Every Dungeon Master knows that time is one of the most powerful—and most easily forgotten—forces in a tabletop RPG. Spells expire, torches burn down, travel takes days, conditions linger, moons rise and fall, and entire story arcs hinge on a single hour passing. Yet despite its importance, timekeeping often becomes one of the most chaotic elements behind the DM screen.
Chronomancy, a web-based in-game time tracker created by James Michael Elmore, was designed to solve that problem. Built specifically for Dungeons & Dragons but flexible enough for any RPG with time-sensitive mechanics, Chronomancy centralizes campaign clocks, calendars, and timed effects into a sleek, interactive tool that makes managing temporal chaos both accurate and effortless.
Whether you’re maintaining the day-by-day calendar of a sprawling homebrew world or juggling multiple sessions across different parties, Chronomancy gives you the temporal clarity every DM deserves.
A Digital Clock That Understands D&D
The foundation of Chronomancy is a fully configurable in-game clock, capable of tracking time at whatever granularity your campaign requires:
- Rapid combat increments (rounds, minutes)
- Travel windows (hours, half-days)
- Long rest cycles (days, weeks, months)
- Session-to-session progression
With a single click, you can advance time by predefined increments or customize them to match your own homebrew pacing. Unlike a physical note or scribble on a character sheet, Chronomancy updates dynamically, logs your changes, and keeps the entire party’s timeline synchronized.
For Dungeon Masters who love precision—tracking spell durations, light sources, weather cycles, or moon phases—Chronomancy becomes an indispensable campaign companion.
Status Effect Tracking That Works for Every Class and Creature
Perhaps the most innovative element of Chronomancy is its Status Effects Tracker. Instead of mentally juggling the expiration time on Bless, Hex, Rage, Wild Shape, Faerie Fire, Bardic Inspiration, or environmental hazards, you simply:
- Add an effect
- Assign its duration
- Advance your time as normal
Chronomancy automatically counts down and notifies you when an effect expires.
This radically streamlines complex encounters or multi-player scenarios where effects might stack or overlap. Summons, buffs, debuffs, magical weather effects, regional conditions, curses, and monster traits all become easy to monitor at a glance.
Because effects are stored in a centralized list with autocomplete, recurring abilities (like Paladin auras or Barbarian Rage) can be added instantly, ensuring pacing stays fast even when mechanics get heavy.
Session-to-Session Saving and Loading
For Dungeon Masters running multiple campaigns—or returning to a single campaign after long breaks—Chronomancy includes save/load functionality that preserves:
- Current in-game date
- Current in-game time
- Active effects and durations
- Theme appearance
This feature is essential for DMs managing:
- A weekly home game
- A streaming campaign
- A convention one-shot series
- A West Marches-style multi-party world
- Several groups sharing the same timeline
With a single click, you can restore your entire temporal state exactly where you left off.
Themes for Every Table
Chronomancy offers a selection of visual themes so the tool always fits the tone of your game. Whether your campaign leans toward high fantasy, gothic horror, arcane mystery, bright sword-and-sorcery adventure, or sleek sci-fi, you can instantly switch between styles to match the atmosphere of the session.
Themes are not merely aesthetic: they help players quickly identify the Chronomancy interface during streamed or digital sessions, reinforcing the tool’s role as part of your narrative toolkit.