know.

CookbookHobbies and playNo. 45

A tabletop campaign settinga players’ guide on one link, the game master’s secrets kept apart

Recipe No. 45Hobbies and play

For
A game master running a homebrew fantasy campaign for five players every other Friday
You bring
A notebook of world ideas, a rough map, the notes you scrawl during play, the fifth-edition rules from the SRD 5.2 if your table uses them, and the AI assistant you already use
You get
A players’ guide, a places document, a factions document and a session log that players read from links, a second shelf of secrets they never see, and an index of the names that recur on both shelves
Time
An evening for your assistant to file the world and a weekend for you to put it right, then twenty minutes the morning after each session
Works in
know.sh on the web · your AI assistant, through MCP
Keep it
Private while you work; share one document by a read-only link when it is ready.

Every campaign has two versions. There is the one your players know: the harbour town, the ferryman who overcharges, the rumour about the abbey under the water. And there is the one behind the screen: who really runs the town, what the abbey is for, and what happens if the party ignores it for three sessions. Keep both in one notebook and sooner or later a secret gets read aloud.

This recipe keeps them apart. You hand your notebook to whichever assistant you use — Claude, ChatGPT or a local model — and it files the world on two shelves: the players’ half, with a guide, places, factions and a session log, each on its own read-only link, and the game master’s half, which never gets a link at all. Then you open the editor and make it yours. The index at the back covers both shelves, and only you ever see it, so at the table one search finds Magistrate Venn’s public face and her real motive side by side.

The map, the dice and the miniatures stay where they are, and the world stays your invention: the assistant sorts and files what you wrote; it does not dream up the plot.

What you will use

Your AI assistant
Files the world from your notes onto two shelves, logs each session from your scrawl, checks the table shelf for spoilers, and answers “what does the party know?” from the log alone.
Shelf
Two shelves: Tidewrack — at the table for what players may read, and Tidewrack — behind the screen for everything they may not.
Research document
The players’ guide, places, factions and faces, and the session log on the first shelf; secrets and fronts, NPCs in full, and session prep on the second.
Finding
One per place, NPC, faction and session; turning points marked Key, open mysteries filed as Question.
The editor
Where you rewrite the player-facing text in your own voice, drag places into travel order and move anything secret off the table shelf.
Proposed notes
Your assistant flags any player-facing finding that gives away a secret, as a proposed note you accept or dismiss.
Public link
A link per player-facing document, with a password, and the places the party has not reached left out until they do.
The A–Z index
The names of NPCs, places and factions that recur on both shelves (Venn, Quay, Saltwardens), for your eyes only.

Method

  1. 1

    Hand your assistant the notebook

    Connect your assistant to know.sh once, following the support page. Then give it what you have — typed notes, a long document, photos of handwritten pages if it reads images — and ask it to build two shelves: Tidewrack — at the table (“What the players know”) and Tidewrack — behind the screen (“Never shared”). On the first shelf go a players’ guide, Places of the Tidewrack, Factions and faces and a Session log; on the second, Secrets and fronts, NPCs behind the screen and Session prep, with a finding per place, faction and person.

    Tell it two rules. Player-facing findings describe only what a traveller would see and hear. And where your notes leave a gap, it files a Question instead of inventing an answer: the world is yours.

  2. 2

    Put it right in the editor

    Read the table shelf as a player would. Press Edit and rewrite anything that sounds like a summary rather than your world; drag places into the order the party will travel; mark the turning points Key; change a finding’s type where the assistant guessed wrong. Anything secret that slipped onto the table shelf moves to the other one.

    Check the titles as you go. “Lantern Quay, the night market” is better than “The market”, because the index learns capitalised names from finding titles and first lines, and Quay will recur there. When the truth about a person sits behind the screen under the same name — “Orlaith Venn, magistrate of the Ashen Court” — the index gathers both findings under Venn: the public face and the private one, a line apart.

  3. 3

    Write the parts of the players’ guide that must be yours

    Your assistant can lay the guide out from your notes: The premise, Character creation, House rules, Lines and veils, Credits. Two of those you write yourself. House rules are your rulings, in your words. Lines and veils is what the table agreed at session zero — what stays off-screen and what never appears — and nobody else should phrase it. Mark it Key; it is the section a new player most needs.

    Put the SRD attribution in Credits exactly as the note below gives it. Margin notes are hidden from link readers, so a small reminder can sit beside a player-facing line (“Venn is lying here”); anything bigger goes behind the screen.

  4. 4

    Log each session the morning after

    Give your assistant the scrawl from last night, a photo of the page or a few typed lines, and ask it to add a finding to Session log, such as “Session 14 — Captain Morrow’s warning”, with four headings: What happened, What the party learned, Who they met, Open threads. It should write only what happened at the table, and list anything from behind the screen for you separately, to go in Session prep.

    Open the finding and correct it: an assistant turning notes into a recap will smooth over the one detail that mattered. When a mystery opens, such as who seals letters with ash, give it a Question finding in the log so the open threads sit where players look.

  5. 5

    Have your assistant check for spoilers

    Before you share anything, ask your assistant to compare the table shelf with the behind-the-screen shelf and leave a proposed note on any finding that reveals, or strongly hints at, something the party has not discovered. Proposed notes arrive in the margin with a dashed rule and Accept and Dismiss; they never change your text.

    Some flags are real leaks: a description of the ferry that mentions an ash seal before the party has seen one. Others are foreshadowing you meant, and you dismiss them.

  6. 6

    Share the players’ documents, one link each

    Press Share on each of the four player documents. The full link is shown once, so copy it the moment it appears. Set a password the whole table knows and leave it with no expiry (the default), since the campaign may run for a year, then post the four links in your group chat.

    Links show the current text, so a place filed on Thursday is there on Friday. Places the party has not reached stay hidden: on each finding’s own page, leave it out of the link, and include it the night they arrive. If someone leaves the group, replace each link: the old addresses stop working, but replacing also resets the expiry and the left-out places, so set both again before the new links go out.

  7. 7

    Keep it open at the table

    During play, Look up (⌘K, or /) finds any name as you type, from either shelf. When a player asks what their character would know, ask your assistant to answer from Session log and the table shelf only. It can read your whole library, so the instruction matters: without it, a careful answer may include the secret.

    Read the answer before you read it out, and open one or two of the sessions it cites.

Specimen

  1. You

    These are my world notes for the Tidewrack campaign. Using know.sh, make two shelves, Tidewrack — at the table and Tidewrack — behind the screen, and file a finding per place, faction and NPC. Player-facing findings say only what a traveller would see and hear; the truth goes behind the screen. Don’t invent anything: where my notes leave a gap, file a Question.

  2. dossier_createCreated Tidewrack — at the table and Tidewrack — behind the screen
  3. research_createCreated Places of the Tidewrack, Factions and faces and Session log on the table shelf
  4. research_createCreated Secrets and fronts and NPCs behind the screen behind the screen
  5. finding_addAdded 14 places to Places of the Tidewrack, among them “Lantern Quay, the night market”
  6. finding_addAdded “Orlaith Venn, magistrate of the Ashen Court” to NPCs behind the screen, 3

  7. Claude

    Done: five documents and 41 findings. Two places, the abbey crypt and the Court’s meeting hall, exist only behind the screen, because your notes mark them as secret. Your notes never say who Kessrin was, so there is a Question finding for that rather than a guess. Read the table shelf yourself before you share it.

An assistant filing a world from the game master’s notes onto two shelves, keeping the secrets off the table shelf and leaving the gaps as questions.

Places of the Tidewrackwhat a traveller sees

Shared from a library on know. 6 findings.

The coast from Brenmoor harbour to Kessrin’s Ferry, as the party has seen it. New places appear here after the session in which you reach them.

Rumours are written as you heard them. Some of them are true.

Findings

  1. 1Brenmoor, the harbour townObservation, high importance
  2. 2Lantern Quay, the night marketObservation, medium importance
  3. 3Kessrin’s Ferry and the toll houseObservation, high importance
  4. 4The Saltwardens’ hallObservation, medium importance
  5. 5The Salt Road to the marsh villagesObservation, low importance
  6. 6The Drowned Abbey, seen from the causewayQuestion, medium importance

Set with know.

The places document as players read it through its link: titles, types and importance, no notes, and the places the party has not reached left out.

  1. You

    Using only the Session log and the table shelf in know.sh: what has the party learned about the Ashen Court?

  2. ChatGPT

    From the session log, the party knows four things about the Ashen Court:

    • It seals its letters with ash, not wax. Brisa found a sealed letter in the ferryman’s strongbox (session 11), and Old Tobiah told the party that only the Court uses ash (session 12).
    • Magistrate Orlaith Venn serves it. She called herself “a servant of the Court” when she paid the party’s fine at Lantern Quay (session 13).
    • It takes a toll at Kessrin’s Ferry that the Saltwardens call unlawful. Captain Dace Morrow said so, and would say nothing more (session 14).
    • No one the party has met has seen its members together. This is still open, in finding 19.

    The party has not learned where the Court meets or what it wants; nothing on the table shelf says either. Shall I add a Question finding to the log: “Where does the Ashen Court meet?”

    From your library

    1. Session log, 11: Session 11 — the ferryman’s strongbox
    2. Session log, 12: Session 12 — Old Tobiah’s price
    3. Session log, 13: Session 13 — the fine at Lantern Quay
    4. Session log, 14: Session 14 — Captain Morrow’s warning
    5. Session log, 19: Has anyone seen the Court together?
An assistant answering from the session log alone, with the session behind every point, and stopping at what the party does not know.

Prompts to try

  1. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model)

    Using know.sh, read only the document Session log and the other documents on my Tidewrack — at the table shelf, and tell me what the party has learned about the Ashen Court. Cite the session for each point, and list separately anything they have guessed but not confirmed. Do not use anything on the Tidewrack — behind the screen shelf.

  2. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model)

    Using know.sh, compare every finding in Places of the Tidewrack (on my Tidewrack — at the table shelf) with Secrets and fronts and NPCs behind the screen. Where a player-facing finding reveals or strongly hints at a secret the party has not discovered, leave a proposed note that quotes the line and names the secret it gives away. Do not change any text.

  3. Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model)

    Here are my rough notes from tonight’s session: [paste or attach]. Using know.sh, add a finding to the Session log on my Tidewrack — at the table shelf, titled ‘Session 15 — ‘ plus a short title, with four headings: What happened, What the party learned, Who they met, Open threads. Include only what happened at the table. If my notes mention anything from behind the screen, leave it out and list it for me separately.

Variations

  • Running a published adventure rather than your own world? Keep only your own prep and the session log, and keep the adventure’s text out of anything you share: it is someone else’s work.
  • If the world is also the setting for fiction you are writing, give the lore its own shelf and follow the fantasy world encyclopedia.
  • For a one-shot at a convention, one document holds the premise and the pre-generated characters, shared with an expiry the day after.
  • Running a fantasy league instead of a campaign? The fantasy league almanac keeps a season current with a scheduled update.

Where it falls short

  • No maps or handouts. There is no image upload, so maps stay in your mapping tool or a shared album, and the places document says where to find them.
  • Players read; they do not write. Backstories, character sheets and questions between sessions reach you in the group chat, and you file them or pass them to your assistant.
  • Four player documents mean four links. A shelf cannot be shared, so there is no single link to the whole table shelf.
  • Your assistant can read the whole library, secrets included, and keeps to the table shelf only when told. Smaller local models follow such instructions and call tools less reliably, so read what any assistant files; Revisions shows every change it made.

A note on rules, settings and credit

Indexed under

Game mastersPlayers’ guidesSession logsSpoilersSRD 5.2Non-player charactersWorldbuilding

See also