D&D Encounter Runner UI


Prototypes using Adobe XD & Unity will come soon!


After running multiple encounters for my D&D group with the greatly useful Improved Initiative I grew frustrated and dissatisfied with its user interface.

This project was born out of that frustration.

The tablet app will be a Dungeons & Dragons full encounter builder where users can store creatures and spells, as well as run encounters.

Paper Designs

Scenes Position & transition

Scene transition scheme.

App's scene structure.

Library Scene

This is the secondary scene of the app. Here the user can store creatures, players, and spells as well as building encounters out of those creatures.

Adding color for main panels differentiation & finalizing first prototype.

Adding functionality notes & tracing.

Library scene prototype.

Encounter Run Scene

This is the main scene of the app. Here, you can run the encounters that you created on the "Library Scene". The yellow panel houses the selected monster reference with automated links for ability rolls, spell reference, and status reference. The blue panel shows the main stats for the selected creature at the top, and the list of creatures from the encounter. The green panel has access for all the manual dice rolls. Finally, the red panel is for calculations result and history.

Adding color for main panels differentiation & finalizing first prototype.

Adding functionality notes & tracing.

Revisions/suggestions from colleague.

Feedback implementation.

First go at the Encounter Run Scene layout.

Closing the concept.

Although truly useful, this Dungeon Master's tool UI has much to be desired. Since all panels are strictly tied to their positions, there is too much wasted space. The readability of the Selected Combatant is awful, it is difficult to click the dice roll links, you have to scroll constantly, and the "Log in with Patron" banner cannot be turned off, hiding the last lines of the creature's description. The monster stat block is not displayed in the same way of the source material, making it confusing to regular readers.

I use this website mostly for the automated rolls and the creature reference, but I had enough. So, a colleague and I decided to create an app that would address all my gripes with the tool.

This is Improved Initiative...