Evan Bailey posts
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The 2025 Statblock Importer is here!
Hello DMs,I'm excited to share an update for the D&D Beyond Statblock Importerthat now supports the new format from the 2024 Basic Rules and Monster Manual. The Statblock Importer is a browser extension that is available for Chrome or Firefox, and is provided as a benefit for Epic Tier patrons. It can import free monsters from the Basic Rules, homebrew statblocks, as well as any monsters you have paid for from D&D Beyond.The whole extension has been rebuilt on a new framework to support recent changes in browser extension requirements, and ...
Improved Initiative Tips: Tracking Spells and Limited Actions
Hello DMs,In Improved Initiative, you can track the Spellcasting slots, as well as uses of Daily and Recharge actions, for each combatant. I've gotten a few questions recently about how this works, especially with respect to Charactersvs. Creatures.These trackers are controlled in the Notessection for each Combatant. You'll notice that you can add custom trackers for anything you like with the simple [x/y] format.When you add a Creature Stat Blockto an encounter, it will create a new Combatantwith their Notespre-populated with relevant ...
Epic Holiday Discounts and Gifting
Hello DMs,I'm excited to offer a few promotions that Patreon has enabled just in time for the holidays.If you've been waiting for the right moment to subscribe to a paid tier, you can use the Promo code EPICYEAR at checkout to get an additional 20% off of an annual Epic Tier subscription! The promotion is active until January 1st.If you're looking for the perfect gift for another DM, consider giving them a Gift Membership to the app. Annual plans will get the base 10% off, but Patreon doesn't allow promo codes to be used on gift...
Improved Initiative v3.11: Duplicate Combatant
Hello GMs,Here's a small update for Improved Initiative. There are a lot of technical changes behind the scenes, and I've added a feature that you might find useful. Duplicate Combatantcan be enabled on the Commands tab in the Settings pane. You can use it to copy a combatant after you've used quick add, or made ad-hoc changes to its StatBlock.The app is currently undergoing a backend migration that should improve server performance and address the occasional flakiness we see on busy weekends. Two things to watch out for- if you hav...
Paragon Campaign Dashboard: Campaign Management
Hello GMs,Here's a big new feature set for Paragon Campaign Dashboard. I've used PCD for several different campaigns since I launched the app, so I needed a way to better organize my cards and dashboards.If you're pledged at the Epic Tier and logged into Paragon Campaign Dashboard, you can use the Campaigns sidebar to create and manage campaigns. Cards and dashboards created outside of a campaign will be part of the "default campaign". Once a campaign is active, you'll only see items that are part of the active campaign ...
Improved Initiative v3.10: Dark Mode
Hello DMs,I'm excited to share with you the much requested Dark Mode for Improved Initiative. This update cleans up some styling, and refactors the stylesheet pretty extensively. There may be some changes that affect your Player View CSS.You can enable Dark Mode from the Options tab in the Settings pane. There are separate options for Encounter View and Player View.Partnership with Power Word SpillImproved Initiative has sponsored a few videos for Power Word Spill, a YouTube channel with excellent video content to level up your D&D game. I&...
Improved Initiative v3.9: Preloaded Content Settings
Hello DMs,Here's a small update for Improved Initiative. The main change is the new Content tab on the Settings pane, where you can configure which Open5e sources will be loaded. As more sources are added to Open5e I've seen some requests for this functionality.There are a few other optimizations and bugfixes: Fixed some issues with Automatic Initiative Rerolls Adjusted logins to last for four weeks instead of one Improved performance of the Library Manager UI Show fancier loading indicator for Statblock and Spell previewsEnjoy!
Improved Initiative 3.8: Reaction Tracker
Hello DMs,Hope you're well! Here's an update for Improved Initiative. I took some time off this summer, I hope you've all been able to play a lot of RPGs recently. I've been playing a lot of Baldur's Gate 3, and it inspired me to build this Reaction Tracker feature for the combat tracker.You can enable the indicator on the Options tab on the Settings pane. There is also a Combatant Command (and Hotkey) you can enable on the Commands tab. A Combatant with a spent Reaction will automatically recover it when their turn begins.T...
Improved Initiative 3.7: Library enhancements and fixes
Hello GMs,Here's a small update for Improved Initiative. I added the ability to sort the Creatures library by recently used. It will start tracking your 100 most recently used StatBlocks, so you can quickly find your most common monsters.I also fixed a few issues with how the grouping options work. Grouping by CR and Type will work more consistently, and the button now shows a tooltip to help orient you.Video TutorialsI've been teaching myself some basic video editing with the intent of making some tutorial videos for advanced features ...
Try Epic Tier one week for free!
Hello DMs,Our friends at Patreon have enabled free trials, so I am now offering a free week of Epic Tier. If you're a free user, or are only on Account Sync, you're welcome to try it out and see how you like the benefits.Epic Tier provides collaboration features for Improved Initiative and Paragon Campaign Dashboard. You'll also get access to the D&D Beyond StatBlock Importer.
Improved Initiative 3.4: More Preloaded Statblocks
This one's a freebie! Our friends over at the Open5e API added two new sourcebooks to their Monster catalog, the Monstrous Menagerie and the Tome of Beasts 3. I had to push a small update to tolerate the sheer size of this bestiary! Apologies if you recently saw some statblocks missing from the preloaded libraries.There are also a handful of refactorings and bugfixes also included in this update. Feel free to let me know if anything seems weird.Take care!
Paragon Dashboard: Card Templates
Hello GMs,With Paragon Campaign Dashboard, you might find yourself making copies of the same kind of Article card for locations, encounters, or characters. This new feature allows you to save a card as a Template to quickly make new ones like it. You can manage your Templates in the App Settings pane.I've also made a few quality of life improvements and visual tweaks. Keep the feedback coming!New official Improved Initiative DomainIn case you missed it, the official domain for Improved Initiative has changed. The app is now located at https...
New official URL for Improved Initiative
Hello GMs,Improved Initiative has a new official URL! The app can now be accessed at https://improvedinitiative.app/.The old URL is still down for now. Azure support tells me I'm looking at mid-March for a resolution so I decided to take the opportunity to move on to a shorter url with no hyphen and a more "modern" TLD.I'll push an update to the D&D Beyond Importer Extension to update the default target URL. If you're having any difficulty recovering or migrating your data, check out the workarounds post.Thanks for your pati...
Outage update and data workaround
Hello DMs,The outage of the official URL, improved-initiative.com, is still ongoing. Based on my conversations with Azure support last week it could be a while longer, or I might get lucky and it could be sorted next week.In the meantime, instead of sitting on my hands, I wanted to share a couple of workarounds in case you're having difficulty with account sync or the backup URL.The backup URL can still be accessed at https://improved-initiative.herokuapp.com/. If you've been using account sync, you'll be able to seamlessly access y...
Outage at improved-initiative.com
Hello Patrons,I wanted to give you a heads up that we're experiencing an outage at the official website address improved-initiative.com. This happened because I mistakenly let the domain lapse. Amateur mistake! My sincere apology if this affects your game.In the meantime, you can access the app at https://improved-initiative.herokuapp.com/ and you can log in with Patreon in order to access your Account Sync data there. Unfortunately if you have data that was only in local storage it's stuck until I can get the official domain back up.I&...
Improved Initiative Tips: Spellcasting and Ability Tracking
Hello GMs,Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed a pleasant holiday season. I have been focusing on my mental health and spending time with my family recently.Spellcasting and Daily Ability "Bean Counters"Improved Initiative can track spellcasting, daily ability usage, and more. The way to configure this isn't obvious but the feature is powerful. I've included some screenshots and details.You can add a numeric tracker to any Combatant with the Update Persistent Notes Command. You can enable this Command on the Commands tab in the Se...
PCD October updates: Frame Card, Dashboard URLs and More
Hello GMs,I've been incrementally adding new features to Paragon Campaign Dashboard over the last couple of months. Here are some highlights.Web Frame CardEmbed an iframe element in a card pointing at a URL of your choice. Experimental- many websites don't support iframes, but you can use it to, for instance, embed an Improved Initiative Player View in a card.App SettingsThe App Settings pane can be opened from the right corner menu. Right now you can pick which card types to include in the New Card menu.Dashboard URLsEach dashboard is ...
Improved Initiative 3.3.0: Combatant Colors, New Tiers
Hello GMs,I have lots of news for you, and a small feature update for Improved Initiative.Combatant ColorsThe Combatant Color widget will allow you to quickly assign a color to any combatant. This is useful if you're using color coded tokens on a battle map, for instance. You can enable this feature on the Encounter View and Player View by visiting the Options tab in the Setting pane. This feature was suggested by Victor Navone. Thanks Victor!New Tiers Incoming!This Patreon campaign has been running with its current tier structure since 201...
Paragon Campaign Dashboard + Excalidraw
Hello GMs,I have an exciting Paragon Campaign Dashboard update to share. Here's what's new:Drawing Card Use a variety of drawing tools to sketch maps, drawings, and more. This new feature is powered by Excalidraw! This feature is somewhat experimental, let me know if you encounter bugs.Clock Card Details You can use the vertical detail view to record notes at each tick of a Clock card.Epic Tier patrons can make their cards fully interactable in the Player View. This should be especially valuable for the new Drawing card. As always, I...
Paragon Campaign Dashboard: Dice Card Improvements and Custom Colors
Hello GMs,This month I added a few new features to Paragon Campaign Dashboard.Dice Card You can now configure the Quick Rolls that appear on the card If you make a Dice Card interactable in Player View, you'll see the name of the player who rolled diceCard Colors If you're signed in with your Patreon account at the Epic Tier, you can use a full color picker to customize your card colors.Image Card Image card can now accept an image pasted from your clipboard.There are also handful of smaller UI tweaks and improvements.Enjoy!
Paragon Campaign Dashboard: Card Colors and PDF Cards
Hello GMs,I hope you've had a chance to try Paragon Campaign Dashboard! I'd love to hear about other apps that you use to do session prep for your own games, and how you take notes during play. I know pencil and paper still reign supreme for this for lots of folks, and that's a high bar to meet!Paragon Campaign Dashboard now supports a few preset card colors for each of your cards. I'm planning to add more customization options soon just for Patrons. There's also a new card type: PDF Cards can display a page from a PDF for e...
Big update for Paragon Campaign Dashboard
Hello GMs, DMs, MCs et cetera!Happy New Year! I'm excited to share a pretty big update for Paragon Campaign Dashboard (PCD). PCD is a powerful, highly customizable virtual DM screen that you can use for any tabletop RPG.I've been working on this on and off for a couple of months, and I've deployed several of these changes as quiet updates without any Patreon post attached. Here's what's new: Color theme overhaul Article Cards now support rich Markdown editing New Ledger Card type helps you track values that change over time,...
v3.2: Mythic Actions and bonus OGL Content
Hello DMs,Improved Initiative 3.2 is now available. Here are the highlights:Mythic Actions are now supported, including when you import D&D Beyond Statblocks such as Mythic dragons in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.Bonus Actions can now be placed in their own section. This is not a feature of published statblocks, but you can use it for your homebrew.Bonus OGL Content! Thanks to the Open5e API, Improved Initiative now includes statblocks from the Creature Codex and Tome of Beasts, two third-party books that have released their content under t...
Improved Initiative 3.0 is here!
Hello DMs,I am thrilled to share the 3.0 update of Improved Initiative with you. This update features the new Library Manager UI. The Library Manager provides a way to apply bulk actions to your saved items in Improved Initiative. It will exist alongside the "classic" experience, which is now called Library Reference.There are three bulk actions- Move, Delete, and Export. You can export a batch of your library items as a single JSON file. There is also a new editor for saved encounters.There are so many other small changes and refactori...
Improved Initiative 3.0 Preview now available on the Dev Preview
Hello Patrons!It's finally time for me to share a sneak peek at what I've been working on for the last few months. Improved Initiative 3.0 features the new Library Manager. The Library Manager provides a way to apply bulk actions to your saved items in Improved Initiative. It will exist alongside the "classic" experience, which is now called Library Reference.To try the Library Manager, visit the Dev Preview.There are three bulk actions- Move, Delete, and Export. You can export a batch of your library items as a single JSON file...
Paragon Campaign Dashboard: Account Sync, Sharable Dashboards and more!
Hello GMs,I hope you all have been having a peaceful 2021 so far. Here's what's new with Paragon Campaign Dashboard this month:Account Sync is now enabled if you're signed in with Patreon. It's a bit experimental, so let me know if you notice any weird issues.If a Dashboard has more than one Rollable Table card, you'll see a Roll All Tables button along the top bar for one-click convenience.Finally, you can now Share your Dashboards for use by other GMs. This is different from the Player View, as the a Shared Dashboard isn&#...
December Bonus: Quick Edit Combatant
Hello GMs!I've published a small update to Improved Initiative that includes a frequently requested feature. The new Quick Edit Combatant command lets you make quick ad-hoc adjustments to a combatant's Name, Max HP, and AC, without the need to open the whole Statblock Editor. There are also some minor bugfixes and quality-of-life enhancements for the app.I have enabled Annual Subscriptions for this Patreon campaign at all tiers. If you choose to subscribe for a year right now, you'll get two months free. Now's a great time if yo...
December Update: Paragon Interactable Cards
Hello GMs,I hope you're all well this holiday season. I've released an update for Paragon Campaign Dashboard with a handful of additions: Search Box on Cards Tab Radial Display for Clock Cards Each Dashboard gets its own Player View URL Login with Patreon Patrons with Epic Initiative can make cards interactable in Player ViewClicking the Eye icon will cycle a card between hidden / visible / interactable on the player view. As always, your feedback on Paragon is especially welcome right now as I get the UI figured out; some of the iconog...
October Update: Multiple Dashboards
Hello GMs,I hope you've been enjoying the spooky month of October. I've been having a blast running a Blades in the Dark game for my regular group.Paragon Campaign Dashboard now supports multiple dashboards. You can use the new Dashboards sidebar to add, remove, and switch between dashboards. Each dashboard will have its own layout of cards from your library, and each card in your library can be displayed on multiple dashboards. I hope you'll find this behavior useful and intuitive.Getting Account Sync working for Paragon is high on...
September Update: Drag & Drop Initiative
Hello DMs,I've been busy this month! I've made progress on various projects. Here's what's new:Improved Initiative now supports rearranging combat initiative via drag-and-drop. This long-requested feature was surprisingly tough to implement!Paragon Campaign Dashboard has a few bugfixes and quality-of-life improvements. Collaboration features are coming along but not ready for prime-time yet, as well as some form of Account Sync.Longwave is now part of a larger collection of online party games called rocketcrab.com. This is a col...
