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Fablekeep
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Your first session

From an empty desk to a game on the TV — open a world, pick a campaign, put the TV on, bring in the players' phones and press Play.

This page takes you from a freshly activated Fablekeep to a game running on the TV, with your players following their characters on their phones. Give yourself about fifteen minutes the first time, before the players arrive.

You need:

  • Your laptop with Fablekeep installed and activated.
  • A TV or monitor the players can see, plugged into the laptop (HDMI or similar).
  • The players’ phones on the same Wi-Fi as the laptop.

1. Open a world

The first time Fablekeep opens, it greets you with three choices. The quickest way in is the demo.

  1. Under Explore the demo, choose At the table (The Lantern Coast). It’s a ready-to-run world with a map, a party of four, NPCs with secrets and battle maps.
  2. Or click Begin a world to start from a blank page: give it a World name (and a Description if you like) and click Create.

Later, every world you own is on the Your Worlds page. The demo stays there with a Start here label, and you can open a fresh copy whenever you want to start it over.

2. Pick a campaign

A world is your setting: maps, places, people and lore. A campaign is one group’s story in that world: where the party is, what they have discovered, the clock, the sessions. You can run several campaigns in the same world.

Look at the menu at the top left, next to the world’s name:

  • If it shows a campaign, you’re ready.
  • If it shows World mode, open the menu and pick a campaign, or choose Start a campaign, type a name and click Create.

The demo world comes with its campaign and party already set up. In a new world, add your players’ characters in Party (on the left rail) with New character before the game.

3. Put the TV on

Plug the TV into your laptop and set Windows to Extend the display (press Win+P), so the TV is a second screen and not a copy of yours.

  1. At the bottom of the Fablekeep window, find the Display dock.
  2. Click Open TV. Fablekeep opens the players’ view full screen on the second screen.
  3. To choose a different screen, hold Shift while you click Open TV. Fablekeep remembers your choice.

The TV now shows a candle-lit waiting screen. Nothing reaches it until you send it.

What the dock does

The dock has two small screens:

  • Program, on the right, is exactly what the players see right now.
  • Preview, on the left, is where you can stage something before showing it.

Instant is on to begin with: anything you choose to show goes straight to the TV. Turn it off if you’d rather stage things in Preview first, then press TAKE (or Space) to send them live.

Two keys to remember:

  • B — Blackout: fade the TV to its waiting screen, for when you need a moment to look something up.
  • Esc — clear cards and handouts from the TV (you can undo it from the notice that appears).

4. Bring in the players’ phones

Players use their phones as their character sheet: hit points, spells, gear, rolls and the handouts you send them. They don’t install anything; it opens in the phone’s browser.

Let devices on your network in

  1. Open Settings (Ctrl+,) and go to Network.
  2. Turn on Allow players to join.

If Windows asks whether to let Fablekeep through the firewall, allow it on private networks. If a phone can’t connect later, see Firewall in the same place.

Invite each player

  1. In Settings, go to Players. Under How this campaign is played, check that At the table is selected.
  2. Click Invite a player.
  3. Under Characters, tick the character this player will play.
  4. Click Create invite.
  5. Let the player scan the QR code with their phone’s camera, or send them the Invite link, or read the Invite code out loud.

On the phone, the player:

  1. Types Your name — the name everyone at the table will see — and taps Continue.
  2. Chooses a PIN and types it again under Repeat the PIN.
  3. Taps Join the campaign.

The phone stays signed in, so next time they just open the same address. Repeat for each player.

5. Press Play

When everyone is seated, click Play at the top right of the window. The Start a session window opens.

  1. Give the session a Title if you like.
  2. Leave Session title card on the TV on: “Session 1 — …” fades in on the TV.
  3. From the second session on, “Previously on…” scroll unrolls the last session’s recap after the title card.
  4. Click Start Session 1.

A red Session 1 pill with a timer appears in the top bar, and Fablekeep keeps a log of what happens. To jot something down while you play, press N for a Quick note.

Now show the players their world. For example, open Atlas on the left rail and use Show on TV, or open a place, an NPC or a handout and show it the same way. The other pages of this guide cover each of these in detail.

6. End the session

When you stop for the night, click the Session 1 pill in the top bar and choose End session. In the End session 1 window:

  1. Write a short Recap — what the players will remember. It becomes next time’s “Previously on…”.
  2. Under Experience, award XP (Split evenly shares it out), or leave it at 0 if you level up by milestones.
  3. Leave Show “To be continued…” on the TV on for a proper ending.
  4. Leave Back up the world afterwards on.
  5. Click End session.

Fablekeep goes back to Prep mode, ready for next time. Everything is saved as you work, so you can simply close Fablekeep.

Where to next