Schedule sessions

Plan your game's sessions in RollQuest: each player sees the time in their own time zone, answers with one tap and gets an email reminder before you start.

For: Game Masters · Plan: Starter · 21 minutes

A session is one sitting of your game, with a date, a start time and a length. As the Game Master (GM), you plan it once. RollQuest then shows it to everyone in their own time, tells you who is coming, and emails people so nobody forgets. It's for any group tired of settling the next date in a chat thread, and most of all for a group spread across time zones.

A game has a schedule when its GM's account has the feature, whatever accounts its players have. Your players' side of it is on Answer a session invite.

Open the schedule

• In a game: click Schedule, the calendar on the tool rail (the column of icons down the right-hand edge of the screen). On a phone, the rail's tools are in the menu (three lines, top left).
• From your dashboard: click the calendar button on the game's card, without opening the game.

The Schedule drawer slides in from the right, with your game's name under the heading. Click the cross (Close schedule) or press Esc to close it. In a game, clicking Schedule again closes it too. Every time in it is in your own time zone.

Part	What it shows or does
Times in your zone	Your time zone, such as Europe/London (UTC+0). Change opens Time zone and availability.
Session card	One session: a line such as Next session · tomorrow, its name, its date and time, its length and its note. Later session means you picked a later one under Coming up, and Playing now means it has started. Extra, optional and New time join that line for an Extra session and a moved one. A session with no name reads Untitled session.
Add to calendar	Google, Outlook and Apple / .ics. See Add a session to your calendar.
Edit or move	Opens the session in Edit session. See Edit or move a session.
Cancel session	See Cancel a session.
Who is coming	Everyone in the game, with their local time and their answer, for the session on the card. See See who is coming.
Coming up	Shows once there are two or more sessions. One row each, soonest first, with how many are going. Click a row to show that session on the card.
Plan a session	Opens Plan a session. A crown on the button means your plan doesn't include it: clicking it opens a window explaining the feature.
My time zone and weekly hours	Opens Time zone and availability.

With nothing planned, the drawer says No session planned yet.

A session stays in the drawer until its end time has passed. There's no list of past sessions.

Plan a session

1. Open the schedule and click Plan a session. The window of the same name opens, with the form already filled in.
2. Change the Session name, Date and Starts if you need to. You enter them in your own time zone.
3. Choose a Length.
4. Check What each player sees: each player's local time, and how it sits with their usual hours.
5. Leave Email players and Send reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before ticked, or untick either one.
6. Add a Note to players if you have something to tell them, such as what to prepare.
7. Click Schedule session.

The session shows straight away in everyone's drawer and on their dashboard card. With Email players ticked, a message such as Players will be emailed in about 5 minutes. Any more changes before then go in the same email. tells you when the email goes. See Emails.

Plan a session, field by field

Field	What it does	Default and limits
Start from	Same as last session copies the last session's start time and length to the next date its weekday comes round, and adds one to the number in its name. Same time next week moves the date in the form on by 7 days.	Planning only. Same as last session shows once the game has a session.
Session name	Shown in the drawer, on dashboard cards, in emails and in calendars. Left blank, it reads Untitled session in the drawer and Your next session in emails.	Session 1 at first. After that, the last session's name with the number at the end one higher, so Session 16 becomes Session 17. Up to 80 characters.
Date	The day, in your time zone.	Tomorrow, or the next date on the last session's weekday.
Starts	The start time, in your time zone. The line under it says which zone that is, such as Entered in your time zone, Europe/London (UTC+0).	7:00 PM, or the last session's start time. 5-minute steps.
Length	2h, 3h, 4h, 5h or Custom, which adds Hours (0 to 24) and Minutes (0, 15, 30 or 45). The line under it shows the result, such as 3 hours · ends 10:00 PM.	The game's Default session length, or the last session's length. 15 minutes to 24 hours.
Repeat (Pro)	Just this once, or a repeat worked out from your date: Every week on Saturday, Every 2 weeks on Saturday or Monthly on the 1st Saturday. On Starter these end (Pro), and choosing one opens a window explaining the feature and puts the list back. See Repeat a session.	Just this once. Planning only.
Session type	Core session or Extra, optional. On Starter the second reads Extra, optional (Pro) and clicking it opens a window explaining the feature. See Extra sessions.	Core session
What each player sees	One row for everyone in the game, you first, with their name, their place, their local start and end time and a label. See the next section.
Email players	Sends the players the New session email.	Ticked
Send reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before	Turns both reminders on or off for this session. The game's own reminder settings have to be on too. See Game settings.	Ticked
Note to players (optional)	Shows in the drawer, in emails and in the calendar event.	Up to 1,000 characters

The default "last session" is the latest one that has started, or, if none has, the last one on the schedule.

Cancel, at the bottom of the window, closes it without saving.

What each player sees

Each row reads the session in that person's own zone, so you can see whether 8 PM for you is 3 AM for someone else. The label compares the session with the weekly hours and away dates they've set. It's only a guide: nothing stops you planning a session outside someone's hours, and nothing changes for that player.

Label	What it means
Hosting	You, the GM.
In preferred hours	The whole session is inside hours they marked as preferred.
In free hours	The whole session is inside their free hours.
Starts before free hours	It starts outside their hours and ends inside them.
Runs past free hours	It starts inside their hours and carries on after them.
Partly in free hours	Some of it is inside their hours, but neither of the two above fits.
Outside free hours	None of it is inside their hours.
Away	It touches a date they've marked as away. Your list shows Away, not any label they gave those dates.
No hours set	They haven't set weekly hours or a time zone.

A row with no zone says No time zone set yet in place of the time. A line under the list sums it up, such as 3 of 4 players with hours set are in their free hours. 1 has not set hours. or All 4 players are in their free hours.

The list shows people who have joined the game. Someone you've invited who hasn't joined yet isn't on it. A player who joins later sees every upcoming session and gets its reminders.

See who is coming

Who is coming lists everyone in the game for the session on the card. Each row has a name, a local time and an answer.

Under the name	Meaning
8:00 PM your time	That's you.
12:00 PM in London	The session's start time for them, and where.
No time zone set	RollQuest doesn't know their zone yet. It picks it up the next time they open RollQuest.

Answer	Meaning
Hosting	You. You count as going on every session you plan.
Going, Maybe, Can't make it	The player's answer.
No reply	They haven't answered.

You don't answer in the drawer. You do get reminder emails, and if you tap Maybe or I can't make it in one, your row shows that instead of Hosting.

Everyone in the game sees this list, answers and local times included. Answers appear as soon as players give them. On your dashboard and under Coming up, the count of people going includes you.

Edit or move a session

Editing changes one session. In a repeat, the other sessions stay as they are.

1. In the drawer, pick the session under Coming up if it isn't the one showing.
2. Click Edit or move. Edit session opens, with the same fields as Plan a session, minus Start from and Repeat.
3. Make your changes and click Save changes.

To move it, change the Date or Starts. The session then shows New time, and:

• Everyone's answer is cleared, so they answer again. The window warns you: Moving a session asks everyone to answer again.
• Both reminders start again for the new time.
• The email box reads Email players about the new time. Ticked, players get a New time email with Was and the time they were last told.

Changing anything else (the name, length, type, note or reminders) keeps everyone's answers and sends no email. The box reads Email players (only if the time changes) to say so. A new length moves the end time without counting as a move.

If your own time zone has changed since you planned the session, the form shows it in your new zone. Saving doesn't move it unless you change the date or time.

Cancel a session

1. Pick the session under Coming up if it isn't the one showing.
2. Click Cancel session. The drawer asks Cancel Session 17 on Sat 7 Nov, 7:00 PM?
3. Leave Email players ticked, or untick it.
4. Click Yes, cancel it. Keep it closes the question and changes nothing.

The session leaves everyone's schedule straight away, and there's no undo: to bring it back, plan it again. Its reminders stop. A cancelled email goes within a minute, with no five-minute hold. If the New session email hadn't gone yet, nobody hears anything, and the drawer says No email needed: players had not been emailed about it yet. A session that has already started never sends a cancelled email.

Cancelling changes one session. To stop a repeat, cancel each session in it.

Deleting a game deletes its schedule too, and nobody is emailed. If you want players told, cancel the next session first and give it a minute. See Delete or leave a game.

Add a session to your calendar

Under Add to calendar in the drawer:

Button	What it does
Google	Opens Google Calendar's new-event page in a new tab, filled in. Click save there.
Outlook	Opens Outlook on the web's new-event page in a new tab, filled in, for a personal Outlook.com or Hotmail calendar.
Apple / .ics	Downloads a calendar file, for Apple Calendar and any other calendar app.

RollQuest asks for no permissions and doesn't connect to your calendar. The event is called Session 17 (Your game's name), with your note and a link to open the game, and its time shows in your calendar's own zone.

An event in your calendar is a copy. If a session moves or is cancelled, the event doesn't change by itself: add the new time and delete the old one. A new .ics file from the same session carries the same identity, so a calendar app that supports it updates the event instead of adding a second one.

Repeat a session (Pro)

A repeat is a shortcut that creates several sessions in one go. Choose it under Repeat on Plan a session.

Repeat	Sessions it creates
Every week on Saturday	12, one a week
Every 2 weeks on Saturday	6, one a fortnight
Monthly on the 1st Saturday	3, on that weekday's place in each month, such as the first Saturday

The day and the place in the month come from your Date. A date in a month's fifth week, such as the 5th Saturday, skips months without one, looking up to 12 months ahead.

Each session is its own event:

• They all start the same. Same name, length, type, note and reminder choice. Rename any you like.
• Moving or cancelling one leaves the rest alone. Cancelling one is how you skip a holiday.
• Each has its own answers and reminders.
• Players get one New session email, about the first session. Reminders come for each session.
• The start stays at the same clock time for you, across daylight saving. See Time zones.

When a repeat runs out, plan another. A game can hold 104 upcoming sessions.

Extra sessions (Pro)

An Extra session is an optional one on top of your regular game, such as a side quest for whoever's free. Choose Extra, optional under Session type. The line under it sums it up: Core sessions go to everyone. Extras only email players who opted in, and missing one is never a no-show.

• Every player sees an Extra session in the drawer, marked Extra, optional, and on their dashboard card, and can answer it.
• Emails about it go only to players with Email me about optional extra sessions on, which is the default, and to anyone who has answered Going or Maybe.
• You get its reminders as usual.

You can turn a Core session into an Extra one, or back, with Edit or move. Making one Extra needs Pro.

Emails

Players don't need to sign in to act on an email. Each one is written for its reader, with times in their own zone.

What is sent, and when

Email	Who gets it	When	Subject, for example
New session	The players	5 quiet minutes after you plan, with Email players ticked	New session Sat 7 Nov, 7:00 PM: Session 17 of Your Game
New time	The players	5 quiet minutes after you move it, with the box ticked	Moved to Sat 7 Nov, 7:00 PM: Session 17 of Your Game
Cancelled	The players	Within a minute of cancelling, with the box ticked	Cancelled: Session 17 of Your Game, Sat 7 Nov, 7:00 PM
24 hours to go	Everyone, you included	24 hours before the start	Tomorrow at 7:00 PM: Session 17 of Your Game
Starting soon	Everyone, you included	1 hour before the start	Starts in 1 hour: Session 17 of Your Game

Nobody gets an email if they've muted the game, stopped session emails or have no email address. Reminders also skip anyone who answered Can't make it. For Extra sessions, see above.

Every email except the cancelled one has:

• the date, the time and the reader's time zone, such as UTC+8 · Makassar, your time zone;
• up to three other people's local times, for people in another zone: That is 8:00 PM for your GM in Makassar and 4:00 PM for Priya in Dubai.;
• your note, under Note from your GM;
• I'm going, Maybe and I can't make it buttons;
• Who is at the table, listing everyone in the game and their answer ("table" is the app's word for your game);
• Add to your calendar: Google, Outlook, Apple and Download .ics;
• Open the table, and at the bottom Mute this game and Stop session emails.

A cancelled email shows the crossed-out time, your note and Open the table, with no answer buttons or calendar links.

A person whose time zone RollQuest doesn't know yet gets the times in your zone, with a line asking them to set their own.

The five-minute hold

New session and New time emails wait for five quiet minutes, so a quick fix doesn't send a second email. Each new time restarts the five minutes. When the email goes, it describes the session as it is at that moment, so a name or note you changed in the meantime is in it.

You do this inside the hold	Players get
Plan, then change the time	One New session email, at the final time
Plan, then cancel	Nothing: they were never told
Move, move again, move again	One New time email, with Was and the time they were last told
Move, then move back	Nothing, and you see No email needed: that is the time players were last told.

Once a session has started, a waiting email is dropped.

Reminders

Reminder	Sends	Doesn't send
24 hours to go	When the start is 24 hours away.	When the session was planned or moved less than about a day ahead, because everyone has already been told. When the start is under 2 hours away.
Starting soon	When the start is 1 hour away. A session planned or moved with less than an hour to go gets it within a minute.	Once the session has started.

Neither is sent if the session's Send reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before is unticked, or the game's own switch for that reminder is off.

Daily limits

Limits stop a run of changes flooding your players' inboxes. They count emails sent over the last 24 hours, reminders included.

Limit	Emails in 24 hours
New session, New time and Cancelled emails to one player about one game	3
All session emails to one player about one game	6
All session emails to one player across all your games	12
All session emails from all your games together	100

A normal game never reaches them: a session is one New session email and two reminders. Over a limit, the email is skipped, not delayed. Your change is still saved, and players still see it in RollQuest.

When a limit will skip someone, the message after you save says so:

• Priya has reached today's email limit, so they will not be emailed. They will still see it in RollQuest.
• You have reached today's limit for schedule emails, so players will not be emailed. They will still see it in RollQuest.

Turn emails off

To stop	Do this
One email about one change	Untick the email box when you save.
Reminders for one session	Untick Send reminders 24 hours and 1 hour before.
One or both reminders for the whole game	Switch them off on the Schedule tab of Game settings.
Your own reminders and session emails	Switch off Send me session reminders and changes in Time zone and availability. This covers every game you're in, as GM or player.

Each player has their own choices too: see Choose which emails you get.

Time zones

RollQuest stores each session as one moment in time and shows it to each person in their own zone.

• You enter times in your zone. That's the zone shown at the top of the drawer. Change sets it.
• Everyone else sees their own. RollQuest takes each person's zone from their browser the first time they open RollQuest with scheduling on, and follows it if they travel, unless they chose a zone themselves.
• Changing a zone never moves a session. Only the time on the screen changes.
• Daylight saving is handled for you. A repeat stays at the same clock time for you when your clocks change. For a player whose clocks change on a different date, it shifts by an hour for those weeks, and their local time shows that.

Your dashboard

On a computer, each game's card has a next-session box under its details, and a calendar button beside its main button that opens the drawer. On a phone the box is hidden and the button stays.

In the box	Meaning
Next session · in 3 days, · tomorrow, · today or Playing now	How far off it is, in your time zone.
The date, time and session name	The next session.
2 going, 1 maybe, 1 can't, 1 no reply	Answers so far, with you counted as going.
Not planned yet	Nothing on the schedule.

Content packs have no schedule, so their cards don't show one.

What each plan allows

The plan that counts is the GM's. On every plan, you can see the schedule, add a session to your calendar and set your own time zone and hours.

Action	Free	Starter	Pro
Cancel a session	Yes	Yes	Yes
Plan a session	No	Yes	Yes
Edit or move a session	No	Yes	Yes
Reminders, and the Schedule tab in Game Settings	No	Yes	Yes
Repeat a session	No	No	Yes
Make a session Extra	No	No	Yes

Without the plan, Plan a session and Edit or move open a window explaining Session scheduling, and Repeat and Extra, optional open one explaining Repeating and extra sessions.

Players on any plan see the schedule, answer, add sessions to their calendar, get emails and set their own hours.

If your plan ends

If you move to Free or your paid plan lapses:

• Sessions you've planned stay. Players still see them and answer them.
• Emails still go out. Reminders for those sessions are sent, and so is any email already waiting. Without a plan you can't turn them off for your players, except by cancelling the session.
• You can still cancel any session, with or without an email.
• You can't plan, edit or move a session, or change the Schedule tab, which shows its settings greyed out under a crown.

If you move from Pro to Starter, repeating and Extra sessions you've planned stay as they are, and you can edit each one. You can't create new repeats or make another session Extra. See Plan and billing.

If something's wrong

Message or problem	What it means	What to do
Schedule isn't on the tool rail or the game's card	The feature isn't on your account yet.	See the Beta note at the top.
Scheduling is not on for this game yet.	The drawer can't find a schedule for this game.	Same as above.
Choose a date and a start time.	One of them is empty.	Fill in both.
That time has already passed	The start is more than a few minutes ago.	Choose a later time.
A message about steps of 5	The start time isn't on a 5-minute step, such as 7:03.	Use 7:00 or 7:05.
A game can hold 104 upcoming sessions	The game is full, or this repeat would fill it.	Cancel some, or plan fewer.
That session is no longer on the schedule. or That session is cancelled	It has been cancelled, perhaps in another tab.	Close the window.
Could not save the session.	The save failed.	Try again.
Could not make the calendar file.	The download failed.	Try again, or use Google or Outlook.
A player says they didn't get an email	They've muted the game or stopped session emails, they've reached a daily limit, or the mail is in their spam folder.	Ask them to check Schedule in RollQuest.

Related

Answer a session invite · Game settings · Your profile · What each plan includes · Limits and file types