The professional Game Masters here on StartPlaying specialize in all kinds of ways to play tabletop RPGs. When it comes to searching for games, our options are equally varied. Just go to find games on StartPlaying; you’ll see we have subsections for games with only one seat left to fill, learn to play sessions, games that aren’t Dungeons & Dragons, and so much more. Yet there’s one more tool even more powerful than the rest: the Bounty Board.
The Bounty Board, or the “Request A Game” tag in the StartPlaying search, is how you make a more specific request for the game of your choosing. This can be a themed one-shot night for a friend’s birthday, a campaign in a lesser-played system, or even something as simple as requesting a certain time of day.
When you submit a game bounty, your request will go in front of StartPlaying’s Top Game Masters. These are the GMs that have credentials like hundreds of games run, a high amount of favorable reviews, and very consistent schedules. The GMs will then bid for your bounty, sending you adventure ideas that you can pick from.
But before we get to the bids, you’ll have to fill out some details about the kind of game you’re looking for. You’ll put in what game system you want to play, if you prefer a certain virtual tabletop, date/time, if you have a group or are looking for one, and several other items including a space to describe your dream campaign. Once that’s all sorted, your bounty will be brought to our GMs.
There are technically two types of requests you can make: Learn to Play and Custom Game.
Learn to Play games, as the name says, are there to get you into a brand new game as quickly as possible. You only request the game and the time; once enough players request the same slot, it will be filled by an available GM. Custom Games are what we’ve discussed already, where you can fill in the details of what you want. GMs answer these by bidding.
Up to three GMs are allowed to bid on a single bounty. They do so by showing you an adventure listing which contains their pitch for their storyline, house rules, unique skills, and all that good stuff. You are free to message them via StartPlaying to ask any questions. If you’d rather take more time to consider, you can always close the bounty and re-submit it with some tweaks.
Once you’re happy with what you see, you can choose to accept a bid. Then it’s game on!
If you’re been staring at your bookshelf yearning to give that horror RPG a try, or don’t have friends willing to play a Final Fantasy-themed campaign, head to the Bounty Board!
Sergio Solórzano is the best Dungeon Master in the USA (according to an official D&D competition, anyway). He loves minis and terrain but also goes all-in on improv!
