How ZapGM Works: Campaign Walkthrough

How to run a tabletop RPG campaign in ZapGM, in five steps, in the order a Game Master works. The examples come from Aurelian-Hollow, a Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign built in ZapGM.

Step 1: Build your world

  1. Click New Campaign or the New / Import World tile on your home screen.
  2. Fill in the Forge New World window and click Forge World.
  3. In the Forge, type what you want and click Send.
  4. Tick the cards you want from Zap's list and click Forge Cards.
  5. Review each finished card and save it to your Lore Library.
  6. Click Exit Forge when you have enough to start.

The Forge New World window asks for a World Name, the Game System (D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, or any other system you name), a Narrative Tone, a Narration Detail level, a Visual Art Style and a Brief Description. Tone and detail can be changed at any time.

The Forge is a chat. Describe the lore you need in plain English and Zap proposes a list of cards, each with a name and a brief you can edit before you forge. Tick the ones you want, click Forge Cards, and Zap writes each card in full, with game stats for characters and monsters, and paints artwork. Each finished card opens for you to review before it is saved.

To plan an encounter, ask for one in the Forge. Zap proposes one Encounter card with a scene outline, a title and a line or two for each scene, built from the cards you already have. Edit any scene, click Add scene or remove one, then forge it: the card is written with exactly those scenes.

There are nine card types: Plot, Setting, Faction, Artifact, NPC, Monster/Adversary, Player Character, Summon and Encounter. NPC cards carry a Voice Persona, Monster/Adversary cards carry a full stat block, and Player Character cards are full character sheets that players claim and edit themselves. Encounter cards are your private plan for an encounter, one scene at a time, and players never see them. Each image on a card is marked GM Only or Player Visible (always GM Only on an Encounter card).

Saved cards live in the Lore Library. Story Arcs group cards by storyline: Zap reads the cards in the Story Arc you are working in, plus your Global Arc cards. Click any card to edit it by hand; the Player-Facing Description is the text your players see.

Step 2: Campaign Command: your control center

  1. Find the four areas of the screen: toolbar at the top, lore cards on the left, narration bar at the bottom, sidebar on the right.
  2. Click Tour for a guided look at the screen.
  3. Click a lore card to open it. Use Add Lore or Plan & Bulk Lore to make more.
  4. Click Ask Zap and ask a question. Only you see the answer.
  5. Click House Rules and type or upload the rules your table plays by.

Campaign Command is the one screen you run the game from. The toolbar holds Broadcast, Battle, Ask Zap, Rules Questions, Add Lore, Plan & Bulk Lore and House Rules. The sidebar has tabs for Player View, Party Side Chat, and GM Notes & Battle Logs.

Ask Zap is a private chat that players never see. It answers rules questions (D&D 5e from the SRD, Pathfinder 2e from the open-licensed rules), knows your lore, explains how ZapGM works, and can propose changes to your lore cards that you approve before anything is saved. House Rules holds your table's own rules, typed or uploaded, and Zap follows them.

Step 3: Broadcast to your players

  1. Click Broadcast in the Campaign Command toolbar. The channel opens right away.
  2. Click Copy and send the invite link to your players.
  3. Wait for each player to open the link and sign in with a free ZapGM account.
  4. Hover a lore card and click Zap Card to show it to everyone.
  5. Open the Party Side Chat tab to message the table.

Players open the link in any browser. There is nothing to install, and a free account is all a player needs. The Player Canvas is a live feed, not a shared drawing board: narration, lore cards, images and recaps arrive in order and stay as scrollable session history.

Zapping a card sends its title, its Player-Facing Description and the images marked Player Visible. Images marked GM Only and the card's stat fields are not sent. Players who claim a character get a My Campaigns section on their own home screen. Party Side Chat is the table's text chat, with private rooms seen only by the people in them.

Step 4: Tell the story

  1. Type what happens next in the narration bar and click Zap.
  2. Or open an Encounter card and click Draft Player Narration on a scene.
  3. Read the draft in the Narrative Preview window.
  4. Click Accept & Publish to send it to your players. To change it, edit the draft itself, or edit your instruction and click Regenerate. To drop it, click Reject.
  5. If an Overseer Intervention window opens, check the proposed card changes and click Approve Updates.
  6. Click the dice button, pick your dice and click Roll.

Zap drafts narration in your campaign's tone from the cards in your current Story Arc. Nothing reaches your players until you approve the draft in the Narrative Preview window, where you can also edit the draft's words before you publish. NPC lines are read aloud in the Voice Persona saved on the NPC's card. From an Encounter card, Draft Player Narration on a scene writes the draft from that scene's Player Brief, and your GM Notes are never sent to the narrator.

After you publish, the Overseer checks the passage for a lasting change to your world. When it finds one, it proposes specific updates to the affected lore cards, and you approve or reject them. Nothing is written to a card without your approval.

The dice tray has a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 and d100, with advantage, disadvantage and a modifier. Public rolls are posted in Party Side Chat; a private roll is seen by the roller and the GM.

Step 5: Run a battle

  1. Click Battle in the Campaign Command toolbar.
  2. In the New Battle window, name the battle, tick who is fighting and click Start Battle.
  3. Pick a map and click Use This Map, or choose Theater of the Mind.
  4. Click Start Initiative to set the turn order.
  5. When the fight is over, click End Battle, then End & Save.

A Battle is the whole fight; Initiative is the turn order inside it. The battle map has tokens, fog of war and dynamic lighting, and damage, healing or conditions can be applied to several tokens at once. Players see the map update live. Theater of the Mind runs a fight without map artwork.

The Cartographer makes a battle map from a description. Battle-Ready lays out a blueprint with walls and doors first and paints the artwork to match; Quick Map paints the artwork straight from your description. Choose a map size, a map type and an art style. Finished maps are saved to My Maps.

The Result: Your World, Alive

A session in progress: your lore cards in Campaign Command, and approved narration in the Player View for the whole table to read.

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