We're happy to announce an ALPHA release of the Combat Tracker tool to subscribers!
We have been using the combat tracker in its current state in our own home games, and although it is by no means a finished product, we found so much value even in its current state that we have decided to share it with subscribers as early as possible.
The Combat Tracker is a new tool in the larger environment of Encounter Management or Session Management.
The ALPHA release of the Combat Tracker as an extension of the Encounter Builder allows us to work out all the kinks and functionality giving users the best possible tool to run an Encounter. After we have validated our testing, we will iterate on the existing Combat Tracker and future features to supplement this growing toolset.
What is initially available in the ALPHA
The ALPHA currently has the following features:
Import from Encounter Builder all data that the user set up in the Summary, Description, and Treasure text fields.
Input characters: Importing is currently limited to generic or campaign character data from the Encounter Builder “Manage Characters” drop down, allowing users to have a visual representation of character data during play.
Input monsters: Importing relevant monster data from Encounter Builder to populate in the Combat tracker, allowing users to have a visual representation of monster data during play (including monster stat blocks and tooltips).
Manual entry for an ad hoc player, monster, or effect.
Initiative entry: A preliminary combat environment to enter combatant turn order.
Characters will have a manual entry field
Monsters will have a manual entry field or an auto roll function that references the monster’s initiative modifier.
Sort Initiative: stack the initiative in descending order and allows for the DM to select the next combatant as the battle unfolds.
Adjust HP: Allows the DM to easily adjust the current HP value to visually represent player and monster health.
Large monster images to show your players at the table, when you click on the monster avatar.
What is likely being developed during this release cycle
The following list of items are planned to be developed prior to the final release of the Combat Tracker v1. This list could change depending on many factors.
Release the Combat Tracker to BETA for all users.
Condition Tracking: allow for all conditions to be added and subtracted from combatants
Include timers automatically notifying the DM when the condition has expired.
Player notification of turn.
Player input: Meaning players can enter, on their device or roll digitally on their device and push their initiative to the DM's Combat tracker.
Combat notes field for DM's to record events and save for later reference
View characters with easy dropdown character Stat Blocks
View multiple stat blocks
Large character images when you click on the character avatar.
Persistent Memory: Allow the user to have a combat active even if they log out and log back in (meaning they will not lose their reference for the combat progression).
Ad Hoc combat tracking for those DMs that don’t like to plan or need something they did not plan for
Quick monster look up/add
Quick character look up/add
What will likely not be available in this development cycle but is still on our backlog:
The Final release of the Combat Tracker will likely not have the following features, but they are planned in future development efforts:
Maps
Encounters for Published Adventures
Sharing Encounters Publicly
The CT has incorporated the fluid and elegant design of D&D Beyond. Within a feature rich environment and architecture, DMs will no longer need to track their Combat Encounters with ad hoc digital tools, pen and paper, character/monster cards or whiteboards.
Whether executing combat “on the fly” or running a pre-existing one from My Encounters, the Combat Tracker will be an essential tool for DMs at the table.
How to Provide Feedback
As always, your feedback is valued as a huge driving force behind what we do at D&D Beyond. After you give the Combat Tracker a try, you can share your feedback in three different ways:
The team is super excited to see this pushed out - and if you followed the Encounter Builder through its Alpha & Beta - you'll know that the team reads all of the feedback that comes this way!
There is no way to remove a player from an encounter, Players can be missing for sessions and encounters are usually planned ahead of time, this seems like an odd oversight.
However the biggest oversight I can see is that the combat tracker does not show a players AC, Current or Max Health. To some extent I can see why you wouldn't show live data, as players update their health, but not showing any of this information at all is just going to keep me using pen and paper with a box to do combat. It's quicker than this combat tracker.
I would also like to point out that your list of planned features, doesn't seem to say anywhere that you plan on adding the functionality to show live HP (Both Current and Max) and Players AC. Is this an oversight, or is that really not a planned feature?
I'm not sure these are oversights insomuch features not yet implemented. The encounter tracker doesn't currently appear to pull any player data yet; hp, initiative, ac etc
You can remove players from an encounter by editing the encounter and hiding them from the Manage Characters screen, which you can access by hitting 'edit' in the tracker.
Also the list of planned features is "What is likely being developed during thisrelease cycle" and there are likely to be multiple release cycles.
This is far from the final iteration of the tracker, quite the opposite, it's the very first.
That point of a combat tracker is to help make combat quick... Jumping through hoops to remove one player from combat is not easy. It is something that should and honestly needs to exist within the combat tracker, not the Encounter. As I pointed out. Encounters are usually planned before a session starts, not on the spot. Players can be excluded for numerous reasons. They could just miss the session or they could game an in game choice that causes to miss it (like if they split off to do something else). Having to got to 3 other pages and click 12 times to remove something is once again not quick or easy.
As you your point "What is likely being developed during this release cycle" the ability to see players Live AC, Current HP, Max HP (with Temp bonus), should be the main selling point of this combat tracker. They listed the ability for players to push their initiative, but skipped the much more important AC and HP. Without seeing players Stats even the basic ones such as HP and AC, there is no reason for me to even waste the time "testing" this. It will just add more steps to my session.
Moving on how do you include the ability for players to get notified when its their turn and that the players can push their initiative to the combat tracker, but state no where that you are going to show Live or Statice Player Data other than Level.
EDIT: In his live announcement he listed it as a planned feature.
Was just taking a quick look (very excited)and hit the back button, and now I no longer see it on the site. Its just gone. I tried logging out and back in again, but still nothing.
Edit - I can get into it via a pre-built encounter, but don't see it as a square under tools.
If I could request one feature it would be for my laptop I have to scroll a bunch, could we minimize the menus at the top and make the monster stat block more of a square?
Would like to see the ability to copy a saved encounter to a new modifiable one. Idea for use would be to build one with Character info in it (until the character portion is built in) to reuse as a basis for encounters I build. Avoiding having generic character place holders.
Having a quick look over, seems like it'd be super handy, however would love to see a Monster sheet editor, to increase/decrease HP/AC etc with out having to make a Homebrew version of the monster.
I'll have a go at running it live in my game tomorrow!
Was just taking a quick look (very excited)and hit the back button, and now I no longer see it on the site. Its just gone. I tried logging out and back in again, but still nothing.
You should still be able to access it either by going to the "My Encounters" page and clicking "Run" or clicking "Run" while on the details page of the encounter itself!
Just playing around with it, one thing I notice is that 'auto-roll initiative' doesn't seem to add initiative bonuses for the monsters. I added a bunch of high dex monsters to an encounter, auto-rolled, and repeated a few times and not once did any of them roll higher than 20.
Clicking on a monster tool tip link takes the current browser tab displaying the tracker to the content page for the item that had the tool tip (For example: Frightened). If you click back in the browser, the tracker is returned in the pre run state, loosing all turns, rounds, initiative order and HP adjustment info.
I suggest changing the method to launch the content from the tool tip to opening it in another browser tab.
I play mostly asynchronously using my iPhone (D&D Beyond, the mRPG gaming chat app, and donjon's initiative tracker).
I am *very* excited about the initiative tracker but it's of very little practical value for me until "Persistent Memory" is implemented.
That said, thank you for these tools! I know that this new feature is going to be killer, and I eagerly await what you have in store for us moving forward.
Yay! I have been waiting for this for a long time! so excited. Some feedback on my initial pass (this does not include things you stated are coming):
1. Edit max hit points for creatures.
2. Add/drop creatures and PCs after the encounter has started. Note: I think this is what you mean by Quick monster/character lookup/add.
3. Change initiative order after the encounter has started.
4. A way to add a creature to the party as an ally when determining encounter difficulty (this may me more the encounter builder rather than tracker).
5. I like how easy it is to manually put in initiative. Since we like to use real dice and not virtual, I hope you keep this simplicity available after you add virtual dice.
6. Thank you for allowing us to test at this early stage. It makes me feel like you are including us in the development, which gives us a kind of ownership. Despite some of the negative comments I am sure you will receive, I think this was a great decision.
I am sure I will come up with more as I play around with it as this is just a quick pass-through with it and I am very excited!
It would be helpful if while running an adventure on DNDB, what you would hover over an "encounter block",that could be differentiated as such, just enable disable the number of monsters/players that are a part of it, then click run, and that could open the initiative tracker. Now THAT is what I'd call a game changer.
ex
- there is a description of a rat colony around the corner - hovering over it would give a hover popup with the rat colony, each player in the current adventure, disable the missing players, click a "roll" dice for the rat number, then "run"
- wilderness encounters, same - hover over it, enable a few options, roll for monster numbers, run
I'd like to suggest few features that I think are very useful:
Roll on the monster sheet (click to roll). I think it's already in development but, if it isn't, we would love it :)
The ability to press N and U keys to use the Next button or the Undo button
Something to lock the scrolling of the entire page (when I scroll the initiative list it works fine, when I scroll the monster's stats I always end up scrolling too much to the footer or the header of the page). Basically the left side of the screen is cool, the right side moves the entire page :(
Addition of monsters on the fly: I saw the manual entry button but it doesn't let me search actual monsters.
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Greetings Beyonders!
We're happy to announce an ALPHA release of the Combat Tracker tool to subscribers!
We have been using the combat tracker in its current state in our own home games, and although it is by no means a finished product, we found so much value even in its current state that we have decided to share it with subscribers as early as possible.
The Combat Tracker is a new tool in the larger environment of Encounter Management or Session Management.
The ALPHA release of the Combat Tracker as an extension of the Encounter Builder allows us to work out all the kinks and functionality giving users the best possible tool to run an Encounter. After we have validated our testing, we will iterate on the existing Combat Tracker and future features to supplement this growing toolset.
What is initially available in the ALPHA
The ALPHA currently has the following features:
Import from Encounter Builder all data that the user set up in the Summary, Description, and Treasure text fields.
Input characters: Importing is currently limited to generic or campaign character data from the Encounter Builder “Manage Characters” drop down, allowing users to have a visual representation of character data during play.
Input monsters: Importing relevant monster data from Encounter Builder to populate in the Combat tracker, allowing users to have a visual representation of monster data during play (including monster stat blocks and tooltips).
Manual entry for an ad hoc player, monster, or effect.
Initiative entry: A preliminary combat environment to enter combatant turn order.
Characters will have a manual entry field
Monsters will have a manual entry field or an auto roll function that references the monster’s initiative modifier.
Sort Initiative: stack the initiative in descending order and allows for the DM to select the next combatant as the battle unfolds.
Adjust HP: Allows the DM to easily adjust the current HP value to visually represent player and monster health.
Large monster images to show your players at the table, when you click on the monster avatar.
What is likely being developed during this release cycle
The following list of items are planned to be developed prior to the final release of the Combat Tracker v1. This list could change depending on many factors.
Release the Combat Tracker to BETA for all users.
Condition Tracking: allow for all conditions to be added and subtracted from combatants
Include timers automatically notifying the DM when the condition has expired.
Player notification of turn.
Player input: Meaning players can enter, on their device or roll digitally on their device and push their initiative to the DM's Combat tracker.
Combat notes field for DM's to record events and save for later reference
View characters with easy dropdown character Stat Blocks
View multiple stat blocks
Large character images when you click on the character avatar.
Persistent Memory: Allow the user to have a combat active even if they log out and log back in (meaning they will not lose their reference for the combat progression).
Ad Hoc combat tracking for those DMs that don’t like to plan or need something they did not plan for
Quick monster look up/add
Quick character look up/add
What will likely not be available in this development cycle but is still on our backlog:
The Final release of the Combat Tracker will likely not have the following features, but they are planned in future development efforts:
Maps
Encounters for Published Adventures
Sharing Encounters Publicly
The CT has incorporated the fluid and elegant design of D&D Beyond. Within a feature rich environment and architecture, DMs will no longer need to track their Combat Encounters with ad hoc digital tools, pen and paper, character/monster cards or whiteboards.
Whether executing combat “on the fly” or running a pre-existing one from My Encounters, the Combat Tracker will be an essential tool for DMs at the table.
How to Provide Feedback
As always, your feedback is valued as a huge driving force behind what we do at D&D Beyond. After you give the Combat Tracker a try, you can share your feedback in three different ways:
The Combat Tracker Feedback forum
Taking the ALPHA Survey (coming soon) by clicking on the button near the the top of the Combat Tracker page
The #ddb-feedback channel in Discord
Thanks again for your help - we look forward to the updates to come!
Whaaaaaat?!
The team is super excited to see this pushed out - and if you followed the Encounter Builder through its Alpha & Beta - you'll know that the team reads all of the feedback that comes this way!
ENJOY!
I've just been playing around with it. Bravo !!!
There is no way to remove a player from an encounter, Players can be missing for sessions and encounters are usually planned ahead of time, this seems like an odd oversight.
However the biggest oversight I can see is that the combat tracker does not show a players AC, Current or Max Health. To some extent I can see why you wouldn't show live data, as players update their health, but not showing any of this information at all is just going to keep me using pen and paper with a box to do combat. It's quicker than this combat tracker.
I would also like to point out that your list of planned features, doesn't seem to say anywhere that you plan on adding the functionality to show live HP (Both Current and Max) and Players AC. Is this an oversight, or is that really not a planned feature?
When you add (for example) 4x Aarakocra to an encounter, you either have the combat tracker showing:
If you add them as a block of 4 by increasing the quantity:
Aarakocra (A), Aarakocra (B), Aarakocra (C), Aarakocra (D)
OR
If you add them individually, they show
Aarakocra, Aarakocra, Aarakocra, Aarakocra,
The latter makes it hard to distinguish which Aarakocra is which Aarakocra, especially after running auto roll initiative.
It would be nice if there was an (easy) way to add an identifier to each one, either automatically or manually.
I'm not sure these are oversights insomuch features not yet implemented. The encounter tracker doesn't currently appear to pull any player data yet; hp, initiative, ac etc
You can remove players from an encounter by editing the encounter and hiding them from the Manage Characters screen, which you can access by hitting 'edit' in the tracker.
Also the list of planned features is "What is likely being developed during this release cycle" and there are likely to be multiple release cycles.
This is far from the final iteration of the tracker, quite the opposite, it's the very first.
D&D Beyond moderator across forums, Discord, Twitch and YouTube. Always happy to help and willing to answer questions (or at least try). (he/him/his)
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That point of a combat tracker is to help make combat quick... Jumping through hoops to remove one player from combat is not easy. It is something that should and honestly needs to exist within the combat tracker, not the Encounter. As I pointed out. Encounters are usually planned before a session starts, not on the spot. Players can be excluded for numerous reasons. They could just miss the session or they could game an in game choice that causes to miss it (like if they split off to do something else). Having to got to 3 other pages and click 12 times to remove something is once again not quick or easy.
As you your point "What is likely being developed during this release cycle" the ability to see players Live AC, Current HP, Max HP (with Temp bonus), should be the main selling point of this combat tracker. They listed the ability for players to push their initiative, but skipped the much more important AC and HP. Without seeing players Stats even the basic ones such as HP and AC, there is no reason for me to even waste the time "testing" this. It will just add more steps to my session.
Moving on how do you include the ability for players to get notified when its their turn and that the players can push their initiative to the combat tracker, but state no where that you are going to show Live or Statice Player Data other than Level.
EDIT: In his live announcement he listed it as a planned feature.
Was just taking a quick look (very excited)and hit the back button, and now I no longer see it on the site. Its just gone. I tried logging out and back in again, but still nothing.
Edit - I can get into it via a pre-built encounter, but don't see it as a square under tools.
I'm so happy this is here.
If I could request one feature it would be for my laptop I have to scroll a bunch, could we minimize the menus at the top and make the monster stat block more of a square?
Would like to see the ability to copy a saved encounter to a new modifiable one. Idea for use would be to build one with Character info in it (until the character portion is built in) to reuse as a basis for encounters I build. Avoiding having generic character place holders.
Having a quick look over, seems like it'd be super handy, however would love to see a Monster sheet editor, to increase/decrease HP/AC etc with out having to make a Homebrew version of the monster.
I'll have a go at running it live in my game tomorrow!
You should still be able to access it either by going to the "My Encounters" page and clicking "Run" or clicking "Run" while on the details page of the encounter itself!
Love this, will use it in action on Friday.
Just playing around with it, one thing I notice is that 'auto-roll initiative' doesn't seem to add initiative bonuses for the monsters. I added a bunch of high dex monsters to an encounter, auto-rolled, and repeated a few times and not once did any of them roll higher than 20.
Clicking on a monster tool tip link takes the current browser tab displaying the tracker to the content page for the item that had the tool tip (For example: Frightened). If you click back in the browser, the tracker is returned in the pre run state, loosing all turns, rounds, initiative order and HP adjustment info.
I suggest changing the method to launch the content from the tool tip to opening it in another browser tab.
I play mostly asynchronously using my iPhone (D&D Beyond, the mRPG gaming chat app, and donjon's initiative tracker).
I am *very* excited about the initiative tracker but it's of very little practical value for me until "Persistent Memory" is implemented.
That said, thank you for these tools! I know that this new feature is going to be killer, and I eagerly await what you have in store for us moving forward.
— jer
It would be nice if when I hit next and it is moving to a different creature it automatically pulled the new creatures stats up.
Quick Damage / Heal button for monsters - Honestly doing math in my head probably takes more time at the table that i am proud to admit.
To tack onto the ability to change Max HP for monsters, a button that would auto roll their MAX hp from their hit dice to randomly generate all Max HP
Yay! I have been waiting for this for a long time! so excited. Some feedback on my initial pass (this does not include things you stated are coming):
1. Edit max hit points for creatures.
2. Add/drop creatures and PCs after the encounter has started. Note: I think this is what you mean by Quick monster/character lookup/add.
3. Change initiative order after the encounter has started.
4. A way to add a creature to the party as an ally when determining encounter difficulty (this may me more the encounter builder rather than tracker).
5. I like how easy it is to manually put in initiative. Since we like to use real dice and not virtual, I hope you keep this simplicity available after you add virtual dice.
6. Thank you for allowing us to test at this early stage. It makes me feel like you are including us in the development, which gives us a kind of ownership. Despite some of the negative comments I am sure you will receive, I think this was a great decision.
I am sure I will come up with more as I play around with it as this is just a quick pass-through with it and I am very excited!
It would be helpful if while running an adventure on DNDB, what you would hover over an "encounter block",that could be differentiated as such, just enable disable the number of monsters/players that are a part of it, then click run, and that could open the initiative tracker. Now THAT is what I'd call a game changer.
ex
- there is a description of a rat colony around the corner - hovering over it would give a hover popup with the rat colony, each player in the current adventure, disable the missing players, click a "roll" dice for the rat number, then "run"
- wilderness encounters, same - hover over it, enable a few options, roll for monster numbers, run
I'd like to suggest few features that I think are very useful: