Progress through a Campaign

Once you’ve joined a Party (Cohort) you’re enrolled in a House — a course — and each Campaign inside it is one unit with its own map. The map is where you actually play. Every Node is one lesson: a run of Checks (lesson steps), then an Engagement mini-quiz that opens once the required checks are done. When a node is done, the advance die in the bottom dock carries you to the next node, the path’s Trial, or that unit’s final Rift.

The campaign loop

1. Open your course, then a unit

   From Base Camp, switch to the Party Memberships tab on the party card and tap your enrolled class. That opens the House — one row per course, not per unit — where you’ll find the course’s Lore and every Campaign in it. Tap a unit to open its map.

   A course is the thing you’re enrolled in; a unit is the thing you play. So the course page is also where units your teacher adds later show up, with no second join code to ask for.

2. Read the unit's map

   The map lists the unit’s paths and shows its boss gem. A path that is still locked shows a padlock and is dimmed: it opens once the previous path’s Trial is cleared. Each path tile takes its colors from the path’s mob.

   Capture pendingThe campaign map showing the path list and the unit's boss gem, with the bottom dock1440 × 900 · 16:10

3. Open a path and tap a node

   A path tile shows its number and guiding question (for example, “1. What makes a cell alive?”) plus the path’s mob gem. Tap the tile to open the path. Its node list only shows published nodes (Gamemasters see an extra draft affordance for unpublished ones). Tap a node to open it. The Up die at the left of the header climbs one level back, from a node to its path and from a path to the map.

   Capture pendingAn opened path showing its guiding question and its list of nodes1440 × 900 · 16:10

4. Let the node begin

   A node plays as a conversation, one card at a time. A crew member speaks in the box above the bottom dock, and the card shows what they are showing or asking. Open a node you haven’t started and its first check begins on its own, after the node’s opening lines. Come back to a node you’ve already begun and it picks up at your next check.

5. Work the checks

   A node is an ordered list of Checks, and each check is one of three kinds:

   • Investigation: take something in, then solve a clue from it. The taking in is a History Check (read a Narrative, a short passage), a Performance Check (watch or view media), an Insight Check (study a chart) or a Sleight of Hand Check (reveal items in order). The clue is an Investigation Check, a fill-in-the-blank answered from what you just took in. Every blank must match (capital letters don’t matter). The hint is free, and neither a wrong try nor a hint costs you Shards.
   • Report: characters argue positions, and your answer takes one of them. You pick the idea, never the character. Depending on the check you choose a position, choose and then say why, rank three positions, or place yourself on a scale between two. Tap Decide and the party’s split appears. Your first choice is your party’s record, so it stands.
   • Reflection: your own words, with no side to take. There is no wrong answer, and a required one can’t complete without your answer. A Reflection that closes a run of checks is a Wisdom Check.

   The checks that ask for an answer are named for how you give it: a written answer is a Persuasion Check, a scale is a Perception Check, a choice is a Charisma Check and a ranking is an Initiative Check. A passage, a chart or a picture passes when you tap Mark as read at its foot; a video passes after you’ve really watched it, and a link once you’ve opened it. Each completed check pays 1 Shard.

6. See how your class answered

   Your classmates’ answers appear only after you post your own. Written answers show five at a time, most-liked first, and you can like anyone’s but your own; likes build the author’s Renown. Scale, choose and rank answers show as a class tally instead. A posted answer stands: there is no way to withdraw it.

7. Complete the Engagement (node quiz)

   Once every required check is done, the node’s mob steps in and the Engagement opens (optional checks never block it). It is the node’s mini-quiz, made of the questions your Gamemaster authored. The start card shows how many Questions there are, your Starting Hearts (one) and the Difficulty, with Engage to begin. There’s no difficulty to pick here and no leaderboard; both belong to Trials and Rifts (see Leaderboards & Quizzes). You can hold up to three hearts, and every 3 correct answers in a row wins one back. A pass is 70% correct, you can retry as often as you like, and passing pays 4 Shards.

   Capture pendingThe Node Engagement start card showing the question count, starting hearts and difficulty1440 × 900 · 16:10

8. Follow the advance die

   The advance die at the right of the bottom dock always points at your next objective. Depending on where you are, it routes you to the next node, the path’s Trial, or the unit’s Rift. It’s lit when there’s something to advance to, and inert when there isn’t.

The Scene list

A node’s Scene list is its table of contents: one tile per check, in the order you take them, then the Engagement last. A tap on an open tile picks up that check, a done one reopens read-only. Each tile has a numbered Shard die and one of these states:

• Up next: the one check that is next.
• Ready or Optional: open now. An optional check can be skipped.
• Done — revisit: finished. Tap to read it again.
• Locked — finish the required check before it: the title reads ???, so the list never spoils what is ahead, and the tile can’t be tapped.

The Engagement tile reads Ready when you are once it opens. Until then it says how many required checks are left: “Complete the 2 required checks above to begin.”

You land on the Scene list when you step back out of a check’s first stage, and when you finish a check with several optional ones still open. You can also open it any time from the dock’s check selector, in its Scene list row.

Capture pendingA node's Scene list: one tile per check, each with its Shard die and state, then the Engagement tile1440 × 900 · 16:10

The dock

Everything you steer a node with sits in one bar at the bottom of the screen. The box above it holds the speaker’s line, and its name plate shows the check’s title with a row of stage pips, one per stage of the check you have open.

• Check selector (left): collapsed, it reads “Check 2/5” with that check’s Shard die. Opened, it lists the node’s log, its checks and the Engagement. A locked check is disabled and says why.
• Gem (centre): display only. It takes no taps.
• Dice (right): the first slot is one die, which replays a line, else steps back, else dismisses a line. Next to it is the advance die. Inside a check it stays inert until the card’s task is done (“Finish this check to continue”); on the Scene list it is dimmed while no single check is next (“Pick a scene on the list”).

Capture pendingThe bottom dock on a check: the check selector, the gem and the back and advance dice under the speaker's box1440 × 900 · 16:10

When a check is locked

Checks open in order. A check opens once every required check before it is done, and an optional check never blocks anything, so it can be skipped. The Engagement stays shut while any required check is left. The server enforces the same rule, not just the app.

How Back works

Back unwinds a node one step at a time, both the system back gesture or button and the dock’s back die: to the previous line, then to the previous stage of the check, then from a check’s first stage to the Scene list, and from the Scene list out of the node. What you typed in a blank or flipped over is kept as you walk back, and a check you’ve already finished opens on its card, so Back from it goes straight to the Scene list.

The Up die in the header doesn’t step: it takes you straight to the node’s path.

What comes after a node

Clearing every node in a path unlocks its Trial (the path quiz); clearing every path unlocks that unit’s Rift (its final exam — one per Campaign, so a course has as many Rifts as it has units). See Leaderboards & Quizzes for how Trials, Rifts, hearts, and the leaderboard work.