Getting started
Create an account, open your first room, and share the Player View URL with your table.
TurnWarden puts your combat tracker on one screen and a live read-only view on another, so your table sees the round, the HP, and the conditions without you sharing your notes. Everything runs in the browser. Neither you nor your players install an app.
Every TurnWarden account gets one player-view room when you sign up: a permanent share URL you hand to your table. You sign in, copy that URL once, and from there you run encounters from the tracker. Here is how to get from a new account to your first round.
- 1.Create your account
Open TurnWarden in your browser.
The sign-in page has two tabs: Sign in for an existing account, Sign up for a new one. Sign-up asks for your email, a display name, and a password. After you submit, TurnWarden emails you a confirmation link. Follow it once and your account is active. From then on, sign in directly with your email and password.
Once you confirm and sign in, you land on the DM tracker. It is empty the first time. That is normal.
- 2.Copy your player-view URL
TurnWarden auto-creates a player-view room for your account at sign-up. Its URL is permanent: it does not change between sessions and you only need to share it once.
Open Settings from the user menu in the top-right of the tracker. The first pane is Share with your party with your share URL and a copy button. Select the copy button to put the URL on your clipboard.
Settings → Share with your party. The URL does not change, so you only need to copy it once. Send the URL to your players in a group message, your virtual-tabletop chat, or a printed QR code on the table. Each player opens it in any browser on any device. The view updates the moment you advance a turn.
- 3.Open the player view on a second screen
Back on the tracker, look for the Open player view in new tab icon in the top-right header (an external-link icon). Selecting it opens your player view in a fresh tab so you can see exactly what your table sees while you run the encounter.
The external-link icon in the tracker header opens your player view in a new tab. If you run on a single monitor, drag the new tab into a side-by-side window. If you have a second screen, leave the player view open there for the session.
- 4.Summon your first combatant
The Library rail on the left holds the actors you can summon to the tracker. Hover over any PC, Companion, or Monster row and select Summon to put them on the board. Running your first encounter covers summoning in full, including one-off creatures.
Repeat for each participant at the table. When everyone is added, select Roll initiative in the tracker footer to enter initiative-collection mode. Fill in any missing initiative values, then select Begin encounter to lock in the order and start the encounter. From here you advance turns with Next Turn, edit HP from the combatant row, apply condition pills, and finish with End encounter. The player view updates as you go.
The player view URL does not change between sessions. Bookmark it on the screen or tab you use at the table.
What's next
With your account, share URL, and player view in place, the next session starts immediately. When you are ready to run a full encounter (initiative collection, round tracking, HP editing, and conditions), the running your first encounter article walks through the complete tracker workflow. If you want to bring your existing monster library across from D&D Beyond, the importing actors article covers both the Extension and the JSON paste flow.