Locations

Creating a location

1. Click Locations in the sidebar
2. Click New Location
3. Enter a name (required)
4. Fill in additional fields as needed
5. Click Save

Location fields

Basic information

Sensory details

These fields are designed to be read aloud when the party enters:

Tip: Even one or two sensory details transform “you enter a tavern” into “you push open the door and the smell of woodsmoke and cheap ale hits you. The room is dim, lit by guttering candles. A few sailors glance up, then look away.”

Features and dangers

Features give players things to investigate. Dangers create tension.

Connections

Story elements

Organization

Building location hierarchies

Campaign Familiar supports nested locations using the Parent location field:

The Sword Coast (region)
└── Neverwinter (city)
    └── Docks District (district)
        └── The Rusty Anchor Tavern (building)
            └── The Back Room (room)

Creating a hierarchy

1. Create the parent location first (the city)
2. Create the child location (the district)
3. Set the Parent location field to the city
4. Repeat for deeper nesting

Benefits of hierarchies

• Filter locations by area
• See what’s inside a city or dungeon
• Navigate from broad to specific
• Understand spatial relationships

How deep to go

Go deep for:

• Dungeons with many rooms
• Important buildings the party explores thoroughly
• Cities with distinct districts

Stay shallow for:

• Places the party passes through quickly
• Wilderness areas
• Locations you haven’t detailed yet

You can always add child locations later when they become relevant.

Reading sensory details aloud

The sensory details fields are your read-aloud text. Here’s how to use them:

Before the session

Prepare sensory details for locations you expect the party to visit:

The Rusty Anchor Tavern

• Sights: Dim room lit by oil lamps. Sailors crowd rough wooden tables. A harpoon mounted above the bar, its barbs dark with old stains.
• Sounds: Low conversation, occasional laughter, creaking floorboards, waves against the docks outside.
• Smells: Salt air, cheap ale, fish stew, tar.

During the session

When the party enters, combine and adapt:

“You push through the door into a dim room - oil lamps throw flickering light across rough tables crowded with sailors. The air smells of salt and cheap ale. Someone’s cooking fish stew. Above the bar, you notice a massive harpoon, its barbs stained dark with something old.”

You don’t read every detail - pick what fits the moment.

When you don’t have time

If you’re improvising, note a single sensory detail:

• A smell (burning, flowers, decay)
• A sound (silence, distant music, dripping water)
• A visual (too dark, too bright, something wrong)

One detail is infinitely better than none.

Using AI to create locations

AI generation panel

1. Open the location and find the AI Generation panel (inside the AI Generation panel)
2. Pick a Generation Type (such as Location Description)
3. Optionally enter a prompt: “cramped and paranoid” or “abandoned but recently disturbed”
4. Set the Creativity slider and an optional Tone Preset, then click Generate
5. Review the suggestion cards and Accept the ones you want or Dismiss the rest

The engine is particularly useful for sensory details - it generates atmospheric elements you might not think of. See AI generation for the full flow.

Quick generation with Quick Prep

1. Open Quick Prep from the dashboard (or the Session Companion -> Quick Generators)
2. Click Location Generator
3. Choose a Tone
4. Optionally expand More options and set Use Campaign Context
5. Click Generate Location

This creates a complete location with name, atmosphere, sensory details, and features. Promote it if you want to keep it.

-> Quick Prep generators

Linking locations to other creations

Inhabitants

The Inhabitants section is derived - it lists NPCs who have a “lives at” or “works at” relationship to the location. To populate it, link the NPCs:

1. Open an NPC (or the location’s relationships section)
2. Add a “lives at” or “works at” relationship between the NPC and the location

Now when you view the tavern, you see who’s there. When you view the NPC, you see where they are.

Campaign Markers

Connect story threads to locations:

1. Open the location
2. Add markers to the Campaign Markers field
3. Or from a Campaign Marker, add related locations

This helps you remember what story opportunities exist at each location.

Items

If important items are at a location, create the item and set its Location field. The party finds the cursed amulet here.

Tips for better locations

Focus on what’s unusual

Every tavern has tables, chairs, and a bar. What makes this tavern different? The harpoon on the wall. The owner’s missing eye. The cat that watches everyone. Lead with what’s distinctive.

One danger or secret

Most locations benefit from having one:

• The tavern’s back room is used for smuggling
• The temple’s crypt has something sealed inside
• The forest clearing is where cultists meet at midnight

Even “safe” locations are more interesting with a complication.

Prepare key locations, improvise the rest

You don’t need sensory details for every shop in the city. Prepare:

• Locations you expect the party to visit
• Important set-piece locations
• Recurring locations (their home base, the tavern they always return to)

For everything else, improvise with one or two details.

Update after sessions

If a location changes - the tavern burned down, the dungeon was cleared - update it. Add a note about what happened. Your locations should reflect the party’s impact on the world.

Example: creating a tavern

Name: The Rusty Anchor

Location type: Tavern

Description: Dockside dive popular with sailors and those who prefer not to answer questions. The owner asks no questions and remembers no faces - for a price.

Atmosphere: Dim, smoky, watchful. The kind of place where everyone minds their own business because they’re all doing something worth hiding.

Sights: Oil lamps cast uneven light on rough tables. Sailors cluster in groups, speaking low. Above the bar, a massive whale harpoon hangs from the rafters, its barbs dark with old stains no one talks about.

Sounds: Low conversation, the creak of floorboards, waves lapping at the docks outside. Someone’s always playing a sad song on a battered concertina in the corner.

Smells: Salt air, cheap ale, fish stew from the kitchen, and underneath it all, the faint tang of blood that never quite washed out of the floor.

Features:

• The harpoon has a story (One-Eye Peg won’t tell it, but she’ll sell it for the right price)
• Back room available for private meetings (5 gold, no questions)
• Smugglers’ tunnel in the cellar (only Peg knows)

Dangers: None apparent, but the clientele handles problems themselves

Inhabitants: One-Eye Peg (bartender/owner)

Parent location: Docks District, Neverwinter

Tags: tavern, safe-haven, docks, neverwinter

Related

• Creations overview - All 8 creation types
• Creating NPCs - Populate your locations
• Relationships - Connect locations to your world
• Quick Prep generators - Quick location generation
• Creation types reference - Complete field specifications