Places

The Places section gathers everything related to the playable spaces of an adventure: cities, dungeons, rooms, narrative areas, linked quests, occupants, combats, images, maps, and interactive maps.

It is one of the richest sections of the app, because it brings together:

• narrative structure
• exploration state
• content to show to players
• contextual occupants
• quick access to combat

What the Places Section Is For

The places dashboard is used to organize the adventure on both the spatial and narrative level.

Here you can:

• create places and quests
• build hierarchies of places and sub-places
• link images and maps
• manage occupants in a place
• create and reopen combats tied to a specific place
• keep separate descriptions for DM and players
• use an interactive map to move between places

How to Reach It

The section opens from the adventure dashboard, through the Places and Quests card.

From that card you can:

• open the full places dashboard
• use quick shortcuts to a recent place when available
• use quick shortcuts to a recent combat tied to a place

Screen Structure

The Places dashboard is organized around two main modes:

• Normal
• Interactive

and around two main areas:

• a left column with tree, search, filters, and quick actions
• a right panel with the detail of the selected place

Normal and Interactive Modes

Normal Mode

This is the classic mode, designed for directly working on:

• the place tree
• the selected place detail
• occupants
• combats
• media
• notes

It is the best mode for preparing and editing the adventure.

Interactive Mode

Interactive mode becomes available when the adventure has interactive maps ready to use.

In this mode, the focus shifts to map-based navigation:

• the left side of the screen shows the interactive map instead of the classic place tree
• markers can be selected
• double-click can open the linked place in the right panel
• marker labels can be shown or hidden
• zoom and map movement are available

From the Media panel you can still quickly open the interactive map associated with one of the place maps, but in Interactive mode the map becomes the main content of the left side of the dashboard.

The Left Column

The left column is the navigation panel of the section.

Here you find:

• search
• filters
• a compact summary
• the place and quest tree

Context Menu on Places in the Tree

In tree mode, you can right-click a place to open a context menu with quick actions directly on that node.

The available actions are:

• Add sub-place
• Add occupant
• Add link
• Remove link
• Create concept map
• Create combat
• Edit
• Delete place

This menu is one of the fastest ways to build the structure of the adventure while working in the tree.

In practice, it lets you reorganize the tree quickly without opening the full place form every time.

Quick Reordering with Drag and Drop

The place tree also supports a quick drag-and-drop workflow.

You can:

• change the order of sibling places
• move a place under another place
• move a place back to the root if you drag it out of a parent branch

This makes it much faster to refine the narrative structure while preparing the adventure.

Filters and Summary

The sidebar also shows a compact summary with:

• total places
• total quests
• number of places currently being visited

Depending on the mode and context, filters may include:

• all
• places
• quests
• visiting
• active

Creating a Place or a Quest

To create a new record, use the creation button in the places dashboard.

The form is divided into three main groups:

• Main information
• Descriptions
• Place assets

Main Place Information

In the form you can fill in:

• Name
• parent place or parent links
• Type
• Marker
• place state or quest state

Type: Place or Quest

The Type field lets you choose whether the record is a:

• Place
• Quest

If the record is a Place, it uses the visit state:

• not visited
• visiting
• visited

If the record is a Quest, it uses progression state instead:

• inactive
• unavailable
• active
• completed

Parent Places and Hierarchy

The place form supports an advanced hierarchy.

You can select one or more parent places, and DnDino stores that connection as a real hierarchical structure.

This means a place can:

• sit at the root of the adventure
• exist as a sub-place of another place
• also be linked in more than one point of the structure when needed

This is useful, for example, when you want to:

• attach a whole group of places under a quest
• show the same place in more than one branch of the tree
• create different narrative paths without duplicating the record

In these cases, the place is not duplicated: the tree only gains an additional link to the same place.

When you remove a link:

• the place itself is not deleted
• if it has multiple parents, only the extra link is removed
• if it loses its only parent, it returns to the root of the tree

The form still prevents cycles, automatically excluding the place itself and its subtree from the list of possible parents.

Place Markers

Each place can have one or more special markers that are also shown in the dashboard.

Available markers include:

• dangerous
• important
• secret
• blocked

They serve as quick visual highlights to help you read the adventure at a glance.

Place Descriptions

The Descriptions part of the form is divided into several rich text fields:

• DM Description
• Player Description
• Clues
• Treasures
• Notes

This split is very useful because it lets you separate:

• what the DM should know
• what the players may see or discover
• supporting information such as clues and treasure

Internal Links in Place Text

The internal link system is also extremely useful in Places.

Here it is less about automating attacks, and more about making place text navigable and faster to use at the table.

Inside the rich text fields of a place, you can insert links to:

• Character
• Place
• Spell
• Feat
• Rule
• and, when useful, roll links too

Why They Matter in Places

Place descriptions often contain many references:

• present or mentioned characters
• linked places
• objects or spells mentioned in the text
• special scene rules

Turning those references into internal links lets you:

• open the sheet of a mentioned character immediately
• jump straight to another place in the adventure
• consult a spell or rule without leaving context
• write denser descriptions that remain easy to navigate

Practical Examples

You can link a character mentioned in the place, such as Captain Arven, or another place referenced in the text, like Sunken Crypt.

This means the description is no longer only narrative: it also becomes a navigation shortcut.

Where They Work Best

The best parts of a place sheet for internal links are:

• DM Description
• Player Description
• Clues
• Notes

Initial Picker Search

When you press Link, the picker tries to use the selected text as an initial filter.

If it finds a real match in the name of a record:

• it opens already filtered

If it finds no real results:

• it clears the initial filter
• and shows the full list

Place Assets

Each place can have its own assets, divided into:

• images
• maps

In the form you can:

• add images
• add maps
• choose the place cover
• remove the cover

For each asset you can configure:

• display name
• visibility for Players
• visibility for DM
• presentation text

Place Hero Area

When you select a place, the right panel shows a hero area with:

• the place cover
• name
• type (Place or Quest)
• current state
• any markers
• the hierarchical chain of the place

It also shows a quick summary with:

• Occupants
• Sub-places
• Images
• Maps

Detail Tabs

The right panel uses a focus bar with five main sections:

• Overview
• Occupants
• Combats
• Media
• Notes

Overview

The Overview tab gathers:

• DM description
• player description
• clues
• treasures
• concept maps linked to the place

Occupants

The Occupants tab gathers the characters present in the place.

From here you can:

• see all occupants of the place
• add a new occupant
• open the contextual detail of that occupant
• change their role in the place
• read or edit DM Notes
• remove the occupant

Combats

The Combats tab shows all encounters linked to the place.

From here you can:

• create a new combat for the place
• reopen an existing combat
• see whether it is not started, paused, or concluded
• delete a combat

Media

The Media tab gathers:

• place images
• place maps
• inherited maps from parent places when enabled

From here you can:

• browse images
• browse maps
• show them to players
• show them to the DM
• open an interactive map directly

Notes

The Notes tab is dedicated to quick DM notes for the place.

Place Occupants

Place occupants are managed contextually and separately from adventure characters and combat participants.

This allows you to keep:

• contextual display names
• role in the place
• local DM notes
• local state when needed

Two Possible Origins for an Occupant

When you add an occupant to a place, the form asks for the Origin.

The possible sources are:

• Adventure Character
• Base Sheet

Adventure Character

This origin uses a character that is already linked to the adventure.

In this case the occupant keeps the campaign-specific state.

Base Sheet

This origin clones a base record of type:

• NPC
• Monster

Records of type Hero are not selectable in this mode.

Uniqueness Rules for Occupants

In the places dashboard, DnDino applies precise rules:

• an Adventure Character can only be placed once in the same place
• a base NPC can only be added once in the same place
• a base Monster can be added multiple times in the same place

When you add multiple instances of the same monster, the display name is automatically numbered, for example:

• Goblin
• Goblin 2
• Goblin 3

Place Occupant Data

In the occupant form you can set:

• Encounter Role
• Display Name
• Conditions
• DM Notes

If the occupant comes from a base sheet (NPC or Monster), you also get local place state such as:

• temporary HP
• current HP
• state

If the occupant comes from an Adventure Character, the place continues to reference that campaign-level contextual state instead of duplicating it locally in the same way.

Role in the Place

Each occupant has a contextual role:

• ally
• neutral
• enemy

This role matters both for reading the scene and for later flows, such as combat.

Combats Linked to the Place

Combats inside places are created directly from the selected place.

When you create a new combat:

• the combat is saved as an encounter of that place
• it appears immediately in the Combats tab
• it can be reopened later

Place Media

The media area of a place clearly distinguishes:

• images
• maps

The dashboard can also show maps inherited from parent places through the toggle:

• Show parent place maps

Interactive Map

When a map is selected as the place's interactive map, you can open it directly from the dashboard.

The interactive map supports:

• zoom
• movement
• markers
• navigation between places

Interactive Map Markers

Each marker can have:

• a position on the map
• a title
• a linked target place

Markers can be:

• created
• moved
• renamed
• linked to a place
• deleted

Basic behavior:

• single click: select the marker
• double click: open the linked place in the right panel

Relationship Between Places, Maps, and Interactive Maps

It helps to think of these three as different layers:

• the place is the narrative and structural container
• the map is a visual asset linked to the place
• the interactive map is a chosen navigable map enriched with markers

Quests in the Places Section

Quests live in the same section as places, but they follow their own behavior.

A quest:

• appears in the tree alongside places
• uses a progression state instead of a visit state
• can still have descriptions, notes, images, maps, occupants, and contextual links

When to Use the Places Section

The Places dashboard is the right place when you want to:

• build the geography of the campaign
• define sub-places and links
• prepare quests and their state
• place occupants in the world
• link images and maps
• use an interactive map for navigation
• open or create combats tied to a specific place

Tip

If the adventure becomes very large, Places works best when you use it as a true mental map of the campaign: places for structure, quests for narrative nodes, occupants for who is present, and combats for what happens in that point of the world.