How to Use Campaign Creator

Campaign Creator lets you combine your maps and your game notes into one easily accessible location. However, it does take some work to get set-up. This article will walk you through each of the steps, and show you in detail how to set-up and use Campaign Creator to its fullest effect.

Starting a New Campaign

The first thing you will need to create is your "Top Most Map." Campaign Creator does not currently have any map making abilities so you will need to create this image else. Your Top Most Map is the largest map your game uses. This can be anything, from a house, to a town, to a world, to a galaxy, etc. It doesn't matter what you use, as long as it represents the largest setting in your world.

So take some time to sketch this out. It doesn't have to be perfect; you can always update the graphic later. Please note that if you are using Windows 10 you will only be able to upload PNG files. We will address this issue soon.

Go ahead. I'll wait

Once you have created your Top Most Map you are ready to start using Campaign Creator. For the sake of this article, I will use my Top Most Map for the World of Rin in my Impossible Campaign.

My Top most Map

So let's get this map added to the Creator. Open campaign creator, and click the button in the top let hand corner. Alternatively you can right click in the column on the left hand side of the screen.

Right clicking in the left hand column, or on any of your current campaigns, will open a list of options. You can "Add a new campaign" from here which works the same as clicking the button in the upper left hand corner.

This list also gives you the ability to "Import" and "Export" campaigns to and from the program allowing you to share your worlds with your friends. From here you can also "Change the Cover Art" of your campaign (more on that later),
"Change the Theme", "Delete the Campaign", "Sign the Copy Write" so that people know you worked on it, and "Show the Credits" which shows you everyone who has signed the copy write.

To start a new campaign we need to select "Add a new campaign" which will bring you to the next menu, and get you on your way!

So here we have the New Campaign Window. In the top field, give your campaign a name. In this case we are naming it the World of Rin. In the next field, click the arrows to browse your computer for your map. For the World of Rin Campaign, I am using the Map of Rin I showed you earlier for my Top Most Map. You will not be able to make your campaign without a top most map, so make sure that you have it ready!

The third field is for giving your campaign Cover Art. This is the image that will display on the Campaign Creator Main page. If you leave it blank it will default to your Top Map. I have chosen an image of the Ptolemaic Sphere that the world of Rin exists in.

The final step is to select a theme for your campaign. Since Rin is a Western Medieval setting, I am going to select the default stone theme.

Once you are finished, click OK and you new campaign will appear in the list on your main page.

And your new campaign is ready!

Double click on your newly created campaign to open open the Campaign Creator Editor and starting working on your game notes.

Editing you Campaign and Adding Locations and Notes

After opening your campaign you will be brought to the editing screen. On the left hand side is a list of the maps you have in your game, and on the right is a table of contents for the locations on this map.

You will notice that there are no locations on your map, because you will need to add these in. To add a new location right click on the area you would like to add a label/notes to and select "insert object"

This will open a notes dialogue: in here you can name the object. Since my location is called South Ateland that is what I will name it. The text section below is for you to write your notes about the area. In here you have Italics, Underline, and Bold options, as well as the ability to copy and paste images. Whatever notes you need about the area, keep them here.

Once you have clicked OK on the dialogue, the entry will appear in your table of contents on the right and a numbered icon will appear on the map. You can further edit these objects by right clicking on the numbered icon, or double clicking the table of contents entry. If you wish to move a a numbered icon on the map, you can do so by clicking and dragging it.

Adding locations and editing your notes is really the meat and potatoes of Campaign Creator. From here you can organize your campaign based on the locations of events by adding map objects where they are needed.


But what if you wanted to get more detailed then your Top Map allows for?

Adding a Sub-map

To add more detail to your world you will need more maps of the locations your game takes place in. So take a minute and get those created.

Sub-maps are more specific locations that your game goes to, and will usually be a zoomed in section of the map above it. Since South Ateland is a country in the World of Rin, I will want to add that as a sub-map of my Top Most Map.

South Ateland in detail.

To add a sub-map, right click on the map you wish to make a sub-map under and select Insert Sub-map.

This will open a small dialogue that will let you put in your map and name it.

After you click OK, your sub-map will have been added to the table of contents on the right hand side, and you can view your map.

Your sub-maps work the same as your top, and you can add objects as needed to each map, and add as many sub-maps as you need to host your game.

For the World of Rin there are a lot of locations within locations, so I will have a ton of sub-maps to help organize the world. Under the South Ateland map I will have sub-maps of my towns, and the towns will have sub-maps with specific locations that the players are bound to visit.

How many sub-maps you use is up to you, it all depends on what level of detail you wish to put into each location.

Additional Notes

There are of course some notes that don't quite fit in any location.  Whether they are Notes for your player characters or your introduction speech, etc. To accommodate this every map you put in Campaign Creator has Three buttons along the top menu that will open notes dialogues.

We envisioned these to cover from left to right, A general Map Notes section, a Monster Stats and notes Section and a Player/NPC notes section.

This way you can keep some of those game mechanics notes out of your story notes on your map, while still having them associated with the location.

For The World of Rin I am going to put my opening speech in the general section of the Top Most Map.

I have a fairly wordy speech for my players, and there is no need to worry about space: each of these text boxes can support an unlimited number of characters.

Night Maps

Since many campaigns have locational information that changes depending on the time of day, You will notice at the bottom of your map list there is a copy of your top map, but the text is red and it is says (Night) beside it.

Night Maps let you add in a "night time" location, or any map that will be different at a certain time of day in game.

For my World of Rin Campaign the Village of Woods Deep becomes overrun with the Undead at night, so I am going to add a night map of Woods Deep to handle that.

For there you can tree this as you would any other map. Buy labelling it, and/or adding sub-maps as needed

Conclusion

That should give you everything you need to know about setting up your game in Campaign Creator.

If you get stuck, a good rule-of-thumb to follow is right clicking. It will usually open a menu that will give you the option you need.

The Future of Campaign Creator will include a Map Maker to let you create your own Maps, as well a game mode which will let you communicate with your players.

You can download your free beta version of Campaign Creator here:

https://jade-gaming.myshopify.com/collections/the-campaign-creator

And start writing your campaign! Happy Gaming!

Written by: Andrew Gregory