# Lectern Lectern lets your server reach into the game client and change what players actually see. Move their camera, shake the screen, draw your own HUD, run a cutscene, put a menu in front of them, dim the world to pitch black. Anything you'd normally need a custom client mod for, without writing one. Players need the Lectern client mod. Anyone without it plays normally and simply doesn't see the effects. ## What you can do **Take over the camera.** Move it, turn it, roll it, change the field of view. This is what makes a cutscene possible. **Mess with the screen.** Flashes, screen shake, letterboxing, blur, motion blur, colour tints. Great for explosions, injuries, or setting a mood. **Draw your own interface.** Textures, player heads, buttons, progress bars, whole menus you can click through. Not an inventory pretending to be a menu, a real one. **Run cutscenes.** Scripted camera paths with HUD overlays and screen effects, and your plugin gets told when each beat happens so you can drive the story alongside it. **Change the world's mood.** Fog colour, sky colour, moon colour, proper darkness, thick fog. Per player, so one person can be in a storm while their friend isn't. **Dress players up.** Custom capes, skins, nametags, colour tints and models, shown only to the people you choose. **Play emotes.** On any entity, visible to one person, everyone nearby, or the whole server. **Own the keyboard.** Disable keybinds, invert them, or invent new ones your plugin reacts to. **Ask a question.** Pop up a proper dialog with formatted text and buttons that close it, open a link, or tell your plugin what they picked. **Control voice chat.** Mute and deafen players in Simple Voice Chat, either as a suggestion or by force. **Check what they're running.** Built-in mod and pack moderation for the players on the Lectern client. ## Premium plugin Lectern is premium, from [lode.gg/plugin/lectern](https://lode.gg/plugin/lectern). 1. Buy and download it. 2. Drop the jar into `plugins/`. 3. Start the server once so it writes its files. 4. Set up your licence key at [lode.gg/plugin/lectern/configure](https://lode.gg/plugin/lectern/configure). 5. Restart. Lectern checks the licence and switches itself on. ## What you need | | | |---|---| | Server | Paper 1.21.4 | | Java | 21 or newer | ## Related Pages - [[Lectern/Server Owners/Commands]], the two commands - [[Lectern/Server Owners/Configuration]], the config file - [[Lectern/Server Owners/Resource Pack Overrides]], restyling Lectern's own textures - [[Lectern/Developers/Overview]], for plugin developers