Getting started

DM’s Familiar assumes you already run your game somewhere else — a character-sheet app for your players’ sheets, a virtual tabletop for your maps. Both of those stay exactly where they are. What you’re setting up here is the third screen: the one holding the things neither of them has a place for. Supported today: D&D Beyond for sheets and Owlbear Rodeo for map scenes; see Connecting your other tools.

1 · Create the campaign

Sign in at app.dmfamiliar.com. Accounts are by invitation for now — there is no public sign-up yet, so if you don’t have one, request an invite and we’ll be in touch. Once you’re in, the campaign switcher in the header offers New campaign…. Name it whatever you actually call it at the table rather than something formal; the name sits in the header during play.

The same form takes the party’s current location, the in-game date and time of day, and the number your next session should have. All of it is optional and all of it can be changed later from the Campaign tab.

One campaign is active at a time. The switcher exists for between-session housekeeping, not for flipping mid-game — if you run two groups, treat them as two completely separate worlds, because that’s how the app treats them.

2 · Add your party

On the Players tab, press Add character. Only the name is required. Add AC and the three passive scores when you have the sheet open, along with the URL of the sheet itself if there is one, and the card fills in as you go. The whole party fits on one screen without scrolling, which is the point of the Players tab — see Adding your party for what’s on a card and what happens when the numbers drift.

3 · Write down what you’re carrying

This is the step people skip, and it’s the one that makes the app worth having. Sit for five minutes and empty your head into it:

• Every secret you’re holding about a player character — a lying patron, a forged debt, a backstory about to detonate. These go in the violet DM-only notes on their card.
• Every thread the party has left dangling, one line each, on the Campaign tab.
• The NPCs they’ll probably talk to next, with a note on what each one wants.

You don’t need to be thorough. Anything you forget will surface during play, and the fix is one keystroke away.

4 · Learn three keys

You can mouse around the whole app, but during play you’ll want these:

The full list is in Keyboard shortcuts. Single-letter keys never fire while your cursor is in a text field, so you can’t trigger anything by accident mid-note.

5 · Know where the rules are

The Reference tab (⌘5) is the digital DM-screen insert: every condition with its rules text, the difficulty-class ladder, cover and light, and the action economy for a turn. It’s static and it all fits on one screen, so it’s there when a player asks what Restrained actually does and you’d rather not open a sixth browser tab.