We met on a server. We play at a table.

Who’s near me for Thursday

Pick your town

The nearest tables, and the people close by who said yes to being found. Only people in the Pool can come up §5.1. Distances are town to town, from the town on each person’s own page; nobody’s address is in the file.

Your townPort ElleryOlympiaTacomaSeattlePortlandSalemEugeneBellinghamVancouverWithin30 miles60 miles120 miles

Why people come back

A night a week, a day a month, and a seat for learning

A game group is worth what happens at the table. These are the reasons people come back, and none of them needs a trick.

• No streaks. Miss a month and nothing happens. Come back and nothing happens either, except a game.
• No leaderboards, no win records. We do not keep score of anything outside the box the game came in.
• No attendance counts, badges or ranks. Nobody is marked as a regular, and nobody is marked as missing.
• No “we miss you” emails. The host writes about Thursday. Some weeks that is all anyone hears from us.
• No countdowns and no “only two seats left”. Tables seat about ten. When one fills, we set up another.
• Nothing to pay to be listed, seated or shown first. The jar is for snacks, and the chip-in is for the domain.

Shifts 4, 11, 1 and 3

Why this needs an open protocol

1. Shift 4 · leaving costs nothingFor a member, and for the community.

   A member leaves a Pool in one action, and their page, their other Pools and their email threads stay theirs §5.3 §6.1. The community can leave too: if we moved our chat somewhere else tomorrow, nothing about the Pool would move. We would post the same link in the new place.

2. Shift 11 · it outlives its makersAnd here, its platform.

   The Pool does not live on the server, so the server can go quiet and the list stays. It does not rest on one keeper either: every Pool has two, and if they stop, the protocol makes it dormant, never deleted, and any active member may take it over §9. See the server go quiet.

3. Shift 1 · the Pool is a commonsPeople and keepers hold the list, not the place we chat.

   Our Pools are public files anyone may read §3 §3.5 §8. The people in them hold their own pages, the keepers hold the file, and no platform can lock the list in or sell access to it. Any client may read it, and every person still decides who may write to them §7.2.

4. Shift 3 · one room, many doorsThe same Pool, through any door.

   Our list, the sheet on the door, a group in Familiar Faces and a ride card in Bellows all read the same files. We do not mind which door you use, and no door can keep you in. The interface is anyone’s; the Pool is the protocol §1.2.

Which apps can read our Pools. Familiar Faces, for friendship and groups, reads Rain Check: Everyone and the four Thursday tables. Bellows, for asks and offers, reads Big Game Day, for seats, rides and games to lend. Face Up deals Rain Check: Everyone and the four tables in its Game night deck, Sundial reads them on its game night dial, Heartwood shows Rain Check: Everyone in its Friends room and opens each table under its own name, and Card Catalog files all six, Big Game Day included, in its Game night drawer. Face Up, Heartwood and Sundial open Big Game Day under its own name. Any other client may read a public Pool too §8.1. No app ever reads the server. Every person still decides who may write to them, and every client honors the same two block lists §7.3.

House rules, asked and answered

What people ask Fern at the door

Is this run by Discord?

No. Rain Check is a group of people who play games. We chat on a Discord server, and we keep this Pool ourselves. Kindling has no affiliation with Discord.

Do I have to leave the server?

No. The server is where we talk; the Pool is where you can be found, if you would like to be. You can be in one, both or neither, and come on Thursday either way.

Will you bring the whole server over?

Never. Nobody is listed without following the link and saying yes §5.1. We do not read the member list.

I moderate the server. Am I a keeper?

Only if you keep a Pool, and you said yes to that too. A role on the server means nothing in a Pool; v0.1 has no field for roles. Why

I don’t have a page.

Any page you keep at an address will do: a short note on a site you already use, or a doc you share. The Pool points to it; we never host it, and we never copy your pictures §2.5.

How do I leave?

One step, from any email the Pool sends or from the Pool page. It takes effect within sixty seconds §5.3, and your page stays yours.

What if the server goes away?

Thursday goes on. Each host writes to their table by email on Monday, and every app that reads our Pools keeps reading them. See it happen.

Who do I write to?

Fern and Rashid keep the Pool, at keepers@raincheckgames.example.