Save once the table matches your test
When the table is arranged correctly, save the configuration so you can return to the same starting point without rebuilding it by hand.
Click the save button in the top table toolbar, enter a name for the configuration, then confirm the save in the dialog.
While the table is copied, it is covered for everyone at it, with a progress bar that says what it is being saved as and how far the save has got. The table opens again on its own once the save is done. You can close the page meanwhile: the save keeps going without it. A small table is ready in a moment; a table with thousands of cards can take a few minutes. The configuration keeps the pieces, spaces and notes exactly as they were when you clicked save.
While a save is under way:
- the game page shows the configuration as Saving… with how far it has got
- you can already start a new table from it; that table shows "Waiting for its table configuration to be ready…" until it is ready, then sets itself up
- the configuration cannot be deleted until it is ready
- updating the table to a newer version of its imported game content waits until the save is done
A table cannot be saved while its game content is being updated: the save says so, and you can save once the update has finished. The same goes for a table configuration whose imported pieces are still being placed (the last step of a Tabletop Simulator or Screentop import): save it once they are all in place. If placing them stops, the game page shows it on that configuration's row, with the reason and a Retry button, to the game's editors.
If you overwrite an existing configuration by typing its exact name, the old one is replaced only once the new copy is complete, so a save that does not finish leaves the old one as it was.
If a save cannot finish (for example, the table was deleted while it was being saved), the game page marks the configuration as not saved and says why. A save is not picked up again later, since the table has moved on since you saved it: delete the configuration and save the table again. No table can be started from a configuration that was not saved, and a table that was waiting for it says so and points you to another configuration.
This is especially useful when:
- you run the same test with multiple groups
- you want a clean baseline before changing rules
- you need separate setups for different scenarios
Save after the table entities are ready
Save only after the pieces, spaces, and annotations are in the state you want to reuse.
That usually means:
- the starting tiles and stacks are already in place
- helper spaces are positioned where players should place pieces
- instructional annotations are already visible if the setup depends on them
How much a table can hold
Every table holds at most 2,000 table entities, a table configuration as much as a table being played. Table entities are the pieces lying on the table, the spaces and the annotations. Cards inside a deck, pieces inside a bag and pieces in a player's hand do not count, nor does anything in the trash. Adding something that would take the table past 2,000 is refused, and the message says how many more the table has room for.
When the game's imported pieces change
A renamed piece, or one with new artwork, shows the change on every table of the game the moment you make it: tables show imported pieces as the game has them (see What tables show of imported pieces).
A table configuration follows the rest of a change to the game's imported pieces on its own. A couple of seconds after you upload, edit, re-import or push a change, every configuration of the game takes it:
- a piece you removed is taken off the table
- a card whose count went up or down gains or loses copies in the decks that hold it. Each copy of a deck you placed on the table holds its own share: a card of count 2 in a deck placed twice has 4 copies on the table, 2 in each deck. A deck you emptied or dealt out still counts, and cards dealt from it to hands or the table count too: they are not made again, and they are not taken away. Extra copies leave first from a deck holding more than its share, from the top of that deck down, so the copies nearest its bottom stay; missing ones go to the bottom of a deck short of its share
- a deck you reordered is put back in your new order. A card in it that is not one of the deck's own (one you put in on the table, or one from another imported game) stays in the deck, below the deck's cards, in the order it had
- a piece you resized takes its new size, and every card of a deck takes the size of the deck's first card
Only what you changed in the game's pieces reaches a table. What someone changed on the table itself stays until you change that same thing in the game's pieces: a deck, board or token resized on the table keeps its size, a card taken out of a deck stays out, a deck shuffled or put in another order on a configuration keeps that order, and a die's sides or a token stack's count set on the table stay. Change a piece's size in the game's pieces and every table takes the new size, resized or not; change a card's count and every deck holding it gets its new count; reorder a deck and configurations take the new order.
New pieces are not placed on a table for you: add them from the game's pieces.
A new table started from a configuration does not wait for a change you just made to reach the configuration. It starts at once and catches up with the change, deck order included, as it opens. If an import is still being applied to the game's pieces as it opens, or something else on the new table holds the update back, the table catches up once that is done, but by then the game is under way, so its decks keep the order they were dealt in.
A game already in progress keeps its decks in the order its players left them: a reordered deck reaches table configurations and new tables, not games being played. The rest of a change reaches a game in progress while someone who can edit the game is at the table, and they see Game updated to latest version. A rename or new artwork is not such an update: it shows at once, without the message.
If bringing a table configuration up to date with your pieces stops partway and cannot be finished, the configuration's row on the game page says so, with the reason and a Retry button for anyone who can edit the game. On a game in progress the same notice shows at the table, to those who can edit the game, and the table does not try again on its own until someone presses Retry.
A configuration keeps your setup, not the game that was played
A saved configuration is a starting point, so it keeps everything you arranged: where each piece sits, which cards are in which deck, the face a die is showing, the value on a counter, and the order pieces sit in a space.
It does not keep any record of the session it was saved from. Dice start with no rolls recorded, decks with no draws or shuffles recorded, and cards with no draws or reveals recorded, so the piece inspector shows a clean table rather than the last group's play. The same is true of which seats held or drew a piece, so a configuration you share carries nothing about who played it before.
Drawings made with the markup editor are kept as part of the setup. Each table keeps its own copy of the drawings on its pieces: a configuration saved from a table keeps its drawings after that table is deleted or expires, and a table started from a configuration, or reset to it, keeps its drawings after the configuration is deleted. The drawings are copied as the last part of saving, starting or resetting the table. A drawing whose table was already deleted before the copy reached it cannot be recovered, and is left off the copy.
Name configurations by purpose
Choose names that describe the test, not just the date.
Examples:
two-player onboardingmidgame economy balancecombat scenario A
Keep saved setups focused
If a saved table tries to cover too many cases, it becomes harder to trust. Prefer several small, specific configurations over one catch-all setup.