itch.io

Hi everyone,

Beta 3 of Dungeon Reader is now live!

The goal of Dungeon Reader is pretty simple really: to make it possible to run adventures directly from the sourcebook - without being pulled away into outside tabs, note apps or other forms of digital clutter that break immersion.

The enthusiasm from the OSR community has been truly amazing so far and I want to express my gratitude for getting behind the project. The feedback is directly shaping this tool into a more focused reading & playing space.

🎲 Multi-Dice Rolling & Die Clusters

You can now adjust your dice count and roll groups (like 3d6 or damage pools) right from the tray. Huge thanks to @BettyBoopdaboop for pushing for this!

An interesting side-effect is the creation of a persistent die cluster: once rolled onto the page, the cluster remains interactive so you can re-roll it repeatedly during combat, then throw it off the edge of the page when you’re done.

🌙 Inverted & Sepia Reading Profiles

A massive shout-out to @1000PowerLiches on Discord for this suggestion. You can now toggle Inverted (Dark) and Warm Sepia display modes. Inversion will be a welcome feature for solo players and late night preppers to reduce eye strain. The sepia profile cuts blue light by around 65% so it’s a good night light option that keeps pictures intact (plus it gives modules an awesome vintage look on screen!).

🖥️ Dedicated Fullscreen Mode

A simple addition that makes a massive difference to immersion.

🛠️ In the Pipeline: Standalone Desktop Edition

Work has officially begun on a cross-platform standalone desktop version of Dungeon Reader! A slice of my brain is now dedicated to a native build, which will follow some time after the stable 1.0 web release. 

In the meantime, keep the feedback coming - and I hope the updates make a real difference to your adventures!

Try Beta 3 Now:

👉 dungeonreader.app

Please drop bug reports and feature requests in the comments below, or jump into the conversation on our Discord!

– Sebastian

I've managed to patch that page jumping issue. 

Thanks for helping out!

Thanks for the feedback, and please let me know how it goes in the session! Weirdly enough embedded hyperlinks are slightly messy to implement just because of how the marker overlay works - but certainly not impossible. I'll put it on the to-do list!
Enjoy your game!  

Wow, thanks for the encouragement, and for the awesome feedback. I'll get digging into that page number jump issue right away - sounds very annoying. 

I've been trying to think of a way to add the multiple dice for ages, but the idea of a simple text input field seems kind of brilliantly simple. I'll give that some serious consideration for the next beta.

The offlline program is definitely the plan once the beta phase is through. I wasn't sure how much enthusiasm there would be for the project tbh, but the response has been amazing so far - so will def. see it through to a standalone app.

Thanks again for contributing - and Keep the suggestions coming! I'm really interested to hear how it can be improved for solo players. 

Welcome to the Dungeon Reader open beta!

If you've tried the app at your table I'd love to hear how it went. Drop any thoughts or frustrations below.

Helpful things to mention:

• browser/device/platform specific issues
• what's working well - esp. in terms of helping with focus and flow during prep & play
• what feels clunky or counter-intuitive (performance-wise, layout, navigation, etc.)
• bugs

🙏 Thanks for helping shape Dungeon Reader!

Why Dungeon Reader?

In my eternal effort to minimise clutter behind the screen, I decided to make a browser-based PDF Reader that lets me run the game directly from the adventure module.

Instead of extracting an adventure into external tools, Dungeon Reader keeps prep right on the source text as annotations: you can easily:

• add searchable highlights, notes, bookmarks, monster & NPC annotations (it even auto-populates stats from highlighted text)

• drop draggable links to existing annotations on a map (or anywhere else)

• roll dice right on the page

• navigate the sourcebook with built-in doc outlines and full-text search

It’s just a clean, familiar PDF reader with the right tools built in, so you can run the whole session from the document itself.

Dungeon Reader is 100% client-side and privacy-friendly. 

Your PDFs and annotations are processed directly in your browser using local storage. Nothing is ever uploaded to a server or stored in the cloud, meaning once the web app is loaded, it runs completely offline.

What's New in Beta 2

Thanks to early feedback from the OSR community, the latest build includes:

• Two-Page Spread & Page Turning: Traditional book-style reading and single-page keyboard controls.
• Smart Page Rendering: Kinder on device GPUs and memory when reading 100+ page campaign books.
• Streamlined Header Trays: drop-markers and dice rollers have been relocated into clean dropdown trays to free up the page.
• Performance & Touch Polish: Laying the groundwork for smoother mobile and tablet interactions.

What’s Next on the Roadmap?

• Touch & Mobile Optimisations
• Trying to make the auto stat parser a little smarter! adding support for vertical line breaks and system presets for OSE, Shadowdark, Cairn, and Mothership (so stats extract cleanly without getting dumped into notes )
• Standalone Desktop App: A dedicated, lightweight desktop client (exploring Tauri) is officially in the pipeline for those who prefer native apps over browser tabs. I'll be keeping it free / pay-what-you-want on itch so it's accessible to everyone.

Join the Playtesting & Feedback

Dungeon Reader is free and actively evolving. If you’d like to report bugs, suggest features, or chat about GM workflows in real time, jump into the conversation:

• Launch the Web App: dungeonreader.app
• Join the Community Discord: https://discord.gg/rpKhnnkVk

Drop your thoughts in the comments below or come say hello in Discord. 

Thanks for helping make this the perfect PDF Reader for Game Masters!