the game), Help, the All campaigns button back to the lobby list, and the account menu.
A browser may hold sound back until you click the page. When it does, a Narration is waiting (or Sound is waiting) banner says how much is held; one click plays the newest passage, and the older ones keep their replay buttons.
On a phone
The chronicle fills the screen. With more than six available panels, the bottom bar keeps Table, five priority tabs and More; More lists the remaining panels, including Settings. When six or fewer panels are available, they appear directly without More. Which tabs stay visible depends on your seat and whether a battle map is active. The header's Table menu gathers narration, sound, a break, the rulebook and Help; voice chat and dice keep their own buttons. During a fight the Hand becomes a snapping rail of cards under the message box instead of a fan, and the message box never gives way to it; on a short window the Hand is what scrolls. The battle map opens from the Battle tab and can be enlarged, with pinch to zoom.
Arrange the table
On a wide screen, the Table layout menu opens Arrange the table. Move and resize panels, give a tab its own panel, hide a panel or maximise it. Splitters also take arrow keys; a controller can resize while arranging. Lock layout prevents changes, and Reset layout restores the default. Layouts are kept on this device for the seat you play, so arranging your table does not rearrange anyone else's.
In Party, you can also arrange your character cards for your own view. Travel formation is a separate shared order: the lead or DM proposes it, and players whose characters move accept or ask for a change.
Leaving and coming back
Close the app whenever you like. Your seat, your character and the chronicle are on the server, and the table carries on without you if its host stays online and the party keeps playing. If your app hosts the world, quitting takes it offline for everyone. Reopen the campaign from the home screen to catch up; a recap card summarises what you missed. A turn that was waiting on you (a physical roll, for example) is still waiting.