Running your first encounter

Add combatants, roll initiative, and run a full encounter from the tracker, with the Player View live on a second screen.

Every encounter in TurnWarden starts in the same place: the DM tracker. You summon your combatants, roll initiative, and then run the whole fight from the tracker. From there you advance turns, record damage, mark conditions, and finally end the encounter.

This article walks through the whole process, step by step.

The TurnWarden DM tracker in round 3 of a fight between four player characters and a goblin warband, with the Bugbear Warrior's turn highlighted. — The DM tracker mid-encounter: turn order on the left, HP and damage controls on the right, turn controls in the footer.

1.
Summon your combatants
Open the Library with the book icon in the top-left of the tracker. It lists your player characters, companions, and monsters. Hover over a row and select Summon to put that actor on the board. Type in the search box to find a monster quickly.
Hover over a Library row and select Summon. The party is already on the board.
Repeat for each creature and character entering the encounter. You don't need initiative yet; you collect it in the next step.
2.
Collect initiative
When everyone is on the board, select Roll initiative in the tracker footer. The status badge changes to Roll Initiative and each row shows an initiative box. Fill in each value as your players call them out.
Collecting initiative. Begin encounter becomes available once every row has a value.
When every combatant has a value, select Begin encounter. TurnWarden sorts the list from highest to lowest and the fight starts. Changed your mind? Stand down goes back without starting.
Decimal initiatives break ties cleanly
TurnWarden accepts decimal initiative values, so 14.5 sits between 14 and 15 in the order. If two combatants tie, enter 14.1 and 14 and the order stays fixed for the rest of the encounter.
3.
Advance the turn
The tracker highlights the active combatant. Select Next Turn in the footer to move to the next combatant in the order; Prev. Turn steps back if you advanced too early. The player view follows along.
The footer during combat. Summon adds a latecomer without leaving the encounter.
When the last combatant finishes, Next Turn starts the next round and returns to the top of the order. The round number goes up by one.
To add a combatant mid-fight, select Summon in the footer. Pick an actor From Library, or switch to Custom to type a name, max HP, AC, and initiative for a one-off creature.
On a narrow screen the footer shows icons only
With the Library or Inspector open, the footer buttons shrink to icons. Hover over one to see its name.
4.
Record damage and healing
Each monster row has HP controls. Type an amount in the ± box, then select minus for damage or plus for healing. To set an exact total instead, select the HP bar and type the new number.
Type an amount, then select minus to deal damage or plus to heal.
When a creature drops to 0 HP its row fades and the player view marks it as dead. You can leave it in the list, or remove it from the row's menu (the three dots on the right).
5.
Apply conditions and tags
Select the dashed + under a combatant's name to open the tag picker. It lists every tag preset in your account: the 15 conditions from the 2024 rules, Concentrating for casters holding a spell, and any presets you've added yourself. See conditions and tags for more.
The tag picker. Conditions and your own presets sit in one alphabetical list. Select one to apply it.
Selecting a preset applies it to that combatant. Applied tags show as pills on the row and on the player view. A combatant can carry several tags; select one again to remove it.
To make your own presets, such as "Bless target" or a campaign-specific status, open Settings → Tags, type a label, pick a colour, and select Save tag. New presets show up in every tag picker straight away.
6.
End the encounter
When the fight is over, select End encounter in the footer. The status badge changes to Combat Ended and two buttons replace the turn controls.
After the fight: run it again, or clear the monsters for the next one.
Restore the cast heals every monster to full and clears initiative, so you can re-run the same fight. Banish & ready removes the monsters and keeps the party on the board for the next encounter.

What's next

That is the full encounter: summon combatants, roll initiative, advance turns, track HP and conditions, end the fight. For more on conditions and custom tags, including managing presets, see conditions and tags. If a fight runs past the end of a session, pausing and resuming combat shows how to pick it up exactly where you left off.

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