The scene editor
The scene editor is where you set up one scene: its name, its map, its phases and vistas, its music and its rules, without moving your players to it.
A scene is one place in your adventure, such as a tavern or a cave. Before a session you usually want several of them ready: each with its map, the night-time version of that map, the picture of the castle on the ridge, the right music and fog switched on. The scene editor puts all of that in one window, for any scene in the game, including scenes nobody is standing in. Your players keep playing on the scene that's on while you prepare the next one, and they see nothing of it until you switch to it.
Only the Game Master (GM), the person who created the game, can open the scene editor.
Open the scene editor
There are four ways in, from the Scenes panel (open the menu, three lines at the top left, and click Scenes):
- The gear on a scene's card (hover: Set up scene). Hover over any card to see it. The editor opens on General.
- Set up… at the right of the Phases strip, above the cards. It opens the editor for the scene that's on, on Phases.
- Set up… at the right of the Vistas row, or + Add vista at the end of it. Both open the editor for the scene that's on, on Vistas.
- Create. Making a new scene opens its editor straight away, on Map, because the first thing a new scene needs is a map. See Scenes.
While the editor is open, the Scenes panel closes so it doesn't cover the window. Click Done and the panel comes back as you left it.
How saving works
There is no Save button. Every change is saved for that scene the moment you make it:
- Switches, lists and pickers save as soon as you change them.
- Text boxes (Name and Notes) save when you click away or press Enter in Name. Closing the editor saves them too.
- The Grid Opacity slider saves when you let go of it.
The footer, bottom left, tells you how it went: Saving… while a change is on its way, Saved when it's stored, and Couldn't save if it wasn't. When a save fails, a message says why and the control goes back to what it was before, so what you see is always what's saved. Your next successful change clears Couldn't save. The footer is always about the scene in the window: if you open another scene's editor while a change to the last one is still saving, that save doesn't show up here.
Everyone in the game gets the changes. On the scene that's on, most of them take effect for everyone straight away: the exceptions are listed in the tables below.
The window, part by part
The window is titled with the scene's name. Down its left side is a rail of six sections: General, Map, Phases, Vistas, Music and Rules. Click one to show it. On a narrow screen the rail becomes a row of tabs across the top.
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| On the table now | Shown at the top right when this is the scene that's on, the one your players are looking at. |
| Go to this scene | Shown instead for any other scene. It asks Switch Scene?, the same question as clicking a scene's card, and Switch Scene moves everyone there and closes the editor. See Scenes. |
| Rail | The six sections. |
| Saving…, Saved, Couldn't save | How the last change went. |
| Done | Closes the editor and brings the Scenes panel back. Esc, the X at the top right and a click outside the window close it too. |
General
Details holds the scene's name and notes.
| Field | What it does | Default and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The scene's name, on its card, in the Phases strip and at the top of this window. An empty name isn't saved: A scene needs a name shows under the box until you type one. | The name you gave it |
| Starting scene | Loads this scene when the game starts with none on. Only one scene can be the Starting Scene: turning it on here turns it off on the others. The Starting Scene comes first in the Scenes panel and has an S on its card. | Off, except a game's first scene |
| Notes | Your notes on the scene's atmosphere and setting, for yourself. Nothing else in the app uses them yet. | Empty |
Map
The map is the scene's background: the picture at the bottom of the board, with tokens, walls and lights on top of it. Here you can give any scene its map, including a scene that isn't on.
Open the scene's editor and click Map.
Click Change… and pick a picture. Type to search. The list holds every map in the game's Background Library, with its size in pixels, and the videos in the Asset Library, marked (video).
On The Frozen Castle, a scene that isn't on: Map, then Change…, and the jungle tomb. The preview, name and size change, the footer says Saved, and the scene's card shows the new map while the board stays on the Lab.
The new map is saved at once. On the scene that's on, everyone sees it straight away (on a scene with phases, while Phase 1 is the phase showing); on any other scene, it's there when you switch to it. The scene's card in the Scenes panel shows the new map too.
To add a map that isn't in the library yet, click Upload…. The Background Library opens over the editor: upload the file there (see Upload a map), then click it in the library, or pick it from Change…. Either way it goes on the scene you're editing, even when that scene isn't on, and the size check for a scene with phases works the same as with Change…. Once you close the editor or the library, a click in the Background Library puts a picture on the scene that's on again, as usual.
Pictures whose names share words with the scene's current map come first in Change…, so the night version of harbour.jpg, say harbour-night.jpg, is near the top. Upload ids, file endings and common words such as day, night, map and phase don't count. If the current map's name has no other words, the scene's own name is used instead. A picture that's already the right size says · fits after its size.
A scene with phases
If the scene has phases, other versions of its map such as day and night, the picture here is Phase 1, the base map, and a note says so: This picture is Phase 1. A new one must share the other phases' dimensions. Every phase must be exactly the same size in pixels, so a picture of another size doesn't go on straight away: a panel opens under Change… with Resize to 3456×2736 and use (the other phases' size), or Advanced: line up by eye and Crop and use. It works the same way as for a new phase: see When a picture doesn't fit. A scene with no phases takes a picture of any size.
On a scene with phases, the scene's card shows the new map only while Phase 1 is the phase showing.
Base picture, part by part
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Preview | A small picture of the map. No picture when the scene has none, No preview when the map has no preview yet. |
| Name and size | The map's name in the library, and its width and height in pixels, with · video after it for a video map. No picture yet when there's none. |
| Change… | Picks the scene's map from the library (above). |
| Upload… | Opens the Background Library over the editor, to upload a new map. A picture you click there goes on this scene, not the scene that's on. |
Initial view
How the board is framed for everyone when the scene loads. Each change saves at once.
| Field | What it does | Default and limits |
|---|---|---|
| When the scene opens | Fit to Screen shows the whole map, Cover fills the screen and may cut off the edges, Zoomed uses the three fields below. | Fit to Screen |
| Zoom Level | How far in the view starts. Shows with Zoomed only. Saved when you let go of the slider. | 100%; 25% to 500% |
| Center X, Center Y | The spot the view centres on, in pixels from the map's top-left corner. Numbers from 0 to 1 are read as a fraction of the way across and down instead. Shows with Zoomed only. | 0 |
Phases
Phases are other versions of the scene's map, such as night-time or the hall after a cave-in, that you swap to during play. This section has a row for each phase, with its name, how it arrives, its sound, its music and its lighting, and an add row underneath. You can set up phases here for any scene, on or not.
A scene with only its map says This scene has one picture, its map. Add a second to swap between them at the table. Every row and control is described on Phases.
Vistas
Vistas are pictures you show your players instead of the map, such as the castle on the ridge as the party rides up. This section has a row for each vista, with its name, how it arrives and its sound, and an add row underneath. You can add vistas here to any scene, on or not, but you show them from the Vistas row of the Scenes panel, on the scene that's on. Every row and control is described on Scene vistas.
Music
What plays while this scene is on. Each change saves at once, and on the scene that's on, the music changes for everyone straight away.
| Field | What it does | Default and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Background Music | Plays while this scene is on: one track from the game's Music Library, or one of its playlists, which plays track after track (see Music). Click it for your playlists under Playlists, then your tracks under Tracks, then RollQuest's built-in tracks under Built-in, or type in Search playlists and music…. Picking a built-in track adds it to the game's Music Library first. No background music clears it. With no playlists yet, a note says where to make one. | None |
| Loop music (under Background Music) | Plays the track again when it ends. Shows once a track is chosen. With a playlist, a note shows instead: the playlist's own shuffle and repeat settings apply, and it names the track the scene falls back to if the playlist is emptied or deleted. | On |
| Battle Music | Takes over during a battle in this scene (see Start a battle): a track, yours or a built-in one, or a playlist. A battle playlist always loops round; its shuffle and crossfade settings apply. No battle music clears it. Only shows when your plan includes it. | None |
| Loop music (under Battle Music) | Plays the battle track again when it ends. Shows once a track is chosen. | On |
| Play a playlist instead | On a plan without playlists, a button with a crown under each music box that opens the upgrade details. |
Plan: a playlist as Background Music or Battle Music is on Starter and Pro. A scene that already has a playlist keeps playing it if your plan changes: you can clear it, but not choose another.
Rules
Play rules are the switches for how this scene plays. Each one saves at once.
| Switch | What it does | Default and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Fog of war | Turns fog of war on or off for this scene: the darkness over everything the characters can't see. | On |
| Show all tokens on scene switch | Despite the name, it's about player tokens only, as its hint says: Player tokens are visible as soon as the scene loads; off, they start hidden. NPCs and enemies are not affected. Each player always sees their own token. On the scene that's on, changing it shows or hides the player tokens at once. | On for scenes made with Create |
| Show grid | Shows the grid lines when this scene loads. On the scene that's on, they show or hide for everyone at once. | Off |
| Grid Opacity | How strong the grid lines are. Shows only while Show grid is on. | 30%; 5% to 100% in steps of 5% |
| Snap to grid | Tokens jump from square to square when dragged. | Off |
| Scale player tokens to grid | Resizes player tokens each time the game switches to this scene, so they keep their size compared with its squares: a token half a square wide stays half a square wide. It goes by the width of a square. Enemies and NPCs aren't resized. Changing it doesn't change the board: it acts at the next switch to this scene. | On |
| Block wall passage | Walls and closed doors stop tokens being dragged through them in this scene (hint: Tokens cannot move through walls in this scene). The board takes it whenever the game switches to this scene, and on the scene that's on, it changes for everyone at once. It's the same setting as Block Wall Passage in Grid mode, which sets it for the scene that's on. See Asset boundaries and boundary walls. | Off |
| Player hands | Lets players hold and play cards from a hand in this scene. It's the same switch as in the GM Hand Management panel (see Cards and decks). | Off |
| Show token names | Shows names under the tokens in this scene. A name you've set to show or hide on a token itself wins. On the scene that's on, it changes for everyone at once. | On |
The grid's size and type aren't here: set those with Grid in the Mode menu while the scene is on (see Line up the grid).
Good to know
- If the scene is deleted while its editor is open, the editor closes with This scene was deleted.
- Lighting and weather aren't in the editor: set them with Environment in the Mode menu while the scene is on (see Lighting). A phase can change the light level when you swap to it: see Phases.
- Walls, doors, lights, tokens and assets are placed on the board itself, on the scene that's on.
Related
Scenes · Phases · Scene vistas · Upload a map · Music