Events and tables

An event is how you put a game in front of a group of people and step back. A class at their desks, a game night, a booth at a convention, or strangers online playtesting blind. You open the event, hand out a code or a QR per table, and people sit down and play without creating an account and without you hosting. For now, running events is open to Boardweaver admins; an admin can run an event for any game they could host a match of, whether or not they made it. A hosted match is still the right tool when you are playing with people you know and want a seat yourself.

Opening an event

Press Run an event on a game's catalog card, or follow the link under the invite bar of a lobby you are hosting. An event runs one game, and every table in it shares the event's settings:

• Event name. Printed on every card and shown above the codes when you present, so people know which class or event these tables belong to.
• Version to play. The published version, the public playtest version, or, for a game you are a member of, the latest commit. Everyone at the event plays the same version.
• Seats per table. One of the player counts the game declares. A table is full when this many people are seated. If the game's player counts change later so that the table's seat count is no longer one of them, its join page, its lobbies and the event page say the game has outgrown the table. An outgrown table seats nobody new and starts no game, not even with fewer players seated; open a new event with a seat count the game plays with.
• How a game starts. Starts on its own when every seat is taken, where any seated player may also start early once the game minimum is met; A seated player presses Start, where nothing starts until someone at the table does it; or The organizer starts each table, where only you start games, from the event page. There, once a group fills, the next arrival starts a new group under the same code, and each full group waits on the event page, listed under its table; you start any group from its row, or every ready group at once with Start all games. Under every rule you can start a waiting group yourself: its row on the event page offers Start once the number of players seated in it is one the game plays with.
• Who can sit down. Anyone with the code, as a guest with just a name, or signed-in players only. Require sign-in when you want feedback attributed to accounts.
• How many tables. An event holds up to 30 tables. Tables are numbered from 1, and you can add more from the event page until it is full.

For a room, open one table per physical table. For people arriving on their own online, one table is enough: once its lobby fills, a fresh lobby opens under the same code for whoever comes next, so one link can seat any number of players in games of the right size, under every start rule. When you start games yourself, the next arrival at a full group starts a new group under the same code, each full group waits on the event page listed under its table, and you start any group from its row or every ready group at once. A hybrid event is two events: one for the room, and one online table of its own so it stays off the projector.

The events you run are listed at /events and in the sidebar of the play pages, where the event you are looking at shows a live state for each of its tables. Each event's page lives under a code of its own, so its address gives away nothing about any other event.

Putting the codes in front of people

Every table has a six-character code and a QR that lead to the same seat. From the event page you can:

• Present on screen. A projector view of the event: each table's QR for phones, its code in large type for laptops, and one line telling the room what to do. Seat counts refresh on their own.
• Print cards. One card per table with the QR, the code, and the address to type, two to a page.
• Show QR (then Download QR), Copy link, or Copy code for a single table, to paste into a slide, a message, or a document.

Someone without a camera goes to /join and types the code. Codes never use characters that are easy to confuse, and case does not matter.

What players see

The join page shows the game, the event's name and the table's number, how many seats are taken, and the rules if the version has them. A guest enters a name and takes a seat; a signed-in player just takes a seat. The lobby explains the start rule, and when the game ends, the next scan begins a fresh game at the same table.

While the event runs

You are never seated. From the event page you can:

• Watch any waiting group or any game in progress as a spectator. You see only what is public on the board, never a player's hidden information.
• Reset a table to send everyone waiting at it back to the join page, every group listed under it included. The code keeps working; the next scan opens a fresh group.
• Change the rules. Switch who can sit down, or how a game starts, for every table at once.
• Pause the event so its codes stop seating people, and resume it later. Pausing keeps every table and its printed card for next time: pause after class, resume next week, no reprinting. Anyone waiting at a paused event's table is sent away; games in progress finish on their own.
• Add tables when the room grows. Numbering carries on from the highest number the event ever handed out, so a deleted table's number is never reused and the cards you already printed stay unambiguous.
• Delete a table you are done with, or the whole event. Its codes stop working for good; games in progress finish on their own.

Finished games leave feedback for the game's designers like any other match.

Guests

A guest is an account with a name and nothing else, created when someone sits down at a table. Their sign-in lasts a week; after that they sit down again with a name as before. A guest stays as the player record of the games they played, so their feedback stays readable for as long as the game does. Guests can sit at any table whose code they hold and leave feedback, but cannot create games, host matches of their own, or run events. Sitting down at a table gives up any other lobby they were still waiting in. Anyone can sign in instead, and an event can require it.