Do Rounds Tutorial

This page will give you a step-by-step tour through using Do Rounds to manage your D&D 5e encounters.

Starting Out

The first thing that you should notice is the Encounter List. It will show all of the encounters that you have defined and allow you to switch between them. Note that there is always an encounter called 'New...' which you can edit and change the name of.

the top-most part of the Do Rounds main page, with the Encounter List selection box highlighted — The Do Rounds Encounter List

To change the name to something useful — or to rename an existing encounter — click the 'Edit' button and set the name to what you like. Then, hit the Enter key to save your change.

Let's create an Encounter called 'Players.' Here, we will record the player characters: Joe, who has 34 HP, 14 AC and +4 to hit; Tom, who has 38 HP, 16 AC, +4 to hit; Paul, who has 40 HP, 16 AC and +4 to hit, and Maryanne, who has 30 HP, 14 AC and +4 to hit.

Enter Joe's information, then hit the + button, which will add a new, blank line below:

One line filled in, with the plus button highlighted — Adding players to the encounter

Repeat the process for the remaining players:

Four lines filled in — All players added to the encounter

Next, hit your browser's Reload button. Yes, really, try it. You'll see that all of your data is still there. Do Rounds automatically saves your data at every change, so you will never need to worry about losing work because you forgot to save.

Now, let's create an encounter with some monsters for our players to battle. Since we will not want to have to add the player information again, let's make a new encounter by copying this one. Hit the downward-pointing arrow button that is next to the Encounter List:

This is the Encounter Clone button, and it will make a new copy of the currently selected Encoutner with a new name:

The Encounter List select box is open, showing a new Encounter called Copy of Players — A copy of the Encounter called 'Players'

Select the new encounter, and rename it to 'Goblin Clan Battle.' Now, we need to add some monsters to the Encounter. Press the plus button on the last line to get a new, blank line, and add Goblin 1, who has 10 HP, 12 AC and +4 to hit. Next, instead of hitting the plus button to get a new blank line, try hitting the downward-pointing arrow on that line.

A line filled out with information about Goblin 1, with the Clone to New Line button highlighted — There are always goblins

Like the similar icon above, this button will clone the current line, saving you from doing extra typing. Hit the CLone to New Line button again, and now you have three Goblins, ready to go:

Three new lines for three different Goblins — Goblins...goblins everywhere

You'll notice that you did not have to rename the two cloned Goblins; since it is very common for encounters to have more than one instance of common types of monsters, Do Roll will automatically increment any number that it finds at the end of a name.

When it is time to play out the encounter, you'll have the players roll d20s for their initiative scores. Let's say that Joe got 11, Tom 13, Paul 16 and Maryanne 8. If you would like to save yourself the time and tedium of rolling and entering the goblins' initiative scores, just hit the 'Auto-roll' button, and any remaining blank initiative scores will be filled in for you:

Four players and three monsters — All lines are ready to go

One last step before we start the encounter: it is definitely preferable to have the participants in order of descending initiative score. Hit the button with an up and down arrow, the 'Sort Lines' button, and the list will be sorted for you:

Now, your encounter is all ready to begin play:

A grid of seven enounter participants, sorted from highest to lowest initiative score — Sorted and ready to play

Playing the encounter

To begin playing the encounter, hit the 'Start' button:

You will notice that some elements on the page change. The text 'Round 1' appears on the top line. The number will increase as you step through all of the encounter's participants. Also, a left-facing arrow will appear along the right side of the grid to indicate which player currently has their turn. Finally, each line has an X button at the end; pressing it will indicate that the participant is no longer able to take turns, being dead or unconcious:

In Play mode, with the round number, current turn indicator and disabled button highlighted — The Encounter in Play mode

You can press the spacebar to move from the current participant to the next, and after you get to the last one, the Round number will increment, and play will return to the top of the list. If any participants are disable, they will be skipped over.

You can also use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to change the number of hit points that the currently participant has. On the first line, hit the down arrow five times, indicating that Paul has taken 5 points of damage:

The hit points column is highlighted and is now five fewer than before — Damage taken

Of course, you can always diretly manipulate the value in the HP field &mdesh; by typing in a number or using the up and down arrows in the field — at any time, regardless of whose turn it currently is.

You can revise the Round number by clicking the pencil icon. Change the number to what it ought to be and the hit Enter:

Changing the Round number by clicking on the pencil icon — Modify the Round number

Finally, you can delete an Encounter with the trash can icon: