Ludoya connects board gamers with events in their area. Whether you're looking for a casual game night or hosting your own, this page covers discovering, joining, and creating events. For scheduled games within events, see Scheduled Games. For venue-level operations (QR check-in, floor plans, forms), see Event Operations.

Discovering Events

Using the Location Chooser

Event discovery screen with location chooser

  1. Go to Events in the main navigation
  2. Look for the Location Chooser at the top
  3. Enter your city
  4. Set your distance filter (e.g., "within 10 km")

Searching for Events

Use the search bar to find events by name, topic, or specific games. Results appear instantly.

Viewing Events

List View

  • Scrollable list showing host, date, venue, attendee count, available seats
  • Sort by relevance*, date, distance or alphabetically
  • *Relevance is based on event popularity, distance, and date

Map View

Map view with event markers

  • Events plotted on an interactive map
  • Click markers for quick previews
  • Great for finding events near a specific location

Event Types

Ludoya has two kinds of event:

Events (General Gatherings)

A general event is a container for an evening or day of gaming. It brings people together around a time and place, and can host multiple scheduled games inside it. Events hosted by organizations on the Club or Business plan can also contain other events as sub-events, enabling multi-track gatherings such as conventions with beginner and advanced streams or all-day club nights split into separate sessions. Examples: a weekly game night at a café, a regular club session, a convention day.

Scheduled Games

A scheduled game is a special kind of event focused on one specific board game. It has its own page, seat cap, time slot, and participant list. Scheduled games can exist on their own ("Looking for 3 players for Gloomhaven this Saturday") or be nested inside a parent event as part of a larger gathering. See Scheduled Games for full details.

Together, an event with scheduled games or sub-events inside it lets attendees browse the full lineup and sign up for exactly what they want to play.

Attendance Modes

Separately from the event type, every event has an Attendance Mode chosen by the host — it controls whether and how people sign up, and is independent of visibility settings.

RSVP (Default)

The classic Ludoya flow described throughout this page: attendees RSVP, choose a status, and appear in the attendee list. Capacity, waitlists, and every other sign-up feature described below apply. Every event uses this mode unless the host chooses otherwise.

No Sign-Ups

A purely informational listing — there's no RSVP button and no attendee list, and no one can see who's going. Attendees can still comment, react, share the event, see it on the map, and add it to their calendar. Useful for announcing something without collecting a headcount.

External Sign-Ups

The host sets a call-to-action label and link (e.g. "Register on Eventbrite") that replaces the RSVP button for visitors who aren't already on the attendee list. Clicking it opens the outside registration page in a new tab — public sign-ups happen off Ludoya. Behind the scenes, the host can still manage an attendee list manually: inviting people, reserving spots, marking who showed up, scanning QR codes, and exporting attendee data. Everything that works off that attendee list keeps working too — games at the event, raffles, custom forms, and experience levels. If you were invited or had a spot reserved for you, you can still respond with your own RSVP (confirm, decline, or leave) — it's only visitors with no invitation who see the external link instead.

Tournament events need an attendee list for pairings, so they can use RSVP or External Sign-Ups (the host manages the player list) — just not No Sign-Ups.

The Event Page

Full event page showing host, location, attendees, and scheduled games

Host Information

  • Host Name and Profile Link
  • Host Reliability — their track record for running events

Visibility & Access

  • Public — anyone on Ludoya can find and RSVP
  • Group-Only — only members of the associated group can see and join
  • Invite-Only — must be invited by the host

Location Details

  • Venue name, full address, interactive map, and distance from your location with directions link

Date, Time & Recurrence

  • Specific date, time, and timezone
  • Recurring events (premium) repeat weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc. — shown as "Every [day] at [time]"

Images & Description

  • Host-uploaded photos and a description of what to expect

Attendees Section

  • Total spots, remaining spots, and a list of current attendees
  • If full, join the waitlist — you'll be notified when a spot opens, and your position is shown
  • Shown on RSVP and External Sign-Ups events — on External events it lists the people the host has added, and visitors see the external registration button in place of the RSVP button. No Sign-Ups events skip this section entirely

Scheduled Games & Sub-Events Within

Each scheduled game appears as a subsection showing the game, player count, roles, experience level, estimated duration, and a join button. See Scheduled Games for the full breakdown.

Events created by organizations on the Club or Business plan can also contain sub-events — fully-featured nested events that appear under the parent. Each sub-event has its own page, attendees, and schedule, and can itself host scheduled games. This is ideal for multi-track gatherings where each track needs its own registration, capacity, and lineup.

Games at the Event

Games at the Event list with reservations and wish-to-play indicators

Every event has a shared list of the games that will be available to play. Attendees can browse the lineup, reserve a copy for a specific time slot, and see how many other people want to play each title. This is available on RSVP and External Sign-Ups events — not on No Sign-Ups events, which don't track attendance.

Who adds games

  • Organizers can add games that will be at the event — for example, copies from the venue's library or titles the host is bringing
  • Attendees can add games from their collection if the organizer allows it (controlled in event permissions)

Game availability

When adding a game, the person contributing it specifies how it can be used:

  • Free to take — attendees can grab the copy and start a game whenever they want
  • Organizer present — the game can only be played when an organizer is around to run or supervise it (useful for heavy rules-teach titles, demo copies, or games the venue wants to keep an eye on)

Internal schedule & reservations

Each game in the list has its own internal schedule showing when it's free and when it's booked. Attendees can reserve a copy for a specific time slot directly from the game's card — avoiding double-bookings and making it easy to plan your evening around the titles you want to try.

"What do you want to play" card deck

Alongside adding concrete games, attendees can express their wishes to play through a card-deck interface: swipe through games and mark the ones you'd like to play at the event. Everyone's wishes are aggregated on each game's card in the shared list, so organizers can see demand at a glance and plan scheduled games around the most-requested titles.

Social Thread

  • Attendees can comment, ask questions, and discuss
  • Like and reply to create threaded conversations
  • Events automatically appear in followers' feeds, the group's feed, and local discovery

Joining an Event

This section describes RSVP events. No Sign-Ups events have no RSVP button — they're for browsing only. External Sign-Ups events use an outside registration link in place of the RSVP button for visitors with no invitation, but if the host already invited you or reserved you a spot, you can still respond with your own RSVP (confirm, decline, or leave) the same way described here.

RSVP Statuses

  • Going — confirmed attendance
  • Maybe — interested but uncommitted
  • Can't Go — can't attend
  • Invited — the host invited you (pending your response)
  • Reserved — the organizer has held a spot for you

How to RSVP

  1. Go to the event or scheduled game page
  2. Click RSVP and select your status
  3. For scheduled games, select your role (Player, Game Master, etc.)
  4. You're registered instantly

Waitlist

If the event is at capacity, click Join Waitlist. You'll be notified if a spot opens.

Quick Signup (Non-Account Users)

Hosts can allow non-account signups: the person enters their name and email and receives a confirmation — no Ludoya account required.

Calendar Export

Add events to your calendar:

  • iCalendar — download a .ics file for Outlook, Apple Calendar, or other apps
  • Google Calendar — added instantly, syncs across all your devices

Hosting an Event

Creating an Event

Event creation form

  1. Go to Events and click Organize Event. You can also do it from a group or organization page if you have permission.
  2. Enter a title, description, and upload images
  3. Set date, start time, timezone, and duration
  4. Set recurrence if it repeats (premium feature)
  5. Enter the venue name and address — Ludoya maps it automatically
  6. Choose visibility: Public, Group-Only, or Invite-Only
  7. Set maximum attendees, enable/disable waitlist, and choose whether attendees can invite friends

Permissions

Control what attendees can do:

  • Who can add games — all attendees, only organizers, or group members
  • Who can schedule games — same options
  • Edit restrictions — can attendees suggest changes?

Managing Attendees

  • View who's going, maybe, invited, reserved, and waitlisted
  • Invite specific people, reserve spots, remove attendees, or message them directly
  • Mark Showed Up / No-Show after the event to track attendance reliability on player profiles
  • On External Sign-Ups events, these tools still work even though there's no public RSVP button — sign-ups happen off Ludoya, but you invite, reserve, remove, mark attendance, and scan QR codes the same way

Event Lifecycle

  • Open — live, accepting RSVPs
  • Closed — registration paused (can reopen)
  • Cancelled — attendees notified (can restore)
  • Completed — event has happened, view final attendance

Editing an Event

Click Edit on your event page to update any details. Large changes notify attendees automatically.

Tournaments (Club Tier)

A tournament is its own event type. When an organizer creates an event under a group, they can choose Tournament as the type — Ludoya then generates the pairings, keeps live standings, and draws the bracket for you.

Creating a Tournament

  1. Create an event under your group and choose the Tournament event type
  2. Pick a format (see below) and its options — number of rounds, table size, tiebreakers
  3. Add participants, then generate the first round (or the full bracket) when you're ready to start

Choosing a Format

Pick the format that fits your event:

  • Swiss — each round pairs players with others on a similar score, over a fixed number of rounds. Nobody is eliminated, so it's great for ranking a large field fairly.
  • Mixer — players are reshuffled across tables every round to maximize who gets to play with whom. Ideal for social, casual competition.
  • Single elimination — a knockout bracket: lose once and you're out.
  • Double elimination — a knockout bracket with a losers' bracket, so one loss doesn't end your run. It resolves through a grand final (with a reset game if the losers' champion wins it).

How It Works

Tournament standings table with live scores

  • Ludoya generates each round from the confirmed participants — Swiss/mixer tables or bracket matches — and you can shuffle or tweak the proposal before confirming.
  • Every pairing becomes a scheduled game that you (or the table) play and report like any other.
  • Byes are handled automatically — a player with no opponent advances without playing a game.
  • A standings table updates live as results come in, ranking players by points and breaking ties with configurable tiebreakers (such as Buchholz).
  • Elimination formats also render a visual bracket that fills in as matches resolve, all the way to the champion.

During the Event

  1. Confirm the participant list, then generate the first round (or the full bracket).
  2. As each match finishes, report its result — the standings and bracket update instantly.
  3. For Swiss and mixer, generate the next round once the current one is complete; the tournament finishes automatically after the final round.

Raffles (Club Tier)

Give away games and prizes to your attendees with a live, animated draw everyone can watch. Raffles are available on RSVP and External Sign-Ups events — not on No Sign-Ups events, which don't track attendance.

Setting Up a Raffle

  1. Open your event and choose New raffle
  2. Give it a title and add one or more prizes
  3. Choose who's eligible — typically your confirmed attendees

Drawing Winners

  • When you're ready, start the draw — everyone watching sees a live animated reveal of each winner.
  • Winners are picked randomly from the eligible pool, and each prize is awarded in turn.
  • Results stay on the event afterwards, so attendees can always see what was won.

Tips

As an attendee: RSVP early, declare your games, show up, and be social in the event thread.

As a host: Write clear descriptions, schedule games before the event, engage attendees in the thread, mark attendance afterward, and thank your community.

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