Table Moments: Designing a Tool That Thinks Like a Game Master

The real problem a Game Master faces at the table is not a lack of information. It’s information overload.

Multiple rulebooks, supplements, add-ons, house rules, and personal notes—each containing pieces of what’s needed to run the game, scattered everywhere. Format doesn’t help. Dense descriptive text, rules spread across manuals, encounter tables in one place, stat blocks in another. Everything is there somewhere.

The last thing a GM needs during play is more information.

What they need is the right information, right now.

The real damage comes from constant context switching. Moving from a social encounter into combat. Leaving town and heading out into the wilderness. Shifting from investigation to intrigue to downtime. These switches kill pacing more than rules ever do.

Each shift forces the GM to dig through the pile: Which table was that? Where are my notes for this place? Who’s relevant right now?

The problem isn’t complexity. It’s friction.

That leads to the core insight:

As GMs, we operate in moments of play—not systems.

Travel ≠ intrigue ≠ dungeon ≠ downtime. Each moment demands a different slice of truth.

Most tools make this worse. They pour even more information into the same space, then offer endless search and filter options to dig it back out again.

“Which filter was that?” is not something you want to hear at the table.

Capturing the shape of actual play—and building that into the system—is the key.

Table Moments

A Table Moment is a representation of what’s happening at the table right now. It’s a preconfigured focus lens that brings the current mode of play into clear view.

With one click, a Table Moment reshapes:

• scope

• relevance

• panels

• priorities

The system doesn’t ask the GM to search harder. It meets them where they already are.

The Prophecy Engine presents Table Moments as always-available buttons—clear, opinionated views tuned to common modes of play.

A) Wilderness Travel

Goal: keep pacing, surface danger and encounters.

Panels:

• Where we are (cell, region, biome, terrain)

• Nearby points of interest (structures, settlements)

• Complications (active fates, hazards, weather)

• Notable movers (agents/NPCs in nearby cells)

• Encounter tables for the region

B) Heading into Town

Goal: who runs this place, and what can we do here?

Panels:

• Settlement facts (tier, control, links)

• Power map (factions present and influence)

• Notables here

• Hooks (conflicts, rumors, fates)

C) Intrigue / Politics

Goal: relationships, leverage, and agendas.

Panels:

• Faction web (allies, enemies, sworn ties)

• Key actors (leaders, rivals)

• Current tensions (wars, grudges, contested control)

• What’s next (upcoming events involving these entities)

D) Dungeon / Ruin / Structure Crawl

Goal: threats, navigation, and discoveries.

Panels:

• Structure overview (type, traits, danger)

• Room index (current and adjacent)

• Occupants and threats

• Artifacts and discoveries

E) Quest / Thread Management

Goal: keep the story coherent.

Panels:

• Active fates (local and pinned)

• Stakeholders (agents and factions involved)

• Locations tied to the thread

• Divergence (fulfilled, twisted, averted)

F) Downtime

Goal: advance time safely and intentionally.

Panels:

• What changes if time advances

• Key actor updates

• Faction shifts

• Settlement changes

Table Moments aren’t limited to what the system provides. GMs can define their own—custom moments that surface exactly what they want, when they want it, ready in a single click.

The engine generates vast amounts of information, but it never dumps it on the GM. It gathers what’s relevant, when it matters, and presents it in a form that supports play instead of interrupting it.

The goal isn’t to simulate a world, and it isn’t to replace the GM.

The goal is to support the table.

To reduce cognitive load.

To keep pacing intact.

To make improvisation safer.

To let preparation pay off during play.

Table Moments are a part of the DM first interface. They’re the interface we've been missing.