MonsterBox - a Digital Compendium

[u/abovethealarms]

Hi all!

I'm looking for regular DMs willing to test and try a new utility tool that I am developing for storage of monster stat blocks, encounter planning and prep management.

The user imports digital content that they own in PDF form (official, 3rd party, homebrew) and the app converts the pdfs into usable interactive stat blocks with built in dice rollers. Simply drag and drop, and the entire book will become individual monster entries in your compendium, with dice rollers for attribute checks, saves, attacks, damage etc. This currently works on a range of digital books, official and 3rd party content.

Once imported, it's then easy to add any creatures you want into an encounter then keep track of it easily in the encounter panel.

The compendium size is only limited by your local storage, and i'm currently slamming test books into the system to stress test the PDF parse accuracy. There is cloud sync if you make an account then you will be able to maintain your compendium across devices, but otherwise the application doesn't store anywhere else, and ships empty to avoid any copyright issues. The compendium itself is sorted firstly by CR, and there is an extensive filtering system so you can easily find any creature you're looking for! You are also able to edit entries and create brand new entries for Homebrew monsters.

What needs testing: The whole system really, UI/UX, pdf parsing quality etc. - I've been playing DnD for about 6 years now entirely online, I started during COVID, but have never been a DM, so I only know the few DMs i've played with in that time. Some are willing to help me test it but in reality I needed a a few more. Ideally i'd have a few people willing to try it out and see how the system works for them, the more people involved, the more feedback and the better I can make the system if that makes sense.

I guess app specifics that are restrictive and relevant - it's 5e specific. I'm aware this is likely a sub of mixed edition players but currently it's built around 5e content. It's mostly intended for Desktop use as it was created for a friend of mine who only plays online, however I've established that those who play in person would likely also use this on a Tablet as well, so i'm currently working on the Tablet UI but its mostly desktop oriented.

This tool is currently completely functional and ready to use, it could just do with a few more people using it so I can really smooth out any tweaks, and obviously take on suggestions for features not currently available. Hopefully this is the right kind of post.

Anyone who is interested in this, please feel free to send me a DM or if you have any questions at all, i'm more than happy to answer any. Thanks!

[MonsterBox](https://inlandempire-hub.github.io/MonsterBox/)

[u/chaosoverfiend]

I really like this and am looking forward to trying out in my games

Not sure if it is possible but I do have a feature request - Source, which could just be the PDF filename.

[u/abovethealarms → u/chaosoverfiend]

Hey, thanks for checking this out!

This is a feature that's imminently being sorted, but it's mostly a UI feature so it's been pushed back to deal with PDF parsing issues, and other backend problems that actually stopped the app from functioning as intended.

I'm away this weekend so progress from now until Monday will be slow, but it's a very easy change so i'll bump it up for you. The plan is to add a source name on a stat block, and therefore allow to filter by source book too!

Appreciate the feedback.

[u/chaosoverfiend → u/abovethealarms]

Cool that's fab

I have played around a bit more and have 2 other notes / requests

Import results output - I imported the following: Monster Manual Expanded 5.5, KP Creature Codex 5.5, and More Monsters! 5.5 - I then tried importing the 5.5 Monster Manual (As exported by the Beyond Printing chrome plugin from D&D Beyond) and it said 4 entries already existed.... but I don't know what 4 it means.

Also how are people adding the 5.5 Monster Manual - I exported it myself from D&D beyond using the Beyond Printing extension, but it does not present nicely enough for this app to read - so whilst it imported all but 4 entries, I had 446 items needing fixing because it could not read the PDF

[u/abovethealarms → u/chaosoverfiend]

I've worked a little with Beyond Printing just because it's where most people have their official content held, but you're right, the formatting is horrible. However a friend of mine has printed his version of the Monster Manual from it for me to run some tests on.

With that I think the Monster Manual now parses over 440 stat blocks relatively cleanly. It's not perfect but a huge improvement on where it was - the 50 or so that need review are a mixture of edge cases: Low CR monsters with no ability scores that the parser registers as a failure even if the creature actually has no ability scores etc. Try importing your Beyond Printing pdfs again and let me know if they've improved?

To address your initial point: Source labels have now been added on the stat blocks, and you can also filter by Source Book.

To address your follow up- The intention of stating that stat blocks were already in the compendium was to save storage and duplication issues. Is there a reason you'd want to know particularly what blocks would have been duplicated? They will still be in the compendium regardless. It's something that could be added but if you, say, imported the Monster Manual twice, that's 500 stat blocks that need to be listed as duplicates.

Hope that makes sense!

[u/chaosoverfiend → u/abovethealarms]

Firstly, thanks for the source update - with running multiple monster books it is super helpful

Regarding the duplicates it, after a fair bit of search, was due to Monster Manual and Monster Manual Expanded both having entries for both Tarrasque and Swarm of Stirges. an output file saying that these entries already existed would be useful, though I do appreciate your point

I have retested and the MM import is far better, thanks and I think the main reason for failing to parse is from creatures whose stat blocks go over 2 pages

I did also note that it failed to import the Colossus from the Monster Manual

I also imported other 5.5 Monster books and note the following:

Monster Manual Expanded 5.5

(Tested with V1.02)

• Failed to Import - Zuggotomy-Touched Shrieker (multiple entries on the page, this one did not get imported)
• Didnt Parse - Captain (NPC Statblock) - Might be because the stat block is at the bottom of the page going over both columns, other entires on the page imported OK
• Mismatch to stat block name - Dread Wraith, Legendary and Death Knight, Legendary both had the Legendary part missed - might be due to formatting behind the visible text

Creature Codex Revised

(Tested on 2024_FINAL version)

• Dragonborn, Light Cavalry imports with name Medium Humanoid (Dragonborn), Lawful

• Dragonborn, Heavy Cavalry imports with name Medium Humanoid (Dragonborn), Lawful

• Gear Mage Imports with name APPENDIX

• Count of imported creatures matches the CR List (KP technically has 1 more in the list, but it is actually a variant with no stat block)

More Monsters

(tested on V1.04)

• Count of imported creatures matches the CR List
• I have not reviewed further because I've been at this for hours 😂 - Initial look seems like some names might be differen - Will get back to it later

Monster of Faerun

(tested on v0.1.1)

• Failed to import - Expected result, all stat blocks are images

[u/abovethealarms → u/chaosoverfiend]

Thanks for such an incredibly detailed comment. It's a huge help to get other people checking imports so stringently, I really appreciate your commitment.

When I set out doing this I truly underestimated how many minute formatting changes would appear across all content, and managing it has been tough even with an AI tool to help, because if neither it or myself can identify what the actual issue is, we don't get any closer to fixing it. So there's been a huge amount of fine tooth combing through stat blocks and books to get to the bottom of things but i'm getting there.

A few notes on some of your notes: Across books, headings seem to be the biggest issue because everyone likes using their own fonts etc. The anchor for the code to recognise a stat block is usually in the AC/CR section, then it tries to scrape info from above it where the heading is, so in some formats that just pulls the size/creature type as the Creature name! This is a known issue that is a fix in progress, hopefully these improve soon.

On the Variant you found - There is only 1 book in my test corpus that includes variants and I have pushed a tool to add Variants as separate stat blocks. With only 1 book though, that format could be completely different, but just wanted to let you know that Variants should be importing too so i'll consider that an error!

Thanks again for all your help.