This page discusses mod compatibility between legacy Tabletop Playground builds and Beta builds. For more information on the Beta, click here.

Mods created using legacy versions of Tabletop Playground should work as intended on Beta clients, but the reverse is not always true. Mods created using the Beta should open without issue on older clients, but may lack intended functionality if the creator has taken advantage of some of the new features of the Beta.

When browsing mod.io, you can select “All Versions” under “Compatible With” to filter out mods that use Beta features — or choose “Beta Only” if you want to specifically see some of the new tech in action. (Select neither to see all mods).

What Might Break

The following Beta features are known to not translate when packages are opened on older builds:

• Components using the “Use Player Color” feature will always display as their default color.
• Any UI created using the new UI tools will not show up in Beta builds, and any scripts attached to that UI will not run.
• Any objects found in the Tools package (except the Tablet) will not appear on older builds.
• Double-sided boards are not available on older builds.
• Web Images cannot be defined at the template level on legacy clients.

Tagging Your Mods

We’ve retroactively applied the “All Versions” tag to all existing mods on the platform, but when uploading new mods, it’ll be up to creators to choose a compatibility tag.

If you created the package using a legacy build, always select “All Versions.”

If you created your package with the Beta build and took advantage of any of the features above, you should mark it “Beta Only.” If you’re confident you’ve avoided them all, you can mark it with “All Versions,” but if possible, please try opening the package on a legacy build to verify that everything is working as intended before publishing. If in doubt, simply mark it as “Beta Only.”

Local Saves

Sometimes, you can’t fit a whole game into one session. Luckily in TTP you can save your table state at any time. Simply choose “Save State” from the top menu, name your game, and click “Save.” This will create a Local save.

To resume such a game, click “Local Saves” on the left side of the “Select Game” dialogue. All the games you’ve saved will appear on the righthand side. You can also simply begin a game with the appropriate package, and choose “Load State” from the top menu. You’ll see all your Local Saves in the list, but only ones for your current package will be available.

On beta clients, local saves are conveniently saved with their associated package. When you click on a package in the “Select Game” dialogue, if you have any local saves, you’ll see “New Game” and “Load Game” tabs on the right side of the dialogue.

Autosaves

Sometimes, things go wrong. That’s why Tabletop Playground saves your table state every few seconds, just in case. You can resume from an Autosave by choosing “Autosave” from the Select Game menu and choosing the appropriate timestamp from the list on the right.

As with local saves, you can also load an Autosave while on the table by choosing “Load State” from the top menu; as with local saves, all Autosaves will be shown, but only ones using your current package will be available.

Saving and Loading in Editor

When saving a state in Editor, you’ll see two options on the left-hand side: Local Saves and the name of your package.

Creating a save with the package name selected will create a Starting State for that package. These will be the states that show up in the Select Game dialogue when users are creating a new game. They are considered part of the package, and will be uploaded to mod.io if and when you publish the package.

Local Saves meanwhile are for your personal use; they won’t be uploaded should you publish your package to mod.io.

When you choose a package in editor, you’ll see tabs for Start States, Local Saves, and Autosaves on the righthand side. “Start States” and “Local Saves” work the same as “New Game” and “Load Game” in the Start Game flow.

What Is and Isn’t Saved

Table state saves include, among other things:

• The position of all objects on the table
• Any changes to objects on the table via Properties
• Any Session Options you may have in place, including:
  • Grid visibility
  • Team settings
  • Phase settings and current turn.
  • Edits to Player Slots.
  • Any Global UI you may have added.

But they do not include changes to Object Templates or to Scripts; those are saved at the package level. This means:

• If you’re using a package from mod.io, any updates the creator makes will instantly and retroactively be applied to all local saves you may have of it.
• If you’re working on your own package, any changes you make to an object template will automatically affect all saves of it. You don’t have to save the state for them to “stick,” but you also can’t roll them back by loading a previous save state.

Welcome to Tabletop Playground! You’ve signed up for the most flexible and powerful digital tabletop around, but it can take a second to learn the ropes. But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

First: Download TTP and play through the in-game tutorial, by choosing “Tutorial” from the main menu.

It’ll teach you the basics on how to get around on the virtual tabletop. If you’ve used a lot of virtual tabletops before, most of it should be pretty familiar.

Currently there are two versions of Tabletop Playground – the legacy version that’s publicly available, and the new-and-improved version currently in closed beta. Here in the knowledge base, you’ll see some posts with the tag, indicating that they specifically refer to the new version; otherwise, the info should apply to either. For more info about the closed beta, and to apply to join, click here.

To Start Playing Games: You and your friends will each need a copy of Tabletop Playground. Note that if you’re using the closed beta version, you’ll only be able to play with other people doing the same. One of you should Start a Game, and the others can join it.

If you want to play classic games like Chess, Dominos, or Bridge, the included “Classic” package should contain all you need. If you want something more modern, you can subscribe to one of hundreds of game packages created by our community by clicking “Browse Game” on the main menu. For best results, everyone you’re playing with should subscribe to the mod before playing.

Don’t have any friends (or at least, none who own the coolest virtual tabletop around)? Head on over to our Discord and make some!

For more details on how all this works, check out Starting and Joining Games.

To Create Your Own Games: For users, start with How to Make a Game. It’ll teach you the basics of setting up a new package, and offer links to the most common topics.

For legacy users, you can start with Creating a Simple Board Game, or check out the Community Resources page for links to helpful guides.

Spectators and Game Masters are special roles that players can take. They influence what information players can see and how they interact with the game.

Spectators

You can switch to being a spectator in the player options. Spectators don’t occupy a player slot and always have a grey cursor and chat color. In the player list, their color is transparent. Spectators cannot interact with objects on the table and other players can’t see their cursor. Voice and text chat work as for other players, though.

By default, spectators can’t see any hidden information: hand cards and held cards of all players are hidden, they can’t peek under cards and can’t use the stack or container explorer. There’s a setting in the session permissions that allows spectators to see all hidden information instead. When a spectator peeks or uses an explorer, other players are not notified like they would be if a regular player performs the same action. Another session permission allows you to disable spectators entirely.

Game Masters

In the session options under player slots, the host can assign slots to be game masters. A player in a game master slot can see all hidden information, like a spectator when the spectators see all permission is true. Game masters can also interact with anything: they can take cards from the hands of other players, for example.

If you want to change where the packages that are downloaded from mod.io are stored, you need to enter the path you want to use in a file to tell mod.io where to save the downloaded packages. Here’s how to find the file (globalsettings.json) depending on your platform:

• Windows Open an explorer window and type %localappdata% in the address bar. Then, go to the mod.io folder.
• Mac In the finder menu, click on “Go”, then “Go to Folder…” and enter ~/Library/Application Support/mod.io
• Linux In your home directory, go to the mod.io folder

In the file, you will see an entry that looks like this: {"RootLocalStoragePath":"C:/Users/Public/mod.io/"}
Change the path inside the brackets to the folder you want. On Windows, take care that you use / instead of \ to separate the path. For example, you can modify the file to look like this: {"RootLocalStoragePath":"E:/Game Data/mod.io/"} to store your downloaded packages in the folder E:\Game Data\mods\. If the file contains multiple entries, you can delete all except one.

After this change, you can delete your previous mod.io directory at C:/Users/Public/mod.io/ to save space. Please do not move it to the new location, because that may confuse mod.io and cause unwanted behavior.