Scheduled Playtests

Pro designers can post a time for a playtest, once or as a weekly series. Send testers its invite link, or make it public so it also appears on the Play page under Upcoming Playtests. Testers book a seat (or join the waitlist when it is full), get reminders by email, and when the time comes you start it and they get the join link.

Posting a Playtest (Pro)

1. Open your project and expand Playtesting.
2. Pick the Scheduled tab and click Schedule a playtest.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Title, and optionally What testers should know.
   • Starts, in your own time zone.
   • Length.
   • Seats for testers, up to your room's player limit. Your own seat is extra.
   • Table: one of your saved setups, or an empty table.
   • Who can book: Private (the default) or Public.
   • Files for testers (optional): click Add from My Files to attach rulebooks, reference sheets or images, up to 10.
   • Repeat (optional): every week or every two weeks, for 2 to 8 Sessions.
   • Email testers a feedback link afterwards: on unless you turn it off. See After It Ends.
4. Click Post the playtest.

You can also start from your dashboard: click a day on the Playtest Calendar. See Your Playtest Calendar.

You can post up to 90 days ahead.

Repeating playtests. Each session of a series is its own playtest with its own seats and link, and every session's page lists the other dates. Editing a session changes that session only. To call off the rest, click Cancel this and later sessions on the session you want to stop from.

Until a playtest starts you can edit or cancel it from its page. Moving the time emails everyone booked with an account or an email, with the new time attached as a calendar file. Cancelling emails them too.

Your Playtest Calendar

Your dashboard has a Playtest Calendar for the month: the playtests you host and the ones you have a seat on, colored Hosting, Your seat, Live now, and Finished or cancelled. Use the arrows and Today to move between months.

• Click a playtest to open it. One you host that has not started opens straight into its edit form.
• Click a day to see that day's playtests. On a day that has not passed, pick the Game and the Starts time and click Continue to the details: the scheduling form opens with that date and time filled in.

Private or Public

• A private playtest is not listed on the Play page. Only people with its invite link can open it and book a seat. Copy the link from the playtest's page, under Invite link.
• A public playtest is also listed on the Play page, which shows public playtests that start in the next 14 days.

To switch, edit the playtest before it starts. Testers who already booked keep their seats.

Booking a Seat

Open the playtest from its invite link, or a public one from the Play page, and click Book a seat.

• With an account, you get a confirmation with a calendar file, a reminder a day before (if you booked earlier than that) and an hour before, and an email with the join link when the host starts.
• Without an account, enter the name you will play under, and your email if you like. With an email you get the same emails as an account, and the address is only used for this playtest; to stop them, release your seat. Without one you get no emails. Either way the page gives you a personal link: keep it, because it brings you back to your seat on any device. When the host starts, the join button appears on the playtest's page.

Changed your plans? Click Release my seat on the same page.

Emails state times in your own time zone. To add the playtest to your calendar, use the Google or Outlook link on its page, or download the Calendar file for Apple Calendar and others.

The Waitlist

When every seat is taken, the page offers Join the waitlist. Without an account you need to leave an email, because that is how you hear a seat is yours.

When a seat opens (a tester releases theirs, the host releases one, or the host adds seats), it goes to the first person in line automatically, and they get an email saying it is theirs. Click Leave the waitlist to drop out. The host sees the line under Waitlist on the playtest's page.

Releasing a Tester's Seat

If someone who booked cannot make it, click Release next to their name in the Booked list on the playtest's page. Their seat opens for someone else right away. A tester who booked with an account or an email gets an email saying so, and can book again while seats are open.

You can release seats until the playtest is cancelled or finished.

Files for Testers

Files the host attached are listed on the playtest's page under Files for testers. Once you have a seat, click one to open it, so you can read the rules before the table opens. Without a seat, the page only says how many files there are.

The host can change the files by editing the playtest. Deleting a file from My Files removes it from the playtest too.

Starting It

From 30 minutes before the start time until an hour after, the playtest's page shows Start the playtest, and you get an email when that window opens. It opens a private room with the table you picked and emails the join link to everyone booked with an account or an email. Only you and the people booked see the join link.

The room stays open while you wait for your first tester, even if you step away. Once a tester joins, it works like any other room.

If the room allows spectators, anyone on the playtest's page without a seat can click Watch as a spectator while it is live. See Spectators.

After It Ends

When the room closes, everyone who booked with an account or an email gets a thank-you. If Email testers a feedback link afterwards was on, it links to your game's public feedback form; saving a playtest with it on switches that form on.

When Nobody Comes

• If you do not start the playtest within an hour of its start time, it is cancelled, and everyone booked with an account or an email is emailed.
• If you start it but no tester joins within an hour, it is cancelled and the room closes.

You get an email in both cases.