Encounter Tracking Sheets : Share yours

[Sinjin the Rogue]

Encounter tracker

"Do you have permission to share this program, or is it something your player is looking to distribute on a commercial basis?"

I don't have permission to do that, but I have told my friend about this thread and I know he is planning on posting to it. You'll have to see what he says.

 

[barsoomcore]

I use a plain black notebook. Each session, I write the names of all the PCs (and key NPCS) down the left margin, followed across the page with their init bonus, AC, Attack bonuses, Saves and hit points.

When a combat starts I grab a fresh page (or portion thereof) and write each combatants' name in a vertical column, highest initiative at the top and working down. Then I just make a tick for each character's turn, starting a new column for each round. If a spell or some other effect starts up and will last for x rounds, I put backticks out along the affected character's row. Like this:

Fred ' ' '
Frod ' '````
Frad ' '

This indicates that Fred has the highest initiative score, and that he's just taken his action for the third round of combat. Some effect targetted Frod last round, and he'll be under its influence for this round and the three following.

I don't bother to list the particular effect since there's usually not that many going on at once. The backtick just forms a reminder to me. I record damage on the main page with all the character stats.

It's pretty low-tech but it serves.

My problem with index cards is this: I get the having them in a stack and using that to order initiative, but isn't it a pain when, say, the first character in the stack does damage to the fourth monster, and then the sixth monster, and then casts a healing spell on the third character? Don't you have to pull out each card, make the notation and then put it back into the stack? That seems like a lot of hassle to me. But maybe I'm not getting it.

 

[phillipjp]

Re: Re: program

Wow. Just a little something he whipped up on a Thursday night huh?

Do you have permission to share this program, or is it something your player is looking to distribute on a commercial basis?

Hehe, I'm the author. Actually, the program started out as Excel spreadsheets and balloned over the past year through many iterations into the tool Sinjin described.

I've got no problem sharing it. Should be attached below -- if it worked... (You have to have IE 5.5 to run it, or download the latest XML engine from Microsoft.)

I don't have any instructions with it. (Sinjin and I were the only ones who ever used it.) But most of it should be self-explanatory. I made use of drag-drop, right-clicks and double-clicks, so if you don't know how to do something (like move encounters from the list to the combat tracker) try dragging, right-clicking or double clicking. The grids are a mess to work -- they are the default grid that comes with VB6. There's no insertion cursor, just click in the cell and type. You also have to be careful entering monsters -- sometimes if the XML is incomplete or has empty tags, the XML engine refuses to open it. If that happens, simply open the XML file and remove the last monster you tried to enter.

Two hints for entering NPCs:

Attacks should be entered on the grid like:

2 | Claws | +6/+1 | melee | 1d6+2
(The other option for type is "ranged")

The valid values for Special Attack/Quality Types are:
Sp
Su
Ex

I started this before e-Tools, so the XML is different from theirs. But, one of the items on the "to-do" list is convert it to e-Tools XML so you can import directly from their XML export.

I also plan on upgrading it using VB.Net -- that has some pretty complex XML-enabled controls that should make the interface much smoother.

If you have any questions, drop me a note: phillipjp@hotmail.com

 

[phillipjp]

Ok, attaching it didn't work. It's a 3mb file. And I have hotmail, so I can't email anything over 2mb. Suggestions?

 

[Sinjin the Rogue]

Can you zip it?

Can you zip up the file?

 

[phillipjp]

3mb IS zipped!

 

[megamania]

I tend to use a dry erase small board then any scrap of paper I happen to have about. Most notes are then organized in a three ring folder....organized by pile of course.

If ANY I stress ANY player trys to read my notes he'll first have to deside which pile and too a point- which version of said creature I am currently using.

I used to be very organized but now that we always play in my hobby room, it just dosen't seem to need to be as much.

 

[Sinjin the Rogue]

I e-mailed it from work

Phillip, I sent him the program from my office, so he should be able to get it.

Sinj

 

[Roland Delacroix]

Index cards. The PC's have all relevent stats, AC, HP, Spot, Listen, Sense Motive, etc. The NPC cards are full stat blocks, with spells and some gear on the back. Spells in effect are underlined and their effects on the stat block listed in brackets alonside the regular stat . I star spells that they are likely to favor, and make a few notes like WILL save (throw at armoured types with no holy symbol showing) and duration for the short spells (Hold Person, only 4 rounds-eek).

We roll initative and I put the cards in order. People holding their action get their card removed from the sequence, readied actions get their card flipped upside down. I have all the info I need in my hand ready to go so the only book i need to look at is PHB for some spell effects. I find this system works GREAT if the game cuts off in the middle of combat. I jot down positions on some 1" squares engineer paper and put a rubberbacnd around the notecards. Next week setup takes 30 seconds and there are no arguments about who was where, when they went, and so on.

 

[Sam]

My problem with index cards is this: I get the having them in a stack and using that to order initiative, but isn't it a pain when, say, the first character in the stack does damage to the fourth monster, and then the sixth monster, and then casts a healing spell on the third character? Don't you have to pull out each card, make the notation and then put it back into the stack? That seems like a lot of hassle to me. But maybe I'm not getting it.

Yeah, that's the way I do it. I guess I've gotten used to it. The cards work well for my group though. My players seem to ready & delay alot. Using the cards allows you to rearrange (without a whole bunch of lines & arrows) or pull a card out for a short period of time without messing up the whole order.