GNASHER'S QUILL - START HERE
Records your table, turns the night into a transcript. All on your machine.

1. IF YOU DOWNLOADED A ZIP, DO THIS BEFORE YOU UNZIP IT.
   Right-click the .zip file -> Properties -> tick "Unblock" (bottom right)
   -> OK. Then extract it. Windows tags downloaded files as untrusted, and
   that tag copies into every file inside. Unblocking after extracting is
   too late - you would have to do it one file at a time.

2. EXTRACT THE WHOLE FOLDER SOMEWHERE SIMPLE, like C:\Quill
   Not Desktop, Documents or OneDrive - those are usually synced to the
   cloud, and syncing a file that is being recorded into corrupts it.
   Do not run anything from inside the zip. Extract first, always.

3. DOUBLE-CLICK  SETUP (run me first).bat
   Let it run all the way to the end. It needs internet and downloads a
   few hundred MB, once. Say yes when it asks. Grab a coffee.

4. DOUBLE-CLICK  Quill Doctor.bat
   This is the pre-game check. Every line should read OK. If one says
   FAIL, it prints the exact fix underneath it. Run this before game
   night too - it takes ten seconds and saves the evening.

5. START IT
   The Quill.bat              - the terminal studio (simple, fast)
   Gnashers Quill Web.bat     - the same thing as a browser page, and
                                phones on your wifi can open it too
   Either one records into recordings\ and writes transcripts\.

6. WINDOWS WILL PROBABLY WARN YOU.
   "Windows protected your PC", an unverified-publisher notice, or a
   Defender prompt. That is because these scripts are not code-signed,
   not because anything is wrong. Click More info -> Run anyway. Every
   file in this folder is plain text you can open and read yourself.

7. THE FIRST TIME THE WEB STUDIO STARTS, THE FIREWALL WILL ASK.
   Tick "Private networks" and click Allow. If you skip it, the page
   still works on this PC but no phone will be able to reach it.

8. SOMETHING BROKEN, CONFUSING, OR JUST ANNOYING?
   Tell me - that is the whole point of this test. I am not after
   compliments, downloads or stars. I want to know what went wrong.

   Send feedback to:  quill@longislanddungeonmaster.com

   The five things most worth writing down, if you have the patience:

     1. Did you get from unzip to a running recording without having to
        ask me anything? If you stopped, where exactly, and what did the
        screen say?
     2. After a real session with your table talking over each other -
        is the transcript useful, or just annoying? Paste me thirty
        seconds of the worst of it.
     3. Did you open the Cold Open before your next session, and did you
        actually USE anything from it at the table?
     4. How long did transcription take, on what machine - and did you
        know that in advance or find out the hard way?
     5. What did you expect it to do that it didn't - and would you have
        kept using it if I hadn't asked you to?

   A one-line "this bit broke" is worth more to me than a paragraph of
   nice. Bad news is the useful kind.

   ⚠ Please do NOT send me your recordings or transcripts. I don't want
   them, and your table didn't agree to me reading them. Paste a short
   excerpt if it helps explain a problem - that's it.
