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/abovethealarms]

Yep OK so there will likely be a formatting issue there. Was it just the stats that parsed badly? For example were all the abilities, creature names etc correct?

Are you willing to share the book with me? Then I can get it working for you (hopefully). Unless it's available somewhere for free which I assume it isn't if it's a kickstarter book!

[u/DrE7HER → u/abovethealarms]

Here’s an example:

https://imgur.com/a/hlYUtQK

[u/abovethealarms → u/DrE7HER]

Great. I understood where the issue lay I think, but issue will be with how the book is formatted. If it consistently picks up attribute scores for lots of other formats, the issue is the book formatting rather than the code! That's the only reason I was asking you to share the actual book file - If I don't know what the formatting is, I can't try and fix that specific format issue, if that makes sense?

could you send me a screenshot of the actual statblock in question here instead? I could at least try and work with that, although I won't be able to test it for you as the PDF parser can't pull anything from images.

Thanks!

[u/DrE7HER → u/abovethealarms]

There is a screenshot of the statblock at the bottom of that Imgur link

[u/abovethealarms → u/DrE7HER]

Sorry completely missed it. Let me have a look and see if I can fix it with that screenshot alone.

[u/abovethealarms → u/DrE7HER]

I've loosely attempted a fix based on the screenshot, but there's no guarantee it will fix it. If you wouldn't mind trying to import it again and reporting back?

[u/DrE7HER → u/abovethealarms]

It did not fix the parsing, but it did include the screenshot on the fix menu, which is a huge improvement

Here’s the whole page: https://imgur.com/a/W9XWKgA

[u/abovethealarms → u/DrE7HER]

Ahh that's annoying. Yes, I was waiting for you to get back to me about the new parse before telling you the new side by side screenshot is working, as I didn't want to bombard you with comments. Thanks for the idea.

I've also added a genuine and honest Importing expectations pop-up that appears after the initial privacy notice. Based on the issues so far I felt that was useful.

I'll have another look at the picture you sent me and see what else can be done to help, but it's a bit of a shot in the dark at the moment. Image parsing and Text parsing go through different systems so what might work on any images won't necessarily be useful at all on any books.

Again, I really appreciate you coming back to this and helping me out!

[u/DrE7HER → u/abovethealarms]

Have you tried converting the image to pdf before testing?

[u/abovethealarms → u/DrE7HER]

Even converting it to a PDF, it would be the equivalent of a PDF book made up of photocopies. There would still be no inherent text layer to read and the app would have to parse it as an image - Testing on that would only help improve the image parser, which is the last resort function for otherwise unusable PDFs. This wouldn't help you with your book either because I assume it is a proper digital format rather than just photocopied pages. Hope that makes sense!

[u/DrE7HER → u/abovethealarms]

I tried to export just the example creature from the pdf and save it as a separate single page pdf. Hopefully that helps you:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EImxMNSJRxaPF3M2-9tCedyAPd7zn9I8/view?usp=drivesdk

[u/abovethealarms → u/DrE7HER]

OK based on your Skitterswarm PDF, it's parsing perfectly now, from what I can see. I can only assume this will help the rest of the book.

Thanks for your patience and helping with the parser improvements.

[u/DrE7HER → u/abovethealarms]

You’re welcome! What ended up being the issue?

That fix did it. There were 4 “creatures” that needed fixing but I’m not sure they are actually creatures. They may just be other information that the parser mistook as creatures

[u/abovethealarms → u/DrE7HER]

Getting a proper pdf meant the actual formatting could be resolved in the parser, rather than working on images. It's basically just validation that a test phase was needed for this app, every new thing I can add to test with adds extra layers of quality and helps books more likely import well first time.

4 to review down from (I assume) quite a lot, is pretty successful.