The Game Master console is the only station that can change the running
simulation. Before launch it stages a mission; after launch it becomes the panel you
run the session from. This entry covers the second part — getting to launch is in
Running Your First Session.
Session control
Three controls sit together, and they mean exactly what they say:
- Save — writes the current state of the mission to a saved
session. You can reload it later from the Saved Sessions tab. Save before you try
anything you might want to undo, because nothing else will undo it.
- Pause — freezes the simulation. Every console stays connected
and stays displaying; nothing moves. This is your tool for a rules question, a
comfort break, or catching up on what four people asked at once.
- End — ends the mission and returns the server to staging.
Consoles drop back to their waiting state.
The tabs
The right‑hand tab column changes what the main panel shows. Some tabs only
appear once a mission is running.
| Tab | What you do there |
|---|
| Active Objects | Everything in the map as a tree. Select an object to inspect or edit it. Your default view during play. |
| Spawn Controls | Put new objects into the running mission. |
| Mission Information | Objectives, encounters and variables — the mission's own state. |
| Factions | Who is hostile to whom, and adjusting it mid‑session. |
| Pedia Articles | The in‑game reference the crew can read. Push an article to them here. |
| Active Consoles | Every connected console, which vessel it is bound to, and which role. The first place to look when a player says their panel is dead. |
| Saved Sessions | Reload a saved state. |
| System Logs | What the server has been doing. For diagnosing, not for playing. |
Working with objects
Select an object in the Active Objects tree and you get its detail panel, tabbed
across general information, position and rotation, internal and external components,
cargo and ordnance. Everything there is live: change a value and the simulation has
it immediately.
Three per‑object actions are worth knowing:
- Focus centres your radar and viewport on it — the fastest way
to see what the crew is describing.
- Edit opens the full detail panel.
- Comms opens your conversation with it, which is how you play
anything that talks.
Because the edits are live and unversioned, save the session before restructuring
anything substantial.
Comms
The comms panel shows active channels and the traffic on them, and lets you send as
any object the crew can reach. Two GM‑only pieces sit beside it:
- Comms Intercept puts you in the middle of channels the crew
believes are private. Useful, and worth telling players about at some point.
- GM Intercom is a voice channel to your crew that is outside the
fiction — for "we're taking a ten minute break", not for the story.
Radar and viewport
The GM radar shows the whole map, not one vessel's contacts, and it shows weapon
fire. Between it and the viewport you can generally see what is happening without
asking anyone. Selecting a contact on the radar selects the same object in the tree.
Debug mode
The debug toggle turns on extra reporting across the consoles. It is a development
aid, and it changes what players can see, so leave it off during a session unless you
are chasing a specific problem.
Practical advice
- Check Active Consoles before you launch, not after. A player bound
to the wrong vessel will spend ten minutes assuming they misunderstand their console.
- Pause is cheap. Nothing is lost by using it, and a paused game is
much easier to explain something in than a running one.
- Save at the interesting moments. Before the ambush, not after it
went wrong.
- Watch the crew, not the panel. Objectives and encounters advance
on their own; the reason to have this console is to react to what your players
actually do.
