Click the "Start Broadcast" button (⚡) in your campaign header to go live. ZapGM uses a hybrid delivery system — critical content like narration, lore cards, and images is relayed through ZapGM's cloud for reliable delivery, while audio narration uses a direct connection. Players receive everything instantly.
Once the broadcast is active, copy the invite link and share it via Discord, text, or email. Players paste it into any modern browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge — to join instantly. No app download or installation required. Works on desktop and mobile.
Everything you do in Public Narration mode reaches your players in real time:
The player count shown next to the Broadcast button updates in real time. Open the Player View tab in your sidebar to see exactly what your players are seeing at any moment.
Click "Sever Connection" to end the broadcast and disconnect all players. Session history is preserved so players who reconnect later can receive a content backfill of recent events.
ZapGM officially supports Google Chrome. Other Chromium-based browsers — including Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Opera — should also work. Chrome is strongly recommended, particularly for the battle map and audio features.
Only for the first session. Once a player joins through your invite link and claims a character, the campaign appears on their ZapGM home page. They can return between sessions to browse shared lore and update their characters — no GM action required. When you start your next broadcast, players who have previously joined are automatically added to the live session. The invite link only needs to be shared once per player.
"Ask Zap" (the HelpCircle icon, violet) is the rightmost button in the Campaign Command toolbar — the row of action buttons inside the Campaign Command tab at the top of your campaign page. On narrow screens it shortens to "Ask." Party Chat is in the right sidebar Chat tab. Neither Ask Zap responses nor Party Chat messages are ever broadcast to players.
The bottom chat bar is your narration input. Type instructions for the AI Co-GM and your message and the AI's response are broadcast to all connected players in real time. Use it for in-game narration, describing scenes, responding to player actions, and announcing story developments. This is what your players see in their Broadcast Feed.
Click the "Ask Zap" button in the Campaign Command toolbar to open a private chat window with the AI. Nothing you type there is ever broadcast to players. Use it for rules questions mid-session, secretly editing lore cards, planning upcoming encounters, checking NPC stats, or getting AI suggestions you don't want your players to see. Your Ask Zap conversation history is saved per campaign — you can close and reopen it anytime.
The Party Chat sidebar lets you communicate directly with players:
You always review AI narration before it reaches your players. After submitting your narration prompt, the AI returns a draft for your approval. From the approval modal, you can send it as-is, give feedback in the same window to request changes — adjusting the phrasing, expanding a detail, redirecting the scene — or dismiss it entirely. Only narration you explicitly approve is broadcast. The AI naturally incorporates NPC voices and immersive prose into its drafts, which makes approved narration more engaging for players than reading a plain description aloud.
Both share the same AI capabilities, but they have different defaults. The Forge (Plan & Bulk Lore) is optimized for card creation and will actively steer conversations toward producing and editing lore cards. If you want to brainstorm freely — developing story ideas, drafting narration text for yourself, or exploring concepts before committing them to cards — Ask Zap is the better starting point. It engages conversationally without immediately steering toward card output. A common workflow: draft narration or encounter notes in Ask Zap, then paste the result into a GM Note for easy reference during the session.
Yes. ZapGM's AI is provided with the full open-source ruleset for both D&D 5e (SRD) and Pathfinder 2e as part of its context. Use Ask Zap for rules questions mid-session — ability check mechanics, spell interactions, condition effects, action economy, and more — and receive answers grounded in the official rulebook. Ask Zap responses are never broadcast to players, so you can look up anything without breaking immersion.
Click the "+ Lore Card" button (blue PlusCircle icon) in the Campaign Command toolbar at the top of the Campaign Command tab. The lore card grid fills the main area below the toolbar. Click any existing card to edit it. The Story Arc dropdown in the filter bar controls which cards are visible.
ZapGM supports a full range of campaign content organized as lore cards:
Toggle any card as "Shared" to make it visible in the Player Canvas. Players can browse your shared lore, filter by Story Arc, and search by name or description during play. Cards remain read-only for players — only the GM can edit them.
Zapping a card broadcasts it directly into all connected players' Broadcast Feed as a highlighted reveal — perfect for dramatically unveiling an NPC, disclosing a map location, or delivering a plot twist mid-session.
When you create PC (Player Character) cards, players can request to claim them from the broadcast. Claim requests appear in your Claim Request Tray — a draggable GM approval panel where you Approve or Deny each request. Each player can claim multiple characters, and their claims are tracked separately.
Yes. On any lore card with images, mark one image as the "Token Portrait" — it becomes the character's icon on the battle map grid, displayed as a circular portrait on the token. If you change the Token image on a lore card while a battle is running, the token on the map updates immediately — no redeploy needed. This works for both GM edits and player edits to their own character cards.
A practical example: Druids. Upload a separate portrait for each wildshape form (humanoid, wolf, bear, etc.) and mark them on the lore card. When the druid wildshapes mid-combat, swap the Token image on their card and the map token switches to the new form portrait on the spot.
Yes. The Forge (AI Lore Creator) can generate artwork for any card. Choose from built-in art styles (High Fantasy Epic, Dark & Gritty, Anime, Cosmic Horror, and many more) or generate a completely custom style with a text prompt. You can also upload your own artwork.
Yes. When creating a new campaign, upload files from Roll20, Foundry VTT, Kanka, World Anvil, Fantasy Grounds, D&D Beyond, or any PDF, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document. The AI analyzes your files and converts the content into lore cards for you to review and accept.
Each lore card contributes to the context sent to the AI narrator. More detailed cards consume more tokens per generation. Using Story Arc filters keeps only relevant cards in context, reducing token usage and keeping AI narration focused on the current part of the story.
Zapping a card broadcasts the card's player-visible image and its full description into the players' Broadcast Feed. If you want to reveal only the image — without the description — open the card and hover over the image itself. An option to broadcast the image alone appears on hover, sending just the visual to the player canvas with no accompanying text.
Important: Review AI-generated card descriptions before zapping. The AI occasionally includes information that reads better as GM-only context. A quick read before broadcasting prevents accidental spoilers reaching your players mid-session.
Yes. Hover over the lore card in your campaign view and click the "Shared" icon that appears on the card. This removes the card from the players' persistent Lore Library immediately. Note that players who already saw the card in their Broadcast Feed during the active session will retain that event in their feed history, but the card will no longer appear in their Lore Library going forward.
When the AI generates images for a lore card, each one is automatically tagged as either "Player-Visible" or "GM Only" based on the content context. You can change any image's tag by hovering over it inside the open card — a visibility toggle appears directly on the image. Only player-visible images are included when you zap a card to players or start a broadcast. Check these tags on cards that contain sensitive artwork — secret maps, hidden villain portraits, or spoiler-laden imagery — before going live.
Yes. When editing any lore card, you can attach supplemental files — PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and others — directly to that card. This is useful for attaching an encounter table to a dungeon location card, a rulebook reference to a faction card, or setting notes to a world-building card. Attachments are stored on the card and accessible to the GM at any time.
Yes. You can upload animated GIFs as images on any lore card. They display as animated in the GM's card grid, the players' Lore Library, and the Broadcast Feed — a striking visual effect when dramatically revealing a key NPC, a cursed artifact, or an otherworldly location.
Yes. From the Player Canvas during a live session, players can build new PC or Summon cards from scratch — entering their own name, class, race, description, and backstory, with the option to use the AI Forge to generate details from a brief concept. Characters submitted this way appear in your GM approval queue before being added to the campaign. This allows players to design their characters independently without requiring you to pre-build them first.
ZapGM includes an AI system that monitors each approved narration. When a story development logically requires a change to a lore card — an NPC becoming hostile after a failed negotiation, a location being destroyed, a player character earning a faction's trust — the system identifies the affected cards and surfaces specific update suggestions for your approval. You can accept, modify, or dismiss each suggestion individually.
Yes. If you need to retcon a story development, locate the narration event in the Player View and delete it. ZapGM automatically reverts any lore card changes that resulted from that narration event, restoring the cards to their prior state without requiring manual edits.
ZapGM provides a free asset library containing official D&D 5e content, including over 240 monsters with complete stat blocks. Browse and claim any asset into your campaign at no cost — claimed assets become fully editable lore cards in your campaign, ready to place on the battle map, share with players, or use as AI narration context.
Yes - hover any stat, save, skill, or attack to get a Roll/Edit popover, and use the card's Other Rolls section for custom rolls. See the 3D Dice Tray section for details.
The battle map is accessed via the right sidebar — click the "Map" tab which appears once you enter combat mode (via the Combat Mode button in the Campaign Command toolbar). The VTT canvas shows your map with tokens, fog of war, and grid. You can also switch the left panel to the "Battle Log" tab to see the initiative tracker alongside the map.
ZapGM includes a fully integrated virtual tabletop with a live battle map you share with players. Open the VTT from your campaign to place tokens, create areas of effect, set up lighting, and broadcast the live map to all connected players in real time. Players see the map in a dedicated tab in their Player Canvas and can pan and zoom independently.
The VTT includes a toolkit for running encounters on top of your map:
All overlays support color, opacity, stroke width, fill toggle, dashed lines, and grid snap.
ZapGM supports both square grids (standard for D&D 5e combat) and hex grids (preferred for Pathfinder 2e and hex-crawl campaigns). Toggle grid visibility and enable snap-to-grid for precise token and shape placement.
Yes. Export any map as a .dd2vtt file that includes walls, doors, and light source data. Use the Roll20 UniversalVTTImporter script or the Foundry Universal Battlemap Importer module to import it as a fully prepared scene with Dynamic Lighting. See the dedicated step-by-step import guides for detailed instructions.
Once the broadcast is active, players automatically receive live map updates as you make changes. Token positions, drawings, AOE templates, and initiative state all sync to players in real time via the BATTLE_MAP broadcast channel.
The diagonal toggle controls how movement distance is counted when a token moves diagonally on a square grid. In 5/5/5 mode (default), every square — including diagonals — costs 5 feet. In 5/10/5 mode, the first diagonal costs 5 feet, the second costs 10 feet, alternating. The 5/10/5 rule is standard in Pathfinder 2e and an optional variant in D&D 5e (DMG p. 252). The toggle appears on the Actions tab next to the Ruler button. It only appears on square grids — hex grids have equidistant movement by nature. In 5/10/5 mode, diagonal movement through a wall corner (where two walls meet at a right angle) is automatically blocked.
The Difficult Terrain tile type and manual vector tool let you visually mark areas of rough, hazardous, or obstructed ground on the map. Both the GM and players see the crosshatch overlay during gameplay. ZapGM does NOT automatically enforce difficult terrain movement penalties — the GM tracks this manually. This is intentional: flying creatures, teleportation, class features, and spell effects all interact differently with difficult terrain, making automatic enforcement unreliable. The visual marker helps everyone at the table see where difficult terrain exists so the GM can adjudicate movement costs correctly.
Open the Token Deploy Tray in the VTT editor to see all your campaign's lore cards queued as tokens. Drag any token from the tray onto the map canvas to place it. Tokens are automatically sized based on the creature's size category (Tiny through Gargantuan) relative to the grid square size.
Each token on the battle map tracks a full combat profile:
Set each token's initiative value, then click Start Combat to sort the turn order automatically. The current combatant gets a golden ring highlight; tokens that have already acted this round are dimmed. Use Next Turn and Next Round buttons to advance. Players can see the turn order in read-only mode on their own map view.
Click any token to open its detail panel and go to the Conditions tab. Select from pre-defined D&D 5e conditions (Frightened, Stunned, Prone, Paralyzed, Charmed, and more) or add a custom condition. Conditions display as colored chips on the token with duration tracking in rounds.
Set a round counter on any condition and ZapGM manages it automatically: the counter decrements as you advance rounds during initiative combat and the condition is removed when it reaches zero — no manual tracking required. If you step backward through rounds, conditions are automatically restored and their counters increment back, keeping the board state accurate at any point in the encounter.
To apply a condition to multiple tokens simultaneously — for example, all enemies caught in a poison cloud — use an AOE template or drag-select multiple tokens on the map, then apply the condition to the entire group at once. Combined with automatic duration tracking, this substantially reduces bookkeeping during complex encounters.
Yes. The Group Actions Panel lets you select multiple tokens and apply batch operations — deal damage or healing to the entire selection, apply a condition to all selected tokens, clear all conditions at once, or adjust initiative for a group of combatants. This is especially useful for managing encounters with multiple enemies of the same type.
Drag any token to a new grid square to move it. Hold Shift to select multiple tokens simultaneously. Tokens snap to the nearest grid cell by default (disable grid snap in settings for free movement). On square grids, use the diagonal movement toggle (5/5/5 or 5/10/5) on the Actions tab to control how diagonal distance is counted. The drag trail line changes color as the token approaches its movement budget — cyan for normal movement, yellow for dash range, red for overextended.
Each token supports up to three configurable auras — visible radius circles around the token representing reach, weapon range, or spell range. Enable auras in the token detail panel, set the radius in grid squares, choose a color, and give each aura a human-readable label. Auras display as translucent colored circles on the map.
Each token supports an unlimited number of customizable counters for tracking resources like spell slots, ki points, ammo, hit dice, sorcery points — anything you need. Add as many as you like: name each one, set a current and maximum value, choose a color, and select display mode (bar or badge). The top three enabled counters render as badges directly on the token on the map; the full list is available in the token detail panel.
Yes — the lore card is the single source of truth. HP and counter changes made anywhere (the token on the map, the quick-HP overlay, the battle log tracker, or from a player's character sheet) automatically write back to the lore card during combat and persist after combat ends. When you rejoin a saved battle, the lore card values are restored to every token, so nothing is lost across sessions. Temp HP follows the same flow: it syncs between the lore card, the battle log, and the map token in real time.
ZapGM supports mechanically enforced mounted combat. When a token mounts another, the two tokens stack onto one tile. The unselected pair displays as a split-circle thumbnail with each half showing that token's conditions. Selecting a mounted pair splits them apart so each can be individually inspected. Mounting requires the two tokens to be adjacent on the grid.
Tokens can be linked to represent relationships — a summon linked to its summoner, a companion linked to its handler. Linked tokens display their connection visually on the map and maintain the relationship through combat state changes.
Grappling is mechanically enforced. A grapple can only be initiated when two tokens are adjacent. Once grappled, the target token's movement is restricted and the grapple link is visible in the UI. Break the grapple through the token detail panel.
Yes. Each token has an elevation field (in feet) for tracking vertical position during multi-level encounters or flying combat. Elevation displays on the token and is preserved through combat saves and rejoins.
Temporary HP is tracked as a separate buffer from current HP. When a token takes damage, temp HP is consumed first before current HP is reduced. Temp HP is displayed with visual separation from the main health bar on the token.
By default, enemy HP exact values are hidden from players. The GM can enable Enemy HP Tiers, which shows a color-coded indicator instead of exact numbers: green (Healthy), yellow (Bloodied), and red (Near Death). Friendly PC tokens always display their full HP bar to all viewers.
Click "Combat Mode" (the Swords icon) in the Campaign Command toolbar — the row of action buttons inside the Campaign Command tab at the top of your campaign page. On narrow screens the label shortens to "Combat." This opens the Combat Setup Modal to configure the encounter. Once combat is active, the tracker appears in the Battle Log tab on the left panel.
Click "Combat Mode" from your campaign to open the Combat Setup Modal. Select which PCs and adversaries to include, name the encounter, and launch. For visual combat with token positions, use the initiative tracker bar directly on the VTT battle map instead.
The combat table displays each combatant with system-specific stats — Initiative, AC, and HP for D&D 5e. Each row has quick HP adjustment buttons (+/−) and a visual health bar that shifts from green to amber to red as HP decreases.
Click any combatant row to expand it. Add and remove status conditions, update HP directly, and attach private notes. For VTT battle map combat, the same information is available through the token detail panel with full condition tracking, duration management, and custom counters.
When you end combat, ZapGM saves it as a "Combat Record" in your GM Notes. Open any saved Combat Record and click "Rejoin Combat" to reload the encounter exactly as you left it — all HP values, conditions, and token positions preserved.
The Campaign Command Combat Tracker is a table-based tool that works independently of the battle map — useful for theater-of-the-mind play. The VTT battle map has its own integrated initiative tracker bar showing turn order visually alongside token positions on the grid. Both save to GM Notes as Combat Records.
Yes — use the NPC Combatants feature (marked Beta). When setting up or editing a combat encounter, you can add ad-hoc NPCs directly from the combat modal without any lore card. They get blank stats, a blue border ring on the map, and auto-rolled initiative. This is useful for improvised encounters, unnamed guards, or any enemy you don't want to build a full lore card for. You can fill in HP, AC, and other stats inline during the fight.
Yes - each adversary row's Attack column has a die button that rolls that creature's first attack. See the 3D Dice Tray section for the full rolling system (Rollables and Saved Rolls tabs).
Narrative Controls are in the campaign header bar at the very top of the page — always visible while inside any campaign. Look for the tone name and detail level displayed as compact dropdowns sitting to the right of the campaign name. You can change them at any time mid-session without leaving the page.
ZapGM's AI Co-GM narrator supports 12 atmospheric tones to match your campaign's mood:
Switch tones at any time mid-session without losing your place in the story.
The detail level controls how verbose the AI narrator is:
The GM Name in your campaign header is the display name your players see when you send messages or narrate events. Edit it at any time to match your campaign's narrator identity or table persona.
The House Rules button is in the Campaign Command toolbar — the row of action buttons inside the "Campaign Command" tab at the top of your campaign page. Look for the scroll-document icon labeled "House Rules." A green checkmark on the button means house rules are already saved; a grey circle means none are set yet.
House Rules let you inject custom table rules directly into the AI Co-GM's context. Whatever you write in the House Rules editor is included in every AI generation — ensuring the AI narrator respects your homebrew mechanics, setting-specific variations, and custom rules without you needing to repeat them each session.
Use the built-in rich text editor with bold, italic, lists, and headings. Focus on rules that most directly affect AI narration — world-specific magic restrictions, variant combat mechanics, homebrew class abilities, or narrative tone guidelines. Anything the AI needs to know to narrate your world correctly belongs here.
Yes. Upload your existing house rules document directly:
The AI analyzes the uploaded file and extracts the relevant rules content automatically.
Each AI generation includes your house rules text in the context window. More detailed rules use more tokens per response. Focus on the rules that most directly affect narration — typically 200–500 words works well for most campaigns.
Yes — and this is one of the most underutilized applications of the feature. Because House Rules are injected into every AI generation, they function as a persistent instruction layer. Beyond homebrew mechanics, you can use them to adjust the AI's general behavior: specifying how it should handle certain player questions, establishing the narrative voice and vocabulary for your world, defining what information the AI should or shouldn't volunteer during narration, or setting the expected style for how NPCs speak. Think of House Rules as a lightweight way to tune the AI Co-GM to your table's specific preferences without needing to repeat those instructions in every prompt.
The sidebar provides three tools in one panel:
Chat Tab: Send messages directly to connected players. Create private group chats by selecting specific recipients — private messages are marked with a lock icon. Unread message counts appear as badges on tabs.
GM Notes Tab: Your private notebook for campaign planning. Combat Records are stored here automatically when you end a combat encounter. Filter notes by tag and edit or delete at any time.
Player View Tab: A live embedded preview showing exactly what your players see in their browsers. Use it to verify broadcasts are landing correctly and to monitor the player experience without switching windows.
Open the Player View tab in the sidebar for a live preview of the Player Canvas. This shows the broadcast feed, party roster, lore library, and battle map exactly as your players see it — useful for catching broadcast issues before they notice.
Yes. Most panel tabs in both Campaign Command and the Player Canvas can be collapsed to reclaim screen space. In the Battle Map, the side panels are fully detachable and resizable — drag them anywhere on screen. Their position and size are saved automatically, so they return to where you placed them the next time you open the map.
The Story Arc dropdown is in the filter bar — the narrow horizontal bar directly below the Campaign Command toolbar buttons and above the lore card grid. Look for the BookOpen icon on the left side showing the current arc name (defaults to "All Story Arcs"). The small + button next to it creates a new arc immediately.
Story Arcs are organizational containers for your lore cards — think of them as campaign chapters, narrative acts, or thematic groupings. Every lore card belongs to one or more arcs, and filtering by an arc controls which cards the AI narrator receives as context during play.
When you filter by a Story Arc, only lore cards tagged to that arc are sent to the AI. For large campaigns with dozens or hundreds of cards, this dramatically reduces token consumption and keeps the AI focused on characters, locations, and plot points relevant to the current session — rather than the entire world history.
The impact compounds as your campaign grows. With five active Story Arcs and a filter set to just the current one, the AI receives roughly one-fifth of your total lore library as context — an approximately 80% reduction in lore-related token consumption per generation. For long-running campaigns, consistent arc filtering is one of the most effective ways to extend your monthly AI allowance. The Global Arc (always included) ensures your foundational world elements remain available regardless of which arc is active.
The Global Arc holds your campaign's foundational elements — major recurring NPCs, key locations, world-building rules, and setting information that applies everywhere regardless of the current storyline. Cards in the Global Arc are always included in AI context even when you're filtered to a specific arc.
There is no limit. Create arcs for every major questline, faction, dungeon, or chapter. Switch arcs instantly during play to shift the AI's focus and optimize context usage.
Click "Plan & Bulk Lore" (the Sparkles icon) in the Campaign Command toolbar — the row of action buttons inside the Campaign Command tab at the top of your campaign page. On narrow screens the label shortens to "Plan/Bulk." This opens the Firestarter modal in Forge mode for AI-assisted lore generation.
Open the Forge via "Plan & Bulk Lore" in your campaign toolbar. Describe your concept in 1–3 sentences, optionally reference existing cards for consistency, then click Generate. The AI produces the card's name, description, and system-specific attributes — stat blocks, AC, HP, abilities for adversaries; personality traits and backstory for NPCs; room descriptions for locations.
Keep it to 1–3 sentences. Too vague gives the AI nothing to build on; too detailed constrains its creativity. Focus on what makes the character or location unique.
Example: "A gruff dwarven blacksmith who secretly crafts weapons for the resistance. She speaks in riddles and trusts no one from the capital."
When creating a new card, select existing lore cards from the Lore Library panel to include them in the AI's context. The AI creates content that references your established world — a new NPC might know an existing location, a new monster/adversary faction might reference a known villain, a new dungeon might connect to an established organization.
Yes. After generating a card's text content, click "Generate Image" to create AI artwork. Select from ZapGM's built-in art styles (High Fantasy Epic, Dark & Gritty, Anime, Painterly, and more) or generate a completely custom style by describing it — for example: "Watercolor illustration with a hand-drawn dungeon map aesthetic." Custom styles can be saved and reused across your campaign.
Yes, and this is one of the most effective ways to give your campaign a distinctive visual identity. Define a custom art style by describing it in your own words — for example: "16th-century oil painting portrait style with dramatic chiaroscuro lighting" or "isometric pixel art with a warm autumn palette." Once generated, that style can be saved and applied to every subsequent image you create, giving all your lore cards a cohesive look. Campaign-consistent art is particularly striking when players browse the Lore Library and see a world rendered in a unified visual language.
Yes. When creating a new campaign, upload files from Roll20, Foundry VTT, Kanka, World Anvil, D&D Beyond, or any PDF, Word, or spreadsheet. The AI analyzes your documents and extracts characters, locations, and other content into a batch of draft lore cards for you to review and accept.
Session Recaps are AI-generated summaries of live broadcast session events. When a recap is triggered, a RECAP event is broadcast to connected players — appearing in their Broadcast Feed as a summary card. This helps players remember what happened between sessions and keeps the narrative arc clear across multiple play nights.
GM Notes live in the Notes tab of your campaign sidebar, organized by type:
You can edit, tag, and delete any note at any time.
Yes. After a session summary is saved, open it from the GM Notes tab and edit the content freely. Add your own observations, correct AI-generated details, note player decisions, or expand on important story moments before saving.
Yes. Open any saved Combat Record from GM Notes and click "Rejoin Combat" to reload the encounter exactly where you left off — with all HP values, conditions, and token positions on the VTT battle map preserved.
Look for the round dice button at the bottom-right of the right sidebar - click it to toggle the 3D dice tray open or closed. The tray floats over your session without navigating away, and you can drag it by the bar at the top. It has three tabs: Dice, Rollables, and Saved Rolls.
On the Dice tab, roll any combination of d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d100 (percentile) with a full 3D physics simulation. Select multiple dice to roll them together as a pool - ideal for damage, saving throws, and skill checks. Add a +/- modifier and press Roll.
On the Dice tab, choose Advantage to roll twice and keep the higher result, or Disadvantage to keep the lower - both rolls are shown so you can see what was kept. You can also trigger them anywhere a roll fires from a stat: Shift-click for Advantage, right-click for Disadvantage (on a lore-card roll popover, a Rollables row, or a Saved Rolls row).
Adjust the +/- modifier before rolling; it is added to the final total automatically and shown in the breakdown alongside the individual dice.
The Rollables tab automatically lists every roll your characters and adversaries can make - ability checks, saves, skills, initiative, and attacks - pulled straight from their lore cards, so you never build them by hand. Entries are grouped by character (collapsible; collapsed by default) and filtered to the current Story Arc, with an arc dropdown at the top to switch arcs. Click any row to roll it.
Saved Rolls holds custom rolls you have saved, grouped by the character they belong to, plus a "Personal" group for rolls not tied to any card. Click a row to roll it (Shift-click / right-click for advantage / disadvantage), the pencil to edit it, or the trash to delete it (you will be asked to confirm).
Yes. Hover any rollable stat, save, skill, or attack on a character sheet and a popover appears with the dice notation, a Roll button, and an Edit button. Roll fires the 3D dice and broadcasts a labeled result (e.g. "Kael - DEX save").
These are auto-calculated from the character's scores, so editing one gives two choices: Save as Custom Roll (adds a separate entry to the card's Other Rolls without changing the stat), or Save to [stat] (overrides the value directly on the sheet - it locks as a manual override and stops auto-calculating until you clear it).
Editing a weapon or spell attack updates that attack's to-hit bonus directly on the character sheet - there is no separate copy to keep in sync.
Each character sheet has an Other Rolls section for custom rolls you define yourself - damage, special abilities, anything. The Add button opens the dice roller to configure the roll; your saved rolls then appear in the Saved Rolls tab under that character.
In the battle log, each adversary row has a die button in the Attack column. Click it for a popover that rolls that creature's first attack (Roll / Edit, with Shift-click and right-click for advantage / disadvantage). PCs and NPCs do not show the button.
Toggle Private Roll mode to roll dice only you can see - the result is marked "PRIVATE" in your log and is not broadcast to players. Useful for secret saves, perception checks, or rolling behind the screen.
The dice and modifier are saved with a roll; advantage/disadvantage and private/public are NOT. Advantage/disadvantage is chosen each time you roll (Shift-click / right-click), and private vs public always follows the toggle on the dice tray at the moment you roll.
Choose from eight material themes: Cobalt (blue), Rust (brown/orange metal), Oak (wood grain), Jade (green glass), Royal (gold resin), Void (black matte), Magma (red), and Blight (poison green).
The image shown on your home page for each campaign tile comes from a lore card inside that campaign. This is called the Campaign Cover.
Inside Campaign Command, switch to the card grid view. Hover over any lore card that has an image — a grey "Set as campaign cover" badge will appear at the bottom of the card. Click it to make that card's image the campaign thumbnail on the home page.
You must deselect the current cover before selecting a new one:
1. Find the lore card with the green "Campaign cover" badge (the current cover).
2. Click the green badge — it reads "Campaign cover — click to clear" — to remove it.
3. Find the lore card whose image you want instead, then click its "Set as campaign cover" badge.
The home page thumbnail updates immediately.
If no cover is manually set, ZapGM automatically uses the first player-visible image it finds across your lore cards. Once you manually set a cover, this fallback no longer applies.
Only images attached to lore cards can be used as the campaign cover. The image must already be uploaded and saved to a lore card before it can be selected.