I'm back into the DMing roll after a few years - and have found technology great for managing my whole campaign. But, I'm still yet to find a great way to manage initiative and combat - where I keep track of players HP and other key details. How do you do it? What works best...and doesn't hold up play too much.

For a non technological method:

A previous DM used small index cards, he'd hang them over a DM screen.  All the players drew little pictures on the front of our characters and their name and on the back we listed: Our names, AC, Passive Perception, Investigation, and Insight.  The DM would hang the cards on the GM screen in the initiative order, so everyone could clearly see what the order was.

NPCs had their own cards and would hang among our cards.  Obviously this required a bit more prep, but it was really cool.

Physical token are good because they are easy to move around.  If they are non-visible to the players remember you really don't have to label them more then role.

Have a token with "Boss" on it, a few that say "Mob" with a number, and some with "Elite" and a number.  You can easily keep track of which NPC each token goes to. The nice thing is that once it's determined initiative it just relative, so it doesn't matter if one person is 19 init and the next player is 8.

I track initiative, or rather I have a player track initiative, with one of these. 

As for players HP, I have each track their own - either on their character sheet or scratch paper. And I track monster/NPC HP on scratch paper.

I have found that everything else out there takes more time, effort, or both in practice than good ol' paper and pencil.

Quote from AaronOfBarbaria >>

I track initiative, or rather I have a player track initiative, with one of these. 

As for players HP, I have each track their own - either on their character sheet or scratch paper. And I track monster/NPC HP on scratch paper.

I have found that everything else out there takes more time, effort, or both in practice than good ol' paper and pencil.

 This works pretty well . . . 

http://slyflourish.com/easier_initiative_cards.html

I use an app for that.

I use an iPad app called encounter+ it's pretty simple and works really well it's pre loaded with the monster manual. I add specific bosses and baddies into it before we play as well so when I can quickly drop them into the fray. It's also free. I think there's a spell list you can pay a dollar for. Its super easy to track hit points, initiative, damage taken, conditions. 

Why it is so hard to write a number and initial/name on a piece of paper I will never understand. Go around table, ask the player their initiative, leave space before + after each entry and fill in the 'gaps' as you ask the next person their initiative in turn. Repeat for monsters. There is no faster or easier method, short of a pre-printed or written list of numbers, where you do the same but are fill in names.

I run an ad&d 5e mashup rules set, simple initiative, party rolls a d6, DM rolls a d6, no ties.

Quote from Yohahn >>

Why it is so hard to write a number and initial/name on a piece of paper I will never understand. Go around table, ask the player their initiative, leave space before + after each entry and fill in the 'gaps' as you ask the next person their initiative in turn. Repeat for monsters. There is no faster or easier method, short of a pre-printed or written list of numbers, where you do the same but are fill in names.

Thanks. I do like this. I've been reading more and more stuff where DMs offer the players responsibility for parts of the game - even rolling the dice for magic item tables when the time comes (a bit risky I think...), but I do like the idea of having everyone around the table managing combat order, and being aware of who is coming up next - to plan their actions!

 Thanks everyone. These are really useful. And, I hear the old school - just write it down - but the magnetic and whiteboard options look great and I will check out the apps. Thanks heaps.

I use note book paper , a pencil. very simple to use

 Most of the time I use ye ol' notebook and pencil, however the group I recently started playing with uses a whiteboard hung on the wall.  Everyone's name and initiative are on there, and the NPC's are written in a different color and label "A" "B" etc. Unless they have a known name.  

 A good mobile app solution for Android is 5e Campaign Lab. I like it a lot and it will even keep track of how much in-game time has passed. That said, I use improved-initiative.com because I find it a little bit quicker and easier for me to follow (eg it shows stat blocks on the side as opposed to below the initiative tracker in the Android app I mentioned).

As a relatively new DM (been doing it about a year and a half I think) combat is still the hardest part for me to manage. I have one of those magnetic trackers Aaron mentioned but I much prefer the online tool. 

Yeah. After some investigation - the online tool looks like a good option for me. However, my devices are all Apple - the Encounter+ app is pretty nice. A little bit of prep required putting in your own NPCs and monsters - bur the idea of tracking game time in an app as well is awesome. I've committed to my team to track game time a lot better and use it more in the nuaces of roleplaying. 5e Campaign la is Android only? I assume?

Do you know if there is a way to add monsters more easily to Encounter+ ?

My group plays at my apartment, so I do initiative the old fashioned way. I just write it down on a scratch piece of paper. I have a character cheat sheet with the character names, their AC, passive perception, and a few boxes I can mark off to track status effects over rounds. For NPC's/monsters, I just make hash marks for effects and as players deal damage I just keep adding until the creature is dead, flees, or submits.

Yeah, 5e Campaign Lab is Android only I believe.

Unfortunately I don't know how easy or hard it is to add monster into the app you're using. 

Quote from Talisker >>

Do you know if there is a way to add monsters more easily to Encounter+ ?