Saving and resuming
Save a game in progress or a reusable scene.
Save a game in progress
An active GM or room owner chooses GM Controls > Save Table. On a narrow screen, use Menu > Room > Save Table. Wait for the saved confirmation; a failed database write is not a successful checkpoint.
The server also saves when the live room closes after its last connection leaves. Save explicitly before planned maintenance. Piece movement and private hands are not continuously written to PostgreSQL, so an unexpected shutdown can lose changes since the last snapshot.
Save Table applies to persistent game rooms. The separate Library Editor workshop cannot save a game this way.
Return to the game
Join the same room using the same account. Saved hands and turn ownership are matched by account, not by seat, display name, or browser session. Use separate accounts for different players. Multiple live tabs can have separate hands, but saved cards are collected by account when reclaimed.
A GM can open Room info > Members > Unclaimed hands and use Give to… to assign an absent player's hand to a present player. An absent player's turn waits until they return or a GM chooses Next Turn.
What is saved
A game snapshot stores pieces, decks and their order, ordinary concealed card fronts, notecard content, private hands, turn ownership, table geometry, grid/measurement settings, overlays, fog, aura settings, and current lighting.
Room settings such as the scoreboard, Room Notes, felt color, and skybox are stored separately in PostgreSQL. They are not private notebooks.
Private notebooks, chat history, the running timer, whiteboard drawings, and fog undo history do not survive disposal of the live room. A browser reconnect while the room remains live is different from reopening an empty room. Finish notecard edits before saving; an uncommitted editor draft is not saved artwork.
Save a scene
A scene is a reusable setup in the administrator-curated library. As a site administrator, choose GM Controls > Save Scene, enter a name, choose whether to Include current lighting, and press Save scene. Find it under Library > Games & Scenes > Scenes.
Scenes contain table dimensions, shape and rim, pieces, decks, notecards on the table, grid/measurement settings, overlays, fog and auras, and optional lighting. They omit player hands and turn ownership. They also do not copy the source room's scoreboard, Room Notes, felt color, or skybox. Apply a skybox separately if the new room needs it.
A GM can load a published scene; site administrators can also load private scenes. A scene without lighting keeps the destination room's current lighting.
Replacing a setup
Load on a scene, Set up on a starter game, and Reset clear the current pieces, hands, unclaimed hands, and turn state. A scene installs a replacement checkpoint; Reset invalidates the old one. Save Table is a checkpoint for the same room, not a version history or undo for these actions.
Use a separate room when you want to keep an existing game and try a new setup. A scene is not a backup of a game with its players.
Back up the server
Room snapshots live in PostgreSQL. Uploaded images and models live in the asset directory. A full backup needs both; see Backups and upgrades.
Sources checked: server/game/scene-persistence.js, server/game/handlers/room-state.js, docs/ARCHITECTURE.md. Reviewed September 29, 2026 against the working source. Published releases may differ; check the changelog for your version.