WELCOME To astral!

Thank you so much for starting this game on

Astral. We know you and your players are going
to love all the exciting features Astral has to
offer.
Included in this compendium is a short tuto-

Getting
rial that will teach you the basics of running your
game on Astral. Don’t worry — only you, the
GM, can see this compendium. Keep reading to

StArted
learn more about running your game on Astral.
On behalf of the entire Astral team, welcome!
We can’t wait to see what you create.

with — Tom (Founder of Astral TableTop)

a stral About the Adventure

This adventure takes your party through a
few basic scenarios to help you get started.
Guide for GMs This adventure is not created for any partic-
ular system and not intended for any level
character or style of play. This adventure is
meant to teach you and your players how to
use Astral so that your next adventures will
be about engagement rather than learning
how to use the platform.

Table of contents
Getting Started
Create New Maps
Characters
Create Characters
Weather/Visual FX
Inviting Players
Audio Player
Combat Manager
Live Video
Ending Session
Advanced Usage
Closing Thoughts

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 Getting Started Map Editor
As a GM, your job is to maximize your players On the left of the game screen is the “GM Side-
experience and to ensure they are all having fun bar” which only you can see. While on the game
playing. TableTop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs) screen, press “E” to toggle editing mode or nav-
are only bound by the imagination of you and your igate to the Maps tab found on your top GM
players, so feel free to make up scenarios on-the- Toolbar and press the “Edit Map” button.
fly or allow players to take certain actions if it fits
within your story.

To maximize your experience as a GM, Astral pro-

vides a number of different tools and services to
help you run your game.
As you begin to use Astral, you will notice that
there are keyboard shortcuts for almost every
Popouts action. Shortcuts are shown next to the label in
By default, this compendium will appear “full- parentheses. For example, to access Maps, simply
screen” in the game window. In the top-right press “M.” We recommend practicing these short-
corner of this compendium is a button that allows cuts so that you can streamline your storytelling
you to “pop-out” this compendium into a new experience when running your games live.
window or shrink the compendium to fit within
the game window. Try pressing one of these buttons Edit Mode allows you to make changes to your
now. map live. You can add images, animations,
sounds, triggers, and more with a few simple
clicks. The changes you make will appear to play-
ers once you leave edit mode (see Save below).
Button 1: Shrink screen in-game, Button 2: Open screen Let’s try adding a new image to the current area.
in new window.
While in Edit mode, the right sidebar shows your
There are a number of different features that sup-
Vault. Your Vault is where all your assets and
port popouts such as the Audio Player, Compendi-
sounds live. You can import images, animations,
ums, Combat Tracker, Dice Roller, and Live Video.
and sounds from the sidebar and organize them
Popouts are extremely useful for multi-monitor
into folders. The Vault sidebar also contains all
use and multi-device use. For example, you can
your purchased assets and, for Pro subscribers,
use Live Video on a tablet, open the Dice Roller on
includes the entire Mythic Portal Games collection
your phone, keep several compendiums open on
of audio, tokens, ready-made maps, and map tiles.
a desktop, and stream only the map to your TV or
desktop. Feel free to customize to how you play!
Click on a folder such as Astral Essentials to
browse the available assets. Drag and drop an
asset onto the map OR single-click the asset to
select it for tiling. When an asset is selected, you
can click-and-drag to tile the asset easily. You can
also RIGHT-CLICK a selected asset to rotate 90o,
perfect for stamping walls.

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 Save
Click the “Save” icon to live update players’
screens. Changes do not appear for players until
you leave Edit Mode or click Save.

Single-click an asset to select it.

Drag the asset on the map to tile.
Dynamic Lighting
Limit what your players can see on the map in
After placing the asset, press ESC to deselect.
real-time with Dynamic Lighting.
Use the left sidebar to manage Layers. Layers rep-
To add Dynamic Lighting to your map, click the
resent assets on the map. You can rearrange, hide,
layer labeled “Dynamic Lighting” and press the
lock, and group layers for easier management.
“Pen Tool” at the top of the toolbar.
To select a layer, simply click the layer on the side-
bar. To select multiple layers, press CTRL and click
the layers you want to select. With layer(s) select-
ed, you can resize, rotate, and move assets using
the Bounding Box.

Alternatively, press “P” to toggle the Pen Tool.

With the Pen Tool selected, click to place points

around your map to define your area. We rec-
ommend setting up your exterior walls first and
moving inward.

You can define multiple rooms with Dynamic

Lighting. Press ESCAPE to deselect the last placed
Select a layer by clicking it.
point and click to place a new point. The first new
Hold CTRL to select multiple layers.
point will be detached from any existing lines and
will start a new shape, useful for interior walls.
To delete layer(s), simply press DELETE or
BACKSPACE.
The lines you create on the Dynamic Lighting map
layer will block player vision and also block players
from moving their tokens through those lines.

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 Doors Triggers
In addition to limiting the vision of your players, Triggers allow you to execute multiple actions at
you can optionally define Doors for your players to once such as hiding layers or moving layers.
enter through. When a Door is open, the dynamic
lighting for that section is temporarily disabled, To create a trigger, click the Add Trigger in Edit
allowing a player to see and move through. Mode.

To define a door, click the “Door Tool” button on

the top toolbar.

With the trigger tool enabled, click and drag to

define a trigger area.

With the trigger layer selected, click Trigger Set-

tings in the edit pane at the bottom of the left
sidebar.
With the Door Tool enabled, click on any Dynamic
Lighting line to convert to a door. Click the line
again to remove the door.

Outside of Edit Mode, you or your players can

click Doors to open or close the Dynamic Lighting
paths. While editing a trigger, the sidebar is highlighted
in red. In this mode, you can define an icon, color,
and which actions to take. Manipulate any layer to
add it to the chain of events. When the trigger is
activated, you will be prompted and, if accepted,
all events in the trigger will fire.

Open doors are green. Closed doors are red.

Clicking the trigger outside Edit Mode will hide the

“Hut” layer, simulating us burning it down.

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 Now that we have our maps, let’s begin creating
Advance Map Options some characters.
You can customize your maps size, grid, back-
ground, and more using the “More Options”
menu (three horizontal lines) on the right of the
top toolbar.
Characters
Character management is easy with Astral. We do
not assume any sort of system and you are free to
customize characters however you like.

To create a character, navigate to the Characters

tab on the top toolbar.

You can also press “C” to quickly switch to this tab.

The character sidebar contains three useful

categories that help you organize play.

Create New Maps

While on the Map tab, press Create New Map.
If you are a Pro user, we provide you with many
ready-made maps for easy improvisation or quick
encounter setup. You can import any map that
has been saved to your Vault or create a new blank
map.

To switch between maps, simply click on the ap-

propriate thumbnail on the Map sidebar (ensure
you are not in Edit Mode.)

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 Party Character Image
This section shows who is in the current party, e.g. Click on the character portrait circle to open the
which characters are assigned to a player. Vault dropdown. Select or upload an image for the
character.

In Area
This section will only show you which characters Character Name / Nickname
are on the current map. Give your character a name. The Nickname is
only used for display purposes to players. This is
especially useful if you have an unknown NPC that
All Characters you would like to hide the name of until players’
This section shows the rest of the available char- introduce themselves.
acters in the game.

Color
Create Characters Used to uniquely identify a character, the color
To create a character, click “Create Character” on is used to outline a character on the map when
the top toolbar. selected.

Vision
Vision allows you to customize how near and far
your characters can see with Dynamic Lighting
Managing Characters enabled. Only the GM can customize this option.
Click a character on the sidebar OR select a char-
acter on the map and press SPACEBAR to quickly
open the character menu. The character menu Character Bar
contains a handful of useful fields and options. This bar represents anything you like about a char-
acter such as HP or Sanity. It appears above the
character on a map and can be seen by all players.

Character Sheet URL

Link your external character sheet to this character
for easy reference.

Assigned Player
If you have players in the game, you can select
which player has access to this character.

Aura
Make the character glow! Enable Aura to custom-
ize the color and intensity and give your charac-
Example character menu ters a radiant glow that all players will see.
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Status Conditions/Icons Moving Characters
Click any icon under the character image to dis- With a character selected, drag to move the char-
play a “condition” for the character. Click multiple acter around the map. When you drop the char-
times to change colors or deactivate. acter, it will automatically snap to the nearest grid
space.

Attributes You can select multiple characters by pressing an

Optionally create custom attributes for charac- empty map space and dragging over all the char-
ters that can be referenced in the Dice Roller. For acters you want to select.
example, you can create a “strength” attribute with
value “2”. In the Dice Roller you can then make a
roll such as “1d20+{strength}” and the strength
value will be automatically inserted.

Click and drag over tokens to select multiple.

Click and drag any of the selected characters to

move them all.

Example attributes for a D&D 5e character. Add Party to Area

Move the entire party from one area to another
with a simple click.
Settings
Customize a character’s size (Small, Medium, With the Characters tab open (Press “C”), click
Large, Custom, etc) and visibility to players. the button labeled Add Party to Area.

Add to Area
To add a character to an area, simply drag the
character from the Character tab (left sidebar)
on to the map.

To remove a character from the map, select the Click any space on any map to move the party
character on the map and press DELETE. The to that location.
character remains in the Character tab for future
use.

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 Toggle rain, snow, and nighttime using the appro-
Character HUD priate buttons located on this sidebar tab. Click a
Click a character on the map to select. Use the
selected button to turn that effect off.
MOUSE WHEEL while hovering over a character
to rotate its token image.
You can combine effects for a really unique experi-
ence, try it out!
With character(s) selected, you will see a box at
the top of the screen with a few different options.
This is called the Character Heads-up Display
(HUD).
Inviting Players
After setting up your campaign you will probably
want to invite your friends to play.

Click Invite & Manage Users located on the top

Hover over any button to learn more about it. GM toolbar.

From left to right: open external character sheet,

heal or deal damage, center screen on a character,
impersonate a character, add a character to com-
bat, and open the character menu.
Alternatively, press “U”
When multiple characters are selected, you can Use this screen to invite your players using their
heal or deal damage to each character simultane- email or Astral username. You can assign any
ously (handy for quickly applying area effects). invited player to be a GM or a player.

Audio Player
Ambient music and background music can really
bring a scene to life. Queue music and sounds in
Deal group damage or apply group healing. the Audio Player by clicking the Audio Player but-
ton in the bottom left of your GM sidebar.

Weather/Visual FX
Astral provides all Game Masters with the ability
to create dynamic weather. Pro users can unlock
more advanced weather and visual fx.
Protip: The tools at the bottom of your GM sidebar can
To toggle different weather options, click Weather/ all be used as “popouts”
Visual FX on the top GM toolbar.
This will open a sidebar “popout” on the right of
your screen. Remember, popouts can be made
into new windows outside the game screen - per-
fect for queuing up music without exposing your
Alternatively, press “W” secrets to your in-person table!

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Add to Playlist Switch Characters
To add to the playlist, simply locate a sound file Impersonate different characters by selecting the
using the Vault on the bottom half of the screen portrait circle located towards the bottom of the
(or upload a new sound file) and drag the file to Dice Roller.
the top playlist . Queue as many sounds as you
like!

Options at the top of the Audio Player allow you

to Loop or Auto-play next song in playlist. Both of
these are off by default but can be toggled on/off
with the click of a button. Switch characters by clicking the portrait circle

The roll log will display any rolls you make as that
Combat Manager character and will insert any custom attributes
Get ready to roll initiative! The combat manager based on that character. This is useful for when you
helps you keep track of turn orders for PCs, NPCs, have multiple NPCs with different stats but similar
and custom actions (such as a room filling with attacks. Simply switch characters and roll a saved
water each turn.) attack.
Add your entire party or add everyone in the
current area to combat with a single click. Once Saving Rolls
combat has been setup, you can drag-and-drop Chances are, your characters are going to have ac-
any row to change the turn order. tions to take that require rolling the same dice. To
make rolling dice easier, you can save any of your
rolls and organize them in categories.
Dice Roller
The Dice Roller allows you to create custom dice
rolls with a few clicks. To access the Dice Roller,
click Dice Roller at the bottom left of your GM
sidebar.

Click any of the dice icons to start building a roll

then click “Roll Dice” to execute the roll. You can
even type in custom rolls into the input for
advanced functionality. For more information
on supported roll formats, please see the Roll
documentation found at https://docs.astraltabletop.
com/kb/macros#roll

Example saved rolls for a D&D 5e character

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 As a GM, we recommend creating multiple cate-
gories for each of your NPCs so that you can easily
Advanced Usage
At this point, you should have all the knowledge
execute attacks and damage actions without having
you need to run a session on Astral, but there are
to remember or lookup which dice to roll.
still a few tips & tricks we think are worth sharing
that will heighten your players’ experience.
As mentioned briefly before, you can also substi-
tute custom Character Attributes in your rolls by
wrapping any attribute in curly braces (e.g. “1d20
+ {strength}”).
Localized Sound
What’s that sound in the distance? Is it a black-
smith hammering away or two enemies sparring
in the streets?
Live Video
Free for everyone, enjoy live video chat with your Localized sound lets you drag-and-drop sounds
entire party. To access Live Video, click the Live that dynamically update based on your players
Video Chat button located on the bottom of your location. The closer your player is to the source of
GM sidebar. the sound, the louder it will be for them!

To add localized sound to your map, enter Edit

Mode (Press “E”) and find a sound file using the
right Vault sidebar. Drag an asset onto the map
and use the bounding box to define how large the
sound spans.
Control the background image for your session
and tell your story in real-time no matter where you
are in the world. You can even use this screen to
stream to Twitch or other popular streaming sites
by using external streaming software (for more
information on how to do this, see our blog.)

Ending Session
After your session is over, click the End Session
button at the bottom of your GM sidebar. This will You can customize the min/max volume levels as
prompt all your users that the session has ended well as define looping behavior.
and will redirect you all back to the Portal page
where you can write in-character or out-of-charac-
ter updates about your session! Animation Control
Some animations in Astral include built-in sound.
You can toggle playback of the animation, sound,
and sound volume all from the left sidebar in Edit
Mode when you have the map layer with the ani-
mation/audio selected.

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Performance Tips Closing Thoughts
If you like massive dungeon crawls, then Astral Congratulations! You just completed your first
is the perfect tool for you and your players. Astral “game” on Astral. Now it’s time to invite your
does its best to remove unnecessary assets from players and get started on your own adventures.
your screen while not in use, but there are few pre-
cautionary measures you can take to ensure your Looking for more tips and tricks? Check out the
players experiences are smooth (even on mobile Astral Support forums or feel free to reach out
or older devices.) to the Astral Team by using the feedback buttons
located on the bottom of your screen.
1. Tile assets instead of placing many of the
same kind of asset. If you have a grass back- We are always looking to improve Astral so if you
ground, it is better to tile the grass than to have feedback, suggestions, or questions for us
place many grass layers. we would love to hear them.
2. Limit Dynamic Lighting points. A little goes
a long way. Only place points where you need Thank you for taking the time to learn more
them. about using Astral. May your adventures be
3. Upload good, but not perfect, quality assets. forever exciting.
Your goal is to tell a story and give your players
something to look at while telling it. We do not
recommend uploading anything larger than
2000px as the performance for your players
will not be as great. Try to limit file sizes as
well to be respectful of those on slower con-
nections.

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