Well that was disappointing. It doesn’t track monster spell slots. It doesn’t pull info from the character sheets, it won’t even let me view the character sheets. It does... nothing. I have been running encounters on paper for almost 30 years, and this does less?!? What gives? If I accidentally touched a spell tooltip it took me out of the encounter, and when I touched the back carrot it reset the encounter to 0! WTF?!?
But I can see the same illustration of the goblin that I don’t need, so that’s a... thing.
All of those things are coming it's just not in the initial offering. I can get some use out of it in its current state but am looking forward to seeing more features added to it.
When it can interactively track 6 PCs and 30 monsters/NPCs with varying ACs, HP, Initiatives, saves, Spellcasting capabilities, consumables, features, and weapons, then it will be what I expected from the “alpha.” Just HP, Initiative, and non-interactive stat blocks? I could do that on my phone with photos and the notes app. I have quite literally tracked HP and Initiative on a cocktail napkin once (don’t ask, worth it, but don’t ask). This didn’t need all the hype of an announcement and a pre-announcement-announcement.
When it can interactively track 6 PCs and 30 monsters/NPCs with varying ACs, HP, Initiatives, saves, Spellcasting capabilities, consumables, features, and weapons, then it will be what I expected from the “alpha.” Just HP, Initiative, and non-interactive stat blocks? I could do that on my phone with photos and the notes app. I have quite literally tracked HP and Initiative on a cocktail napkin once (don’t ask, worth it, but don’t ask). This didn’t need all the hype of an announcement and a pre-announcement-announcement.
While that may be true, the hype of a pre-announcement announcement nonetheless got attention and more people to utilize the combat tracker, or at least put it into practice than likely would have otherwise. If I'm being honest, I only tune into about 20% of the Dev updates and everything else I gleam from the forums. So, it spiked my interest solidly and am prepping for utilization this weekend.
I truly have no qualms with how I have been doing initiative and combat tracking, but this *should* ultimately make it easier once it reaches a final product. So, why not start using it where applicable? My only qualm is the same I have had for the encounter builder on a whole: not everything is accessible. Various monsters and villains can't be loaded into it. For instance, I'm running DIA right now and unless I find something of comparable stats, nothing exclusive from that module can be loaded into the builder/tracker. And, yes, I do own it on Beyond. My party's first fight amongst pirates, for instance, has wholly different stats that the ones from Saltmarsh, which are the only ones available within the Builder. In the end, I use the Encounter Builder primarily to judge upcoming encounters for my party as being overly difficult or not enough. Very beneficial, but not very convenient when it can't access the entire compendium of unlocked/purchased goodies.
Haha! What do you take me for? That's too much effort and I'm too lazy for that. I'd rather just notebook the encounter process like usual or simply adapt something else that works.
When it can interactively track 6 PCs and 30 monsters/NPCs with varying ACs, HP, Initiatives, saves, Spellcasting capabilities, consumables, features, and weapons, then it will be what I expected from the “alpha.” Just HP, Initiative, and non-interactive stat blocks? I could do that on my phone with photos and the notes app. I have quite literally tracked HP and Initiative on a cocktail napkin once (don’t ask, worth it, but don’t ask). This didn’t need all the hype of an announcement and a pre-announcement-announcement.
While that may be true, the hype of a pre-announcement announcement nonetheless got attention and more people to utilize the combat tracker, or at least put it into practice than likely would have otherwise. If I'm being honest, I only tune into about 20% of the Dev updates and everything else I gleam from the forums. So, it spiked my interest solidly and am prepping for utilization this weekend.
I truly have no qualms with how I have been doing initiative and combat tracking, but this *should* ultimately make it easier once it reaches a final product. So, why not start using it where applicable? My only qualm is the same I have had for the encounter builder on a whole: not everything is accessible. Various monsters and villains can't be loaded into it. For instance, I'm running DIA right now and unless I find something of comparable stats, nothing exclusive from that module can be loaded into the builder/tracker. And, yes, I do own it on Beyond. My party's first fight amongst pirates, for instance, has wholly different stats that the ones from Saltmarsh, which are the only ones available within the Builder. In the end, I use the Encounter Builder primarily to judge upcoming encounters for my party as being overly difficult or not enough. Very beneficial, but not very convenient when it can't access the entire compendium of unlocked/purchased goodies.
I'm not having that issue; I did a quick test loading a selection of monsters from various sources
Try gathering anything from Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus. I've had a few other sources not come through, but that's the only one majorly pertinent to my needs at the moment. When I'm homebrewing a campaign, it typically doesn't matter as I can pull from what's available for my needs, but when using a module, it holds the balance of using it altogether in question.
Haha! What do you take me for? That's too much effort and I'm too lazy for that. I'd rather just notebook the encounter process like usual or simply adapt something else that works.
That’s exactly my point. If I touch the tooltip for a spell, it only shows me the first part unless I actually open the details page. I wanted to see if that was at least improved in the tracker (it isn’t) so I touched a spell on the Evoker in the encounter. In the process of finding out, I accidentally left my finger on the tooltip a half-second too long and it redirected me to the spell’s detail page. Arg, but no biggie, right? So I touched the back carrot on my browser and when the encounter tracker reloaded, the entire encounter had been reset to 0. I cannot in good conscience actually use this product to track an actual encounter for my players.
Try gathering anything from Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus. I've had a few other sources not come through, but that's the only one majorly pertinent to my needs at the moment. When I'm homebrewing a campaign, it typically doesn't matter as I can pull from what's available for my needs, but when using a module, it holds the balance of using it altogether in question.
You might be having the same issue myself and others have seen. See this thread. After posting my issue, they resynced my account and I could access all content again in the builder.
Eh, seems fine to me so far. "Alpha" to me reads as "Skeleton". I didn't expect something that was going to solve all of my problems yet, but it's cool that I can use this instead of another different app or website (that also wasn't tracking enemy spell slots, but admittedly did a little bit more than this currently does).
The biggest change I want to see right off the bat is doing the math for me when subtracting HP. I should be able to plug in the damage amount and it should do the math for me.
The biggest thing people need to understand is they are letting us in early so we can provide feedback while they continue to add features. This reduces the risk of them rolling back a bunch of development work for things that are not received well by their customers. They are following agile development processes and as an end user I really appreciate this rather than waiting until a giant set of features are ready to be released. If you don't like it, you can just wait until it's in a viable state for you. It's a win for everyone.
The biggest thing people need to understand is they are letting us in early so we can provide feedback while they continue to add features. This reduces the risk of them rolling back a bunch of development work for things that are not received well by their customers. They are following agile development processes and as an end user I really appreciate this rather than waiting until a giant set of features are ready to be released. If you don't like it, you can just wait until it's in a viable state for you. It's a win for everyone.
True. It's not like they're charging us any more than they have been before these features were even announced.
Try gathering anything from Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus. I've had a few other sources not come through, but that's the only one majorly pertinent to my needs at the moment. When I'm homebrewing a campaign, it typically doesn't matter as I can pull from what's available for my needs, but when using a module, it holds the balance of using it altogether in question.
You might be having the same issue myself and others have seen. See this thread. After posting my issue, they resynced my account and I could access all content again in the builder.
Thank you! Hope it's just a syncing issue and resolves that issue. Would be a tremendous help.
Was this the big announcement then? if so how is this "Game Changing" if it is just in Alpha? heck, i use notepad on my pc for this. BFD. Too much hype for so little if that is the case.
Funny, the Encounter Builder is in Beta, but when you run the encounter, it is in Alpha.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I just want to tell everyone "happy gaming" and actually mean it. Whatever your game is, just have fun with it, it is after all, just a game.
All of those things are coming it's just not in the initial offering. I can get some use out of it in its current state but am looking forward to seeing more features added to it.
When it can interactively track 6 PCs and 30 monsters/NPCs with varying ACs, HP, Initiatives, saves, Spellcasting capabilities, consumables, features, and weapons, then it will be what I expected from the “alpha.” Just HP, Initiative, and non-interactive stat blocks? I could do that on my phone with photos and the notes app. I have quite literally tracked HP and Initiative on a cocktail napkin once (don’t ask, worth it, but don’t ask). This didn’t need all the hype of an announcement and a pre-announcement-announcement.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
While that may be true, the hype of a pre-announcement announcement nonetheless got attention and more people to utilize the combat tracker, or at least put it into practice than likely would have otherwise. If I'm being honest, I only tune into about 20% of the Dev updates and everything else I gleam from the forums. So, it spiked my interest solidly and am prepping for utilization this weekend.
I truly have no qualms with how I have been doing initiative and combat tracking, but this *should* ultimately make it easier once it reaches a final product. So, why not start using it where applicable? My only qualm is the same I have had for the encounter builder on a whole: not everything is accessible. Various monsters and villains can't be loaded into it. For instance, I'm running DIA right now and unless I find something of comparable stats, nothing exclusive from that module can be loaded into the builder/tracker. And, yes, I do own it on Beyond. My party's first fight amongst pirates, for instance, has wholly different stats that the ones from Saltmarsh, which are the only ones available within the Builder. In the end, I use the Encounter Builder primarily to judge upcoming encounters for my party as being overly difficult or not enough. Very beneficial, but not very convenient when it can't access the entire compendium of unlocked/purchased goodies.
You could always recreate all this baddies individually in the homebrew creator.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Haha! What do you take me for? That's too much effort and I'm too lazy for that. I'd rather just notebook the encounter process like usual or simply adapt something else that works.
I'm not having that issue; I did a quick test loading a selection of monsters from various sources
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Try gathering anything from Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus. I've had a few other sources not come through, but that's the only one majorly pertinent to my needs at the moment. When I'm homebrewing a campaign, it typically doesn't matter as I can pull from what's available for my needs, but when using a module, it holds the balance of using it altogether in question.
That’s exactly my point. If I touch the tooltip for a spell, it only shows me the first part unless I actually open the details page. I wanted to see if that was at least improved in the tracker (it isn’t) so I touched a spell on the Evoker in the encounter. In the process of finding out, I accidentally left my finger on the tooltip a half-second too long and it redirected me to the spell’s detail page. Arg, but no biggie, right? So I touched the back carrot on my browser and when the encounter tracker reloaded, the entire encounter had been reset to 0. I cannot in good conscience actually use this product to track an actual encounter for my players.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
You might be having the same issue myself and others have seen. See this thread. After posting my issue, they resynced my account and I could access all content again in the builder.
Eh, seems fine to me so far. "Alpha" to me reads as "Skeleton". I didn't expect something that was going to solve all of my problems yet, but it's cool that I can use this instead of another different app or website (that also wasn't tracking enemy spell slots, but admittedly did a little bit more than this currently does).
The biggest change I want to see right off the bat is doing the math for me when subtracting HP. I should be able to plug in the damage amount and it should do the math for me.
The biggest thing people need to understand is they are letting us in early so we can provide feedback while they continue to add features. This reduces the risk of them rolling back a bunch of development work for things that are not received well by their customers. They are following agile development processes and as an end user I really appreciate this rather than waiting until a giant set of features are ready to be released. If you don't like it, you can just wait until it's in a viable state for you. It's a win for everyone.
True. It's not like they're charging us any more than they have been before these features were even announced.
Thank you! Hope it's just a syncing issue and resolves that issue. Would be a tremendous help.
Was this the big announcement then? if so how is this "Game Changing" if it is just in Alpha? heck, i use notepad on my pc for this. BFD. Too much hype for so little if that is the case.
Funny, the Encounter Builder is in Beta, but when you run the encounter, it is in Alpha.
I just want to tell everyone "happy gaming" and actually mean it. Whatever your game is, just have fun with it, it is after all, just a game.
https://theangrygm.com/manage-combat-like-a-dolphin/
See the section "How to Actually Make a List of Numbers".