What are the icons next to Food Chain Magnate games?
The icons represent the options selected for that game. You can hover over the icon to see what it represents.
New Milestones Ketchup Milestone New Reserve Cards Movie Stars Mass Marketeers Gourmet Food Critics Rural Marketeers New Districts Lobbyists Night Shift Manager Coffee Fry Chef Kimchi Sushi Noodles Strict Payday/Fridge Short Game No Milestones No CFO Milestone No Radio Milestone Hard Choices

What are the times displayed in the lobby?
Times are displayed according to the timezone of your device - so all times will be in local time.

What are the game columns?
Available Games - Games that are available to join and are not waiting for a repsonse from invited players
Current Games - Games you are currently playing
Waiting Games - Games you have joined, but are waiting for more players (either invited players or open to anyone)
Invitations - Games you have been invited to play
Finished Games - Your finished games. Games you have resigned or been kicked from will stop showing under "Current Games" but will show here once they are finished

If you create a game open to anyone, it will be shown under your "Waiting Games" and also visible in "Available Games".
If you create a game and invite other players, it will be shown under your "Waiting Games" only, until all invited players have responded.
How can I laave a game that hasn't started?
Under "Waiting Games" there is a "Leave" button on the right. If you are not waiting for specific players to join, you can also see the game under "Available Games", with a "Leave" button on the left.

What are the notifications?
All games update live, so you can set whether you wish to hear a beep, bell, or nothing if a game comes to your turn whilst the game page is open.
In addition, you can add email notifications, discord notifications, and slack notifications

How can I add a Discord Notification?
You can add Discord notifications to one of your servers, or an existing server where you have administrator privileges.
To set up your own free server, click here.
To set up a webhook and find the URL to copy into your Online Board Gamers Profile, click here.
Follow the guide to set up a webhook and "Copy Webhook URL". Then paste the link in to your profile on Online Board Gamers.
Note that Discord notifications will be sent to a channel, not to your private messages.

How can I add a Slack Notification?
Create a slack app and enable/create an incoming Webhook. Set it to post to a channel or your private messages. Then paste the link in to your profile on Online Board Gamers.
For details on each step, click here.

What does the Playing Speed option do?
The Playing Speed option mainly gives other players an idea of how fast you want the game to play. It is also linked to the options for the length of time before an inactive player is removed. Blitz Dual is limited to 2 player, and has optiona from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. Live speed allows kickouts of 12 hours or 1 day. The other speeds allow kickouts between 1 day and 5 days. Please note that often with 4 or more random players then more than 1 or 2 moves a day could be difficult, especially if people are in different time zones. With 2 or 3 players however, it is certainly possible to play several games in an evening!

How much time do I have left in a Blitz Dual speed game?
You can see a timer counting down to the next kickout in the top right, underneath where it says who you are logged in as. In fact, any game that is within 20 minutes of a kickout will display the timer. There is a short grace period once the timer reaches zero, and no one is kicked until a player enters the game who isn't currently required to move, thus activiating the kickout. All games will auto-update live, but if you are playing Blitz Dual and your opponent doesn't appear to be moving, then it is worth refreshing the game, in case you lost internet signal at the same time the game update signal arrived.

Where do the FCM scenarios come from?
They are suggested in the Ketchup Expansion manual.

What are the formats?
Knockout is simply the winner moves to the next round. Two Lives is like double elimination; once you've lose twice then you're out of the tournament. Rounds consists of (currently) 4 rounds, where all players are included in the games, after which there is a short knockout of all players on top points to determine the overall winner.

How are game players decided?
Initially game players are drawn randomly. After this, players are ranked by number of wins. Players will play the closest person to them that thay haven't already played.
If there are any players left over, they receive a "bye", which counts as an automatic win, and progress to the next round. "Byes" will generally be given to the lowest ranked players, and are limited to one per tournament. Essentially "Byes" are given randomly to the lowest ranked player who hasn't yet had a "Bye".

How do kickouts work?
If someone is kicked out then they are ejected from the tournament. They will lose both lives in Two Lives, and be removed from a Rounds tournament

What else should I know?
Players will not play the same person again until there's no other option
Players will not receive two "byes" until there's no other option
Kickout timer will be 1 day, with the exception of the first move (restaurant placement) which will be 3 days, in case players don't realise a game has started
Notifications are sent out at the start of every new tournament game. If you finish quickly there could be several days until your next game starts, so it is strongly recommended to have at least one form of notification enabled in your profile
I can start a tournament any time, but too many could lead to tournament fatigue! So I'm planning to always have some sort of tournament available or ongoing. Initially, there will be a bit of an open testing phase, as I can't test more than about 5 players myself! After this, there might be one of each tournament that starts at the begining of each month, or one every two weeks, or something