It's one of the first things you see when you come to StartPlaying — Find Game! There's hundreds of games to search for, but how does the Game Search work?
How is the game order determined on the Find Games page?
Games on the Find Games page are sorted by how soon until they start. The games that are closest to their start time show up at the top of the page, while games that are more than a few hours or even days from their next session will show up lower on the search.
If you add additional search filters like "Day of Week" or "Start Time," the search will still show you the games starting earliest on that day or in that time frame.
No secret tricks like number of reviews or games run to get to the top — if your game is starting soon, it'll be up at the top 😁
How can I filter for games on the Find Games page?
You can filter for games on StartPlaying by Schedule, Status, and Game System.
Schedule
Frequency
How often do you want this game to meet? You can use the Frequency filter to select from Weekly, Every other week, Monthly, and Custom.
Day
You can use the Day filter which days of the week you want to play.
Start Time
You can use the Start Time filter to choose the earliest time you want your game to start, and the latest time you would want your game to start.
More Filters
Price Range
You can use the Price Range filter to select the lowest and highest amount you are looking to pay per session.
If you are playing in a one-shot, this would be a one time payment. If you are playing in a campaign, you would pay this amount for each session of your game.
Duration
You can use the Duration filter to select the minimum and maximum amount of time you would like a session to run.
If you are playing in a one-shot, this would be how long a single game would run. If you are playing in a campaign, this is how long you would like each session of the game to run.
Frequency -- IS CORRECT??? SEEMS TO BE MOVED!
Game System
If you are looking to play a specific TTRPG, like Dungeons and Dragons 5e or Pathfinder 2e, you can use this filter to select the system you want to play.
Note: The full list of game systems is only available on the GM side, when editing or creating a Game Template.
If you're searching for a system on the Find Games page and aren't seeing it, only the systems that currently have games running will be shown.
Game Type
You can use the Game Type filter to select if you want to search for one-shots or campaigns.
Game Platform
If you have a specific Virtual Tabletop (VTT) that you want to use in your game, you can filter by it using Game Platform.
If you are looking to play in a Play by Post (PBP) game, you can also search for those games with the Game Platform filter.
Why is my game not showing up on the Find Games page?
If your game isn't showing up in the game search, it could be for a variety of reasons.
Only Public games with show up in the game search. Games that are set to private will not show up.
Games that do not have any active sessions scheduled will not show up in the game search.
Games with no players signed up will be removed from the game search four hours before the session's start time. This increases the odds of games with players booked into them filling up the rest of the way.
Games that have at least one player signed up are removed from the game search one hour before the scheduled start time. This limits the number of last minute sign ups that result in players not being able to get into sessions that they signed up for.
If your game is fully booked, it will not show up on the Find Games page.