Launch HN: StartPlaying.Games (YC W20) – Tabletop RPGs run by pro game masters

Have you looked at how often you are actually interrupted for a meaningful amount of time during the time the children are, or should be, asleep? Try to get a sense of the actual likelihood and severity of the disruption, because these games can handle a player stepping away periodically for a few minutes.

One thing is, it seems very targeted at TTRPG curious folks that have never played before, like people who have watched Critical Role or heard of D&D and are fantasy fans but have no idea what the actual play experience is. This makes sense, it's a fast way to grow your user base. But I'd be more likely to use the product if I could search by system and request specific games. I would use it to play more niche games that fewer people are running as one shots.

Based on your company description it seems like you're moving in that direction.

But this is more like a rideshare model, where you're looking at who's available for a given timeslot/location, then jumping into a game that's determined by the GM. With online games, you're also likely playing with strangers.

This makes the whole thing feel more like a permanent convention/event setup — you pay for a seat at a table and agree to work with whatever's handed to you. Which is great, but it also has to compete with similar free game matchmaking as well as those types of (now also virtual) events.

I'm also confused about the age tier filters — the "No Use By Minors" section of the ToS is very clear about users under 18 being prohibited from using the service, but there are game filters for games that can include players ages 9-17. That seems impossible without breaking the ToS.

The Code of Conduct is welcome, but it's stowed away in the bottom of the ToS. For a social product like this, it would benefit from being much more prominent and discoverable. It's also unclear how to report issues with or violations of the CoC; there's a contact email and URL in the ToS, but they point to a different domain of startplayinggames.com, and the Contact form URL in the ToS just plain doesn't work.

More importantly, the CoC doesn't appear to give the GM the ability to define additional conduct rules or expectations that don't necessarily delve into content sensitivities — can players be late, show up unprepared, play intoxicated? Can a GM remove a player who is following the CoC but otherwise being disruptive? I see some who state they will in their profiles — if they do, does the player get refunded, and from where does that refund come? What potential consequences are there for players or GMs who remove a player from a game?

What's the revenue split look like? I tried the "Become a GM" link from one of the GM profile pages, but it pulled up a blank profile, presumably because the footer links are all relative? https://startplaying.games/game-master/become-gm

(wasn't trivial to find)