Inviting Players

Inviting players to your game is one of the most important (and often overlooked) set-up steps to running a Campaign. Typically speaking, it’s best to invite as early as possible.

Setting up a Lobby

Plainly put, setting up a “Lobby” is making a staging area for your players as they join the game. This prevents the rookie mistake of creating a huge map, inviting players, then as they join, they see all your GM secrets before you were ever ready!

To set up a lobby, make a new blank map. Name it “Lobby” or whatever you’d like, then place down some sort of graphic. Here’s a chance to add a personal touch! This will be the first thing your players see as they join. Maybe it’s the room their characters are in when they meet, or perhaps a title screen for the Campaign, setting the stage for what’s to come.

If players will set up their own characters:

If your players have a good grasp on the system being run in your campaign and how to set up their characters on Astral, then it’s likely they will be setting up their own characters.

If your players will be configuring their own characters, it’s important to invite them earlier rather than later. This way, while you are working on the finishing touches the players can be working on setting up their characters asynchronously. This also gives time for them to smooth out the rough edges before everyone joins for the first session. In order to do this, you will need to set up a lobby for your players, so they don’t see something before they should.

If the GM will assist in setting up characters:

More often than not, the GM will end up assisting in character setup. Some GMs may prefer to set up the characters for the players entirely. Maybe this is one of your player’s first times running on Astral. Regardless, if this is your choice, you may want to take a different invitation strategy.

Still make sure you invite your players early. The more time they have personalizing their characters and making sure they have their Actions set up properly, the better.

You may want to include pre-made characters in the lobby (or at least have a character started for each player for them to continue themselves). As your invited players join, they will land in the lobby and you can assign their characters to them. From there, they can take over the characters and get to work customizing them!