How It All Connects

The DND family looks like separate sites, but underneath it is one system. DNDCards.com, DND.chat, and DNDWar.com are three independent apps that all read and write the same account, the same campaigns, and the same library of cards and characters. Sign in once and everything you build on one site is waiting for you on the others. This page explains the plumbing: what is shared, how sign-in carries across domains, which site owns what, and the exact handoffs that let a card minted on DNDCards.com show up in chat and on the battle-map.

One account, one data set

All three apps point at the same backend. There is no syncing, no export/import between sites, and no per-site copy of your data — they are literally reading the same rows.

That means a single signup gives you:

• One identity — one account valid on every site, not three logins.
• One set of workspaces and campaigns — the campaign you create on DNDCards.com is the same campaign you open in DND.chat and DNDWar.com.
• One library — your cards instance (per-campaign cards plus the global compendium) and your character sheets are shared everywhere.
• One auditable dice history — rolls recorded in one place.

Because it is all one store, there is nothing to keep in sync. Edit a character on DNDCards.com and the change is already true in chat and on the map.

Sign in once, everywhere

Your session is shared across domains, so you authenticate a single time. When you start on DND.chat and hit a "sign in" or "manage characters at DND Cards" link, DND.chat hands you off to the account hub on DNDCards.com, you complete a magic-link sign-in there, and you are bounced back — now signed in on both sites.

The flow, end to end:

1. From DND.chat, click a sign-in or manage characters link.
2. You land on the DNDCards.com login screen, with a return pointer back to DND.chat.
3. Complete the magic-link sign-in (the same account that works everywhere).
4. You are redirected back to where you started — for example the tavern — signed in.

You only ever maintain one set of credentials. The same account unlocks all family sites.

Who owns what: the group model

Sharing is organized around a small ownership tree. Getting this model in your head explains why everyone in a party sees the same table.

A campaign is the unit that ties the three apps together. The same campaign drives your board on DNDCards.com, your tavern on DND.chat, and your battle-map on DNDWar.com. Access is enforced at the database level — every shared table checks that you are a member of the campaign before showing you a row, so players see only the campaigns they have actually been invited to.

To walk through inviting a party and playing across all three apps, see Running a Connected Group Session.

DNDCards.com is the hub

One site owns the shared library; the others borrow from it.

DNDCards.com is the account hub and builder. It owns:

• The card schema and your campaign boards (player, monster, NPC, item, spell, location, quest, and note cards).
• The character builder and your shared sheets.
• The SRD compendium and your homebrew.
• The PDF Shredder.

DND.chat and DNDWar.com read from that shared library rather than keeping their own copies — DND.chat conjures your cards into chat with /summon, DNDWar invokes them onto the map — and they write back the things that belong to them (chat messages, combat tokens, initiative). When you stand in an empty card list on DNDWar.com, it tells you exactly this: build your characters and curate your enemies as cards on DND Cards, then invoke them on the map.

The cross-app handoffs

Beyond the shared database, three concrete links pass live data between sites. You never trigger these by hand — they fire as you play — but it helps to know what is moving where.

1. Combat actions: DND.chat reads from DNDCards.com

When you run combat in the tavern, DND.chat needs a card's attack and save actions. Instead of recomputing them, it asks DNDCards.com directly — passing your signed-in session along so the request is authorized as you — and DNDCards.com derives the action list and hands it back. The result is tagged as coming from dndcards, so combat behaves identically to the source sheet.

2. HP sync: DNDCards.com notifies DND.chat

Edit a character's HP on a DNDCards.com sheet and the hub sends a signed character.hp_updated notification to DND.chat. DND.chat verifies the signature and updates that character's HP and conditions in the chat initiative tracker, so the combat tracker stays current with the sheet. This is best-effort and fire-and-forget — if it can't reach chat, your sheet save still succeeds.

3. Adventure handoff: the PDF Shredder feeds DND.chat's autopilot

When you shred a PDF on DNDCards.com, the extracted monsters, NPCs, and items land as cards in your shared library — reusable everywhere. If you also extract the adventure (scenes and read-aloud text), DNDCards.com can write it straight into DND.chat's autopilot DM for that campaign. The shredder's scene format is shaped to match what autopilot already expects, so it drops in with nothing to convert. If the campaign doesn't have a tavern yet, the write simply skips — the import never fails over it. (Maps are not extracted; attach those yourself.)

Why behavior is identical everywhere

Beyond shared data, the apps share code. The character builder, dice engine, sheet helpers, the PDF shredder, and the card display chrome all ship as common packages used by every site:

DNDCards.com holds the source; DND.chat and DNDWar.com consume the published versions. A card looks the same and a roll resolves the same no matter which site you're on.

Solo or as a group — same data, either way

Every tool stands on its own, and the same campaign also wires them together for a party.

Solo. Each app is useful by yourself:

• DNDCards.com — prep cards, build characters, curate a board, and shred PDFs on your own.
• DNDWar.com — try a no-auth /demo fight (a Fighter and Wizard against three goblins) with no sign-in at all.
• DND.chat — open a tavern as a private chat-and-dice room.

As a group. The same campaign drives all three at once:

1. The DM preps cards and characters on DNDCards.com.
2. The party joins the tavern, chatting and rolling, conjuring the DM's shared cards with /summon.
3. When a fight turns tactical, play moves to DNDWar.com's battle-map, where the DM invokes those same cards as tokens.

HP and adventure data flow between the apps as you play, so the party is always looking at one consistent table.

One membership for the family

Just as your data is shared, so is your plan. A single membership covers every site — there is no per-site billing. During the current beta, everyone is on Free with full access; nothing is charged. Pro and pay-as-you-go AI credits are coming soon and are not billed today. AI usage is metered against one shared ledger across all the apps, so spend is tracked family-wide rather than per site.

For the full picture, see One Membership, Every Site and the AI Credits & Billing Reference.

Where to go next

• Pick a product: DNDCards.com, DND.chat, DNDWar.com.
• Understand the shared library: Cards & the Shared Compendium.
• Try a walkthrough: the character builder, the PDF Shredder, or a full connected group session.
• Have a question? Check the FAQ & Troubleshooting.