Put two time references in the first note
“We play on Saturday” organises the people. “The boatwoman proposes leaving at dawn” organises the fiction. Record them separately so that a week without playing neither advances the rescue accidentally nor erases events in the world.
DMGrid offers sessions with formatted notes and preview, alongside campaign archives and locations. The following timeline is a manual way to use those notes, not an automatic calendar or a simulation clock provided by the product.
Prepare a scene with facts and open conditions
This original scenario is fictional. The party is in a village at dusk. A boatwoman has offered to leave at first light to search for two travellers. The real appointment to continue playing is the following Saturday.
Separate four lines in your preparation notes:
- Real appointment: Saturday, at the time agreed by the group.
- Fictional time at closing: dusk in the village.
- Confirmed event: the boatwoman offered the departure; the party heard the proposal.
- Unresolved: nobody has decided whether to board or what to prepare overnight.
An offer is different from a completed departure. Do not write that the characters are on the river if that decision has not been played.
Let dawn depend on the fiction
You can prepare a condition for your scenario: “If dawn arrives without another agreement, the boatwoman prepares to leave.” This is the game master’s preparation decision, not a DMGrid rule or a guarantee that the scene will unfold that way.
Before applying it, establish with the table what happened overnight. If the party visits the workshop and only part of the evening passes, do not jump to dawn because the real meeting is ending. If they play out waiting until first light, update the fictional time and describe the relevant situation.
Separate preparation from what actually happened
After playing, add an outcome block: “The party asked to delay departure and the boatwoman agreed”, only if it happened in play. Keep the earlier plan labelled as preparation and record the new agreement without turning it into an earlier fact.
Notes with preview let you reread the text you will consult. You can keep a location or character reference in your own notes without assuming DMGrid calculates travel durations or automatically connects every sentence to a clock.
Resume with a playable question
When returning, read the fictional time and latest agreement. A useful question might be: “The night is ending; what do you want to resolve before going to the landing?” Let the answer open the scene. The real calendar date remains for organising the meeting.
DMGrid is an offline Windows campaign manager in beta, with campaigns stored on the computer. The current purchase is a perpetual licence for one device; direct download requires a licence and acceptance of beta terms, rather than being a free demo. Read the current DMGrid brief and demonstrations to decide whether its present tools suit your table.