Initiative Tracker: Turn Order for Combat
Combat at a tabletop is a queue: who acts now, who is next, who has four hit points left and how many rounds that “stunned” still has to run. Most tables keep it in their heads or on a scrap of paper, and by round three the order falls apart. An initiative tracker keeps the queue for the GM: add heroes and monsters, press “Roll initiative” — a d20 plus modifier is rolled for everyone at once, the list sorts itself descending, and from there the fight runs on a single key.
How to run the fight
Type the heroes in by hand; start typing monsters and the bestiary fills in hit points, AC and the modifier. Give monsters a count and tick “player character” for the heroes.
One press and the order is ready. A single combatant can be re-rolled from its own card, and any number can be corrected right in the field.
Space or “Next” passes the turn, the current combatant is highlighted and the next one is named beside them. After the last one the order wraps, the round goes up and durations tick down.
The “−” and “+” buttons change hit points; “⋯” opens a card with conditions, a note and temporary hit points. Drag a combatant by the left edge to delay a turn.
Build the fight, roll initiative and run the rounds in one window
Conditions
Hit points, AC and Dexterity from the SRD 5.1 (Wizards of the Coast), licensed CC BY 4.0
What the tracker does
Who this is for
- A D&D 5e GM running a party against a pack of monsters without losing track of who acts.
- Remembering that a spell rides on concentration and that the poison has two rounds left.
- Untangling the order when half the table rolled the same initiative.
- Dropping a wave of reinforcements into the middle of a fight without rebuilding the order.
- Running combat in Pathfinder, Savage Worlds or any system with turns in order.
- Playing in person from a phone — and putting the order on a TV for the players.
What makes it different
Strong initiative trackers exist, but nearly all of them are English-only, ask for an account, and keep part of what they do behind a subscription. Everything here is open right away, in ten languages, and the SRD bestiary sits inside the name field itself. Mechanically: identical monsters share one roll by default — the rule hand-written tables usually lose; condition durations count down per round rather than per turn, so “three rounds” does not burn off in three activations; temporary hit points absorb damage before real ones; concentration drops on its own when a character falls to zero. The order is stored as one list from which the queue is derived on every render — which is why the highlight stays on whoever really acts after any number is edited. Initiative comes from crypto.getRandomValues with rejection sampling, the same way our Dice Roller works.
Frequently asked questions
What does this tool actually do?
It keeps the turn order in a tabletop combat. It knows who is acting and who is next, counts the rounds, holds every combatant’s hit points and clears conditions when their time is up — all the things a GM normally keeps in their head and on a scrap of paper.
Do I need an account?
No. The tool opens and works straight away, and the fight lives in the browser’s memory. Saved parties and the current fight sit on your device, not in an account.
Where do the monster hit points and AC come from?
From the SRD 5.1 — the open part of the D&D rules that Wizards of the Coast released under CC BY 4.0. The list holds 334 creatures. It fills in armour class, average hit points, hit dice and the Dexterity modifier; there are no full stat blocks here — this is quick entry, not a reference book.
How do I add five identical goblins?
Type “Goblin”, set the count to 5 and press “Add” — Goblin 1…5 appear. While “one roll for the group” is ticked all five share a single initiative, as the rules require; untick it if you want a roll each. “Roll hit points” gives every one of them its own total.
How do I delay a turn or ready an action?
Drag the combatant by the left edge of the row to a new place, or open “⋯” and press an arrow. The initiative value does not change — what the player rolled stays where it is.
Do conditions count themselves down?
Yes, if you give them a number of rounds. The counter drops once per round — that is, when the order comes back to the first combatant — so “3 rounds” is three full cycles, not three turns. At zero the condition clears and a notice appears.
What happens when a player character runs out of hit points?
The row is marked “dying”, concentration drops by itself, and six circles appear beside it — three successes and three failures for the death saves. Tap to mark them; healing above zero resets them.
Can I show the order to the players?
Yes. “Fullscreen” fills a monitor or a TV, and “Player screen” hides exact monster hit points — instead of numbers you see “unhurt”, “wounded” or “badly wounded”. Open the tracker in a second window and it updates along with the first.
Does the fight survive closing the tab?
Yes. The order, the round number, hit points and conditions save themselves in the browser’s memory. On another device the fight starts blank — to carry it over, copy the link: the address holds the whole roster.
Is it only for D&D?
No. “Roll initiative, sort descending, count rounds” is shared by many systems — Pathfinder, Savage Worlds and others. The condition list follows D&D fifth edition, but you can type any condition of your own, and any combatant by hand without the bestiary.
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