A percentage of the health bar and a rule that applies below it. The boss starts in the first phase, and crossing a threshold puts the next phase's rule on the screen and announces the change. Three phases at a hundred, sixty-six and thirty-three is the shape most fights want, and it is what a new boss starts with.

What happens if the boss is healed?

It goes back a phase, and the earlier rule comes back on the screen. That is the right answer rather than a convenience: a fight where the boss recovers should feel like it has gone backwards, and a tracker that stuck in the later phase would be quietly wrong for the rest of the fight.

Can I run two bosses at once?

Yes, up to six. Each has its own bar, its own phases and its own rules, and they are all on the screen together. It is more useful than it sounds for a fight with a boss and a lieutenant whose rules change at different moments.

Where exactly does a phase change?

At the threshold, not a point either side. A boss at exactly sixty-six percent is in the sixty-six phase. The markers drawn on the bar show where the changes are, so the table can see one coming.

Does it remember the bosses?

Yes. The bosses, the hit points and every rule you wrote are kept in this browser, so a fight survives a refresh or a week between sessions. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no share link, because everything here is something you typed.

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Boss tracker

A big health bar with phase thresholds. When the boss crosses one, the rules on screen change.

No bosses yet

No bosses yet. Add one in the Boss tab, give it hit points and write a rule for each phase.

The bosses and their phases

Add a boss

Up to 6 bosses with up to 5 phases each. A phase starts at a percentage of the bar and its rule is on screen the whole time the boss is in it.

Healing a boss back over a threshold puts the earlier phase's rules back on screen

No signup · No accounts · Free forever

A fight that changes while you are in it

A boss with one behaviour is a wall with hit points. A boss that changes at two thirds and again at a third is a fight with a shape: an opening everybody survives, a middle where the plan stops working, and an ending that is genuinely dangerous. The only thing that makes the difference is a rule that arrives partway through and is impossible to ignore.

Impossible to ignore is the hard part at a real table. A rule announced once is a rule three players missed, and the person running the fight ends up repeating it every turn. Here it is on the screen for the whole of the phase, under a bar with the thresholds marked, so the table can see the next change coming and start planning for it.

Writing rules that are worth writing

The best phase rules take something away rather than adding a number. Nobody may heal. Nobody may stand next to it two turns running. The room goes dark and only the person holding the lamp can act. Rules like that change what the table does; a rule that says it hits harder only changes the arithmetic, and the players will not notice it until afterwards.

Keep them short enough to read at a glance from the far side of a table, because that is how they will be read. The boss that comes with the page is written to that length, and it is a fair guide: one sentence, one change, no exceptions in brackets.

Beside the other trackers

This tracks one side of a fight. For the other side, the health bars give every player their own bar with a band in words, and the two pages work well on one screen each. For the round and phase structure of the whole game rather than of one enemy, the round marker counts rounds and phases with nobody in it at all.

There is no share link on this page, because the boss names, the numbers and every rule are things you typed, and nothing typed is ever put into a link on this site.

Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for

The tool runs entirely in your browser. There is no account, nothing you make is uploaded, and nothing you type is sent anywhere or put into a link.

The page itself is not silent, though: it carries advertising code and a visit counter that sets no cookie, and the cookie page says exactly what each of those does.

This page remembers your settings in your browser under pph.boss.setup, pph.boss.state and pph.boss.muted, and nowhere else. Clearing your site data for papercarnival.com removes it.

Questions

What is a phase?: A percentage of the health bar and a rule that applies below it. The boss starts in the first phase, and crossing a threshold puts the next phase's rule on the screen and announces the change. Three phases at a hundred, sixty-six and thirty-three is the shape most fights want, and it is what a new boss starts with.
What happens if the boss is healed?: It goes back a phase, and the earlier rule comes back on the screen. That is the right answer rather than a convenience: a fight where the boss recovers should feel like it has gone backwards, and a tracker that stuck in the later phase would be quietly wrong for the rest of the fight.
Can I run two bosses at once?: Yes, up to six. Each has its own bar, its own phases and its own rules, and they are all on the screen together. It is more useful than it sounds for a fight with a boss and a lieutenant whose rules change at different moments.
Where exactly does a phase change?: At the threshold, not a point either side. A boss at exactly sixty-six percent is in the sixty-six phase. The markers drawn on the bar show where the changes are, so the table can see one coming.
Does it remember the bosses?: Yes. The bosses, the hit points and every rule you wrote are kept in this browser, so a fight survives a refresh or a week between sessions. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no share link, because everything here is something you typed.

Boss tracker

A fight that changes while you are in it

Writing rules that are worth writing

Beside the other trackers

Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for

Questions

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