Mystrige
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How to Moderate

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Overview

As a moderator, you guide the game from setup to finish. You create sessions, manage players, advance rounds, resolve events, and determine the outcome. This guide covers every tool available to you.

Accessing the Dashboard

The moderator dashboard is at /moderator. You need moderator or admin permissions for at least one scenario to access it.

The dashboard has two views:

  • Session List (/moderator) — all sessions you moderate, with status, round, and player count.
  • Session Management (/moderator/sessions/[id]/manage) — detailed controls for a specific session.

Creating a Session

  1. From the session list, click Create Session.
  2. Choose a scenario — only scenarios you have permission for are available.
  3. Set a session name — anything that helps players identify the game.
  4. Optionally set a password — players will need it to join via code.
  5. Click Create.

A unique 6-character join code is generated automatically. Share this with players or use the invitation system.

Content Versions

Ensure your scenario has published content before creating a session — draft scenarios aren't playable yet.

Your session will always run on the content version from when it was created. If the scenario is edited and republished later, your active session keeps the original version — only new sessions created after a republish see updated content.

Player Management

Inviting Players

On the Players tab:

  1. Type a player's handle in the invite search field.
  2. Select from the autocomplete suggestions.
  3. Click Send Invitation.

The player will see the invitation on their dashboard and can accept or decline.

Managing Join Requests

When players request to join via code:

  • Join requests appear in the Join Requests section.
  • Click Approve or Decline for each request.

Onboarding New Players

Players who have never used Mystrigue need to make an account before they can join anything. The Player Handout at the top of this page is a printable one-pager covering exactly this — print one per player and hand them out as people arrive.

If you don't have it printed, read this aloud or paste it into your group chat:

1 — Sign up

  1. Go to mystrigue.com on your phone.
  2. Tap Sign in, then Continue with Google.
  3. Pick a handle (6+ characters — letters, numbers, _ or -) and enter your first name.
  4. If your phone offers to install the app, say yes. It keeps you signed in and lets the game send you notifications during play.

2 — Join the game

  1. From your dashboard, tap Join a Game.
  2. Enter the 6-character session code.
  3. Enter the password too, if there is one.
  4. Tap Request to Join. I'll approve you, and your character will appear on its own.

Read out your session code and password at this point — the code is on the session management page, and approvals land in Join Requests above.

There's no password to invent: signing in with Google is the whole account step. The handle is what you'll see in the moderator tools and what other players see in the character directory, so encourage something recognizable.

Assigning Characters

During the setup phase (before the game starts):

  1. Go to the Players tab.
  2. Each joined player has a character assignment dropdown.
  3. Select a character from the dropdown.
  4. Already-assigned characters won't appear in other players' dropdowns.

Sharing a Character

If you have more players than characters, two players can share one character:

  1. Assign the character to the first player normally, using the dropdown.
  2. On a second, unassigned player, click Share an assigned character.
  3. Pick the character from the list and confirm — the dialog names who's already playing it.
  4. Both players now log in as the same character.

Like all assignment, sharing is only available during setup — once the game starts, assignments lock.

Shared players see identical clues, tasks, and ballots. A task either of them completes shows as completed for both. If they both vote on the same ballot, the more recent vote overwrites the earlier one — whoever votes last for that character is the vote of record, until one of them locks it. Once locked, only a moderator can unlock it for further changes.

Removing Players

To remove a player from the session, use the remove action on their player card. This is available during both setup and active phases.

Bot Characters

If you have fewer players than characters, you can convert unassigned characters into bots:

  1. Go to the Players tab.
  2. Find the Unassigned Characters section.
  3. Click Add as Bot next to any unassigned character.
  4. To remove a bot, click Remove Bot.

Bots can auto-vote and have their tasks managed by the moderator.

Event Plan

Before a game night starts, use the Event Plan tab to send players a themed email invitation with RSVP tracking and a one-click join link — an alternative to inviting players by handle.

Composing the Invitation

  1. Go to the Event Plan tab on the session's management page.
  2. If this is the session's first invitation, click Create Event Plan.
  3. Fill in the subject, an optional message, the location, the date and time, the expected duration, and an optional RSVP deadline.
  4. Click Save Details.

Adding Recipients

  1. Paste a list of email addresses into the recipients box — one per line, or separated by commas. Names like Alice <alice@example.com> are handled automatically.
  2. Click Parse & Assign Characters. Any entries that aren't valid email addresses are flagged so you can fix them — nothing is silently dropped.
  3. Optionally assign a character to each recipient from its dropdown. Use Auto-assign to fill characters in order, or assign them one at a time. The same character can't be assigned to two recipients.
  4. Click Save Recipients.

Assigning a character before sending matters: that recipient's email includes their character's portrait, description, and background, so they can plan a costume ahead of the event. Their secret objective is never included — the email is safe to open in front of other players. A recipient with no character assigned yet is simply told their character will be assigned when they join.

Sending Invitations

Click Send Invitations and confirm. Each recipient gets an email with the game details, their character card (if assigned), a calendar attachment, and a personal link to view the invitation and RSVP.

After sending, the tab shows delivery status for each recipient (sent, delivered, or bounced/failed) and their RSVP response as it comes in.

How Recipients Respond

Recipients open their personal link and can RSVP yes, no, or maybe without needing an account. To actually join the session, they sign in with the Google account matching the email the invitation was sent to — this is what turns an RSVP into a seat at the table. If a recipient declines, any character reserved for them is automatically freed up for someone else.

Recording a Response Manually

If a recipient replies outside the app — a text, a call, a hallway conversation — you don't need them to open their link. Change their RSVP directly from the dropdown next to their name in the recipient status list. Setting it to No frees up their assigned character the same way it would if they'd declined through the link themselves.

Game Control

Starting the Game

Once all players are assigned characters:

  1. Go to the Game Control tab.
  2. Click Start Game.
  3. Confirm — this locks player assignments and begins round one.

After starting, no new character assignments can be made.

Advancing Rounds

  1. On the Game Control tab, you'll see the current round.
  2. Click Advance Round to move to the next round.
  3. Confirm the advancement.

When you advance a round, new clues and events may become available to players.

Auto-Voting for Bots

Before advancing a round with open ballots, click Auto-Vote for Bots to automatically cast votes for all bot characters. Votes are biased toward each bot's win conditions.

Completing the Session

When the game is over:

  1. Click Complete Session on the Game Control tab.
  2. Confirm completion.

After completing, you can still evaluate win conditions and endings.

Events & Ballots

Viewing Events

Go to the Events tab to see all game events organized by round. Each event may have a ballot attached if it requires a player vote.

Setting Event Outcomes

  1. Find the event you want to resolve.
  2. Select the desired outcome.
  3. The outcome is recorded and players can see the result.

You can override outcomes at any time if needed.

Viewing Votes

Expand an event to see the vote distribution:

  • How many votes each outcome received.
  • Which specific characters voted for which outcome.
  • Whether votes are locked or unlocked.

Managing Votes

  • Lock individual votes — prevent a player from changing their vote.
  • Unlock individual votes — allow changes again.
  • Lock all votes for an event at once.

Tiebreakers

An outcome only resolves automatically when more than half of all characters vote for it. If a ballot ties, or no outcome reaches a majority, Resolve (Majority) leaves it unresolved and you pick the outcome manually. Outcomes marked (Tiebreaker) are the scenario's suggested pick for that situation.

Messaging Players

Sending Messages

On the Messages tab:

  1. Select a target character from the dropdown.
  2. Write your message.
  3. Click Send.

Broadcasting

Toggle the Broadcast option to send a message to all characters at once instead of a single character.

Message History

All sent messages appear in the history with:

  • The target character (or "Broadcast" for all).
  • The message content.
  • Timestamp.
  • Read status — see which characters have read the message.

Task Progress

The Task Progress tab lets you monitor how players are doing with their actions (the tasks, response tasks, and investigations on each character's Actions tab).

Viewing Progress

  • Filter by Current, Previous, or All rounds.
  • See an overall completion percentage.
  • Expand each character to see their individual task status.

Closing Tasks

For previous rounds, you can close incomplete tasks:

  1. Expand a character's tasks for a past round.
  2. Click Close Round to mark remaining tasks as closed.

This is useful when players didn't complete all tasks in a previous round and you want to move on.

Investigations

Some scenarios give players an Investigate action: they pick another character and are shown one private detail about them. A player gets one per round.

Seeing What Players Found

Investigation results are not pushed to you as they happen — you're told that someone investigated, not what they learned. Refresh the investigations view to read the full picture: who investigated, who they chose, which detail was shown, and what they actually saw. This is the only place that information is visible to anyone but the player who earned it, so use it to narrate around what's circulating at the table.

Investigations Cannot Be Undone

A player cannot take back an investigation, and neither can you. Expect to be asked — the answer is that a result can't be un-seen, and letting someone retry would hand them a second look at a different character in the same round. If a player picks the wrong character, that choice is part of their round.

What Players Can and Can't Learn

  • Players can be shown details a writer marked as private to a character.
  • Details marked internal are never revealed, in any scenario, by any route.
  • Every character in the story is a valid target, including ones you or a bot are speaking for. This is deliberate: if bot-played characters were missing from the list, players could work out who the bots are from the gap alone.
  • When no detail is available — the writer renamed a field, or that character simply has nothing recorded — the player sees the scenario's fallback line instead. They can't tell that case apart from a thin-but-real result, and you shouldn't give it away either.

Bot Tasks

Bot characters may have response tasks that require moderator attention. The Bot Tasks tab shows these organized by character and round. It lists bot actions only — a bot's non-task clues are not shown here.

Completing Bot Tasks

  1. Find the pending task.
  2. Optionally add moderator notes.
  3. Click Complete Task.

Bulk Completion

Click Complete All to mark all pending bot tasks as done at once.

Game Outcomes

After completing the session, use the Game Outcomes tab to determine the results.

Evaluating Win Conditions

  1. Click Evaluate Win Conditions.
  2. The system checks each character's win conditions against the final event outcomes.
  3. Results show whether each character won or lost.
  4. Expand any character to see which conditions were met or missed.

You can re-evaluate at any time if outcomes change.

Evaluating the Ending

  1. Click Evaluate Game Ending.
  2. The system determines which ending was triggered based on the final game state.
  3. The ending narrative is displayed.

Both evaluations are visible to players in their Endings tab.

Real-time Updates

The moderator dashboard receives real-time updates via server-sent events (SSE). You'll see live updates for:

  • Players joining or leaving the session.
  • Votes being cast or changed.
  • Tasks being completed.
  • Events being resolved.

If updates seem stale, refresh the page.