ScryMaster Docs

Dungeon Master Guide

Everything you need to run a live table — the quick-action menu and slash commands, combat from staging to the battle report, scenes on the scrying display, homebrew, loot, rests, the calendar, and the snags that trip DMs up. Prefer to learn by doing? Open the DM console and take the guided tour from the Home tab.

The ⚡ quick-action menu & slash commands

The ⚡ button (bottom-left) is your speed-dial on any live-table screen — the Party roster and the DM console. It’s DM-only and never shows on the player display. It holds 🎲 Force Roll, 🌙 Long Rest, 🔒 Session (lock / co-DM), 🔇 Stop Music, and ⌘ Commands.

The command palette is the fastest way to run table actions without hunting through menus. Press / anywhere in a session to open it (toggle it in Settings → DM tools). It parses as you type, with a preview and a ? help button listing every command:

  • /perception all · /stealth syles+wido — skill checks (a group like all, party, allies, enemies, or names)
  • /save dex syles dc15 — saving throws · /str syles — raw ability checks
  • /damage gloomfang 8 fire — apply damage (a name with a space like Syles Grimblade is matched whole; the grey ghost text shows the completion — Tab or → accepts)
  • /prone gloomfang — apply a condition · /initiative all — players roll initiative · /roll 2d6 show — roll, optionally on the table · /battle Goblin Ambush — launch a saved battle

Everything you type only sends a request — the DM console remains the single authority that changes combat, so all your screens stay in sync.

Rolls, checks & initiative

Ask a player to roll from ⚡ → Force Roll (pick players — none are pre-selected — a Save/Skill/Ability, an optional DC, and advantage/disadvantage) or from the palette. The player gets a prompt on their sheet; they roll the 3D die or type a raw d20 and the total is computed and explained (“+5 = DEX +3, proficient +2”). Results come back to your 🔔 bell.

Initiative works the same way: /initiative all prompts the players; their 2024 modifiers — DEX, proficiencies, and even a homebrew item that boosts initiative — apply automatically, and the result sets their place in the order. Monster initiative auto-rolls when a fight starts, or roll it from the combat screen.

House rules: crit calculation

In the Combat tracker, expand “▸ crit rules”:

  • Crit rule — Double dice (2024 RAW), Max + roll, Double total, or Brutal (double dice plus extra weapon dice).
  • Crit range — the lowest d20 that crits (20 = nat-20 only; 19 = crit on 19–20, …).

The choice applies to every weapon roll in the encounter — and solo play uses the identical crit engine.

Staging a combat

  1. Open the Combat tab. Pick which party members are in the fight — no one is pre-selected; “Whole party” adds everyone at once.
  2. Add foes from the SRD/homebrew picker (search by CR, add multiples) or quick-add an unnamed creature (name, AC, HP, ×qty).
  3. Toggle each combatant hidden/revealed, and set or auto-roll initiative.
  4. Start Combat — enemy initiative auto-rolls; players roll their own (/initiative all).

Save a setup to reuse it. “Save setup” stores the foes as a named encounter. Later, drop it on the table with /battle <name> or /battle b1 — it loads the foes and rolls enemy initiative. It refuses if a fight is already active or staged, so a live encounter is never clobbered.

Applying damage & conditions

On a combatant’s row: enter an amount, pick a damage type, and pick the source, then −HP (damage, respecting resistances/vulnerabilities) or +HP (heal). Or use the palette: /damage gloomfang 8 fire. Situational sources resolve to a real type — /damage syles 8 fall becomes 8 bludgeoning (tagged “fall”), because falling isn’t a damage type. Conditions apply with /prone gloomfang or the condition chips.

⚠ Always set a damage type and source. If you don’t, the Battle Report can’t attribute it and shows “no attributed damage was recorded”.

Pushing a Long Rest

⚡ → 🌙 Long Rest rests one character or the whole party. It restores HP and all Hit Dice, refreshes spell slots and class resources, clears death saves, and zeroes temp HP — updating each sheet live (2024 rules). A character in an active or paused fight is skipped with a reason (end the encounter first); a downed 0-HP character can’t long rest until stabilized.

Gifting & removing items

From a combatant’s inspector or the Party tab, open the Give / take modal. It has three tabs:

  • Items — “Carrying” lists what they hold (Take ✕); “Give an item” filters by category + search.
  • Currency — give or take PP/GP/EP/SP/CP; it posts to their coin ledger.
  • Abilities — grant or remove spells/abilities.

Add an optional note (“Found in the dragon’s hoard”) — the player gets a notification. Timed status effects (Cursed, Inspired…) are applied in combat via the ⏳ effects, not here.

Scenes & the scrying display

The Display tab authors what players see out of combat. Freeze the display to edit without players watching, then pick a Title or Location card, write the header/flavor (supports {{bindings}} like {{date}}), choose a background from Assets, and raise “Image dim” or add a contrast bar so text stays readable. Link a music track to play it when the scene shows.

Sizing per monitor: the scrying screen has a 📐 control (and the console can nudge it) with presets (Monitor 16:9 / Ultrawide 21:9 / Small), a zoom, and a fit mode — so a map that fills a big TV also fits a small ultrawide without cropping. Use the ⛶ button (or double-click) for fullscreen.

Resolving combat: the Battle Report, save vs. trash

Click the red End in the tracker. The Battle Report shows damage dealt/taken, healing, and MVPs, and HP commits back to the sheets. Then:

  • Save to history — writes the battle (with its report) to the History tab to browse or print later.
  • Close without saving — the record is discarded (kept only in memory, lost on refresh). Starting a fresh encounter auto-archives the previous ended one so you don’t lose it by accident.
  • Pick a “Next screen” scene and Close & show to move the table off the report — if the display is still showing the battle, the console warns you so the two never drift apart.

The calendar

The Calendar card tracks the in-world date. Advance −1/+1 day, +1 week, or jump a custom amount, or set the current date directly. Configure days-per-week, weekday names, the month list, and a year label (e.g. “DR”). It persists with the campaign, and you can show it in scenes with {{date}}.

Session notes

Session notes export from the Campaign Hub (not the live console). Choose which characters (or party-wide) and an optional date range, then export to Word, PDF, or Markdown — or save to Google Drive as a Doc (handy for running Gemini over your notes).

Homebrew anything

The 🛠 Create tab is one unified authoring hub: Creatures (monsters), Gear (weapons, items), Powers (abilities, spells, effects, masteries, feats), Character Options (classes, species, backgrounds, rules), and Loot & Handouts (loot cards, the card designer). Everything is saved to your campaign and badged HOMEBREW where players pick it.

When building a monster action, watch the engine status dot: green = the engine can run it as a real attack; amber/red = the prose can’t be parsed, so the action is display-only. Fill in the structured fields (to-hit, damage, save ability/DC) to turn it green.

Inviting players — and why a “preview” QR won’t resolve

Party tab → Invite players → Generate invite link (it copies to your clipboard). Send the link or show its QR; the player opens it, signs in, and lands in your campaign. Invites are single-use and expire in 7 days.

⚠ Generate invites from the real site, scrymaster.com. A link made on a Vercel preview deployment points at that preview — a different database — so a player on the real site gets “campaign not found”. If a QR won’t resolve, check the URL’s domain: it must be scrymaster.com, not a preview-…vercel.app address.

Removing a player

Open Members & characters → find the player under Members → Expel. Their characters stay in the campaign; set each to Active/Claimable (another player can take it), Locked, or Archived. To revoke a co-DM’s console access, use ⚡ → 🔒 Session.

Building adventures too? See Build your first story →