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Getting started

What Canonex is, how a campaign is organised, and your first ten minutes.

Canonex is in active development and there is no public build yet. These pages describe the current development build, and details may change before release.

What Canonex is

Canonex is a desktop app for the person running the game. Your virtual tabletop handles maps, tokens and dice. Canonex handles everything the GM has to know: who these people are, how they connect, what you planned for tonight, and what happened last time.

It follows one loop:

  1. Plan a session from your campaign’s records.
  2. Run it from the desk, pulling up what you need in seconds.
  3. Remember what happened, so the campaign keeps its own history.

The Campaign Library

Canonex opens on the Campaign Library, with one card for each campaign. Use Start something to create a new campaign, or open the sample campaign, Shadows over Katapesh, to explore a campaign that is already filled in.

Each campaign is fully separate: its own records, sessions, desk, encounters and settings.

Finding your way around

Inside a campaign, the rail on the left takes you to each area:

Area What it is for
Home The campaign at a glance: up next, campaign memory, the party, and quick ways to make something.
Desk Your spatial workspace. Records become cards you arrange around you.
Codex Every record in the campaign, each on its own sheet.
Party Player characters and parties.
Sessions Plan sessions and review past ones.
Run The live cockpit for the session you are running.
Graph The Campaign Graph: every record and every tie between them.
Encounters Build and run encounters.
Settings Record types, colours, themes and Foundry VTT.

Your first ten minutes

  1. Open the sample campaign, or create a new one.
  2. Open the Codex, pick an NPC, and read their sheet: identity, relationships, secrets and GM notes.
  3. Press Ctrl + K and type a name to summon a record onto the desk.
  4. Summon a second, related record and drop it near the first. The tie between them appears.
  5. Go to Sessions, create a session, and drag a few records into its outline.

Next: Core concepts.