Frequently Asked Questions
If you are looking for what a particular control does, the Settings section covers every screen. This page answers the questions that come up before that.
The app
Section titled “The app”Do I have to pay for anything?
Section titled “Do I have to pay for anything?”No. Encounter+ runs a complete game out of the box — the library, creating and editing content, encounter building, the initiative tracker, campaigns and modules, import and export, roll tables and the dice roller are all included, and there are no ads, ever.
Two purchases add to that: a one-time Battle Map purchase for maps, tokens, lighting and line of sight, and an optional Premium subscription for remote play, 3D dice, animated tiles and weather effects. See Purchases.
Does it work offline?
Section titled “Does it work offline?”Yes, entirely. Everything lives in a local database on your device — the app never needs a network to run a game. A connection is only used for optional things: downloading packages, remote play, and iCloud backup.
Where is my data stored?
Section titled “Where is my data stored?”In a local database on the device, plus a folder tree in the app’s Documents directory that holds systems, modules, campaigns, maps and images. That folder is visible in the Files app, so you can get at your own content — but it also means it can be deleted from there, so take backups. See Backups below.
Which devices does it run on?
Section titled “Which devices does it run on?”iPhone, iPad and Mac. The Mac version is the iPad app running natively, so your purchases and content formats are the same across all three.
Content and terminology
Section titled “Content and terminology”What is a game system?
Section titled “What is a game system?”A system is the ruleset the app is currently shaped around. It is not hard-wired: the system defines what content types exist (creatures, spells, items, whatever your game needs), what fields they have, how their forms look, and how they are displayed. Switching the system changes the shape of the entire library.
The app ships with a generic system and a dnd5e one; others can be installed from the Package
Manager or imported as a .system file, and you can build your own.
See Current System and the System schema.
How do I install a game system?
Section titled “How do I install a game system?”The app asks you. Whenever no system is installed, you get a Game System Required screen with an Install D&D 5E button — that copy ships inside the app, so it needs no download, no network and no account. One tap and you have a working 5E setup.
If you want something else, or you dismissed that screen:
| Where | What it does |
|---|---|
| Settings → Current System | Lists the systems you have installed and switches between them |
| Settings → Package Manager | Downloads published systems you do not have yet |
| Settings → Import | Installs a system from a .system file |
You only need one, and you can change it later. Switching systems does not delete anything — content belongs to the system it was made for, and reappears when you switch back.
What is the difference between a module and a campaign?
Section titled “What is the difference between a module and a campaign?”Both are containers for pages, maps, encounters and content. The difference is who they belong to:
| Module | Campaign | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Authored content meant to be distributed | Your own working container for one table |
| Where it comes from | Imported from a .module file or the Package Manager |
You create it |
| Typical use | A published adventure, a bestiary, an asset collection | The game you are actually running |
| Live state | None | Holds the running combat, the map on screen, your party |
Exactly one campaign is primary at a time — that is the one the battle map and the player display are driving. Modules can be attached to a campaign so their content is available while you play.
See Campaigns & Modules, and the Module and Campaign schemas.
What is the library?
Section titled “What is the library?”The library is the browser for everything you own — creatures, spells, items, players, notes, roll tables, maps, pages and encounters — across every source at once: the built-in content, imported modules, and anything you created yourself. It is where you search, filter, edit and organise, as opposed to the game screen, where you play.
See Working with Library.
What is the Package Manager?
Section titled “What is the Package Manager?”A browser for content published for Encounter+ — systems, compendia and modules — that installs with one tap, as opposed to files you import yourself. It also tells you when something you installed has an update.
Settings → Package Manager. See Content Settings.
Why are there so few monsters, spells and items?
Section titled “Why are there so few monsters, spells and items?”The content included by default is limited to what the Open Gaming License permits — essentially the Systems Reference Document. Anything beyond that has to come from you: create it, import it from a file, or install a package.
My library is empty — where is my content?
Section titled “My library is empty — where is my content?”If you have just updated from version 4, this is expected and nothing is lost. See Upgrading from Version 4, which explains it and takes one tap to fix.
Import and export
Section titled “Import and export”What files can I import?
Section titled “What files can I import?”| Format | What it holds |
|---|---|
.module |
A distributable body of content — pages, maps, encounters, entities, assets |
.campaign |
A whole campaign, including its content |
.system |
A game system |
.collection |
A mixed set of content in one archive |
.eplus |
The same content as a single JSON file, with images embedded |
.dd2vtt / .uvtt |
A single map exported from Dungeondraft, Universal VTT and similar tools |
.csv |
Tabular data — roll tables and bulk entity import |
.jpg / .png / .webp |
Images, imported as maps or artwork |
Legacy .compendium and .pack XML archives from older versions still import as well. See
Import and Export and the
schema reference for the current formats.
What can I export?
Section titled “What can I export?”A single entity or a selection of them, a module, a campaign, the current system, or everything at once. Settings → Export.
.eplus is import-only by design — there is no export to it.
Can I import from Dropbox, Google Drive or somewhere other than iCloud?
Section titled “Can I import from Dropbox, Google Drive or somewhere other than iCloud?”Yes. Import uses the system file picker, so anything that appears there works — Dropbox, Google Drive, Files, a USB drive, wherever. Install the provider’s app first if its location is not already listed, then pick it under Locations in the picker.
Does importing move or copy my original file?
Section titled “Does importing move or copy my original file?”Neither — the file is read in place from wherever you picked it, and importing never moves, changes or deletes the original.
Backups
Section titled “Backups”What is the best way to back up my content?
Section titled “What is the best way to back up my content?”Export it yourself, regularly. Everything else is a safety net; this is the actual backup.
Use Settings → Export to write your campaigns, modules and content out to files, then keep those files somewhere that is not the device — iCloud Drive, Dropbox, a computer, anywhere. An exported file is portable content, so it can be restored on any device, on a reinstall, on a newer version of the app, or shared with someone else. Nothing else you can do is as durable.
How often is up to you, but a good habit is after any session where you created something you would mind losing.
Isn’t the automatic database backup enough?
Section titled “Isn’t the automatic database backup enough?”It covers a different problem. Settings → Advanced Settings → Local Database → Automatic Backups keeps scheduled snapshots of the database file, and it is on by default — leave it on. It is what saves you when the database itself becomes unreadable, which is the failure it exists for.
But those snapshots live on the same device, in the app’s own folder. They do not survive deleting the app, losing the device, or wiping the Documents folder from the Files app. So:
| Protects against | Survives losing the device | |
|---|---|---|
| Manual export | Anything — corruption, deletion, mistakes, moving to a new device | Yes, if you store the files elsewhere |
| Automatic database backup | Database corruption on this device | No |
Run both. The scheduled backup handles corruption without you thinking about it; the exports are what you actually rely on.
How do I take a database backup right now?
Section titled “How do I take a database backup right now?”Settings → Advanced Settings → Local Database → Backup writes a compacted snapshot immediately. Last Backup above it shows the date of the most recent one.
If the database has gone more than a month without a backup, opening Settings offers to take one.
Something went wrong — how do I restore?
Section titled “Something went wrong — how do I restore?”From an export, import the file: Settings → Import, pick it, done.
From a database backup, the switch is in the iOS Settings app rather than in Encounter+ — open Settings → EncounterPlus → Launch issues → Restore database, then launch the app. It restores the most recent snapshot and keeps your current database alongside it. It sits there deliberately, so it is reachable even when the app cannot start.
At the table
Section titled “At the table”What is the external screen?
Section titled “What is the external screen?”A second, player-facing view of the game: the map, the initiative order, images and handouts — without your notes. You show it on a TV, a projector or a second monitor while you keep the full app on your own device.
Connect it over AirPlay screen mirroring (an Apple TV or an AirPlay-capable display), with an HDMI adapter, or — on Mac — as a second window.
What is the bar along the edge of the external screen?
Section titled “What is the bar along the edge of the external screen?”The initiative tracker. Where it sits and what it shows is Initiative Style — the edge positions leave room for a map, the full-screen layouts are available when no map is shown, and None turns it off.
How do I show something to the players mid-session?
Section titled “How do I show something to the players mid-session?”The external screen splits in two by how often you change things. The settings screen holds the setup you do once — themes, the rig, the AirPlay connection. The controls, opened from the game screen, hold what changes scene to scene: which map is shown, the overlay, the handout.
Remote play
Section titled “Remote play”What is the web client?
Section titled “What is the web client?”A browser page your players open to see the map and move their own tokens, served by a web server built into the app. Nothing to install on their side — any modern browser on any device works, and they do not need Encounter+ or an Apple device.
On your side it is installed once: the client is versioned separately from the app and downloaded from Settings → Remote Play → Web Client, so do that before the session rather than during it.
Remote play is part of the Premium subscription. See the Remote Play guide and Remote Play Settings.
Do my players need to be on my network?
Section titled “Do my players need to be on my network?”For a local game, yes — they connect to the Local Access address and it just works.
Over the internet, your router has to let the connection through. The app tries this automatically with UPnP port forwarding; where that is not supported you forward the port by hand. The Public Access section shows the current status.
What can players actually do?
Section titled “What can players actually do?”That is up to you: All lets anyone move anything, Token limits each player to the token they are assigned, and None makes it view-only. Token is the usual choice. See Interactions.
How do players get the link?
Section titled “How do players get the link?”Settings → Remote Play → Web Server → Local Access shows the client URL and a QR code you can
share straight into Messages, Discord or mail. It is your own device’s address, of the form
http://192.168.1.42:8080/client/.
Older versions sent players to a hosted page at client.encounter.plus with a ?remoteHost=
parameter. That is no longer used — the app serves the client itself, so the only address players
need is the one the app shows you.
It is not connecting — what now?
Section titled “It is not connecting — what now?”See Troubleshooting in the Remote Play guide, which covers
the common failures: no web client installed, the wrong address, browsers forcing https, and
tokens not appearing.
Still stuck?
Section titled “Still stuck?”Ask on our Discord or on r/EncounterPlus.