How to Use the Initiative Tracker in Quill & Tankard

I used to run combat on paper. This post about Quill & Tankard which is a free session toolkit for DMs, and I use its D&D initiative tracker every session there's an encounter. It's free, there's no sign up and everything is saved in your browser.

This post will show you how it works from start to finish. I'll step through how to use it using one combat encounter. If you want to follow along, open the tracker in another tab. It's built for a laptop at the table but it also works on a phone or tablet.

Add your combatants

The tracker pulls from your campaign's Roster, so your PCs, NPCs, and monsters need to be in there first. If your Roster is empty, the tracker gives you a button to go make a character.

If you just want to try it out, you have two options:

• "Add sample encounter"

  drops you into a fight that's already running. This is the fastest way to see the tracker in action.

• "Add sample characters"

  on the Roster page gives you a cast to set up yourself.

Once you have a some characters in the "Roster", click "Add Combatants" and select who will participate in the fight. "Select all PCs" saves a few clicks, and you can search if your "Roster" has gotten long.

Monsters also get a duplicate button on their card. If you need a pack of something, you can add one and copy it from there.

Set initiative

Type in your players' rolls, then press "Roll opponents". That rolls a d20 plus the initiative modifier for every NPC and monster. The list sorts itself from highest to lowest as the numbers come in and anyone without a number waits at the bottom.

If a player remembers their bonus late, that's fine. You can change an initiative mid-fight from the combatant's details, and the order updates.

Show your players the order

Press "Initiative Display" to open a second window for your players, then put it on a TV or a second monitor. You can open it before the fight starts. It waits for you to start combat, then follows along as you run the fight. You run everything from your own window.

Here's what's on that screen and what isn't:

• Players see:

  the round, the order, whose turn it is, who's up next, condition tags, and who's downed.

• Players never see:

  HP amounts, initiative numbers, your notes, condition saves, lair effects.

When a combatant's HP changes, its row shows that it took damage or got healed, but never how much.

A monster's or NPC's armor class is the one exception worth knowing about. It shows up (optionally) after its third HP loss, on the thinking that your players have worked it out by then. You can also reveal it yourself by clicking the shield next to its name or turn this off with the arrow beside the "Initiative Display" button. That's the 13 on the Owlbear's row in the picture above.

The display also has buttons for full screen and for switching between light and dark. It needs a second screen so phones don't get the button.

Run the fight

Press "Start Combat" and round 1 begins. The current turn's character card gets highlighted and the top bar tells you who's up next. When a turn ends, click "Next Turn". If you moved too soon, the arrow beside it goes back a turn. A new round starts each time the order gets back to the top.

One of my favorite parts is hovering over a combatant's card. You get their stat block and full details without clicking anything or switching views.

Once you're running a few fights, the keyboard shortcuts are worth learning. Press the keyboard icon in the top bar to see them all:

• Right and left arrows:

  next turn and previous turn

• Enter or E:

  open the current combatant

• Q:

  write a quick note

• Esc:

  close the preview

Track HP, conditions, and saves

Click a combatant's card to open their details. To change HP, type in the new current HP and press "Save Changes". The combat log works out how much they lost or gained, so you don't have to.

A combatant at 0 HP is downed but they keep their place in the order and their turn still comes up. That matters because healing can bring them back.

For conditions, type a name or pick one from the list, and it stays on their card turn after turn. It doesn't have to be an official condition. "Hex" or "Bless" work just as well as "Prone".

Two kinds of reminders do some of the remembering for you. Neither one rolls anything or stops the game. They just tell you what's owed.

Concentration saves. I had a problem of remembering players and NPCs that were holding concentration for spells. If a combatant has the "Concentrating" tag and loses HP, the tracker will remind you and tells you to roll a CON save and gives you the DC. The DC is half the damage, rounded down, with a minimum of 10. If they fail, click "Failed" and the tag comes off. If they drop to 0 HP, the tag comes off on its own. The tag has to be on them before the HP change, so add it when they cast the spell.

Condition saves. Click a condition tag on an open combatant to add the save that ends it: the ability, the DC, and whether they roll at the start or end of their turn. This is completely optional but is another layer of reminders that will help keep you running the game properly.

When their turn comes up, the tracker reminds you of the save. Press "Passed" if they make it and the condition comes off.

Check the combat log

This is the other part I use every session. Every turn, HP change, condition, and note goes in the log under its round. When someone asks "wait, how much did the ogre take last round?", I have the history and can check that everything was right.

To add your own entry, press Q, type a note, and press Enter. The note gets attached to the current turn. The log also tells you how long each round took, if you're curious how long your combats actually run.

Finish the fight

When the fight's over, click "Finish Combat". The log stops recording, and the fight moves to "Past Encounters", where you can read its log but you can't resume it. Each campaign keeps the last ten. The players' screen switches to "Combat over".

Press "New Encounter" for the next fight. Your PCs stay in the list with their current HP, and the NPCs and monsters come off.

Also in the tracker

• Lair effects:

  set up reusable effects that trigger at an initiative count. They default to initiative 20, and they stay off the players' screen.

• Long Rest PCs:

  between fights, this restores HP for every damaged PC in the list.

That's the whole thing. You can read more about the tracker here, or just open it and add your first combatants. If it helps your table, great. Send me a message on the Quill & Tankard YouTube channel.