"Without a written PEL, how do I know?" Topic

Tabletop Events make a lot of things easier but it's not gamer-friendly. With a written PEL, I could browse all of the games and quickly see what rules are used, what scale the game is and who is running the game. I can also find some new rules that I might want to try. Or something new from a GM who runs good games.

But with Tabletop Events, you can't see any of this unless you click on the event name, so no easy and quick glance.

I have to search for specific rules. Or a specific GM.

I know I'll miss a lot.

Frustrating to say the least.

Didn't care for TE after my first experience with it registering for Millennium Con lat year. It was a pain in the buttocks.

There is a big button in the upper right of the event list page to download the events in csv format. You can do all the browsing you want with that.

Duncan

"You can do all the browsing you want with that."

Try it on a smart phone. Or do you take a laptop to lunch with you? I certainly don't take my desktop.

I figure when they do something which makes life easier for the organizers but more difficult for the attendees, it's because they think they have too many attendees. I try to honor their wishes and stay home.

For AdeptiCon I downloaded the csv and browsed the list. I used my phone (Numbers app) and it wasn't a problem 🤷‍♂️

+1 Shagnasty

I'll add that by allowing GMs to use online handles (names)
this makes it impossible for me to know who is hosting the game – is it someone I know from past experience to avoid or not?

For those that say just download and use your phone, I'll have my third eye procedure of 2025 in June and 9th eye procedure or surgery since 2000. I don't handle small fonts
very well any more.

On the bottom of the screen it has buttons for what you want displayed. Rules, miniature scale, who's running the event, etc.

@DuncanAdams -- I had no idea. Thanks for the tip!

I take it all back.

Robert

Oh my gosh if you're not attending I heard they just cancelled Historicon…….

finknottle – when someone uses an online name, you really don't know who the GM is
For example, I know you are finknottle on TMP, but I do not know who you really are. Does that make it clear to you?

@Duncan Adams – I don't recall this button being available last November. I gave it a try on Historicon and it looks like all the info I want to see is available. This is even better than the printed PEL as I can quickly search by rule sets. Thanks for the tip!

Oh, I think they'll struggle on without me, Rusty--for a little while, anyway. But the system looks better adapted to fewer games and nice, neat "franchises" from Battlefront or GW than to wargamers who spent the winter trying to create something of their own.

Look for sponsorships in a few years--and looks of blank incomprehension when you try to schedule a game whose rules aren't on the drop-down.

Robert the system does not have a Rules sort function online. You can search by keyword the names of the rule set. Again if you download the .csv you can sort by rules. You may have to take a hiatus from searching for rules sets being used, during lunchtime

It would be nice if they had a field for scale and rules. The screen is limited but it could be a selectable column. It's annoying when the gamemaster has a paragraph on background fluff but no mention of what rules the game is using.

Striker, you can change the fields you see in the Events Schedule. You can add the custom fields for things like Period, Rules, Scale, etc. You just can't sort or filter on those fields; search will bring back results from those fields.

That clears it up. The con I was using to check it out didn't have scale in their fields for the events so it wasn't coming up. But another con I grabbed did have the scale field so that worked.

Gosh,

I heard that Robert is not going, Mikey mentioned this and he was cancelling now. Then Marge texted me, well anyway, it is the butterfly effect, "It's Dead Jim".

TTE Usage Tips
Based on feedback after the Historicon Attendee Registration opening, we've created an initial collection of some advice on how to more effectively use TableTop.Events – specifically it's Events Schedule. Follow the link below to see the current tips:

historicon.org/tte-usage-tips

I feel like there's some functionality missing from Tabletop that was available twenty years ago on limited platforms. Probably removed for a respectable reason.

I no longer hate Tabletop with the heat of a thousand stars, the csv portability is a nice feature, and I do enjoy liking events and hitting refresh to see my groups events.

ViscountEric "I feel like there's some functionality missing from Tabletop that was available twenty years ago on limited platforms."

Like what?

I'm not sure, outside of some more robust searching and sorting. I think I've become an old man yelling at clouds, and formatting spreadsheets.

I also do all my hand-wringing well before registration. My teenage daughter got her GM Registration squared away and is navigating the Hobby U sessions with the greatest of ease.

Viscount Eric, you can search any field in the events, even the custom fields. The limitation that TableTop.Events needs to remove, is the inability to filter and sort on the custom fields.

See the TTE Usage Tips that HMGS published: historicon.org/tte-usage-tips

I seem to be getting the hang of TTE, almost didn't get tickets finalized but figured it out so all is good

Actually figured out how to delete and change games, took a little time but got it.

It is just bad luck that seems every time I find two games going on I want to play and are at competing times

I would like to search within a period. Bring up only Napoleonic games or only ACW games. Same with the game hosts and rules. Bring up all the C&G etc. Not a fan of TTE, I miss a written PEL, but what are you going to do? It's the way of the future.

Old Contempible, you can use the Search function – it searches all fields (i.e., standard TTE fields, and the conventions custom fields). You can also add Period, Rules, etc. to your Events Schedule view – more detailed instructions here: historicon.org/tte-usage-tips

Yes, I can select period or rules at the bottom but it just adds the rules and periods field which is great but I still have to search hundreds of games to find the Napoleonic games or the English Civil War games etc.

I want to click on for example, ACW and get a a list of all the ACW games. I would like to click on a rules set and get all the games using those rules. It should be that easy. I didn't see any selection that can do that.

While we're at it, a little customer support would be nice if you screw up your registration or otherwise have an issue with the system. Changing something once you paid is difficult at best.

Once you get a response form TTE it feels like you are inconveniencing them and sometimes it's just a link to the online instructions as if you haven't already read them a dozen times and tried everything you can before resorting to search for an actual person to answer a question.

Nobody wants to contact a support person if they can avoid it.

Old Contemptible: "but I still have to search hundreds of games to find the Napoleonic games or the English Civil War games etc."

Yes, you have to put Napoleonic in the Search field, and then it returns a list of (currently) 63 games where the Game Hosts chose that Period in their Game Submission (can't do that with a PDF).

Then you can filter out the "sold out" events to only show ones (currently 41) that have Tickets left (can't do that with a PDF).

These "tips" (and others) are covered here: historicon.org/tte-usage-tips/.

If you want to learn "how to fish" you can; if you want "someone to fish for me" then I suppose you'll keep complaining.

Thanks for the on line tutorials, Lord Hollier.

I was just browsing some of the many submissions for Historicon 2025 as listed on TTE via my smart phone.

849 events and counting.

Looks like some people at HMGS figured out how to use TTE without a problem.

Enjoy the events. Hope to see you there.

I was told HMGS once Post Office mailed the PEL out and that there was a big debate about "online" PEL and the one mailed out etc… .
Is that true?
-Mike

"there was a big debate about "online" PEL and the one mailed out etc… .
Is that true?"

That is a scab that you really do not want to pick.

Duncan

Come on Duncan, pick the scab…….

I also was a fan of the "mailed PEL" and checked my mailbox for it with anticipation.

Forty years ago.

Now, every HMGS convention event is available on my smartphone via Table Top Events ("TTE").

Currently clicking my way through "Club Games" (311 total and counting, last time I checked).

If I can do it, others should be able to make the adjustment.

Enjoy the games.