Creating your first scene

Now that you have your game set up, it’s time to create your first scene. In Talesmith, scenes are the building blocks of your story - like acts in a play, they represent key moments where something important happens.

For our rescue mission, we’ll start with the Town Square Briefing where Captain Merrin calls for help.

What is a Scene?

A scene represents an important moment in your story. It could be:

A conversation with an important NPC
A dangerous encounter
A puzzle to solve
A location to explore
Or even something hidden from the players

Each scene contains the information you need to run that part of your adventure.

Creating Your First Scene

Let’s create the opening scene where players meet Captain Merrin in Elmvale’s town square. When a new game is created, a new scene and session are automatically created for you. Let’s ignore sessions for now. We are going to use the already created scene to start our adventure.

Step 1: Scene Name

Rename the scene’s title to “Elmvale Town Square” and add some description to the scene.

Step 2: Scene Details

Here you can add any text-based content you’d like. Our editor (Markdown) supports different kinds of structures like quotes, separators, tables, and formatting options.

For example, we often use:

Quotes for text to be read out loud
Tables to structure anything from initiative counters to shopping lists
Separators to visually separate steps in a scene or notes

Pro tip: Type / (slash) in the editor to open the quick formatting menu for easy access to all these features.

You decide how big or small your scenes are and when you cut them off. We usually keep them as isolated moments: A combat, a conversation with the lord’s squire, an introduction to a town.

We would create a scene when the group enters a tavern and gets a new quest from the barkeeper. If the group decides to rent a room for the night, we wouldn’t create an additional scene - unless we planned to guide them there because it’s important for the story.

Talesmith is designed to support various styles and methods of storytelling.

For our story, we’ll add some text that you can copy:

The town square buzzes with worried whispers. Captain Merrin stands near the fountain, his weathered face grim. A broken merchant cart sits nearby, its contents scattered.

Adventurers! I need brave souls willing to risk danger for good coin. Alena Crestfall, a gold-badge merchant, was taken by goblins on the Forest Road. Fifty gold crowns to whoever brings her back alive.

Next Steps