Campaigns#

NPC is built around using a single campaign folder to contain all of the files relevant to a given tabletop RPG game. Files for characters, sessions, plots, and other important information is organized within the campaign directory in specific folders following various (configurable) rules.

Campaign Structure#

NPC is very flexible and requires only a single folder to be present in order to treat a folder as a campaign: .npc/. That special directory holds NPC’s configuration files for the campaign. All other directories can be customized (see Customizing Campaigns).

Without extra customization, these are the standard directories found in a campaign:

Default campaign directory layout#
My Campaign/
├─ .npc/
│  ├─ settings.yaml
├─ Characters/
├─ Plot/
├─ Session History/

Tip

Creating a new campaign either by running init or using the New Campaign dialog will create these folders for you, as well as help you fill out some useful fields in your campaign settings.

After a bit of use, the directory might look like this:

Default directories with some example files#
My Campaign/
├─ .npc/
│  ├─ settings.yaml
├─ Characters/
│  ├─ Badd Mann - bad guy.npc
│  ├─ Caoil Mann - cool guy.npc
├─ Plot/
│  ├─ planning/
│  │  ├─ future threats.md
│  ├─ Plot 01.md
│  ├─ Plot 02.md
│  ├─ Plot 03.md
├─ Session History/
│  ├─ Session 01.md
│  ├─ Session 02.md
│  ├─ Session 03.md

Campaign Properties#

Whether created manually or through NPC, every campaign needs to know what game system it’s using. NPC includes a number of Game Systems already, and you can add your own as needed (see Game System Anatomy).

When you create a campaign using the cli init command or the gui New Campaign dialog, this will be set automatically. If you’re making a campaign by hand, or if you need to change the game system after the fact, you’ll have to edit the campaign’s settings file. See Customizing Campaigns for how to do that.

Managed Files#

As of version 2.0.0, NPC manages the following campaign files:

  • everything within Characters/

  • Plot/Plot NN.md

  • Session History/Session NN.md

Other directories, and other files or folders within the Plot and Session History subdirectories, are not touched by NPC. Use them however you want!