Now that you have signed up as a Game Master on StartPlaying, you'll need to make some games!

A Game Template is the blueprint for your game. It contains all the important information about your game, except dates and times.

Your Adventures will pull information directly from your Game Template.

Process Overview:

All Game Templates are manually reviewed to ensure they follow our Terms of Service.

Review time is 24-48 hours on average.

If your template is rejected for any reason, it will move to Draft. You’ll receive an email explaining what needs to be fixed

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Below is a breakdown of every section you’ll see when creating your Game Template.

If a new D&D adventure comes out, you will probably want to run it - so does everyone else. You can have a game in Eberron that isn't named "Eberron."

Put a little creativity into the name, and it will help you stand out from the crowd of others submitting that same adventure.

Select if your template is for a Campaign or a One Shot.

You cannot change this after approval, so double-check before submitting.
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Choose the game system you are running - D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, Daggerheart, etc.

Only list the system you are actually using.

If the system you plan to run isn't listed here, reach out to support, and they will add it for you.

These appear only for D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e templates.

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The Game Hook is a short description of your game, that should be between 1-2 sentences. You can think of this as an "Elevator Pitch" for perspective players, to draw them in, so they will read more about your game!

This is one of the most important parts of your template.

A strong description helps players understand the tone, theme, and style of your game.

Choose the primary language you plan to run this game in.

Add tags that describe the tone or genre of your game, like High Fantasy, Gothic Horror, Wacky, or Vikings.

This image acts as your game’s cover art.

⚠️ No licensed or copyrighted art, including module covers or publisher-owned images.

We have a whole Google Drive folder with art available for GMs to use.

Our image uploader only accepts PNG and JPG files (GIFSs are no longer accepted)

Use this field to credit the artist if you are using artwork with permission.

Game Masters can customize how their game appears in search engines and on platforms like Discord and Facebook.

You can customize your:

To enable this, click the Enabled switch in the top-right corner.

List how many sessions you expect the campaign to run.

If you’re unsure, give your best estimate and try to stick close to what you list.

How long your sessions usually run. Try to list the most accurate estimate rather than a broad range.

We recommend a 1 hour time difference at most (ex: 2-3 hours is a 1 hour time difference)

Choose the appropriate age rating.

Select the level of experience required, or preferred, for your game.

The price per session per player.

Explain how characters should be made for your game.

You can include:

📌 Tip: We recommend having pre-generated characters available, since many players book same-day.

There are few things worse for players than showing up excited for their first session of a new campaign, only to learn that they don't actually get to play. Maybe they didn't know they needed to have a character ready, so they spend the whole first session making one.

This section prevents that from happening by telling players exactly what they need to bring to game night. This also applies to any tech they need to set up, such as chat service accounts (Discord account, Zoom account, etc.) or a working webcam.

If you have any fun extras that set your game apart, here's where you can list them. Think things like animated VTT maps, custom soundtracks, or original art. You can also add what you bring personality wise as a GM!

If you utilize homebrew rules in your game, make sure your players know what those rules are, and how they are used at your table.

List out any equipment that the player will need in order to join your game, such as microphones, computers, or headphones!

This section is where you will list where the game is played, such as the VTT or voice call platform. Do you use Zoom or Discord? Maybe you use Roll20 for maps or like to do Theater of the Mind. List all of that here.

This section uses dropdowns to set the various levels of combat/tactics, roleplay, and puzzles a player can expect in your game. This is very helpful for players when they are searching for games.

Go over your safety tools or content warnings in greater detail, as well as anything you don't allow at your table, or special rules you have in place for the safety of your players.

This section is used to describe anything you want people to know about ahead of time that you think may be triggering for some players.

All games listed on StartPlaying are required to have content warnings.

Safety Tools are crucial for making sure all players have a good time and feel safe during play. You must select at least one safety tool from the checklist and use it in the games attached to this template.

All of the safety tools in this section are explained in depth here, and each safety tool has a brief description if you hover over the blue icon next to its name.

To submit your Game Template, double check that every section of your template is fully completed. You cannot submit a template for approval is any mandatory field is left blank.

Once your Game Template is ready to go:

Yes, you can edit your game template before or after it has been approved.

Click the three dots next to the template, then select Edit:
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No, StartPlaying does not support markdown at this time.