User Guide

Creating an Account

Navigate to /register and fill in your first and last name, email address, a password (minimum 8 characters), and a password confirmation. Click Create Account — you will land directly on your dashboard.

Logging In

Go to /login, enter your email and password, and click Enter. Your last active combat state is restored automatically.

Logging Out

Click the logout icon (arrow pointing right) in the top-right corner of the dashboard header.

Players do not need an account. Your DM will give you a 6-character Session ID (e.g. AB3X9K).

1. Navigate to /join
2. Type in the Session ID — it auto-formats to uppercase and ignores invalid characters
3. Click Join Session
4. You are taken to the live Player Display for that session

On the display screen, tap Join Session to enable live audio, or Continue without sound for a silent view.

When you create a new game session, Initiative asks you to choose which edition of D&D 5e you are playing. This choice shapes the bestiary, spell list, encounter difficulty system, and Quick Reference rules available to you throughout that session.

Existing sessions created before this feature was added are automatically treated as 2014 edition sessions.

The dashboard is your command center, divided into three panels:

On mobile, the sidebars are hidden. Tap Party or Enemies in the bottom action bar to open them full-screen. Tap the ✕ close button or press back to return to the main tracker.

On desktop, the Enemy panel is resizable — drag its left edge left or right to make it wider or narrower (200–520 px). Your preferred width is saved automatically.

Header Bar

• ⚔️ Initiative Tracker — app title
• Session display — active session name and its 6-char public ID. Click the copy icon to copy it to your clipboard (turns into a green checkmark to confirm).
• Dice — opens the Dice Roller modal (see section 12)
• Sessions — opens the Session Manager modal
• Guide — opens this page
• Chronicle — opens the Combat History page
• Player Display — opens the viewer screen in a new tab (desktop only)
• Contact — opens your email client to contact support
• Logout — ends your session

Adding a Player

The Player Panel has two tabs: Manual and D&D Beyond. Click a tab to switch between them.

Manual: Fill in the player's Name, AC (Armor Class, default 10), and Max HP (default 10), then click Add Player.

Importing from D&D Beyond

If your players have characters on D&D Beyond, you can import them directly instead of entering stats by hand. The character sheet must be set to Public in D&D Beyond's Character Settings.

1. Click the D&D Beyond tab in the Player Panel
2. Paste a character URL (e.g. dndbeyond.com/characters/12345678) or just the numeric character ID
3. Click Fetch — the tracker contacts D&D Beyond and parses the sheet
4. A preview card appears with the imported values: Name, Max HP, AC, DEX modifier, and Passive Perception
5. Click Add Player on the preview card to add them to the roster

The character's D&D Beyond portrait is imported automatically and set as their avatar. Both 2014 and 2024 ruleset characters are supported — 2024 initiative proficiency is applied to the DEX modifier automatically.

Player Avatars

Click a player's circular avatar to upload a photo (JPEG/PNG). It is automatically cropped to a square and resized to 256×256. To remove an avatar, hover over it and click the ✕ that appears.

Editing a Player

Double-click a player card (or click the pencil icon) to enter inline edit mode. You can change the name, AC, and max HP. Saving resets HP to the new max. Click Save or Cancel.

Benching a Player

Click the bench icon to remove a player from the current initiative order while keeping them in your roster. A "Benched" label appears on their card. Click + Combat to bring them back into the fight.

Removing a Player

Click the red delete button on a player card to permanently remove them from the roster.

The Enemy Library

The right sidebar contains ~380 D&D 5e SRD monsters. Use the controls to find what you need:

• Search bar — filters by name in real time
• Type dropdown — filters by monster type (Beast, Dragon, Undead, Humanoid, etc.)
• Sort dropdown — sort A–Z by name, or group by type

Adding Enemies to Combat

1. Click a monster in the list to select it — it highlights in red
2. A panel slides out below the list — set the quantity (1–20) with the − / + buttons or by typing
3. Click Add to Encounter

When you add more than one of the same monster they are automatically numbered (Goblin 1, Goblin 2, etc.) and each gets a randomly rolled initiative based on its DEX modifier.

Viewing a Stat Block

Click the ℹ️ info icon on any built-in or bestiary-imported monster (in the library or the initiative order) to open a full D&D stat block modal — ability scores, saving throws, traits, actions, resistances, artwork, and more.

Rolling Dice from a Stat Block

Inside the stat block modal, two types of values are interactive:

• Damage / HP dice — any dice expression such as 2d6 + 5 appears in amber with a dotted underline. Click it to roll those dice and add any modifier.
• Attack rolls — phrases like Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit appear in violet with a dotted underline. Click the phrase to roll a d20 and add the listed attack bonus.

A result popup shows each individual die value, a modifier breakdown when one applies, and a Total. Use Roll again to re-roll the same expression, or click anywhere outside the popup to dismiss it.

Custom Monsters

Click the Custom button at the top of the right sidebar to open the Custom Monster Manager.

Creating: Fill in Name, AC, HP, CR, and Monster Type (all required), optionally upload an avatar, then click Create.

Custom monsters appear at the top of the library list and work exactly like built-in ones. Use the pencil and trash icons in the manager to edit or delete them.

Importing a Bestiary

Non-SRD monsters (e.g. Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden) cannot be bundled with the app because the stat blocks are WotC IP. You can import them yourself from a 5etools bestiary JSON file.

1. Download the bestiary JSON from the 5etools data repository on GitHub (e.g. bestiary-idrotf.json)
2. In the Enemy Panel, click the ⬆ Import button next to the Custom button
3. Select the JSON file — the app parses it entirely in your browser (nothing is uploaded to any server)
4. Review the monster count shown and click Import

Imported monsters appear at the top of the library, tagged with a SOURCE badge (e.g. IDRotF). The badge also appears on the combatant row in the initiative tracker so you always know which book a creature came from.

Imported monsters carry their full stat block — click the ℹ️ info icon to open the stat block modal just like built-in SRD monsters. Re-importing the same file skips monsters that are already in your library, so it is safe to import repeatedly.

Setting Initiatives

Click the initiative field on any combatant row and type a number. Fields left blank show — and those combatants sort to the bottom.

Starting Combat

Once at least one combatant has an initiative set, click Start Combat. The highest-initiative combatant becomes active (highlighted in amber). The round counter starts at 1.

Advancing Turns

• Next — advances to the next combatant. When the last one acts, the round increments and the order wraps to the top.
• Prev — steps back one turn (useful for corrections).

Dead enemies (0 HP) are automatically skipped in the turn rotation.

Ending Combat

Click End to conclude combat. The encounter is automatically saved to your Combat Chronicles.

Combatant Notes

Every combatant row has a pencil icon beside the remove (✕) button. Click it to open a notes modal where you can type any freeform text — spell concentration reminders, loot notes, roleplay hooks, etc. When a note has been saved the icon glows amber as a visual reminder. Notes persist with the rest of the combat state.

Utility Buttons

Dealing Damage

Type an amount in the damage field on any row and click Dmg. Damage is absorbed by Temporary HP first — any overflow reduces current HP. HP cannot go below 0.

Healing

Type an amount and click Heal. HP cannot exceed the combatant's max HP.

Temporary HP

For players, a Temp HP section appears on each row. Type an amount and click Set Temp HP to assign temporary hit points. Click ✕ to clear them. Temp HP shows as a yellow badge and a yellow bar extension on the HP meter. Damage reduces temp HP before current HP; healing does not restore temp HP.

HP Color Coding

Legendary Actions

Enemies whose stat block includes legendary actions automatically show a Legendary Actions row on their initiative card. Three amber dots represent the legendary action uses available each round.

• Filled dot (●) — action available. Hollow dot (○) — action spent.
• Click a filled dot to spend actions down to that position; click a hollow dot to restore actions from that position onward.
• All dots automatically refill at the start of that creature's turn.
• Click the ℹ️ icon beside the dots to open a quick-reference modal showing all of the creature's legendary action options.

This row only appears for enemies with a full stat block (built-in SRD monsters and bestiary imports). Custom monsters created manually do not have a stat block and will not show the tracker.

Lair Actions

Some powerful creatures can take lair actions — special effects that trigger on initiative count 20. Click the building icon on any enemy card to add a purple Lair Actions card to the initiative order.

• The building icon appears between the info and notes buttons on enemy cards, and is only visible when no lair card already exists for that creature.
• The lair card sits at initiative count 20 and participates in the normal turn order — it is highlighted amber when it is that card's turn, prompting you to resolve the lair action.
• Only one lair card can exist per creature template at a time.
• When the last instance of a creature is removed from combat, its lair card is automatically removed as well.
• Click the ✕ button on the lair card to dismiss it manually at any time.

On the player display, the lair card appears in the initiative list and active-turn view with purple styling and a "LAIR" label.

Armor Class Visibility

Enemy AC is hidden from the player display by default. Check the Show AC checkbox on an enemy row to reveal it to players. If there are multiple enemies of the same type (e.g. three Goblins), toggling the checkbox on any one of them automatically applies the same setting to all others of that type. Players always see their own character's AC.

Adding a Condition

Click + Condition on any combatant row. A dropdown lists all conditions in two sections. Click one to apply it — the badge appears immediately on the row. Dead and Unconscious are not selectable: when a player drops to 0 HP they automatically become Unconscious (all other conditions cleared) and a death saving throw tracker appears on their row. Enemies at 0 HP are simply removed from the turn order.

Standard conditions

Advantage / Disadvantage

The four Adv / Disadv conditions behave like any other condition — they appear as color-coded badges on both the DM dashboard and the player display. Use them to track situational modifiers such as the effects of spells, terrain, or class abilities that grant or impose advantage or disadvantage.

Viewing a Condition Description

Every active condition badge has a small ⓘ info icon on its right edge. Clicking it opens a modal showing the condition name and a summary of its mechanical effects — what saves it imposes, what actions it prevents, and any special rules. This works on both the DM dashboard and the Player Display.

Removing a Condition

On the DM screen, click the condition name portion of the badge to remove it. The ⓘ icon and the remove action are separate — clicking the icon only opens the description, it does not remove the condition. Condition changes appear as a colored flash and audio cue on the viewer screen.

The viewer at /display/[sessionId] is the public-facing screen your players watch during combat. It updates in real time — no refreshing needed.

Sharing the Session

Give players your 6-character Session ID from the dashboard header. They go to /join, enter the ID, and are taken to the viewer. Or click Player Display in the header to open it yourself.

Join Gate

When a player first opens the viewer, an overlay asks them to tap Join Session — required by browsers before playing audio. Continue without sound skips audio entirely.

What Players See

Before combat starts: A large sword icon, "Awaiting Combat", and a list of all combatants with their current initiative rolls.

During combat:

• Type badge — PLAYER CHARACTER or ENEMY
• Avatar in a glowing circular frame (uploaded photo or monster artwork/emoji) — click an enemy's avatar to open the full image in a new tab
• Name in large responsive text with a colored glow
• Stats row: Initiative · Armor Class · Hit Points (players only)
• HP bar with color coding and a yellow temp HP extension (players only)
• Active conditions as color-coded badges
• Up Next strip — the next 1–4 combatants in order

The background glows blue during a player's turn and red during an enemy's turn.

Flash Effects

Audio Effects

The 🔊 / 🔇 button in the viewer header toggles all sounds on or off.

Connection Status

• Green dot · Live — receiving updates normally
• Grey dot · Connecting… — reconnecting automatically, no action needed

Each DM account can have multiple independent game sessions — useful if you run more than one campaign or want to separate one-shots from your main game.

What a Session Contains

• Its own 6-character public ID shared with players
• A user-defined name
• An independent combat state (combatants, HP, turn order)
• Its own combat history

Opening the Session Manager

Click the Sessions button (≡ icon) in the dashboard header.

Switching Sessions

Click any session in the list to switch to it. The dashboard reloads with that session's state. Players need to use the new session's ID to connect.

Creating a New Session

Click New Session at the bottom of the modal, type a name (or leave blank for a default like "Session 2"), then click Create.

Renaming a Session

Click the pencil icon next to any session, edit the name inline, and press Enter to save or Escape to cancel.

Deleting a Session

Click the trash icon next to a session. A "Sure?" confirmation appears — click again to confirm. You cannot delete your last remaining session.

The Chronicle page keeps a permanent record of every completed encounter.

How Records Are Created

• End Combat — automatically saves the full encounter to history
• Save button — creates a manual snapshot during active combat without ending it

Reading a Combat Record

Each card shows encounter number (Roman numerals), enemy roster, date/time/duration, and summary stats (rounds, players, casualties, events logged).

The participants grid shows every combatant with a dual-layer HP bar (ghost starting HP + current HP) and a ☠ Slain label if they died.

Experience Points

When the chronicle is generated, the XP total for the encounter is automatically calculated from each slain enemy's Challenge Rating using the standard D&D 5e XP-by-CR table. Expand a record to see the full breakdown — each slain enemy listed with its CR and XP value, a total, and an even split per player if your party is listed.

Event Log

Click Show Chronicle to expand the detailed event log, grouped by round:

Exporting to PDF

Click the download icon button on any record card header to generate and download a PDF of that encounter. The button shows a spinner while it prepares; the file downloads automatically once ready.

The PDF contains:

• Header — encounter number (Roman numerals), date, time, and duration
• Stats row — rounds, players, casualties, and total XP
• Participants table — starting HP, final HP, damage dealt, healing done, and outcome (Survived / Slain)
• XP breakdown — each slain enemy with its CR and XP value, a total, and a per-player split (shown when any slain enemies had a CR set)
• Full round-by-round event log, paginating automatically for long encounters

Files are named encounter-XVIII-2025-01-15.pdf (Roman-numeral encounter number + ISO date).

Deleting Records

• Delete one — click the trash icon on a record card and confirm within 3 seconds
• Delete all — click Clear All at the top of the page and confirm

Click the Dice button (cube icon) in the dashboard header to open the Dice Roller modal. It is available at any time — in or out of combat.

Controls

An expression preview (e.g. 2d6 + 3) updates live above the Roll button so you can confirm your selection before rolling.

Rolling

Click Roll to execute. The result panel shows:

• Individual die tiles — one tile per die rolled. On a d20, a natural 20 glows amber and a natural 1 glows red.
• Dice sum + modifier — shown when a modifier is set, breaking down the raw sum and the adjustment separately.
• Total — the final result in large amber text.
• Roll Again — re-rolls the same die type, quantity, and modifier immediately.

Roll History

The last 5 rolls are listed below the result in a compact log showing the expression (e.g. 2d6+3), the individual die values, and the total. The most recent roll is fully opaque; older entries are dimmed.

Virtual Dice

By default, every roll triggers a full-screen 3D physics animation — dice tumble across the screen with metal sound effects, and the face values that come to rest are the authoritative result. The result panel only appears once the dice have settled.

Virtual dice fire on every roll surface in the app:

• The Dice Roller modal
• Clickable dice expressions in monster stat blocks (damage rolls, attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks)
• Clickable dice in spell descriptions and legendary action text
• Voice command dice rolls (e.g. "Tracker roll d20")

A Disable virtual dice checkbox at the bottom of the Dice Roller modal switches to instant results with no animation. The preference is saved between sessions and applies to every roll surface across the entire app.

Click the Encounters button (clipboard icon) in the dashboard header to open the Encounter Builder. Use it to plan and save reusable combat encounters — add enemies, preview XP and difficulty, then load the whole encounter into the initiative tracker with one click.

Party Context

Two small inputs at the top of the modal set the Party size (number of players) and Level (average party level). These affect the difficulty display for every encounter card and the builder preview. They are not persisted — adjust them each session as needed.

Saved Encounters

Each saved encounter card shows:

• Name — the encounter's title
• Difficulty badge — Trivial / Easy / Medium / Hard / Deadly, calculated from adjusted XP vs. the D&D 5e DMG thresholds for the current party size and level
• XP total — adjusted XP (raw XP × the standard enemy-count multiplier)
• Enemy summary — e.g. 2× Goblin, 1× Hobgoblin

Two action buttons appear on each card:

Building a New Encounter

Click New Encounter to expand the builder form.

1. Give the encounter a name (e.g. Goblin Ambush)
2. Type in the enemy search box to filter the full library (SRD monsters + your custom monsters); click a result to select it
3. Set a quantity in the number input beside the search box
4. Click Add — the group appears in the staging list; adding the same monster again merges the quantities
5. Remove any staged entry with the ✕ button on its row
6. The live preview below the list shows the adjusted XP total and difficulty badge as you build
7. Click Save Encounter — it appears immediately in the saved list above

Difficulty Calculation

Difficulty follows the D&D 5e DMG rules:

• Raw XP — each enemy's CR XP value × its quantity, summed
• Adjusted XP — raw XP × a multiplier based on total enemy count (×1 for 1, ×1.5 for 2, ×2 for 3–6, ×2.5 for 7–10, etc.)
• Thresholds — adjusted XP is compared to the party's Easy / Medium / Hard / Deadly values (per-level DMG values × number of players)

Note: Encounters are stored at the account level and are available in every game session — build your library once, reuse it across campaigns.

Click the Spells button in the dashboard header to open the Spell Reference modal. It is available at any time — in or out of combat.

Searching and Filtering

The left panel contains a search bar and three filter dropdowns:

• Search bar — filters the list by name in real time
• Level — All Levels, Cantrip, or 1st through 9th
• School — Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, or Transmutation
• Class — Artificer, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard

Each spell in the list shows its name and a level badge — C for cantrips, 1–9 for leveled spells. Click any spell to open its card in the right panel.

Spell Card

The right panel shows the full spell details:

• Name, level, school, and source badge
• Ritual badge — shown when the spell can be cast as a ritual
• Info grid — Casting Time, Range, Components, Duration
• Full description
• At Higher Levels — shown when applicable
• Available to — the classes that can learn the spell

Clickable Dice

Dice expressions inside spell descriptions (e.g. 8d6) appear in amber with a dotted underline. Click one to roll it — the same result popup used in stat blocks appears, showing individual die values and the total.

Opening a Spell from a Stat Block

When viewing a monster's stat block, any spell name in a spell list (e.g. in a Spellcasting or Innate Spellcasting trait) is a clickable button. Click it to close the stat block and open the Spell Reference directly to that spell.

Players on the viewer screen can send a private message directly to the DM — useful for asking questions, flagging something, or just communicating without leaving the display. Messages are visible only to the DM and are not persisted between server restarts.

Sending a Message (Player)

1. Click the ✉ Message DM button in the viewer header
2. Choose which party member you are sending as from the dropdown — the list shows all players currently in the session
3. Type your message in the text field
4. Click Send — the modal closes and your message is delivered instantly

Receiving Messages (DM)

The Messages button in the dashboard header shows an amber badge with the unread count whenever new messages arrive. On mobile, the same badge appears on the hamburger menu button so you always know there is something waiting even with the menu collapsed.

Reading the Inbox

Click Messages to open the inbox modal. Messages are listed newest-first, each showing the sender's name, the time received, and the full message text. Opening the inbox marks all current messages as read and resets the unread badge.

Clearing Messages

Click Clear all in the inbox header to delete all messages for the current session. This action cannot be undone.

Have a question, found a bug, or want to suggest a feature? Email us at dm@inittracker.com — or click the ✉ Contact link found on the login page, the join page, and in both the DM and viewer headers.

Click the 🎤 Voice button in the dashboard header to control the tracker hands-free. The button only appears when your browser supports speech recognition.

Activating

Click Voice to start listening — the button turns amber with a pulsing dot. Your browser will ask for microphone permission the first time. Click the button again to stop.

Commands

Every command begins with "Tracker" so the app ignores normal table conversation. A confirmation toast appears at the bottom of the screen when a command is recognized.

Dice rolls via voice trigger the same 3D virtual dice animation as clicking dice anywhere in the app. The result appears in a toast once the dice have settled. Number words (one through twenty, hundred) and modifiers (plus / minus followed by a number) are recognized.

Tips

• Commands only fire when valid — Next and Previous do nothing if combat hasn't started
• If "Tracker End Combat" isn't recognized, try saying it slightly more slowly — speech engines sometimes hear "end" as "and"
• The mic listens continuously and auto-restarts after silence; no need to re-click between commands
• Virtual dice can be disabled via the Disable virtual dice checkbox in the Dice Roller modal — voice rolls will then return instant results

Click the 🎚 Mixer button in the dashboard header to open a full-screen ambient audio board. Layer music, atmosphere, and sound effects across as many channels as you need — audio keeps playing in the background when the mixer is closed.

Channel Controls

Master Channel

The leftmost strip is the master channel. Its fader scales every channel simultaneously. The Stop All button stops playback on every channel at once.

Adding Channels

Click + Add a Channel at the right end of the mixer to append a new blank channel. The mixer starts with 5 channels; there is no maximum.

What Is Remembered

File Persistence (Chrome & Edge)

On Chrome and Edge, the mixer uses the browser's File System Access API to remember your chosen files — it stores a lightweight reference to the file on disk rather than copying audio data into browser storage, so there are no storage quota issues.

Same browser session

Files reload silently — permission is already held and nothing extra is required.

After a browser restart

The browser clears file permissions on exit. Channels that need re-authorization show a 🔒 [filename] button in amber. Click it once — the browser shows a one-time permission prompt — and the file reloads automatically.

Tips

• The mixer keeps playing after you close it — run combat while music plays in the background
• Use Solo to quickly audition a single channel without changing other faders
• Use Mute for a clean cut; setting the fader to 0 still leaves the channel technically active
• On Firefox, audio files must be re-selected after every page reload; consider keeping the mixer tab open for long sessions
• Stop All stops playback but does not reset faders or unload files

The Quick Reference panel is a full-screen reference opened from the ☰ hamburger menu in the DM header. It is organised into 17 tabs covering both rules lookups and procedural generation tools.

Rules Tabs

Twelve tabs provide concise, table-formatted lookups for the most commonly referenced 5e rules mid-session:

Name Generator

Generate fantasy names for NPCs, locations, and taverns on the fly.

Weather & Travel

Generate a week of weather and calculate adjusted travel speeds for any biome and season combination.

Shop Generator

Instantly stock a shop with a random inventory scaled to the town's wealth.

Random Encounter Generator

Generate a complete, balanced random encounter — flavor text, monsters, XP breakdown, tactics, and terrain — tuned to your party's level and chosen difficulty.

Generated Output

• Title & difficulty badge — encounter name with a colour-coded actual difficulty label (may differ from the requested difficulty)
• Scene flavor text — atmospheric description of the encounter setting
• Encounter description — archetype-flavored narration (Solo, Pack, Mixed, Ambush, or Swarm)
• Monster list — each monster with count and individual XP value
• XP breakdown — Raw XP → Multiplier → Adjusted XP → XP per player
• Tactics — how the monsters behave in this specific encounter
• Terrain feature — an environmental detail to use during the fight

Click the 🗺 Dungeon button in the DM header to open the Random Dungeon Generator. Configure your options and click Generate Dungeon to produce a complete tile-based dungeon map with level-appropriate encounters, trapped doors, loot, and optional multi-floor stairs.

Configuration