I’ve been reevaluating my options for keeping track of initiative and conditions during combat while I play D&D over the internet with gametable. Currently, I use a $5 magnetic white board as seen below.

Its functional enough. I can rearrange the magnetic name plates I printed up as needed and can write in the monster names with HP values and take care of all of that right there on the board. I found out quickly though that the permanent marker I had used to make the nice dividing lines would be removed when dry erase marker came in contact and was then wiped off. Rather disheartening. My solution was to use electrical tape to make the lines but the tape was too wide and took up too much space. I wasn’t about to cut the tape in half as it wouldn’t come out straight and just upset me.
I began brainstorming and thought about making an 8.5″ x 11″ printed tracking chart that I would laminate at the local craft store. They use very thick lamination medium that would hold up very well and I tested the dry erase markers on it with something I had laminated for my son (a shopping list for his grocery cart!). The black was fine but the red one I had left some staining. I have some cleaning solution I`ll try on it later.
While poking around online, I found a post over at Geek’s Dream Girl which introduced Anubisware’s Encounter Manager. Even though its still in beta stages (1.0-beta is the version I’m trying out), I think it`ll do just what I need it to!
Here’s my list of demands for an encounter manager program (*hands list to hostage negotiator*):
- I want to be able to set this up a head of the time so its ready to go when we play.
- I want to be able to enter initiative rolls for each character/monster and have the list ordered for me when its done.
Bonus attributes would include the following:
- A way to track monster hit points
- -FREE-
Anubisware’s Encounter Manager met my list of demands and even the delivered the bonus attributes..and its still in beta! To get the program started, I had to install the .NET 3.5 framework available from the Microsoft website which was easy to find and didn’t take long. The program fired right up and I was greeted with this initial screen
(click all screenshots for larger views)
Adding new the PCs to the list was rather simple by clicking on the yellow plus sign
on the menu bar. To handle my PCs, I only filled in their name but plenty of other information was available, yet wasn’t needed on my end.
With my 5 PCs entered, I saved the file as a template for making other encounters. I then filled in the info for the monsters including max/current HP, initiative bonus and defensive scores. Before I tested out the encounter, I did a Save As.. and called it encounter1. Clever.. I know
. Once people roll their initiative, I`ll have to double click on each PCs from the menu on the left hand side and edit their scores. I could use the “Set Character Initiative” button which cycles through all combatants, PC and Monster, asking for roll results. With large encounters, this may take longer than just editing the PC’s info screen. It`ll even tell you when a character is bloodied by turning their text orange. Cool!
In conclusion, this has done away with my initiative board! I can even write encounter notes in the little box regarding who is targeting who. Status effects can also be handled here and can ask me if a PC or baddie succeeded on a saving throw.
After giving this a test drive, I only have a few items on my Wish List:
- As me if I’m sure I want to close the program off or start a new encounter if changes have been made since my last save
- The .col files used to save the encounter info don’t show up by default when going to open one. You need to type in *.* in to the file name field for them to show up.
- When I hit tab to cycle through the defensive stats, it might be nice for the current data to be highlighted so I can just over wright it with whatever I type without having to delete or backspace the 0 already there.
I really look forward to seeing this program develop. As I see it now, it goes hand and hand with gametable for playing D&D over the internet.









































































