After you have created your Game Template, you need to create an Adventure and schedule a Session! Here is a step-by-step guide to creating your first adventure.
How do I get to the Listings page?
Click on the GM Navigation Icon (shaped like a book) in the upper right-hand corner
Click on Listings on the left-hand side of the screen
How do I create an Adventure?
Click on the black Add adventure button
📌 Note: This button will only appear on approved Game Templates.
Fill out the information in the Add adventure page, including:
Number of Players:
Choose the minimum and maximum number of players you want for your game.
Players in scheduled sessions will be charged, even if the minimum player count is not met.
Day:
Choose the day of the week that your game will run.
Time:
Choose what time your game will start, configured to your time zone.
To make sure you have the right time zone, check your Player Profile Settings.
Frequency:
Choose how often your game will meet: Weekly, bi-weekly, once a month, or another custom schedule.
Cut Off Time:
Choose how many hours notice you need to prepare a player for your game
This feature will not prevent a player from joining your game, but will warn players they may not be able to play:
Prep Materials and Links:
Provide links to necessary materials (e.g., Discord, Roll20).
Learn more in this FAQ Page!
Game Style:
Tag your game with relevant style tags to help players find what they’re looking for.
Learn more in this FAQ!
Publicly Listed:
Check this box if you want your adventure to be searchable to players on StartPlaying
Instantly Bookable:
Check this box if you want to automatically approve players that join your game
If unchecked you must approve or deny all players before they join your Adventure.
Special Event:
Check this box if you are participating in one of StartPlaying's monthly events in partnership with charities and other TTRPG companies.
You can always go back and edit this on the Edit Adventure page
Pending vs. Active Adventures
When you first make an Adventure, it will be in the Pending status.
Pending means:
You have not reached the minimum players to run your game.
Or, you may have hit the minimum number of players, but you have not clicked the blue Start Adventure button.
You cannot schedule sessions of your game
Your players will not be charged until the game is set to Active.
Once you hit your minimum player count, you can switch your game to Active.
How do I schedule a session?
Once your Adventure is Active, you can schedule your first session
Click on the name of your Adventure, or click on the 3 dots and click Edit
Under Schedule, click Add session or Add multiple sessions
In the pop-up, add your date(s) and time(s)
Click Add
✅ That's it! You've scheduled your first session!
What are Campaigns and One Shots, and what are the differences between them?
Campaign and One-Shots are the two Adventure types on StartPlaying, and are listed separately for billing and scheduling purposes.
A Campaign is a series of connected adventures set in the same world, where the Game Master creates a backstory, settings, and Non-Player Characters to help the story progress from session to session. Since Campaigns can contain numerous sessions, Players who sign up are automatically included in each session unless they skip a session or leave the game, and will be charged for each session they play in.
A One-Shot is self-contained adventure that takes players through a story arc within one session. Each One-Shot adventure will only be able to have a single session scheduled for it, so a Player who signs up will only be charged for the one session. If the GM wants to run the same One-Shot again, a new copy of the Adventure would need to be created. GMs can make a copy of an existing One-Shot for another time slot by following the steps in this article. If the Adventure will take more than one session to complete, it should be set up as a Campaign instead, to ensure Players will not need to manually sign up for each individual session.