Tutorial - GlowPuff/JiMEditor GitHub Wiki

This Tutorial refers to old versions of the Editor and Companion App, but a lot of the information is still useful

Note that "Chapters" are now called "Tile Blocks"

Once the concepts of Chapters, Triggers and Events are understood, designing Scenarios will be easier because these components are what really drive a Scenario forward. So if you haven't read the Basics on the Home page, you should do that first. There is no "right" way of creating a Scenario, but a general workflow is available on this page. We'll be following those guidelines for our Tutorial.

In this tutorial, you'll be setting up the Scenario Settings, modifying the Objective, designing the tile layout of the Chapter, creating an Event, and assigning that event to a Token that gets placed on a tile. You'll set it up so that completing the Event marks the Objective as complete. Completing the Objective will in turn end the Scenario. You'll learn how to wire all this up using just the 2 default Triggers, the default Objective, and the default Start Chapter that are generated for you whenever you create a new Scenario project.

The premise of our very short mission will be to get home. Along the way the players will have to successfully climb an imposing hill. Not very exciting, but it keeps things real simple while showing the core concepts.

Creating Your Journey

In my video demo of the editor, I have the players being asked if they want to help escort a farmer's prized pig to market using a Decision Event, storing their response in a true/false Trigger. Along the way 2 more Chapters are activated, a monster group is spawned (Threat Event), and a Stat Test Event is presented to the players. This tutorial will be much simpler, using only 1 Chapter, 1 Event, and 1 Interaction Token.

First, give the Scenario a name. Click the text at the top of the app window where it says "Click Text to Edit Scenario Title". Type "Getting Home" and hit the Enter key.

Editing the Scenario Settings - Setting the Intro Text and First Objective

Now open the Scenario Settings by clicking the gear icon to the right of the Scenario title you just changed. In the dropdown menu under "First Objective", select "Default Objective". This is the empty Objective the editor starts you with. Setting this will tell the companion app that "Default Objective" is the first Objective and should be shown to the players at the start of the Scenario, right after the Intro text is displayed. If your Scenario doesn't have an initial Objective, leave it set to None. Objectives can be triggered to start at another time if you wish.

Now edit the Introduction Text by clicking the blue pencil button in that section of the window. Intro text is shown at the very start of the Scenario, before anything else. Use it to describe the overall mission in broad strokes.

Finally, edit the Resolution Text. This text is shown when the Scenario is finished. It's the last thing the players will see when the Scenario ends. For the tutorial, use this text to congratulate the players on climbing the hill and getting home safely.

You can create multiple Resolutions for different endings to your Scenario. At the bottom of the Resolution Text Editor is a dropdown menu where you can select the Trigger that activates a particular Resolution. When a Resolution is Triggered, the Scenario will end.

When you create a new Scenario, a Trigger called "Scenario Ended" is created for you and is already chosen as the default Resolution's Trigger.

Click the green check when you're done with the Scenario Settings.

NOTE: The companion app does NOT support multiple pages of text at this time. Only edit PAGE 1 of any text editor.

Modifying the Objective

Let's edit that Objective we just specified in the Scenario Settings. Select "Default Objective" in the left panel and click the properties button to edit it.

Since this Objective has already been set to activate from the Scenario Settings as the First Objective, you can leave the top dropdown set to None. All further Objectives you create will have to be triggered by a Trigger, specified in the dropdown menu. Unless an Objective has been set as the First Objective in Scenario Settings (as in our case), a Trigger is required to activate an Objective.

Leave the Objective Name set to "Default Objective". If you change the name now, the Scenario won't be able to find this Objective since we already set the Scenario Settings to look for an Objective called "Default Objective". If you do want to change the Name, just go back to Scenario Settings and choose the new name from the list under First Objective.

Now edit the Reminder. The Reminder is the text that is always visible at the top left of the companion app to "remind" the players what they are currently supposed to be doing. Since climbing the hill is what will trigger our ending, you could enter something like "Find the hill and climb it".

Click the blue edit button to change the Objective Summary that is initially shown to the players when the Objective is activated. Use this text to give the players some lengthy story about the current task.

At the bottom of the editor, "Objective Complete" has already been set to be the Trigger that lets the companion app know this Objective has been completed. The "Objective Complete" Trigger was created for you when you started a new Scenario.

Since we're keeping this simple, let's make completing this Objective also end the Scenario. In the dropdown menu under "Set this Trigger when the Objective is completed", select the Trigger called "Scenario Ended". You will recall that the "Scenario Ended" Trigger will fire your Scenario Resolution text (in the Scenario Settings) and end the Scenario.

Designing The Chapter

Click the Properties button for the "Start" Chapter. Since this is the first Chapter, it's automatically activated when the Scenario starts, so you don't need to set "Triggered By". The Start tile has this setting grayed out anyways. Any additional Chapters you create need to be activated by using this setting.

We'll be using a Fixed layout for this tutorial, so leave the random tiles checkbox UNCHECKED.

We won't be using Flavor Text, so leave "No Flavor Text" CHECKED. Flavor text is shown when any tile in the Chapter is first explored. The first Chapter in a Scenario has no Exploration tokens, so it can't be explored anyways.

Leave "Trigger On Exploration" set to None. Again, the first Chapter can't be explored, but for any additional Chapters you add, use this setting to fire Triggers upon exploration.

Now let's edit the tiles in the Chapter. Click the green Tile Editor button.

Tile Editor - Adding and Editing Tiles

With "100" selected in the top dropdown menu, click the green + button to add tile number 100 to the board. This will be the tile the heroes start on, so with that tile still selected (selected tiles are outlined in red), CHECK the "Is Starting Tile" checkbox.

Click and drag the tile around the board. Tiles snap into position automatically as you drag them around. Use the page up/down keys to rotate the tile.

Select tile 206 in the top dropdown menu and add it to the board. Position and rotate this tile into place. We're going to put an Interaction Token on tile 206, so double click it or press the "Edit Tokens" button to visit the Token Editor.

Token Editor - Adding Tokens

The Token Editor shows you a closeup of the selected tile. Here, you can add Interaction Tokens to the tile and edit its (optional) Exploration Text. Exploration Text is shown after the tile is explored. Since tiles in the first Chapter don't have Exploration Tokens, this text can be left blank. Interaction Tokens give Events a physical presence on the gameboard. These are the Search/Person/Threat/Darkness Tokens players can click on to explore specific features of a tile, which in turn can spawn monsters, provide stat test challenges, give players a choice, and more.

Click the green "Add Token" button to add an empty Token to the tile. Click and drag it to one of the 2 spaces available on tile 206. Selected Tokens are outlined in red. Notice right now the Token is colored gray - it does not have an Event assigned to it because we haven't created any yet. Leave it for now, and let's go create an Event we can assign to the Token afterwards. Click the green check button. Back in the Tile Editor, click the green check button, then once more in the Chapter Properties window to go back to the main app window, where we'll create our first Event.

Adding an Event

Click the New Event button at the top of the app window, or click the green + button in the left sidebar under Events. From the popup, select "New Stat Test".

Give your Event a unique name (use hill test for the tutorial), to identify it in the editor. We'll be assigning this Event to the Token we just added to tile 206, so mark a CHECK in the "This Event is a Token Interaction" checkbox. This setting tells the editor that this Event can be assigned to a Token. When players click the assigned Token on the tile while playing, this Event will activate.

Select the "Search" radio button for Token Type. The Token Type simply tells the companion app which graphic to use on the gameboard.

If an Event is NOT checked to be a Token Interaction, it cannot be assigned to a Token in the Token Editor. Instead, it will be a standalone Event that can be fired using a Trigger. Notice when you check Token Interaction how "Triggered By" becomes grayed out, and vice versa. This lets you know that Events that are marked as Token Interactions can only be activated by players clicking their assigned Token while playing. Events that are NOT Token Interactions are activated by the Trigger you specify in the dropdown menu.

Use the blue edit button to edit the Flavor Text that is displayed when players click the assigned Token on the tile. Use this text to hint at the Event. If the players want to use an Action to fully explore the Token, the Event Text is then shown to them. For our tutorial, describe how there is a massive hill between you and getting back home. Just hint at it without explaining what kind of Event it actually is.

Use the blue edit button to edit the Event Text. This text is shown when players decide to use an Action to fully explore this Event. Use this text to fully describe the Event and what is expected of the players to overcome it. This is where you would explain exactly what type of Event it is (stat test in this case), along with some story text to make things exciting.

Editing the Stat Test Event

Click the Stat Test tab at the top of the window. The settings specific for this particular Event are shown. Mark whichever Test Attribute you want to challenge the players with.

Check "Progressive". A Progressive test can be attempted any number of times by the players, and it cannot be failed.

For the Success Value, enter 2. This is the number of successes the players must accumulate in order to pass the test. Since we marked it Progressive, the successes are added up over each turn as the players enter their number of successes into the companion app.

Edit the Pass Text. This text is shown when the test is passed. In our tutorial, use it to congratulate the players on climbing the hill.

Edit the Progress Text. Since this test is Progressive, this text becomes available to edit. Progress text is shown when the number of successes made by the players is greater than 0 but less than the Success Value. For our example of 2, the Progress Text would be shown if the players input 1 success into the companion app. On the next turn, if 1 or more successes is input (for a total of 2 or more), the Pass Text would be shown and the Event would be considered completed. For our mission, use the Progress Text to describe how the heroes are half way up the hill, and not quite there yet.

Next we'll deal with what happens after completing the Event. Set "Trigger On Pass" to "Objective Complete". If you recall from setting up the Objective earlier, this Trigger was set to mark the Objective as being completed. Also recall that the Objective is set to fire another Trigger, "Scenario Ended", upon completion. This chain we just setup will end the Objective, which in turn will end the Scenario.

Click the green check button to confirm your Event settings.

Back to the Tile Editor - Assigning the Event to the Token

Click the blue Tile Editor button in the Start Chapter to edit the tiles again. Double click tile 206 to open the Token Editor. With our one and only Token selected (outlined in red), select "hill test" from the dropdown menu under "Trigger This Token Interaction". Recall we named our Stat Test Event "hill test". This will assign the Event to the Token. Only Events checked as being Token Interactions will appear in this dropdown menu to choose from. The Token turns green when it picks up the Token Type we specified earlier - Search. Click the green check buttons to confirm your changes and get back to the main app window.

Saving Your Journey

Time to save your Scenario. Back in the main app window, click the blue disk button at the top left (third button from the left). Enter a filename and hit Save.

Congratulations, you made your first Journey! Go load it up in the companion app and try it out.