Note: If you would like to view the tutorial on Campfire's website, please follow this link: https://www.campfiretechnology.com/pro/tutorial/overview/

Campfire Pro’s goal is to help writers tell stories. Campfire aims to provide an environment with more structure than a simple wiki- or document-based tool, but not so much structure that it stifles creativity. The structure that Campfire imposes is as follows:

Your story is made up of Characters, Plot, and World.

Characters are the active agents that drive change. Their actions shape the story.


The Plot is a collection of story events that occur in the story. Story events usually involve characters.


The World is a collection of locations in which the story takes place.


Based on this philosophy, Campfire Pro provides seven major views by default: Title Page, Characters, Relationships, Timeline, Character Arcs, World, and Encyclopedia.

The Title Page (pictured right) is very simple – it’s a space to provide a name, description, and plot summary of your story (if you find such things useful).

• The Characters view offers a corkboard-style area to define your characters.
  
• The Relationships view offers a visual space to map out character relationships.
  
• The Timeline contains story events, allowing you to visualize the progression of your narrative over time.
  
• The Character Arcs view helps you examine how your characters change over the course of the story.
  
• The World contains maps and locations of your story’s setting.
  
• The Encyclopedia is the “miscellaneous” section of Campfire that gives you a place to jot down notes, create image boards, or do anything else that can’t be handled by the other sections.

With that said, you can begin this tutorial anywhere. After all, a story can start with characters, or plot, or worldbuilding! It’s up to you.

Campfire Pro’s Characters View is the home of your story’s characters. On the left is the sidebar, which contains your characters in a folder structure. On the right is the canvas, which displays information about the currently selected character. This information is divided into panels, which can each be moved and resized.


Panels come in six types:

• Text: A block of text
  
• Image: An uploaded image
  
• Stats: A list of statistics
  
• List: A list of items, with a description of each
  
• References: A list of hyperlinks to other Campfire entries, with a description of each
  
• Links: Displays the two-way links between the currently selected character and other Campfire entries – these display on the other entry’s page as well!

You can add a panel at any time using the “Add Panel” button, located toward the bottom of the canvas when a character is selected. Adding a panel will place it on the screen. You can then use the handle at the top-right of the panel to move it around. The X button will delete the panel. You can resize it by dragging the sides or corners of the panel inwards or outwards. For fine-tuning, you can use Alt + Arrow Keys to move the panel by one pixel in a given direction. You can also use Alt + Shift + Arrow Keys to change the width or height of the panel by one pixel.

A grouping of character panels can be saved into a Template – which can be re-used across characters. To do this, you must create a character, define the panels you want, organize the panels into your desired layout, and then go to Options -> Save Template. The Options menu is accessible via an icon next to the name of your character in the header panel.

Templates can be set as default, deleted, or exported to file via Options -> Manage Templates. They can be imported from file via Options -> Import Template and can be loaded via Options -> Load Template.

A key thing to keep in mind regarding templates is that they are additive. This means that loading a template will never delete the panels that are already on the screen, it will add to them! So, if you want to replace everything on the screen with a template, you must first go to Options -> Delete All Panels, and then load the template after.

Characters can be imported and exported to the Campfire Character (.CHAR) file. This allows you to share characters between various Campfire stories. In addition, characters can be exported to PDF files. To do this, use Options -> Export to PDF, Options -> Export to CHAR, or Characters -> Import from CHAR.

The Relationship View stores relationship webs, which are compilations of characters and how they relate to each other in a flowchart style. For example, you can build Relationship Webs that represent Family Trees, Friendship/Enemy Webs, and more.


To add a Relationship Web, just click the Add button in the sidebar. This will add a new web and select it automatically. You can then edit the title and description of the Relationship Web using the title panel at the top of the screen. Just click on the title or description and start typing to edit!

To select a Relationship Web, just click its title in the sidebar.

Finally, to delete a Relationship Web, hover over its title in the sidebar and click the X icon.


Each relationship web has a color key. The color key is your way of knowing what kind of relationship each color maps to. For example, you might add a color called “Parent-Child” that represents a two-way parent-child relationship. Let’s say you did that and assigned it the color green. Then, you’d know that whenever you draw a green connection between two characters in the Relationship Web, those two characters share a parent-child relationship.

To add a color, click the Add button in the Color Key at the bottom of the screen. Please note that there is an enforced maximum of 10 colors per color key. Once the color is added, you can set its name by clicking on the name and typing. You can click on the color to change it. To select the color, click on the gray or white box that appears when you hover over it.

Each relationship can be one-way or two-way. To toggle this attribute, click the refresh icon (to the left of the X icon) on the color associated with the relationship. Finally, to delete a color, click the X icon in the Color Key.

In order to add relationships in a Relationship Web, you’ll first have to add character panels to the web. To do this, click the character dropdown toward the top of the screen. Choose the character you want to add and click Add Character. Then, move your mouse to where you want the character to go and click the left mouse button. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to drag and drop the character to a new location at any time. Furthermore, you can move multiple character panels at once by selecting them using Shift + Left Click and then clicking and dragging to move the entire selection. To delete a character panel, right-click it and choose ‘Delete Panel’.

To draw a relationship between characters, you’ll want to first select the color that represents the desired relationship. You can do this by clicking the color’s box in the color key. Then, simply click on one of the connector endpoints (these are the boxes on the top, bottom, left, and right of character panels) and drag a connection to the endpoint of another character panel. This will create a connection of the desired color.

To delete a relationship between two characters, left-click it. To change the line type of a relationship, right-click it and choose ‘Toggle Line Type’. The three options are a solid line, a dotted line, and a dashed line.

If you go to Campfire -> Preferences, you’ll notice a section titled Relationships. In this section, you can set two attributes: Connector Curviness and Default Connector Type. Connector Curviness is a number from 1 to 500. A higher value means the relationship connectors are curvier. The Default Connector Type determines what line type is used when connections are drawn. The options are Solid, Dotted, and Dashed.

Campfire Pro’s Timeline View is the home of your story’s plot. On the left is the sidebar, which contains your Timelines in a folder structure. On the right is the canvas, which displays the currently selected timeline’s story events in a flowchart-style interface. Timelines can be nested inside of each other – this is an important method for subdividing your story into more manageable pieces.

• Timeline: A linear progression of story events and dividers
  
• Event: Something that happens in your story
  
• Divider: A significant structural point in the stor
  
• Connection: A line drawn between two events to signify some relationship
  
• Color Key: The right-hand sidebar of the Timeline, used to give meaning to colored connections

You can use the sidebar to create, rename, and re-organize Timelines and Events. Keep in mind that Campfire considers the chronological order to be from the top of your sidebar to the bottom – so make sure to organize your events in that way! This will be important when you move on to visualize character arcs, and for when you export your timelines to PDF plot outlines.

On the timeline canvas, you can move Events by clicking and dragging. They can also be resized using the small handle at the bottom right of the Event panel. To edit the Event, just double-click it. Events and Dividers can be quickly added using the “Add Element” button at the bottom of the screen, or by right-clicking the canvas.

In the sidebar, you may notice that you can drag one Timeline into another Timeline. This creates a “nested” Timeline structure. This is extremely useful for organizing your story! For example, you may decide to create a timeline called “Book Series”. Within that Timeline, you could have various sub-timelines: “Book 1 Plot”, Book 2 Plot”… etc. When you drag a Timeline inside of another, Campfire automatically adds a panel for the nested Timeline so it can be seen on the canvas and connected to other elements.


Double-clicking an event will open its Edit Event window. This window contains easy-to-organize panels, which contain all information about your events. In addition to the standard 6 panel types, the Edit Event window offers a custom panel where you can set a border color for the Event, a “temporal location” (when the event takes place), an event magnitude (how important is it?), and whether it is onscreen or offscreen.

The 6 basic panel types are:

• Text: A block of text
  
• Image: An uploaded image
  
• Stats: A list of statistics
  
• List: A list of items, with a description of each
  
• References: A list of hyperlinks to other Campfire entries, with a description of each
  
• Links: Displays the two-way links between the event and other Campfire entries – these display on the other entry’s page as well!

As you plot your story using Timelines, you’ll likely be assigning characters to different events. At some point, you may desire to take a look at the character development or “arc” of each character individually. This is where Campfire’s Character Arcs view really shines.

When you first load up the Character Arcs view, you’ll see the same sidebar on the left as is present in the Characters View. When you click on a character, the canvas will display a series of panels.

• At the top is the Timeline Panel, which displays each event that the selected character is in. Select one of these events to see how it affects the character’s arc.
  
• Below the Timeline Panel is the Changes Panel, where you can specify how a character is physically, emotionally, or otherwise changed by the selected event.
  
• At the bottom left is the Traits panel, where you can create character traits and assign numerical values to them for each story event.
  
• At the bottom right is the Graph panel, where you can see how the values for the selected trait change over the character’s entire arc.

To export a character’s arc to PDF, just click Character Arcs in Campfire’s main menu and select “Export Character Arc to PDF”. This produces a document containing the trait values and change descriptions for each event that the character is in.

To export an image containing the trait graph for all of a character’s traits, use Character Arcs -> Export Trait Graph.

This article refers to the worldbuilding tools included with Campfire Pro, not the Worldbuilding Extension Pack[www.campfiretechnology.com].



Campfire Pro’s World View holds your story’s maps and locations. On the left is the sidebar, which contains your maps and locations in a folder structure. On the right is the canvas, which displays the currently selected map and its locations.

• Map: A canvas (usually a large uploaded map image) that contains locations
  
• Location: A place in your story that must belong to a map

1. Click “Add Map” in the sidebar.
   
2. In the header panel, you’ll see “New Map” with a short description underneath. Rename the map by editing the text in the header panel.
   
3. Hover your mouse over the header panel. You’ll see a small “options” icon (3 vertical dots) next to the map name. Click it, and choose “Set Map Image”.
   
4. Choose an image that you want to use as your map. This can be hand-drawn, digitally designed, or just downloaded from google images.
   
5. Consider your map’s scale. Campfire allows you to zoom in and out of a map, but you’ll want to make sure the scale is right so that location panels are the right size relative to the map’s details. To do this, first click “Add Location” to place a location on the screen. Observe its size on the screen. Is it too large relative to your map? If so, you’ll need to increase the image scale. Click the options icon -> Change Image Scale, and input the amount by which you want to scale the image. For example, if you’d like to double the size of the image, type “2” and click Save. You may need to play with this a few times to get the image to your desired scale. It’s best to get this right before you dive into adding more locations!
   
6. Now your map has an image, and it’s scaled properly. Just use the “Add Location” button to add detail to your world, and use Ctrl + Scroll Wheel (or Command + Scroll Wheel on Mac) to zoom in and out of your map.

You can use the sidebar to create, rename, duplicate, and re-organize maps and locations. Keep in mind that each location must belong to exactly one map, and that maps can be nested inside of each other to keep things neat and tidy. For example, you may have a World map which contains a series of nested Country maps – each of which has its own locations (cities, towns, landmarks, etc). To nest a Map, just drag and drop it inside of another map in the sidebar.

Double-clicking a location will open its Edit Location window. This window contains easy-to-organize panels, which contain all information about your locations. In addition to the standard 6 panel types, the Edit Location window offers a custom panel where you can set a border color for the location, a type, a transparency, and an abbreviation to display on the Map rather than its full name.

The 6 basic panel types are:

• Text: A block of text
  
• Image: An uploaded image
  
• Stats: A list of statistics
  
• List: A list of items, with a description of each
  
• References: A list of hyperlinks to other Campfire entries, with a description of each
  
• Links: Displays the two-way links between the location and other Campfire entries – these display on the other entry’s page as well!

The panels in a location can be saved into a Template – which can be re-used across locations. To do this, you must create a location, define the panels you want, organize the panels into your desired layout, and then go to Options -> Save Template. The Options menu is accessible via an icon next to the name of your location in the header panel.

Templates can be set as default, deleted, or exported to file via Options -> Manage Templates. They can be imported from file via Options -> Import Template and can be loaded via Options -> Load Template.

A key thing to keep in mind regarding templates is that they are additive. This means that loading a template will never delete the panels that are already on the screen, it will add to them! So, if you want to replace everything on the screen with a template, you must first go to Options -> Delete All Panels, and then load the template after.



The Encyclopedia is Campfire’s seventh major view. While the Title Page, Characters, Character Arcs, Relationships, Timeline, and World all hold a lot of information, the Encyclopedia is responsible for holding everything else. This can be anything from image boards to tidbits of dialogue to research.

The Encyclopedia is made up of entries, which store text and image panels. All your entries are visible in the sidebar, organized by group. You can collapse and expand groups in the sidebar using the icons next to the group title. Clicking on an entry in the sidebar opens that entry in the canvas, where you can view your work and make changes.

To add an entry, just click the ‘Add’ button in the sidebar. This will create a new entry in the default group (called Misc), and will display the new entry in the canvas. You can edit the title of your entry by clicking on it and typing in a new title. Use the Linked Elements panel to link characters, events, and more to the entry. To delete an entry, click the ‘X’ button next to it in the sidebar. Duplicate it using the clipboard icon next to its name in the sidebar.

To move your entry to a new group, click the ‘Add’ button in the Group panel of the Entry. Type in a name for your new group and click ‘Add’ – you’ll see that your entry is moved to the new group in the sidebar! Your newly created group will now be available in the Group dropdown box of every entry. So, to move another entry to the group, it’s as easy as choosing the group from the dropdown in that entry’s Group panel.

To delete a group, select it in an entry’s Group panel and choose ‘Delete’. Keep in mind that this will move all entries in this group to the Misc group! To rename a group, select it in an entry’s Group panel and choose ‘Rename’. Then enter a new name for the group and click ‘Rename’ again.

Now that you have your Entry named and organized in its proper group, it’s time to populate it with information. At the bottom of the entry, you’ll see two buttons – ‘Add Panel’ and ‘Add Image’. Panels are text-only; you can change their title and type information into them. Images have a title also, but display an image instead of a text box.

To move panels, use the up and down arrows on their right side. To delete them, click the ‘X’ button, which is located right next to the arrows.

To export an individual entry, select it and then navigate to Encyclopedia -> Export Entry to PDF. Choose a location for the file and click ‘Save’ and you’re good to go! You can also export the entire Encyclopedia to one unified PDF. To do this, just go to Encyclopedia -> Export Encyclopedia to PDF. Choose a location for the file and click ‘Save’, and you’re all set.

This article refers to the Worldbuilding Pack (WP), a paid expansion to Campfire Pro with more detailed worldbuilding tools.

The WP offers eight new views to Campfire Pro. These views are:

• Species: Define the species of your world including habitats, abilities, and statistics
  
• Cultures: Define cultural groups and link them to species, religions, locations, and more
  
• Languages: Design languages from scratch with custom symbols, a dictionary, grammar rules, and an auto-translator that can be used to instantly translate words in your native language to your fictional languages
  
• Religions: Create fictional religions with detailed histories, beliefs, and rituals
  
• Philosophies: Describe philosophical movements and their impact on your world
  
• Systems: Craft and visualize hierarchical systems like governments, economies, and organizations
  
• Magic: Develop cohesive and detailed magic systems
  
• Items: Track important items and how they’re used in your story

Everything you create in the WP can be integrated completely with the rest of your story. Link your characters to the cultures and religions they were raised in. Track which items are used in each story event across your story. Associate a location with a cultural group or species that resides there. Campfire Pro handles all of this with ease.


Every view in the WP makes use of the core interface, at least in part. The core interface consists of a series of panels organized in a grid. You may recognize this interface, as it’s the same one used in the Edit Event and Edit Location windows (from the Timeline and World sections, respectively). Furthermore, the panels are identical to the ones in the Characters view.


The 6 basic panel types are:

• Text: A block of text
  
• Image: An uploaded image
  
• Stats: A list of statistics
  
• List: A list of items, with a description of each
  
• References: A list of hyperlinks to other Campfire entries, with a description of each
  
• Links: Displays the two-way links between the entry and other Campfire entries – these display on the other entry’s page as well!

Use the “Add Panel” button at the bottom of the core interface to add panels to your entry. You’ll have to select one of the six panel types, after which the panel will be added to the bottom of your entry. At the top-right corner of each panel are three icons: an X, an arrow, and a drag icon. Use the X to delete the panel, the arrow to expand or collapse the contents of the panel, and the drag icon to move the panel. Finally, you can click into the title of the panel and start typing to change its name.

To edit the panel’s contents, use the following breakdown:

• Text Panels: Click on the panel, below the title, and start typing.
  
• Image Panels: Right-click the panel and choose “Set Image” to set the image. Then use the black handle at the bottom-right to resize it. Finally, right-click and choose “Remove Image” to remove the image.
  
• Stats Panels: Use the “Add” button at the top of the panel to add a statistic. You can then edit the statistic name, its value, and the units by clicking them and typing. Delete a statistic using the X button, and re-order them using the drag icon.
  
• List Panels: Use the “Add” button at the top of the panel to add a list item. You can then edit the name and description of the item by clicking them and typing. Delete a list item using the X button, and re-order them using the drag icon.
  
• References Panels: Use the “Add” button to add a reference. You can then edit the description of the reference by clicking it and typing. Delete a reference using the X button, and re-order it using the drag icon.
  
• Links Panels: Use the dropdown element at the top of the panel to select which type of linked elements you want to view. Then click “Add” to add a link of that type. You can edit the description of the added link by clicking it and typing. Keep in mind that this description will also be visible in the linked element’s “links” panel! Use the X to delete the link (this will remove the link from the other entry as well).

A grouping of panels can be saved into a Template – which can be re-used across entries of the same type. To do this, you must create an entry, define the panels you want, organize the panels into your desired layout, and then go to Options -> Save Template. The Options menu is accessible via an icon next to the name of the entry in the header panel.

Templates can be set as default, deleted, or exported to file via Options -> Manage Templates. They can be imported from file via Options -> Import Template and can be loaded via Options -> Load Template.

A key thing to keep in mind regarding templates is that they are additive. This means that loading a template will never delete the panels that are already on the screen, it will add to them! So, if you want to replace everything on the screen with a template, you must first go to Options -> Delete All Panels, and then load the template after.

You can also go to Options -> Layout Options to change a few stylistic details. For example, you can change the number of columns in the grid of panels! This is especially useful if you’re working on a larger screen and want to display more information.

The Languages View contains four sections: Phonetics, Dictionary, Grammar, and Pragmatics. The Grammar and Pragmatics sections use the core interface. The Phonetics and Dictionary sections, however, offer a different interface.

Language creation experts recommend starting with a “sound palette” and alphabet. The Phonetics section serves to help you with this process. It contains a table with two columns by default: “Symbol” and “Sound”. Use the Symbol column to define the symbols used in your language, for example Ř, Ɔ, or basic English letters like B. Use the Sound column to describe how the symbol sounds – you can use a simple descriptor like “ah” or “oo”, or IPA symbols[www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org] for the more experienced conlangers. You can also add custom columns for extra information about symbols, if you so choose.

Pronunciation Rules: Use an asterisk * before a symbol to specify a special pronunciation for when the symbol occurs at the end of a word. Use the asterisk after the symbol to signify the symbol’s appearance at the beginning of a word. These patterns, if present, will take precedent over the normal pronunciation of that symbol.

Options: The Options icon is located next to the name of your language in the header panel. Import from and export to CSV spreadsheets using Options -> Import CSV or Options -> Export CSV. Load a basic English alphabet using Options -> Load Basic English Alphabet. Quickly clear the phonetics table using Options -> Clear Table.


The next step of language creation is creating a dictionary of words. The Dictionary view is designed to help you with this process. It contains a table with four columns: Word, Pronunciation, Type, and Definition. To use the Dictionary, add rows to the table. Type a word using the symbols of your language. The pronunciation will be automatically calculated based on the Phonetics table you built in the previous section. Decide on a type of word (noun, verb, etc) and a definition. You can search for a word in your dictionary using the search bar at the top.

Auto-Translation: Once you’ve created a language in Campfire, you can auto-translate words to that language in other places in the software. Just right-click some text (in a text panel, for example) and right-click, choosing “Translate Words to Language”. It’s that easy! Use this feature to quickly translate snippets of dialogue, or to come up with native names for locations.

Options: The Options icon is located next to the name of your language in the header panel. Import from and export to CSV spreadsheets using Options -> Import CSV or Options -> Export CSV. Sort alphabetically using Options -> Sort Alphabetically.



The Magic View contains three sections: Rules, Guidebook, History. The Rules and History sections use the core interface. The Guidebook, however, is a little different.


The Guidebook contains a list of entries related to a magic system. Use this to store spells, recipes, and more. When you navigate to the Guidebook, you’ll see a small arrow icon toward the right side of the screen. Hovering over this icon will pull out a sidebar, which contains your guidebook entries. To create an entry, click the “Add” button at the bottom of that sidebar. The entry will then appear on the screen – it uses the core interface. You can group entries together using a folder structure in the Guidebook sidebar.



The Systems view contains two sections: Flowchart and Information. The Information section uses the core interface. The Flowchart offers a visual way to map out hierarchies and structures.


Click the “Add Element” button at the bottom of the Flowchart to add panels to it. You can resize the panels using the handle at their bottom-right corner, and you can move them by clicking and dragging. On the right side of your screen, you’ll see an arrow icon. Hover your mouse over it to reveal a sidebar named “Color Key”. Use this color key to define relationships between panels. For example, you might decide that the color green signifies “mutual cooperation”. Use the “Add” button to add a color. Click the color box to set the color, and click the color text to change its name. The X button is for deleting the color, and the arrows icon next to it determines whether the color’s relationship should be one-way or two-way. One-way relationships are things like “belongs to” while two-way relationships are like “working together”. Clicking a color box will select that color. Then, when you click and drag from a panel’s endpoint to another, it will draw a connecting line using the selected color. Use this to map out flowcharts as needed for your system.

Campfire’s preferences can be modified by opening a Story and navigating to Campfire -> Preferences in the top menu. This opens the Preferences window. This window is divided into two sections: Story Preferences and Application Preferences. As expected, Story Preferences affect only the current Story, while Application Preferences apply to Campfire as a whole.


The following Story Preferences can be modified:

• Relationships: Connector Curviness: Determines the curviness of connector lines in the Relationships View. 1 signifies straight lines, and 300 signifies very curvy lines.
  
• Relationships: Default Connector Type: The type of line to be drawn by default in the Relationships View, either “Solid”, “Dotted”, or “Dashed”.
  
• Timeline: Connector Curviness: Determines the curviness of connector lines in the Timeline View. 1 signifies straight lines, and 300 signifies very curvy lines.
  
• Timeline: Default Connector Type: The type of line to be drawn by default in the Timeline View, either “Solid”, “Dotted”, or “Dashed”.
  
• Languages: Delimiter: This determines the delimiter that Campfire should use when it computes the pronunciation of words in the Dictionary section of the Languages View (this is part of the Worldbuilding Pack). For example, the pronunciation of the word “arm” could be simply “arm” (with no delimiter) or “a-r-m” (with the delimiter “-“).
  
• General: Auto Show/Hide Add Panel Button: If checked, Campfire will hide the “Add Panel” button in all Views until the mouse is moved to the bottom part of the screen.

The following Application Preferences are available:

• Autosave: Choose how often you want Campfire to auto-save your work.
  
• Theme: Create, edit, and delete Campfire themes, which control how Campfire looks and feels. More on that below.
  
• Backups: Campfire automatically saves a backup each time you save your Story (with a limit of 1 backup saved per minute). This can accumulate, and if you’re looking to clean up storage space, you may want to clear out some of these backups. Use this section to clear all backups older than a given amount of days.

Upon creating a theme, you’ll have a list of options to choose from. Here’s what each of those means:

• Name: The name of the theme
  
• Header Color: The text color used for headers (like the sidebar title).
  
• Body Color: The text color used for standard body text
  
• Background Color: The background color of panels. This should contrast nicely with the body and header colors.
  
• Border Color: The border color of panels
  
• Selection Color: The border color of selected panels
  
• Use Dark Icons: Whether to use dark or light icons. If checked, Campfire will use the dark icons.
  
• Header Font: Font to use for headers
  
• Body Font: Font to use for body text
  
• Font Sizes: The sizes to be used for large, medium, and small text
  
• Background Image: A small, tileable image texture to use as the background of panels
  
• Landscape Image: A high-definition landscape image to use as the background of each View

You can check out Campfire’s theming flexibility below!

I could fill out this entire section of the guide...

But you'll have to go to this web page[www.campfiretechnology.com] to download each template regardless, so please check out the Template Library here: https://www.campfiretechnology.com/pro/template-library/

This page serves as a guide in the unlikely event that you lose or can’t access your work in Campfire Pro.

Before we jump into the more complicated stuff, let’s start with some quick fixes that may help you out.

• Lost Access After Free Trial – If you can no longer access your work due to reaching the end of your free trial, you can request an extension by navigating to Campfire -> Utilities in the top menu of the application and then filling out the section that says “Request a Free Trial Extension”.
  
• Local File You Saved Is Gone – If your Story is saved locally (meaning it’s not a Steam Cloud story) then it’s a file on your computer. It may be that you simply misplaced the file somewhere in your file system. A search may help you find it. If not, read on.

Campfire Pro has a system of backups that runs automatically. The system will keep a backup every time you save your Story (and every time an auto-save occurs). Here’s how to find and reclaim your backups.

1. Opening the Backups Folder – Open Campfire, navigate to Campfire -> Utilities, and click the “Backups” button under the “AppData folders” header.
   
2. Sorting the Backups – Sort the backups folder by “Recently Added” (the way to do this varies depending on operating system).
   
3. Look Through the Backups – Go through each backup and open it with Campfire, in the order of most recently saved to least recently saved, starting with the first backup that occurred before you lost your work. With any luck, you’ll find a working backup of your Story in there!
   
4. Reclaiming the Backup – Once you find the backup file that has your work, you’ll need to copy it and then paste it whatever folder you’d like your Story to reside. Then rename it to the name of your Story, or whatever name you like.

After following these steps, you should have recovered your work! If not, we have a few more things to try…


If you haven’t lost the entire Story file, but rather you can’t open it in Campfire or it’s not displaying correctly somehow, we may be able to restore it for you.

Corrupted Story – Contact us[www.campfiretechnology.com], and we’ll ask for your Story file so we can take a look and see if we can recover any lost data

If you’re using the Steam Cloud to keep your Stories in the cloud, then you may be able to find a working backup on Steam’s servers.

Steam Cloud Story – Check out your Steam Cloud directory and see if you can find a working backup there.