The Rules Reference

The Rules sub-tab of the Atlas is a 5e rules reference that lives on your device. Nothing here needs a session, a DM, or a network connection, and it is the same reference whichever campaign you are in.

It holds the System Reference Document, the publicly licensed selection of fifth-edition rules: spells, monsters, equipment, conditions, classes, and the rules text around them. Not a whole published rulebook, and the app never pretends otherwise. Every page tells you where it came from.

Far Table also ships as a second, separate app, Far Table SRD, which is nothing but this reference. This chapter and the next eight apply to both, and say so where the two differ.

Two faces, one tap apart

Switch between the two front doors with the segmented button at the top left of the landing screen.

• Contents is the reference read like a book: a plain list of chapters, top to bottom.
• Browse is the reference explored by art: a grid of illustrated category tiles.

Far Table's Rules tab opens on Contents, because mid-session you usually know the name of what you want. The standalone Far Table SRD app opens on Browse, because the artwork is most of why it exists. Neither face has content of its own; both reach the same spells, monsters, and rule pages underneath.

Switching faces returns you to the top of the new face and clears anything typed into search. This chapter covers Contents. Browse, search, filters, and shelves are chapter 36, Finding Things: Search, Filters, and Shelves.

The Contents landing

The Contents landing, top to bottom:

• Recent, the last two things you looked up. Tap one to run it again. It survives closing the app.
• About the SRD, a short explainer of what this reference is and where the license sits.
• One row per chapter, each with a count of what is inside. The 2024 rules have more chapters than the 2014 rules; chapter 39, Two Editions: 2014 and 2024, covers the pill that switches between them.
• License & Attribution at the foot: the full legal text for whichever edition you are reading.

The first time you arrive, an orientation card explains how to move around. Dismiss it and it leaves a "How to use this reference" row behind, so you can call it back.

Inside a chapter

Tap a chapter row and you get up to three groups:

• An Overview row, where the chapter has one.
• A Rules group: prose pages, the manual text itself.
• An Entries group: an A to Z list of the records in that chapter, every spell, every monster, every condition.

The app states the distinction once, on the first chapter you open that has both. Rules rows open manual pages, Entries rows open reference cards. Cards are chapter 37, Reading a Card.

Two chapters are shaped differently on purpose:

• Spells puts a Spells by Class group above the full A to Z list, so you can go straight to the druid list without scrolling.
• Equipment has no A to Z list at all. Gear is reached by tapping a row in one of the equipment tables: Adventuring Gear, Weapons, Armor, Tools, Mounts. That matches how people actually look gear up, which is by scanning a price and weight table, not by remembering what letter a caltrop is filed under.

Entries you write yourself sort into the A to Z list alongside the shipped ones, with a quiet "mine" tag. Writing them is chapter 40, Homebrew: Your Own Pages.

Rule pages

A rule page is laid out like a page from a printed rulebook: a small capitals breadcrumb, a maroon heading under a gold rule, a drop cap on the first paragraph, and tables in zebra stripes.

The part worth knowing is the links. Terms pointing at another rule or entry are underlined in gold, and tapping one takes you straight there. That is how the reference is meant to be read: start at Grappling, end up in the Prone condition, come back.

A rule page also remembers where you had scrolled to, so following a link out and pressing Back returns you to the paragraph you left, not the top of the page.

Getting around

The top bar carries the chrome, and it is deliberately thin:

• Back goes up one level, retracing how you got here.
• Home jumps to the landing from any depth.
• On a phone or tablet, swiping right from the left edge of the screen does the same as Back.
• The theme button cycles the reference through its three looks: dark, parchment, and ember. In the standalone app it is the only appearance control there is.

Once you are drilled in, Back and Home take the place of the face toggle, so the bar never carries more than it needs.