F.A.Q.

VSpace Frequently Asked Questions

Who are you people anyway?

VSpace grew out of a local gaming social club which met in a retail space starting in 2014 called N&N Adventuring. For six years, players and GMs would come together and play in shared worlds, and with the COVID-19 quarantine, we decided to take it online. For more information about our admins, see About Us.

How does it work?

For shared-universe games, players sign up online to indicate their availability on certain days, while GMs indicate what they're prepared to run, and our admins organize the tables appropriately at the start time. For games run by other GMs, we provide the voice channel and die-rolling apps as well as other support as needed and desired, but we don't organize them in specific.

After the first (free!) month, players and GMs are expected to support us on Patreon.
Supporters ($5/month) have the opportunity to listen to and observe games, guest star as NPCs, chat with the entire community and participate in intro and open gaming tables when available.
Explorers ($10/month) choose either Wednesdays or Thursdays and have priority access to our shared-universe games run on that day for the entire month. This also allows you to play (or GM!) in other games run on Mondays or Tuesdays.
Adventurers ($20/month) may play in our Sunday games (two sessions per Sunday) for the entire month. They can also play (or GM!) other games run on Fridays, Saturdays, Mondays or Tuesdays.
Champions ($30/month) may play whenever they're available to do so, or GM on any day other than Wednesdays, Thursdays or Sundays.

Why should I pay to play with you folks?

Over the years, we've noticed that while there are lots of tools for people to play on over the 'net, it tends to be difficult to find groups to play with them on. We are organizing a community that matches GMs with players and vice-versa. As well, we wanted a community where if there was incompatibility between individual players and individual GMs, the investment that the GMs and players put into their stories and characters wouldn't fall apart.

What if I'm new?

You will rapidly discover that our community is welcoming to newcomers and eager to assist you in realizing your vision for a character. Our Verified GMs are prepared to assist you in learning the rules and making effective characters as you go along in-game, and of course the community will help you in between times.

Why do you support the games you do?

Games like Dungeons and Dragons are widely and globally popular, but there are many fans of other games out there. Often, they're not geographically concentrated enough to provide a variety of play experiences in such games. This is why we are focused on excellent games produced by excellent people in the hopes of growing their communities.

What is your "shared universe" concept and how is it different from other organized play programs?

Our admins have had several decades of experience with organized play both large and small. Our system, which we refer internally to as "interoperable", places more trust in GMs and players than the many systems we have seen in the past. Our focus is on player and GM empowerment and one of our core ideas is that "everybody likes belly rubs"--we try to make sure our GMs and players value making everyone feel like they're the star of their own story rather than build walls of rules around a overly-strict concept of balance.

Verified GMs work together with one another to create a shared universe where players can explore large tales and personalized interests, and players are afforded the opportunity to interact with a large variety of other characters and GM styles with the same character throughout.

What is a "Verified GM", and how do I become one?

Part of the VSpace community is quality assurance: making sure our GMs can work together, don't favor individual characters and players, direct both their own stories and individual characters' interests and provide a varied yet fair experience. We do this by playing with, listening to, working with and running for GMs interested in joining us.

Players are encouraged to Tip their GMs, and all Verified GMs split the tips at the end of the month according to how many times they have run. This way, GMs get paid but do not need to feel obligated to treat specific characters with any favoritism and money doesn't play a role in their decisions as GMs.

To become a Verified GM, we suggest you begin playing with us a few times to get used to the community. When you're ready, speak to Slater, Scott or Bill and we'll set up an interview and one or more playtest games. Right now, the primary requirement is that Verified GMs need to be willing to run games in a world with other GMs, and ideally run one of our shared universe games (Star Wars and L5R at the moment).

Why should I GM for you?

Verified GMs, as noted above, are brought together to work with and add to a community of like-minded folks trying to provide the best experience possible to the widest number of people. As well, they are paid for their work by the quality of it as perceived by the community through our Tip the GM system. Last but not least, Verified GMs are not expected to pay to play in any of our games.

Can I run games in your community if I'm not a "Verified GM"?

If you're not interested in being a Verified GM and just want to run your own games, our player community is filled with people who'll want to play in fixed small-group "traditional" campaigns. Our admins will help you to integrate the tools you'll want to use, facilitate communication and recruitment with your players and otherwise support you as best we can.

Ideally, games you run are the sorts of games that can be turned into shared universe worlds. They don't have to be, but if they get large, we may approach you to see if you'd like to arrange them as such. Until such time as they do become one of our shared-universe games, we ask that you do not run private games on Thursdays or Sundays.