Pausing and resuming combat
Pause an encounter mid-session, keep the full combat state, and pick it up where you left off next time.
Sometimes a fight runs past the end of a session. Pausing keeps the encounter as it stands so you do not have to rebuild the initiative order, HP, and tags next week.
TurnWarden preserves the full combat state when you pause mid-session. Initiative order, hit points, tags, the round counter, and the turn pointer all hold. When you sign back in and resume, the encounter picks up exactly where you left off.
Pausing mid-session
When you need to stop an encounter before it concludes, select Pause in the tracker footer (after Prev. Turn and Next Turn). The status badge at the top changes to an amber Paused, a Paused pill appears next to the round number, and Prev. Turn and Next Turn are disabled until you resume.
What the pause holds:
- The full initiative order and each combatant's position within it
- Current hit points for each combatant
- All applied tag pills (5e conditions and your custom presets alike)
- The round number and active turn pointer
You can close your browser, change devices, or sign out entirely; the paused encounter waits for you when you return.
The player view does not show that combat is paused. Players keep seeing the board as it was when you paused, so tell them yourself if the session is over.
Resuming next session
Sign back in to TurnWarden. You land on your DM tracker, and the paused encounter is right there: amber Paused status badge, every combatant still in place.
Select Resume in the footer, where Pause was. The encounter goes back to active straight away: Prev. Turn and Next Turn work again, the badge changes back to In Combat, and the player view updates.
From this point the encounter runs as normal. Advance the turn, deal damage, end the round; everything works the same as if you had never paused.
The paused encounter is saved to your account, not to this browser. Refreshing the page, closing the tab, or switching devices does not lose it.
What's next
For the full tracker workflow during an active encounter, see running your first encounter. The player view article explains what players see on their screens.