What are campaigns? How do I start?

Campaigns allow you to create pre-setup games that can be reproduced. To create a new campaign, just create a new game (the Create New Game button in the lobby) and start setting everything up. Once you finish setting everything up, to make the campaign available publicly you need to go to the Game Administration tab and set the Game State to Campaign.

All campaigns follow the same basic rules regardless of the game type (template). You will be required to create locations, object types (if necessary), objects (like npcs, weapons, items..etc) and some textual story-line or hints in a few different places. The first thing you will likely want to do is create a detailed description.

Setting up a name, description and story outline

The very first thing a GM will see when browsing possible campaigns is the name of the campaign. You may find it important to include the "level" requirement in your campaign name (or some other requirement, depending on the game type chosen) in order to make it easier for people browsing the campaigns to find one they can use. Once someone chooses your campaign, the very next thing they will see is the Game Background (Under the Game Administration tab) so you will want to ensure the background is fully descriptive but does not reveal anything about the plot that you wouldn't want the players to see. You must keep in mind that anyone can see this description and not just game masters.

Next you will want to leave a long list of notes and a story-line progression. I suggest doing this using the Game Messages feature. Game messages copied into campaign instances just like locations, objects and object types. It is important that you reveal everything that the GM needs to know here and you can be assured that the players will not be able to see this initial message (unless the GM specifically assigns it to them).

Including your own graphics

You will inevitably want to include your own maps and graphics into your game. This can be done by first uploading the images you wish to use to the server. Do this by going to your My Images section in the social bar at the bottom (you can also find it using the My Images link at the top of the lobby) and uploading the images you wish to use. MyRPG also comes with a series of character graphics that you may use as well. When selecting images made available to you, you will find the images you've uploaded under the user section in the image selector (you'll see what I mean when you're doing it).

Setting up locations

The next thing you'll likely want to do is to setup some basic locations. Locations are just that, locations. Locations can be created under the Location Editor tab. You may wish to specify a city as a location with sub-locations like specific landmarks or areas with further sub-locations like buildings with rooms and so on. How you define the locations are up to you but I suggest putting locations inside of each other in a logical sense so they are easy to find later on. It is important to note that players who are in the same location can "hear" each other when they speak and likewise, cannot "hear" each other when they are in different locations (even if the locations are logically close to each other like...adjoining rooms).

Make sure you're aware of the Location Type when you are creating locations. Currently there are 2 options: Basic Image and Interactive Map. The Basic Image type is used in situations where you would just like to display a simple image. The image will be scaled to fill the screen width wise so it is recommended to use a fairly large image for this. The interactive map type is used when you wish to use a map or board and it allows you to scroll, zoom and place/move tokens on the map to keep track of positions of characters/objects.

Setting up sub-locations

It may not be immediately apparent how to setup sub-locations. The user interface for locations will change drastically in the future but for the time being, this is how it's done.

1. Create your locations under the Location Editor tab
2. Click on the World link on one of the locations you wish to become the "parent". For example, if you created a city and blacksmith house, click on the city's World link.
   You should now be in the "World" tab viewing the location.
   
3. Click on the Transfers link at the top in the gray bar
   You will now see the screen split in half with the same list in both sides.
   
4. Click on the To Game Root link on the right side of the screen.
5. Select the location you wish to move by selecting it's checkbox.
6. Click the Transfer button in the top right corner in the gray bar.

This method is the same when you want to move objects around as well. However, unlike locations, objects can be created in the correct place. More on this later.