Chapter 2

Getting Started

Far Table runs on five kinds of device, and it is the same app on all of them:

iPhone
iPad
Android phones and tablets
Mac
Windows

Any of them can run the whole game. The one real difference is the camera: a phone or tablet photographs your dice and your maps directly, while a Mac or Windows machine borrows a paired phone for anything involving a camera. Chapter 34 covers pairing.

Nothing you install needs an account, a login, or a subscription. There is no server to reach. Install it, open it, and you are working.

First launch

The app opens on a black splash screen with the Far Table launch art. It clears itself after three seconds, or immediately if you tap it.

Next comes the role selection screen: a large piece of artwork with five buttons stacked down the right side. You can drag the artwork around to look at it, and the buttons fade out of the way while your finger is down. The picture is a different piece of art every time you come back to this screen.

The five buttons:

Start as DM runs the game, hosts sessions, and builds campaigns.
Join as Player takes the code your DM gives you.
Mirror turns this phone into a camera for your computer.
Browse Offline reads campaigns you already have, with no session running.
Characters creates and keeps the characters you play.

Players tap Join as Player and go to chapter 15. Everything below is the DM's path.

The DM fork

Tapping Start as DM does not open the game yet. It asks one question, with two cards:

Start a Session hosts a live game. Players join and see what you reveal as you go.
Campaign Creation builds your world on your own. Nothing is shared until you host.

Pick either one without worrying. They land in exactly the same workspace, with the same campaigns and the same three tabs. The only difference is which tab you arrive on: Start a Session opens the Session tab, Campaign Creation opens the Atlas tab. You can switch between them any time with the bottom bar. Chapter 5 lays out what lives in each tab.

Everything you author is saved on the device as you go. There is no separate publish step, and no moment where solo prep has to be turned into session material.

Themes

The top bar carries a single theme button on the right, showing a moon, a sun, or a flame. Tapping it cycles through the three themes in order, and a short message names the one you just landed on:

Dark, easy on the eyes.
Parchment, a bright paper table.
Ember, warm candlelight.

There is no theme menu and no settings screen. The button is the whole control. Your choice sticks between launches, and DM and player shells both carry the same button.

Dark is the sensible default for playing at night. Parchment is worth switching to when you are reading rules or building a campaign in daylight.

Onboarding tips

Far Table has no setup wizard. Instead, small notes appear next to the control they explain, the first time you reach it, and retire once you have used that control or dismissed the note. They do not queue up or follow you around.

You can switch them off. On the DM side, the Show onboarding tips checkbox lives on the Session tab of your workspace. Unchecking it hides every first-run note across the app. Checking it again replays all of them from the start, which is genuinely useful when you hand your device to someone else or come back after a long gap.

Players get the same checkbox on the join screen, controlling their own smaller set of notes.

The guided tutorial that runs on the demo campaign is a separate thing, with its own on and off switch. Chapter 3 covers it, and chapter 4 walks you through hosting your first real session.