You signed up. You're standing at the Tavern with a setup checklist that looks longer than you expected. This post walks you through it: what each step does, why we ask, and how the pieces fit together so the matching engine works for you.

Total time, the first pass: about 15 minutes for a player profile, 25 minutes for a GM profile with a first listing posted. You can come back and refine any of it later. The point of the first pass is to give the system enough signal to start working, not to be perfect.

Step 1: Profile and role

Open Settings, then Profile. Set your display name, username, country (we use country and city or region for region matching, but we never collect a street address), timezone, and the languages you play in. The timezone field is the one that quietly matters most: every schedule overlap score on the Quest Board runs through it.

Then pick your role. Player means you apply to tables. Organizer means you host tables. Both means you do both, which is the right answer for most longtime tabletop folks. You can change this any time. If you set yourself to Player, The Study sidebar entry still shows in the nav but clicking it walks you back here with a note to switch.

Step 2: Preferences

Settings, then Preferences. Two layers here. The cross-pillar baseline (experience, commitment, voice and video comfort, playstyle and tone tags) describes you no matter what game you're at. The per-pillar tabs (RPG, Battles, Cards) describe what you want when you're at that specific kind of table.

Fill in whichever pillar you actually play. Skipping a pillar tab is fine. The compatibility engine treats a missing pillar as neutral, not as a deal-breaker.

The tags here drive the compatibility score on every listing you look at. A vague profile gets vague matches. A specific profile gets sharp matches. That's it, that's the whole trick.

Step 3: Content Boundaries (private)

Settings, then Content Boundaries. Twenty-two categories, five preference levels each: hard no, soft no, indifferent, okay, prefer included.

Two things to remember about this surface. First, your boundaries are private. The GM never sees your individual answers. They see compatibility (fit, warning, or block) based on whether the listing's declared content lines up with your preferences. Second, hard no on a category that a listing flags as a key theme is a real block. The listing's compatibility status flips to incompatible and the apply button refuses.

Set the hard nos first. Those are the ones that protect you. The rest you can fill in as you have opinions.

Step 4: Availability

Settings, then Availability. Add weekly blocks for when you can play. The blocks are recurring (we don't track holidays or one-offs yet, that's coming), and they're scored against a listing's preferred session day and time to produce up to 30 of the 100 compatibility points. If a listing is flexible on schedule, you get a neutral 18 points by default.

One block is enough to start. Add more as you figure out what your actual week looks like.

Step 5 (Players): Browse the Quest Board

If you're a Player, this is where you stop being a setup task and start being a member. Quest Board, top of the sidebar. Pillar tabs across the top, status pills (All, Saved, Applied, Approved) for filtering by your own relationship to a table, and free text and format filters above the grid.

Click any listing card to see the full detail page, including your compatibility score and the reasons behind it. Save the ones you're not sure about. Apply to the ones you are. Both happen in one click from the detail page.

Step 5 (GMs): Create your first listing

If you're an Organizer or Both, click The Study, then Create listing. The form swaps in pillar-specific sections depending on what you pick at the top.

The fields that matter most for matching: pillar, system, format (online, local, hybrid), capacity, schedule day and time, language, and the content-boundary declarations for RPG tables. Capacity flows directly into the seat-count badge on the Quest Board, so set it honestly: if the table is for four players plus you, capacity is four.

Content boundaries on RPG listings work the same way as player boundaries, in reverse. You declare what's present at your table and at what intensity. The system uses that against player preferences to flag matches and warnings before either side commits.

Save the listing as draft while you tinker. Set visibility to public when it's ready to take applications.

Step 6 (GMs): Review applicants

Once your listing is public and applications start arriving, The Study sidebar item highlights the listing and the Tavern setup checklist marks Review applicants as done.

Open the listing, click Applicants. For each applicant you see their compatibility score, their displayed reasons, and any optional note they wrote. Three actions: Approve (they're in), Waitlist (you'll come back to them if a seat opens), Reject (politely declines).

Approving an applicant when the table is at capacity is server-refused. That's intentional. If you want to add a seat, edit the listing and bump capacity first.

Step 7 (GMs): Schedule a session

The Study, then Sessions, or directly from a listing's manage view. Set a date and time, optional location for in-person tables, and post it. Approved applicants get an RSVP prompt at The Timetable on their next visit.

After the session, return to the same surface to mark attendance. Attendance feeds the reliability layer that travels with players between tables, which matters more the longer you run on the platform.

What the setup checklist is actually for

The five-step checklist on The Tavern (Profile, Preferences, Boundaries, Availability, Browse the Quest Board) isn't a tutorial. It's the minimum signal the compatibility engine needs to be useful to you. Skip preferences and every match will look identical. Skip availability and every schedule score will be neutral. Each item you check is a sharper lens.

Same idea for The Study checklist if you're a GM. Profile so applicants know who you are. Preferences so your listing carries your tone signal. First listing so there's anything to apply to. First applicant review so the loop is real. First session so the Hourglass starts working.

When something goes wrong

If a step looks like it should be done but the checklist says it isn't, that usually means the engine didn't see a save. Reload the page and look for the saved confirmation. If that doesn't fix it, the Send feedback button at the foot of every authed page goes straight to the team.

If you find yourself unable to apply to a table, the most common cause is a content boundary mismatch (you have a hard no on something the table declares as a key theme). The listing's compatibility panel shows you which one. If you want to apply anyway, the GM can override on their side once you've talked.

Welcome to the Hall.