Tips & Tricks

Useful tips and tricks to speed up your prep and your game sessions. None of them replace the regular way of doing things — buttons, forms and menus still work as described in the other guides. These are extra shortcuts that get the same thing done in fewer steps.

Context menus almost everywhere

Long press on iPhone and iPad, or right click on Mac, on almost anything you can see. A menu of the actions for that thing appears where you are already looking, instead of in a toolbar or a detail screen.

Try it on:

• Combatants in the initiative list — damage and healing, conditions, initiative, tokens.
• Tokens on the battle map — the same combatant actions, plus map-side ones.
• Library entries — open, edit, duplicate, bookmark, add to a campaign or module, export, delete.
• Rows inside forms — reordering and removing list items.
• Maps, pages, encounters, campaigns and modules in their lists.

Nothing is only in a context menu, but it is usually the shortest route.

Combat and tokens

Drag a combatant onto the map

Drag a creature from the initiative list and drop it on the map to give it a token there. This is handy when Load Mode is set to combat only, or when a creature joins the fight before you have decided where it stands.

While combat is running, dragging a combatant within the list moves it in the turn order instead.

See Tokens.

Add a status effect from a spell or condition

Select a token on the map, then load an entity that has a duration — a spell like Bless, for example. Instead of adding the entity to combat, the app creates a status effect on the selected token, with its name and duration filled in from the entity.

If the entity has no duration, the app says it cannot make a status effect from it. Deselect the token first if you meant to load the entity normally.

Place an area effect by loading it

With no token selected, loading an entity that has an area shape — Fireball, Cone of Cold — places that area effect on the map instead of adding a combatant.

See Drawing, Markers & Effects.

Give new tokens and effects artwork automatically

Add a module of artwork under Campaign Settings → Random Assets, and the app picks artwork from it when it creates:

• Tokens created by loading a creature or an encounter, or from a combatant’s menu.
• Area effects placed by loading a spell like Fireball.
• Auras added with a status effect.

An asset matches when its name or one of its tags equals the creature’s or effect’s name, ignoring case. When several match, one is picked at random — tag five goblin images goblin and a pack of goblins no longer all look alike.

A matching asset takes precedence over the creature’s own token image. When nothing matches, the token keeps the image from its entity as usual.

Pick a condition straight from the combatant menu

Touch and hold a combatant in the initiative list and open Status Effects. Besides New, the menu lists the conditions (and any other entities your game system offers there). Picking one opens the status effect form already filled in from it, so you only confirm.

The same context menu rolls initiative, makes the creature active, applies damage, and creates or deletes its token.

See Encounters & Combat.

Library and content

Drag an entity from the library onto the map

Drag a creature or any other entity from the library and drop it on the battle map. The app creates a token there, linked to that entity.

See Tokens.

Drop images from other apps onto the map

Drag an image from Files, Photos, Safari or any other app straight onto the battle map. The app adds it as an asset and places it, based on the layer you have selected:

• On the Token layer, it becomes a token using that image.
• On any other layer, it becomes a tile on that layer.

Drop images into a module or campaign

Drag images from Files, Photos or another app onto a module or campaign’s content list. Each one is added as an asset, ready to use as a token image or map tile.

See Assets.

Long press a dice roll in a stat block

Tapping a dice expression in a stat block or entity view rolls it. Long press it instead for more options:

• Roll Dice — the same as a tap.
• Advantage and Disadvantage for checks, or Critical Damage for damage rolls (D&D 5E compatible systems).
• Customize — opens the roll in the advanced dice roller so you can change it first.

See Dice & Roll Tables.

Tap an entity’s title to search the web

In most game systems, tapping the title at the top of an entity’s view starts a web search for its name.

Reorder and nest content by dragging

In a module or campaign, drag items to reorder them. Drop an item onto a group to move it inside.

Keyboard

With a hardware keyboard — an iPad keyboard or a Mac — the game screen responds to these keys:

Keys	Action
⌘ Return	Start or stop the encounter
⌘ ↓ or ⌘ →	Next turn
⌘ ↑ or ⌘ ←	Previous turn
↑ ↓ ← →	Move the selected token one grid square (one token at a time)
Esc	Close the open panel, or clear the map selection

Hold ⌘ on iPad to see the list in the app.

The number pads accept typing too:

Pad	Keys
Damage / healing	Digits enter the amount. Space switches between damage and healing. Delete removes a digit. Return applies, Esc cancels.
Initiative	Digits enter the value. Space flips the sign. Delete removes a digit. Return or Esc closes.
Dice roller	Digits, d, +, -, x, / build an expression. Delete removes the last part. Return rolls.