Run a fight

Start with order, not a speech

When violence is unavoidable, ask each player for an initiative roll: a d20 plus their dexterity modifier. Roll once for each group of identical opponents if you want less bookkeeping, or once per creature if the fight is small. Write the results from high to low. That list is the round. When the bottom of the list has acted, a new round starts at the top.

In Roll and Lore Screen, put everyone on the initiative tracker and let it hold the turn marker, hit points and conditions. Say the next name out loud every time. Players lose the fight when they lose track of whose moment it is, not when the armor class is slightly wrong.

Players who want the shape of their own turn can keep this page’s companion open: move, one action, maybe a bonus action, one reaction later.

Hit points are pacing

Hit points tell you how long a creature stays in the scene. They are not a medical chart. Tell the table the visible truth: unhurt, bloodied, barely standing, down. You do not have to announce the exact number unless the table likes that information.

Describe a change when a hit matters. “The shield cracks” is more useful than repeating “that hits” six times. When a creature would be boring for another two rounds, let it run, surrender, or fall. Ending a fight one round early is a kindness. Dragging it out so the last goblin can use its turn is not realism. It is dead air.

A player at 0 hit points is unconscious and in danger, not already dead. The table rolls death saves on that character’s turns until they stabilize, get healed, or fail three times. Mark those successes and failures on the sheet. Do not invent extra punishment while everyone is learning the procedure.

Conditions in one sentence

These are table reminders, not the full rule text. If a feature quotes a longer definition, use that definition. Otherwise this is enough to keep playing.

• Prone. They are on the ground. Standing costs half their movement. Attacks against them from nearby are easier; attacks from far away are harder.
• Grappled. Something is holding them. Their speed is 0 until they break free or the holder lets go. They can still attack.
• Restrained. They can barely move. Attacks against them are easier, their attacks are harder, and dexterity saves are harder.
• Blinded. They cannot see. They have trouble hitting, and attacks against them are easier.
• Frightened. They cannot willingly move closer to the source of the fear, and they have trouble acting while they can see it.
• Poisoned. Their attacks and ability checks are harder.
• Incapacitated. They take no actions or reactions.
• Stunned or paralyzed. They are incapacitated, fail strength and dexterity saves, and attacks against them are easier. A hit from within 5 feet on a paralyzed creature is a critical hit.
• Unconscious. They drop what they hold, cannot move or sense the scene, and fall prone. Hits from beside them are critical.

Put the condition on the tracker next to the name. Remove it when the duration ends or someone spends their action to help. Do not make a player remember a penalty you did not write down.

After the last blow

Ask what they do with the room before you narrate the loot. Then give them something concrete: a key, a name, a wound that will matter at the next rest. Update hit points on the character sheets, clear conditions that were only for the fight, and write one line in the session note about who went down and what the table decided.

If you are preparing the next scene rather than the fight itself, go back to one place, one problem, one secret.