Tabletop Simulator – Frequently Asked Questions

Many new players on the Tabletop Simulator Forums repeatedly ask questions about the game because they are new to it, want to see if they should buy it, or are just too lazy to use the search engine on the forum! (or it just doesn’t return what they look for)

Therefore I decided to make this guide which can hopefully serve as a quick way to answer all these regular questions. I will try to keep it updated too.

Tabletop Simulator FAQ

Why can I not buy a 4-pack when I already have the game?

Because this way steam wants to prevent people from hoarding 4-packs and selling the individual copies for more, making a profit. The developers of the game are not at fault here. If you already have the game and want to buy a 4-pack for friends, send the money to one of them and let them buy the 4-pack. You might be able to buy a 4-pack on other sites such as humble. Other than that, you are out of luck.

Does this game have AI?

Short answer: لا. You are supposed to play with real people. لكن, the single-player option is there so that you can prepare games or table layouts and save them to be able to load them easily when you and your friends have joined a room together. There are also some games you can play by yourself, and that is not only Solitaire. Some games have built-in rules where dice rolls or cards tell you how to move pieces for an opponent.

Since the introduction of scripting, many games on the workshop use that to improve the flow of the game by automating certain repetitive processes such as moving pieces a set distance or putting cards to certain places. A few workshop items also make use of an AI for games like UNO, using scripting. But these are very simple and not reliable. More like a proof of concept.

Are there dedicated servers?

Short answer: لا. You could leave a machine running to always keep a server open, but that’s not really how you find games here. If you don’t have friends to play with, you can open a room and wait for random people to join or look for open rooms to join. Many are private servers with password protection though.

There are many groups on Steam and Discord dedicated to a certain game. If you want to find people to play a certain game, go have a look at these groups.

Can you play DND with this?

Short answer: نعم. There are several assets in the main game and a ton more on the workshop. People are frequently looking for players and there are many people frequently looking for groups to join. Look in the steam forums (Looking for players section) or find DnD groups on Steam or Discord.

There are also many other RPGs such as Star Wars, Stalker, or Pokémon. Though there are fewer players for these.

How do I deal with trolls?

There are several ways to restrict players from causing harm. These include going to Options > Permissions and uncheck anything you don’t want random players to be able to do (such as flipping the table). If you disable the ability to change color, only the host can give colors to players and therefore talk to them before to find out if they are actually looking for a game or just want to cause trouble.

Can I get a virus from this game? (via Tablet)

The same tablet is working like any other browser. So don’t think the game is giving you any protection.

Can I buy the game and then have players join my server without owning the game?

لا. Everyone needs a copy to join your server. The only other way is to use Steam Remote Play.

When I access a mod, objects do not load and I get a prompt to import things.

Look at the console/chat window. In most cases, this means that the links have expired under which the objects were uploaded. To test, you can copy one of the links and paste them into a browser. If you get an error, then the link is broken and you should contact the mod author about it.

If the link is not broken (i.e. you get a download starting in the browser) then try to reload the table. If that does not work, try to look up your error in the steam forums. If you do not find it, make a new thread and try to provide as much documentation to your problem as possible.

Does everyone in a room need a DLC?

لا. Only the host needs it. Not one player in the room, it needs to be the host.

The workshop is full of copyrighted games! How does TTS still exist?! (Legality)

This is a mixture of several things. أولاً, Tabletop Simulator and the developer Berserk Games as such are not responsible for the Steam workshop, as it is made up of user-generated content. As workshop content is free, even suing the people publishing things on it would seem like cracking a nut with a sledgehammer. There is nothing to gain, only to lose (in reputation, mostly).

أن يقال, workshop games are sometimes being taken down. Especially Steve Jackson Games is constantly taking down setups of Munchkin and also Memoir 44 and Ticket to Ride get taken down fast. Games Workshop does a purge about once a year it seems. But in the end, many others either do not care enough, appreciate the advertisement (many workshop publications do have official approvement of the original creators!) or maybe don’t know about the game. أيضًا, some use the TTS workshop as a means to get the game know among players and try to advertise their Kickstarter campaigns this way.

Game developer CHRY has this to say:

The workshop is user generated content and for the most part we don’t intervene with what our users upload to it. Naturally we do not endorse copyright/trademark/IP infringement, but as it is something that needs to be dealt with on a case by case basis the best we can usually do (and are actively working on) is bringing official content to our platform both in terms of DLC games and highlighting original creations from our community.

When you do upload something that you don’t own the rights to the rights owner can and often will take action against it. Steam and most similar platforms really have quite strict policies against this and for very good reasons, distributing what isn’t yours in ways that are not fair use is not good – you could pretty much call this piracy.

That said this is not us setting some sort of ground rules for the workshop – Steam/Valve have already set them with their extensive collection of ToS/EULA and workshop rules/guidelines that you’ve agreed to by using the platform. I do think it’s important to clarify that subjective viewpoints about it being “free advertisement” are not valid justifications and will not help you when a DMCA/Takedown request is sent your way.