Adventuring
Enter the adventuring screen after creating a new campaign or clicking on a DM campaign, where you spend most of your time while playing games with your players. The screen is split into three main areas:
On the left is the combat tracker. This where you track the state of all the characters and monsters for an encounter. You can see key attributes, manage initiative order and track state.
The center shows the current map state allowing you to see and share a map view, the shared tabletop, with all of the players.
The area on the right shows reference material and provides a log for you track notes. Book content shows the text for the current encounter or campaign, the creature area shows the current player or monster, and the the log shows the campaign history and provides a rich text area to track notes.
This view automatically adjust based on the available screen space. If the available space becomes too small due to running in a small window or the size of the device then the display will automatically adjust to optimize display. As space becomes narrower the combat tracker will merge with the data on the right and if space is more constrained then a single space will show everything. You can force the tracker into a tab by clicking the left arrow at the top of the tracker.
Encounters
Adventuring organizes gaming around encounters. An encounter consists of a set of interactions between player characters, monsters and non-player characters, and generally has a beginning, middle and end. At the beginning the characters move around and make interactions just as a group. At some point they move to an area or initiate an action that triggers the start of an encounter. During an encounter monsters or non-player characters are added to the combat tracker to coordinate some form of interaction ranging from friendly banter all the way to all out combat attempting to kill each other. As the encounter resolves, the encounter finishes. When the encounter finishes the monsters and non-player characters are removed from the combat tracker and a log entry for the encounter is recorded. At which point the characters move on to the next encounter.
The set of buttons in the header help you to manage your encounter and get players into the campaign.
Start: allows you to add monsters to start an encounter. From Start you can add monsters using a random encounter, or pick monsters directly. You can also browse planned encounters to start based on a previously created encounter, although in most cases you will add a planned encounter using a map pin or a reference in a book. Starting an encounter adds entries to the combat tracker, moves the map to the encounter location and switches the book to the book location describing the encounter. Note: you can do this multiple times to extend an encounter or manage waves of creatures.
Finish: allows you to remove monsters and finish an encounter. Only the characters will be left in the tracker. The entire state of the encounter along with any log notes will be added to the campaign log, allowing you to review the history of your campaign.
Treasure: allows you to see shared treasure that has been granted to characters, add to the shared treasure, and distribute shared treasure to characters. The shared treasure is treasure that you have granted to players. They can see the shared treasure and decide how to distribute the treasure. In addition to directly adding treasure you can grant treasure that was defined in a planned encounter.
Invite: displays a dialog to send a campaign invite to players to allow them to join the campaign. The dialog includes a link to launch your email client to send the invitation or to allow you to copy the link to share.
Combat Tracker
The combat tracker manages the state of an encounter. The top of the encounter displays the turn state and difficulty of the encounter. Next to the turn label are up and down arrows. The down arrow advances to the next character or monster in the initiative order while the up arrow goes to the previous one. On the right the current round is recorded. The middle displays the total XP of the monsters and non-player characters in the encounter, color coded to show the difficulty of the encounter based on the number and level of the player characters.
The middle displays a table of all of the player characters, monsters and non-player characters
Table columns:
#: Number for each creature or token. Sorting by initiative determines the order. This number is visible to players to let them know initiative order as well as providing an identifier that players can use to identify a creature.
Name: Name for a creature or token. For player characters or named non-player characters this will typically be their proper name, while for monsters this will typically just be the type of monster. Note: monster and non-player character names are hidden from players by default but the DM can choose to display the name. To the left of the name a down arrow button provides options for changing other state associated with the token.
Visibility (eye): Indicates if the creature or token shows up on the player view of the map. The value can be toggled on an individual basis or all can be shown by clicking the header.
Passive perception (obscured eye): Displays the passive perception of the creature. The value can be edited for monsters, but for player characters is always calculated from the character sheet.
Armor Class (shield): Displays the current AC for a creature. The value can be edited for monsters, but for player characters is always calculated from the character sheet.
Hit Points (heart): Displays the current hit points for a creature. The value can be edited for all creatures.
Initiative (fist): Displays the current initiative value for a creature. The value can be edited for all creatures. Clicking the header will automatically calculate and assign the initiative for all monsters and non-player characters without a value and sort all the creatures by their initiative score. Typically players would enter initiative scores using the character sheet and then the DM would click the header to assign and sort all of the creatures.
Combat Tracker State
The creatures and tokens in the combat tracker have different states that control how they are displayed and used.
In combat: this is the top and unlabeled state for creatures. These creatures show normally on the map and are included in turn tracking.
Inactive: these creatures show up on the map in a slightly transparent fashion and are not included in turn orders. A typical usage might include patrons in a tavern that are not interacting with the player characters, but that might get moved into combat if a bar fight breaks out.
Dead: these creatures show up on the map covered by a bones icon to indicate that the creature is dead and no longer part of combat. Monsters will automatically enter this state when they reach zero HP and will re-enter combat if they gain HP, for example regeneration. Characters only move here if the DM decides to show them as dead.
Tokens: tokens are not creatures, but instead colored shapes or token images placed on the map. These could be used to add encounter specific details, like a dead body on the floor, provide a representation of a treasure location, identify a trap, or show the area of effect of a spell. Only a subset of actions and state are available for tokens and they are never included in turn order.
Combat Tracker Actions
Each entry in the combat tracker has a menu that pops up when you click the down arrow button to the left of the name. The options adjust based on the state and type of the entry. These options also show when clicking on the token for the entry on the map.
Damage: allows you to adjust the hit points, up or down. After the damage menu two additional menus show the last two damage adjustments that you made. This makes it easy to handle repetitive damage and is especially useful for area of effect damage.
Add Condition: allows you to set a condition on a creature. Conditions can have duration and show up to the right of the name. If you set a duration then the condition will automatically end after the appropriate number of rounds. Conditions are only displayed for tracking and don’t automatically impact the character or monster stats.
Add to combat: moves the creature into the active combat and include them in the initiative order.
Set Inactive: moves the creature to Inactive removing them from initiative order.
Dead: moves the creature to the dead state and removes them from initiative order.
Show/Hide: change the visibility state of the creature or token. All of the other state stays the same but determines if the players can see the token on the map.
Add to Map: if the token for the entry is not shown on the map then the token is added to the current map and placed near the middle.
Remove from Map: token is removed from the current map.
Show/Hide Name: for monsters or non-player characters this controls if the full name displays on the map. By default names aren’t displayed. Typically you would want to show the name when creatures introduce themselves or if you want players to see the type of a monster.
Delete: completely remove the entry from the combat tracker. Typically this would be used if you accidentally added something or if you want to remove a map token that is no longer relevant.
Map
The map in adventuring mode has tools and options optimized for adventuring. The default view for players always includes the center square of the map independent of the aspect ratio of their view. The tools have the following functions (left to right):
Project (square with arrow): toggle projecting the map to a second window. The second window will show the player view of the map. This second window can be moved onto a second screen to project when playing in person. Clicking on the new map will maximize the window without any borders. Note: this button will not display on mobile phones or tablets where the ability to project a second screen is unavailable.
Select (pointer arrow): place map in select mode. In select mode you can click on pins and map tokens to move and rotate them. Single click on the tokens will also bring up the menu to perform actions.
Move (four arrows): place map in move mode. In move mode clicking on the map will allow you to move the map. Note: in other modes right click drag will also allow you to move the map.
Zoom (magnifying glass): displays tools to adjust the zoom level of the map. The plus zooms in on the map and the minus zooms out on the map. Fit scales map to show all entries on the map, all shows the whole map and zoom makes the zoom level appropriate for a 5ft scale.
Grid (square): toggle display of a 5ft grid. The grid is aligned based on the map settings and will be hidden if you zoom out too far.
Pick (picture): pick a new map to display. You can choose a recently selected map, pick from the full list of maps, upload a new map, or search the web for a map.
Pins: toggle display of different pin types. The move group pin allows you to move all of the players together and can be useful for finding characters on a large scale map where the tokens are very small. Location pins identify locations on a map with labels that can include references to books, encounters or other maps. Previous Encounter pins show where finished encounters were. These can be handy to see where the campaign has been and can be used to restore the state of a previous encounter, possibly finish any tasks from the encounter.
Fog (eye): provides a menu of actions to control fog of war on the map. Undo will undo the last unfog action or the last vertex when creating a polygon. Clear all removes all fog from the map, while Reset covers the entire map with fog.
Polygon (5 point shape): allows you to unfog a polygon region. While in this mode an initial click will start a polygon. You can then click as points as you want and when you click the original point the polygon will be closed and unfogged.
Rectangle (square): allows you to select a rectangle to remove fog from the map.
Brush (brush): allows you to paint to unfog the map using a circular brush of various sizes. Note: if you start unfogging in a fog region then only areas within that region will be unfogged.
Fog Regions (overlapping rectangles): enters fog region mode. Existing regions will be highlighted on the map along with the vertices. You can drag the vertices to adjust regions or create new regions similar to using the polygon tool.
In addition to actions on tokens there are also menu actions available on the map and pins.
On the Map:
Center: move the map to center on the selected spot.
Huddle: group monsters or characters that are in combat around the selected spot. This will also add any entries not already on to the map.
Add Monster: this will bring up the monster picker dialog to add new monsters to the encounter. Any monsters added will be grouped around the selected location.
Add Token: this will allow you to add a token to the map. If a token is added then the map will switch to select mode to allow you to position and rotate the token.
Unfog/Restore Fog: if you are over a fog region then you can choose to unfog or restore the fog to the region.
Delete Fog: if you are over a fog region then you can delete the fog region.
New Encounter: this will allow you to create a new planned encounter. A pin for the encounter will be added at the selected location and the encounter will remember the selection in the book as well. This encounter could be used at a later time to start an encounter.
Add Location Pin: this will create a named location on the map attached to the currently selected book.
Pin Map: this will create a pin to another map. Clicking the pin will allow you to navigate to the selected map.
Pin Actions will appear when you click on a pin:
Show/Hide Pin: this controls if the pin will show to players. Generally pins will be hidden, but could be shown as players discover locations or to show well known locations on a map.
Add Encounter: add the encounter to the combat tracker.
Edit Encounter: show the details of the encounter.
Go to Book: change the book selection to the book, chapter and section.
Go to Map: navigate the pin to the linked map.
Add: for previous encounters, add will restore the state of the encounter right before it was finished allowing you to continue with a previous encounter.
Book
The book tab displays book content that provides details on running a campaign. While there are many actions that will automatically change the book displayed, you can make your own selection. At the top the name of the book is displayed. Clicking on the name will allow you to select any book in your library. Additionally you can flip through chapters or bring up the table of contents to jump to a specific location in the book. You can use the edit button to allow you to make changes to the book, allowing you to create or change how the story flows for the adventure.
There are some places where you can use the book to perform actions on the encounter. Book sections can have encounters or map locations attached. In the above example Area 1 has a map location that when clicked will move the map to the pin. The Location 1-1 has an encounter attached and clicking on the encounter will add the encounter. Pictures, or inset text in the book will display as a handout when clicked. Maps clicked will change the selection to show the map.
Creatures
The creatures tab displays the status block of the selected monster, or character. Advancing the turn or clicking on a monster or character will change the data shown. Character sheets shown are fully editable and provides an opportunity for the DM to help players if they are having difficulty finding or changing some information on their character sheet. Clicking the token on the monster or character status block will display the token as a handout.
Tip: showing character tokens can be helpful when introducing characters.
Log
The log provides for free form text entry to record notes for the encounter. On finish encounter this text will be recorded to the campaign log providing a clean are to type new notes. Recent entries are displayed as well which you can click to see the full details.