Your first Aethera campaign

For the person running the game. This guide contains adventure spoilers. Playing instead? Start with the player quickstart.

Download GM guide (PDF) Download starter kit (ZIP)

The Lantern at Willowmere

A practical guide for your first virtual tabletop. Build a small adventure, bring your players into the same scene, and run a first session with room to grow.

Your finished table: three prepared locations, a token for each player, a shared adventure brief, private GM notes, players added to the world, and a rehearsed first session. The included adventure can become a three-session campaign.

Who this is for: a first-time VTT host. You do not need to know the interface. For your first practice evening, you can use the small original rules in GM adventure and the practice characters below. For a campaign using an established game, have that game's rules and suitable characters ready. This guide does not replace its character-creation or combat rules.

Set aside: roughly 60-90 minutes for initial setup, plus a short rehearsal with a player. This is a planning allowance, not a timed benchmark. Work through one checkpoint at a time; taking longer is fine.

Before you start: use a desktop or laptop browser, a mouse or trackpad, your Aethera account, and the three PNG files in the maps folder beside this guide. Arrange a way to talk together. Your group can use its usual call while learning the tabletop.

The walkthrough uses Aethera's D&D SRD / 2024 rules selection. If your group already plays another supported system, select that system instead; character sheets and rule-specific controls will differ. Agree on one rules version before building characters. The original adventure below is system-neutral and can be completed without combat.

Screenshots show real application rehearsals with fictional accounts and campaigns. The September 6 update checks the corrected joining, character, resource, journal, and scene workflows with separate GM and player accounts. See the verification record for the exact scope.

Follow one checkpoint at a time: upload the supplied maps, make a practice character or use guided D&D character setup, invite a player, and rehearse together before game night. You can keep the starter bestiary for later or leave optional starter content off.

Files to keep together: START-HERE.md, the assets and maps folders, GM-RUNSHEET.md, PLAYER-HANDOUT.md, and starter-content. The guide and GM run sheet contain spoilers. Send players only the player handout and their world link.