About this edition
Updated September 6, 2026. The guide uses real application screenshots and fictional accounts, with separate GM and player sessions. The original September 5 walkthrough established the three-location Willowmere campaign. Fresh-account rehearsals on September 6 checked the corrected beginner workflows locally and on staging.
What the guide covers
- Preparing three original maps, characters, private GM notes, and a public handout.
- Bringing players into the world and assigning their own characters.
- Practicing movement, dice, linked HP, scene changes, and reconnection.
- Running the original Willowmere adventure and preparing later sessions.
- Producing ten screen-only video lessons from the supplied scripts. Finished video, audio, and timed captions remain separate production work.
Current workflow checks
The September 6 hosted browser acceptance passed all ten workflow checks on staging revision ff362f343697b66f18e047b3e6cafe1d35744696. It used a fresh GM, two invited players, and a disposable campaign. The local browser rehearsal independently passed these workflows with an isolated campaign and database.
| Check | Observed result |
|---|---|
| Invitations | Both an already signed-in player and a player returning through sign-in accepted invitations and entered the world. |
| Saved invitation count | The setup Review count changed from zero to one after creation and returned to zero after revocation. |
| Guided character setup | Dwarf / Soldier / Fighter reached Apply changes and saved. Reopening retained Strength 17, HP 12/12, selected content, saving-throw proficiencies, and Athletics +5. |
| Linked HP | A player with character ownership changed HP through the placed piece's resources; the GM saw it. A later sheet change reached the player and survived reload. Removing ownership removed resource editing. |
| Shared session | Each browser received the other person's token movement and the same public dice result. Both positions and results survived reloading both clients. |
| Journal editing | A new GM journal started private. Edit journal changed its body, and the change survived reload. The player could not find the private entry. |
| Shared handout | A new handout started shared. The player could read it without receiving an editing control. |
| Scenes | A GM's private preview left the player on the active scene. Activation needed one confirmation. The player followed later locations, quick return visits, and a location change made while disconnected. |
| Map upload shortcut | Upload map image opened World assets. The original map completed normal hosted scanning and publication and returned to scene creation at 1536 x 1024 pixels. |
| Empty starter content | A world without optional starter packs stayed usable without repeated pack requests. |
| Cleanup | Test accounts were disabled through ordinary account deletion; their existing player sessions lost access. |
The hosted upload used normal processing. The local upload used a test scanning result while exercising image validation, publication, and the picker. For the hosted empty-content check, only the test browser received an empty list after a real authorized response; shared catalog content stayed intact. These runs do not measure processing speed or mail delivery. The broader application checks included typechecking, the VTT build, lint, and focused regression tests.
Campaign and artifact checks
The original illustrated walkthrough verified world creation and its five setup steps; the private world; scene grid and lighting configuration; three map uploads; practice actors; placing pieces on multiple scenes; existing-account membership; individual character ownership; dice rendering; and the two journal imports. The September 6 workflow checks above replace its earlier invitation, character-save, HP, journal-editing, and scene-following workarounds.
Each supplied map is 1536 x 1024 pixels, designed for 64px cells: 24 squares across and 16 down. No map contains secret GM annotations. The GM notes import is private and the separate handout is shared. The player quickstart and handout omit the adventure's answer.
The public reader contains fourteen GM chapters plus separate player material. Its generator builds the PDF and starter ZIP from the maintained text and images. Validation checks local links and images, map dimensions, journal visibility and source text, spoiler boundaries, and PDF page geometry. Rendered pages must be inspected after each rebuild.
Limits
The worked character demonstrates the choices shown in its review. It is not a complete audit of every class, spell, item, house rule, or game system. The Willowmere practice adventure uses simple original rules and does not test combat balance or advanced automated walls, vision, and fog. Voice connectivity, email delivery, and paid subscriptions are separate checks.
The ready-to-host checklist remains a rehearsal for your own group: everyone should be able to join, control their character, read shared information, and agree on the current scene before game night.