Before being able to use PlanarAlly, you have to connect to a specific PlanarAlly server. This codelab will go over the steps that are required from the DM to connect to a server running on a Gameboard.

Let's start with going to the list of games on your board and install PlanarAlly. This will install the PlanarAlly launcher, your starting point for all your adventures on the Gameboard.

As mentioned before, in order to play, you need to connect with a server. The launcher is the place where you can configure servers to connect with.

When you open the PlanarAlly launcher, you see the following UI:

Connecting with a remote server

On the right you'll see a list of previous servers you've connected to. On the left you can connect to a new server,

You can connect with publicly available servers or maybe with a private server that your or one of your friends hosts. All you need to know is the server address and you're good to go.

While this is the quickest way to start playing if you're already familiar with PlanarAlly, this codelab will focus on people that have no experience with PlanarAlly and thus focus on running a PlanarAlly server on the Gameboard itself.

Starting a local server

Instead of joining a remote server, you can also run the server on the Gameboard itself. To accomplish this, click on the "Setup local server" button that you see in the left UI panel. This will change the left panel to the following view:

The local IP address of the Gameboard is shown as well as the port on which the server will run, this is information we can use later to connect to the Gameboard, but don't worry about this for now.

First we need to install the server. The server is a separate application that by default is not installed, so first click that install button and wait for the installation to complete.

Once complete you can press the "Start PlanarAlly" button and you'll connect to the local server.

When connecting to a Gameboard server, you'll be greeted with yet another piece of UI:

This is not present on other PlanarAlly servers and serves as a small onboarding help for Gameboard users.

A Gameboard server will automatically create a DM and user account and the information displayed is relevant only to those accounts. If you instead desire to create separate accounts you can do so by clicking on the "Use an existing account" button, which will bring you to the tradiational non-Gameboard branded PlanarAlly landing page.

The information on the left gives information on how the DM can join from another device, we will cover this more in-depth in the next section. The panel on the right can be used to continue as a player. We will come back to the player aspect at the end of this codelab, leave this page open on the Gameboard!

The first info you need to connect to any server is the server address. In the case of a Gameboard server, this will in most cases be an IP address. The DM section on the welcome screen, which is repeated below, shows a URL that contains the Gameboard IP address, allowing you to join the server if you type in that URL on your laptop/computer.

The section on the left also shows a code that is hidden by default, tap it to show it! This code can be used to verify that you're the DM!

About IP addresses

It is important to note, that this is a local IP, meaning that you'll only be able to access it if your other device is on the same local network (e.g. same wifi network).

If you want to join from another network, you need to look into "port forwarding", this is a topic that is out of scope of this codelab.

Visiting the DM url

If you went ahead and navigated to that DM URL mentioned above, you'll be greeted with the following screen:

Here you need the enter that code we mentioned! If you type in the correct code and continue we see:

We can just immediately continue and start actually using PlanarAlly, but we can also set a password so that in the future we no longer have to bother with that special code.

Either option should bring you to the PlanarAlly dashboard.

If all went well, we should now finally have all Gameboard specific things behind us and actually see the PlanarAlly dashboard.

This dashboard will display all campaigns you DM as well as all campaigns you are part of. We can also use the menu entry on the left to configure settings and upload assets to be used in our campaign(s).

Instead we'll just go straight ahead and create a new campaign. This can be done by clicking the "new game" button in the top right.

When creating a new game, we can either start from scratch, or import an existing campaign from somewhere else.

Given that we're new, we'll start from scratch!

Setting a campaign logo is optional, and we'll skip it for now. Instead give your campaign a name and let's go!

Once a game has been created, we'll jump straight into the game. By default your world will be one giant blank canvas with a grid.

Covering all PlanarAlly features would make this codelab way too big, so we won't :D instead you can find more information on the official PlanarAlly docs over at https://www.planarally.io

One thing we still have to cover however is how players can join your campaign. Right now you, the DM, were able to connect, but there is nobody else.

Adding players

Open up the left sidebar by clicking on the cogwheel that you can see in the topleft of the UI.

Then click on the DM settings

The first tab of the DM settings is what we need, it shows us information about the users that can join the campaign and gives us options to invite other users.

The traditional way to invite other users is by sending them an invitation URL. This is the easiest way to add new users that want to join from their own laptop/computer.

Joining from the Gameboard itself

We however cannot use this approach, if we want to join as a player on the Gameboard as there is no way to enter a URL. Instead the DM can generate a 4 digit code that is only available for a short period of time (the temporary join code in the image above).

When we last left the Gameboard, it was showing the welcome screen:

We're fully set up as a DM by this point, so we can continue as a player now. Click on the "Use default account" button, and the player will also be greeted with the PlanarAlly dashboard.

There will not be any campaign yet visible as the player hasn't joined any campaign yet. To join the campaign the DM just set up, click on the "join game" button that you see in the player section of the dashboard.

This will prompt you for a 4 digit code, the same one the DM just generated. Submit the code, and the player will be put into the same game.

In the future this campaign will be listed in the player section on the dashboard and can be joined without using any codes.