Circles
A group you meet with again and again: its season table, records, punch card and table mode.
What a Circle is
A Circle is a regular group, such as your game night or book club. Make one, log its first night, and its page learns who comes, who wins and what you play.
On the People page, open the Circles tab and press New Circle.
Give it a name and add its members from the people you already log with, or type a new name or an @username.
Choose how often it Meets, if it does, and press Save.
Log its first night: press Tonight with the Circle on its page, or choose the Circle when you log. Every session logged with it lands on its page.
Adding the sessions you already logged
When you save a new Circle
When you save a new Circle, ShelfChronicles looks for sessions you already logged with exactly those people and asks, for example, “1 earlier session was with exactly these people. Add it to Thursday table?”. Nothing is added until you say so, and Undo takes it back.
The rest of your past nights
The list is by month and all ticked. Each row names who was there; the arrow at its end opens the session in place. Untick any that were not its nights, then press the button, which says how many it will add.
Add or Don't ask again answers for good, and Later asks again in a month.
How a Circle's page grows
Under the Circle's name is the month it began, stamped like a club's charter (EST. AUG 2024). After a few nights the page knows who comes; after a season, who wins, what you play most and which nights were the best.
What is where on a Circle's page
The page has one main button, Tonight with the Circle (Log with it on other days). Everything else (Start the table, Keep score, Share this group, Invite members, Edit and Remove) is under the ⋯ button beside it.
Share this group makes a page for the group chat that needs no account to read; see Share links.
The season table
Every competitive game with a winner counts towards the season table: nights, wins, podiums and average finish for each player.
A season is a calendar year, so January starts a fresh table, and All time keeps the long view.
Co-op games count as nights, never as wins.
Who leads, and how ties are settled
Players tied on wins are ordered by the better average finish, then podiums (top three finishes), then more nights. The rule is written under the table.
Members with no result, and guests
A member with no decided game that season is named under the table, so nobody simply goes missing.
Someone who came as a guest is marked Guest in the table, as under Frequent attendees.
The punch card
The punch card has a hole for each week the Circle met (each month, for a Circle that meets monthly). It shows the weeks you met, or the summer you all went quiet.
Table mode
Table mode is for the night itself, everyone enters their own score on their own phone, and the host saves the game as one session.
Choose Start the table under ⋯ on the Circle's page (or on Home, on the night), and pick the game if it asks.
Everyone joins on their own phone with the short code and picks their name from your list.
Each player enters their own score.
When the game ends, press End and log, then Save.
Guests, the code and closing a table
Guests don't need an account. Once everyone is in, Hide the code folds it to one line, and Close without logging sits at the top in case the table was opened by mistake.
What is saved when the game ends
The host saves the game as one session with everyone's scores, the winner and the time at the table. Nobody has to copy numbers across afterwards.
Friends with an account also pick how the game left them. The others who were there see that feeling on the session, unless they tick Keep my feeling to myself. Notes stay private.
Adding it up
Some games end with a pile of numbers to add up. Add it up shows under a score box while you are typing in it: a small calculator where you tap in the parts, plus, minus or times, and use the total as the score.
Logging a game night without table mode works too:
see Game nights.