Playing a Published Project

The fastest path into a session

If you’d rather play in someone else’s world than build your own, Discover is where you start. Every published project on Discover can be launched as a live game with a single click. You don’t need to install anything, fork anything or set up files: pick a world, choose a character, and the GM takes it from there.

Browsing Discover

Open Discover in the left sidebar. The page shows a grid of worlds published by the community.

• The search bar at the top searches world titles and descriptions. It's useful when you know a world's name, or want every Pathfinder game.
• The sort menu next to search switches between recently published, most played, most liked and so on, to find what people are actually playing.
• Each card shows the author, a system tag (D&D 5E 2014, Homebrew, D&D 5E 2024 and so on), the title, a short description, and heart and play counts. Click anywhere on a card to open the world's page.

Reading a world's page

Each published world has its own page that shows what it's about and who made it. The header carries the cover art and title.

The stats row tells you the rest: who crafted it, how many people have played it, how many likes it has, how many files it contains, and which version you’re looking at. Scroll down for the world's premise and any media gallery the author included.

To play, click Start game at the top right.

The prelude and the lobby

Some worlds open with a prelude, a short cinematic introduction to the setting. Once it ends, a Replay prelude button in the lobby lets you watch it again.

Then you're in the lobby, where you set up your game:

• Game start. Many worlds offer more than one way to begin, each with its own opening scene. Step through them with the arrows, or open the list with "Choose a Game Start".
• Your character. The strip under Choose Your Character shows every character you can play. Click one to see them in the main view, then click Play as and their name to start.
• Your own character. Click Create your Own Character, or the New tile at the end of the strip, to make one. Craft walks you through whatever character creation the world uses.
• Game settings. The button above Play shows the GM's model and whether you're on the world's defaults. Click it to change how the game plays before you start.

Game settings

Game settings has three tabs:

• Gameplay. The world's player options, such as how long the GM's replies are, how fast the story moves, and how long trips are played. See Player Options.
• Text Model. The model that runs your GM. Stronger models follow the world's instructions more reliably, and cheaper ones let you play longer on the same energy.
• Images. Use Craft Image Bank (Free) is on by default, so the pictures the GM adds are free. See The Craft Image Bank.

You can change all of these later from Quick settings during the game.

Your first turn

Once you pick a character, the game opens with "YOUR JOURNEY BEGINS AT" over your game start's place, and the GM sets the scene. Read through its pages with Continue (or the arrow keys), then click Your turn.

Type as your character would speak or act: "I draw my dagger and step into the doorway", not stage directions about what should happen. The GM narrates the result.

Everything else on the screen, from the map and the dice to your character sheet and Inspect turn, is covered in The Game Screen.

Building a world of your own instead? The owner’s side is covered in Starting Your First Game.