Discord communities

Discord has become the center of online playtesting for board game designers. Unlike forums and Facebook groups, Discord is real time: you can talk through a rules problem live, hop into a voice channel, and play someone's prototype over Tabletop Simulator or a browser tool while discussing it.

The best-known server is Break My Game, which runs scheduled online playtesting events where designers bring digital prototypes and the community plays them together. Events are organized so everyone both tests and gets tested, which solves the classic problem of communities where everyone wants feedback and nobody wants to give it. Publishers and experienced designers drop in regularly, so a strong showing there can lead to real industry contacts.

Beyond Break My Game, there are servers attached to design podcasts and YouTube channels, servers for specific tools like Tabletop Simulator, publisher-run servers that announce calls for submissions, and regional servers that coordinate local meetups. Most conventions and Protospiel events also run Discords for scheduling.

To make Discord work for you, treat the scheduled events as appointments. Have a digital prototype ready, playtest at least as many games as you bring, and take notes in the moment. Because everything is live, Discord playtests surface teaching problems and rules ambiguities that written feedback never catches, since you watch people misread your rules in real time.