- Gaming Zoom
- Discord
- Gaming Spaces and the Code of Conduct
- Game Library
- Scheduled Games
- Scheduling pickup games for later in the weekend
- Tournaments
- Special Events
Gaming Zoom
The Gaming Zoom will be open to everyone during these hours:
- Friday 3 PM-12 AM
- Saturday 8 AM-12 AM
- Sunday 8 AM-12 AM
- Monday 8 AM-3 PM
A Tabletop Gaming volunteer will be available to help you during the “open” hours. You may enter and ask for a “table” (Zoom breakout room). You’re encouraged to wander around to different “tables” to see what’s going on. Ask a volunteer about the current list of games looking for players!
Discord
To access the Arisia Discord area, log on to online.arisia.org and follow the instructions there. Use #main-gaming-chat for general chatter and talking about your favorite or least favorite tabletop games. Use #looking-for-players to find a game that needs more people or to start your own. Volunteers in the Gaming Zoom will have a spreadsheet of current happenings. Gaming staff will monitor the Discord channels to answer questions.
Notes: We are not using voice or video on the Discord server during Arisia. Children under 13 cannot have Discord accounts according to the Discord terms of service, but they are welcome to share the screen with an age 13+ account holder and contribute to the conversation.
Gaming Spaces and the Code of Conduct
The Gaming Zoom and its Discord channels are covered by the Arisia Code of Conduct. If you start a pickup game from within Arisia’s Discord space, and hold it on some other private channel, that is considered a “convention space” for the purposes of the Code of Conduct while the pickup game is going on.
During the convention, conversations that begin on the Arisia Discord may move into private interactions on Discord. This does not mean that the Arisia Code of Conduct suddenly fails to apply to those interactions. Please be respectful in your interactions with other Arisia attendees, regardless of whether you are officially in "Arisia space," in the same way that we would ask you to be respectful of other Arisia attendees while standing outside of the Arisia hotel (assuming that you were willing to venture into the icy cold).
Game Library
We have accounts on Tabletopia and Board Game Arena. We can spawn up to 30 games at a time for each platform. Please make your request in Discord on #main-gaming-chat or in the Gaming Zoom. Let us know if you want the link via pm or in the public Discord channel. If you want to use voice or video, request a Zoom breakout room. (You may also choose to keep your camera off in your Zoom breakout room.) During this con we are not using voice or video on Discord or any other platform except Zoom.
Scheduled Games
See the schedule at https://online.arisia.org/schedule for the games that are already pre-scheduled. Signup for these games begins on Thursday 1/14/21 at noon EST. To sign up for any of these, use the signup links area at https://online.arisia.org/gaming. Be sure to have your badge number handy, as you’ll need it to sign up for pre-scheduled games. Arrive 5-10 minutes before the scheduled start, either in the Gaming Zoom or the Discord #main-gaming-chat, and a staff member will direct you to the right place at the right time.
Scheduling pickup games for later in the weekend
If you’d like to schedule your own game to be played at a later time during the con, you can request a Google form from the Tabletop Gaming staff, complete it with all the details, and we’ll set up an online signup for you. The game will not appear in the published schedule, but will be visible on the website with the other signup links.
Tournaments
We have tournaments! The prizes are virtual ribbons, glory, and tasteful bragging rights. Friday and Saturday each feature a Jamboree tournament, with several games played in a round robin manner, culminating in a face-off with new games between the highest scorers to crown a champion. There will also be two single-game tournaments: Takenoko on Saturday and 7 Wonders on Sunday.
Special Events
Midnight Cosmic Encounters is running early this year — at 11 PM! Meet in the Gaming Zoom.
Space Cats is an interactive Discord-based puzzle game by Green Door Labs (https://www.greendoorlabs.com). A Feline adventure class spacecraft needs to make it to the station at Alpha5 but Captain Fig found a vole in an airlock and is unavailable. The crew is lost. Who does what? It’s like herding... something. Every few hours, a different challenge appears. Many challenges are specifically geared towards multigenerational experience, though it’s not necessary to have a child with you when you participate. (Because of the rules of Discord, any child under 13 must participate with a 13+ person.) Submit your results, and we will create a montage of the best/funniest/awesomest results and publish to the Space Cats Twitter periodically.