Terms of service

RPG Lab (rpglab.io) is a trade name of Sunset Mesa Ventures LLC, a Colorado limited liability company. By using the site you agree to these terms. If you don't agree with them, don't use the site. Questions go to hello [at] rpglab [dot] io.

Your work stays yours. Say truthfully how it's made. Flag adult content. Be decent to people. Keep it about tabletop RPGs. The rest of this page is the detail.

• You must be at least 16 to have an account. To turn on adult content you must be at least 18.
• One account per person. Your handle is yours as long as your account exists, first come, first served. RPG Lab may rename or reclaim a handle that impersonates a person, a studio, or a game you don't represent.
• You're responsible for what happens under your account. Sign-in links and social sign-ins are how you get in, so keep your email account and those accounts secure.
• A studio is a name to publish under. It doesn't make RPG Lab a party to any arrangement between the people in it, and it doesn't imply a company or any other legal entity.
• Inviting someone onto a project or a studio gives them what the role says and nothing more: an editor can change the project, post to it, and run its playtests; a viewer can see it while it's private; a studio member can publish posts under its name. Who gets credit for the work, and any arrangement between collaborators, is between the people involved. RPG Lab isn't a party to it.

• You keep every right to what you post: projects, art, text, updates, posts, comments, versions and the files you attach to them, feedback, and messages. RPG Lab claims none of it.
• So the site can work, you give RPG Lab permission to store what you post, show it to the people you've made it visible to, make previews of it (thumbnails, link previews, excerpts), and back it up. That permission ends when you delete the work or your account, apart from copies in backups, which expire on their own schedule.
• Post only what you have the right to post. If your project uses someone else's art, text, or system, make sure you're allowed to use it, and credit it the way its license requires.
• Other people's work on the site is theirs. Don't copy it beyond what they allow.

RPG Lab is for tabletop RPGs: games, supplements, tools, and resources made for the playing or the making of tabletop RPGs. The About page has the guidelines and examples. Projects outside that scope (board games or video games, say) may be hidden or removed, with a note to the designer.

Every project declares how its art and its text are made, for the working version now and for the planned final version. The choices are: none yet, made by the designer, commissioned, licensed or stock, open license, AI-assisted, AI-generated, and, for the planned version, not decided.

• The declaration must be true, and you must keep it current as the project changes. "None yet" and "not decided" are always acceptable answers. A false one is not.
• RPG Lab does not verify declarations and does not scan work to guess how it was made. The declaration is the designer's word, and the site takes it at face value.

Two things break these terms, and RPG Lab treats them the same way:

• Misrepresenting how a project is made.
• Harassing, shaming, or campaigning against a designer over a declaration they made honestly.

Disagreeing with a designer's choices is allowed. Deciding not to follow, read, or play their work is allowed. Going after the person is not allowed.

Adult content is allowed on RPG Lab. It must be flagged, and it stays hidden from people who haven't chosen to see it.

Flag a project, update, or post as adult content if it contains any of the following, in its text, its art, or the material it links to:

• Sexually explicit writing or images.
• Nudity presented in a sexual way.
• Graphic violence, gore, or cruelty shown in extreme detail or dwelt on for its own sake.
• Detailed depictions of sexual violence, torture, or self-harm.

Dark themes on their own don't need the flag. Horror, war, crime, monsters, death, and mature subject matter handled the way most published RPGs handle them are normal for the hobby. The flag is for material that would be sold as adult or 18+ elsewhere. When in doubt, flag it. An unneeded flag costs a project some visibility. A missing one breaks these terms.

The flag is one setting, on or off, with no tiers. Put specific content warnings in your own description, where readers will see them.

Turning on "Show adult content" in your settings is a statement that you're 18 or older.

Some things are never allowed, flagged or not. They're listed below.

Be decent to the people here. Concretely:

• No harassment, threats, or hate. Attacks on people for who they are (race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, and so on) are out.
• No posting other people's private information.
• No impersonating people, studios, or games you don't represent.
• No spam: bulk posting, posting to advertise unrelated things, fake accounts, or gaming follows and comments.
• Critique the work, not the person. Blunt feedback is fine. Contempt isn't.
• The designer decides what their work is. Categories, systems, and tags are the designer's own description of it, and it isn't anyone else's job to rule on whether something "really" counts as a particular kind of game. If it's outside what the site is for, report it. If it's a matter of taste, leave it.

Playtests are the designer's table. The designer runs the roster and can remove anyone from it. Playtesters can leave at any time. What's shared inside a playtest (packets, drafts, session details, the roster thread) is for that playtest, and playtesters shouldn't pass it on unless the designer says so. The conduct rules above apply in playtest threads as everywhere else.

• Anything illegal where you are or where RPG Lab operates.
• Any sexual depiction of minors, including drawn, written, or generated ones. This is reported to the authorities, and the account is closed.
• Intimate images of real people shared without their consent.
• Calls for violence against people or groups.
• Malware, and links that exist to harm the people who click them.
• Work you don't have the rights to.

To report something, use the "Report abuse" link on the project, post, comment, profile, studio, call, or message, or email hello [at] rpglab [dot] io with a link to the page and a short note on what's wrong. That covers spam, harassment, a "how it's made" declaration you believe is false, harassment over a truthful one, unflagged adult content, and anything in the list above. Reports are read by a person, and nothing happens to what was reported until one has. The person who made it isn't told who reported it. Reports made in bad faith, to harass someone or to hurt a competitor, are themselves a violation.

Depending on what happened, RPG Lab may correct a label, hide a project or post, end a playtest call, or suspend or close an account. RPG Lab starts with a note for smaller problems and may act at once on serious ones. If you think a decision was wrong, reply to the email that told you about it.

• A playtest is between the designer and the playtesters. RPG Lab provides the tools and isn't a party to it.
• Feedback you submit in a playtest belongs with the designer's project: they can read it, keep it, and use it to improve the game. It's shown to the people who manage that project and to you, and to nobody else on the site. A designer can follow up with you on your feedback in a thread only the two sides can see. A designer's private notes about a playtester are never shown to that playtester.
• Nobody is paid for playtesting through RPG Lab, and nothing here creates an employment or contractor relationship.

RPG Lab doesn't sell anything today and doesn't process payments. Store links on a project lead to other sites under their own terms, and RPG Lab isn't part of those sales.

Some store links may carry an affiliate id, either RPG Lab's own or the designer's. The store then pays a small commission on what you buy there. It doesn't change the price you pay, and where it applies, the project page says so.

Paid tiers for designers are planned, for things like analytics and bigger playtest tooling. Following, reading, and playtesting stay free. If paid tiers arrive, payments will go through a payment provider under its own terms, and this page will change to say so.

RPG Lab is in beta and run by one person. It's provided as is. Features will change, some will break, and the site may go offline at times. RPG Lab makes no promises about availability or fitness for any purpose beyond what the law requires, and isn't liable for losses that come from using it, to the extent the law allows. Keep your own copies of your work.

If RPG Lab ever has to close, there will be reasonable notice and a way to get your work out.

Colorado law governs these terms.

You can delete your account any time from settings, or by emailing hello [at] rpglab [dot] io from the address on your account if you can't sign in. RPG Lab may suspend or close accounts that break these terms.

When these terms change in a way that matters, the date at the top changes and the site says so. Using RPG Lab after that means the new terms apply. The privacy policy is a separate page and covers what happens with your data.