A first evening with Olam

This is the order I'd do things in if I were starting over. You don't have to follow it, but it's the quickest way to see how the pieces fit together, and it's roughly how the app is meant to be used: learn a little, look things up as you go, and build the world bit by bit.

Start on the Road

Open Learn and start stop 1, "What a session looks like". It's about 15 minutes. Each lesson has four steps, Read, See, Do and Check, and you'll notice that every rule in it is a link. Hover over one to see what it says, or click it to open its wiki page.

When you finish the Check, the next stop opens, and a corner of the Atlas of Rules clears. Stops 2 and 3 are the d20 test and your first character, and by then you'll have rolled real dice in the app and built a character's ability scores. I'd stop there for the first evening, because three lessons is plenty, and the Review screen will bring back anything you missed tomorrow.

Look something up

Go to Codex and search for a monster you've heard of, like an owlbear. Its wiki page has the statblock first, with buttons that roll its attacks and damage for you, and then everything else Olam knows about it, each piece with its badge: other versions, expert answers about running it, homebrew, worldbuilding questions, and the myths behind it. Use the Show buttons at the top to hide the shelves you don't want right now.

This is the habit I want Olam to build: when a rule comes up, you look it up in ONE place, and you can see straight away how far to trust what you're reading.

Play the solo adventure

Stop 4 is "A solo adventure with an AI GM". You describe a character in a line, like "Tam, a halfling rogue who owes money to the wrong people", and Claude runs a short adventure for you. When it asks for a roll, you roll in the app and tell it the total, and whenever a rule comes up for the first time, it adds a one-line note explaining it. It takes about an hour, and it's the best way I've found to feel how the rules work at a table before you're at one.

This needs the AI features on (see Ask and the AI).

Make the world yours

Once you've set up your vault, open Map. You'll see a blank parchment sheet, or a map you've drawn and put in its place. Press Add place, click where it goes, give it a name, and Save. Then go to People, press New person, and make someone who lives there. Add a secret for them right in the app, and fill in what they want and fear in their note in Obsidian. Then ask them a question in the Interview box and see what they say.

Then, back in the Codex, open a monster and press Add to encounter. Do it two or three times, then go to Table, load "Next encounter", add your party, and press Roll initiative. That's a fight, ready to run, and when it's over, End encounter writes how it went into the note.

Every day after that

The Road is six weeks, at about three stops a week. Basically, a normal day is one stop, then Review for anything you missed, and then a few minutes on the world if you feel like it. If you write a lesson in your own words (the Write it in your words button at the end of a lesson makes a note for it in your vault), it sticks a lot better.

Next step

Learn: the Road explains each part of a lesson in detail.