A Question?
Do you have questions? Here's a start of an answer!
What do I need to become a BAJO member?
Well, basically an Internet connection, but if you're reading these lines, my little finger tells me you're on the right track. And apart from that, nothing special except your good mood and a minimum interest in the world of board games. Easy!
Can I become a BAJO member without being familiar with Discord and how it works?
Of course! Our team places great emphasis on welcoming newcomers to our community, regularly offering explanatory tours of our server so you can feel at home from the moment you arrive, without any difficulties!
If you want to go further in your discovery of Discord, you can also refer to the official Discord server guide.
What are some examples of games you play on BAJO?
Of course! Among the most played games on our server, we can mention:
And many more!
Where do game page data come from?
Ludothèque Online game pages aggregate information from several sources. Here is how we use them.
Online play platforms
Availability, “Play on…” links, and some screenshots come from the platforms we play on (Board Game Arena, Game Park, Tabletopia, and others). That content remains owned by each platform.
BoardGameGeek
To enrich the catalog (credits, ratings, descriptions, mechanisms, and more), we use the official BoardGameGeek API, under their terms of use. On relevant game pages you will see the Powered by BGG logo, which links to boardgamegeek.com.
BAJO editorial work
We may also complete or rephrase some fields (descriptions, formatting, missing data) so the page stays clear and consistent. That editorial work is separate from raw platform or BGG data.
Legal framing
For the legal details (data ownership, third-party sources), see our Legal notice.
Can I learn more about the gaming sessions you organize?
They are our driving force, our flagship activity. This is how we create connections between BAJO members. Each week, our Staff meets to define the Gaming Schedule for the following week. Then, gaming sessions are offered at different times during the week (mainly in the evening from 9 PM) to discover or rediscover the games we have selected for you. There are even sometimes themed evenings (Double or Nothing, Once Upon a Time in the West...)
We offer several types of Gaming Sessions:
- Learn&Play | Staff takes time to explain the rules of a game before starting a few rounds
- Let's Play Again | These follow the Learn&Play sessions and offer the chance to replay games that have been previously presented
- Tournaments | To test your level on a game we've already experienced together
- Party Games | We offer party games that are mostly played via external sites (requiring no registration) such as Gartic Phone, Déso pas Déso, Wolfy, Skribbl...
- BAJO Labs | We discover games in development with you
- Free Sessions | It's up to you to improvise an evening and gather on BAJO around games of your choice
All these Gaming Sessions require registration directly through our Gaming Schedule. Also note that places are more or less limited depending on the selected games... 😉
How can we play board games on a Discord server?
Very good question! Our server mainly serves to connect our members so they can chat via text or voice. It also helps us organize our activities, particularly by publishing a schedule informing our members about upcoming game nights, sharing the latest gaming news, etc...
But when it comes to playing, we use well-known websites/platforms/software such as BGA (Board Game Arena), GamePark, TTS (Tabletop Simulator), Codenames.game, Skribbl.io, etc... Know that if you don't want to create countless accounts on third-party sites, the majority of games we play are primarily through BGA (which requires a brief registration) or other sites requiring no registration or downloads.
If this isn't familiar to you, don't worry! We also help our members with the registration process and use of these various platforms.
What is BAJO?
BAJO stands for Bar À Jeux Online (Online Board Game Bar).
It's a French Discord server that connects people who are passionate about or simply curious about the world of board games. Members can chat and/or play together directly through our Discord server, particularly during organized gaming sessions that the BAJO team is passionate about hosting, during which the rules of the games we play are explained if needed.
What is Ludothèque Online?
Ludothèque Online is BAJO’s community board-game catalog — a wink to Bar à Jeux Online, and a way to tell it apart from physical ludothèques (toy libraries).
As far as we know, it’s the largest online board game library in the world.
Play with us, right away
Every game in Ludothèque Online is playable directly with our members on Discord. Pick a title, join a session, and play through the digital platforms we already use every day (Board Game Arena, Game Park, Tabletopia, and more).
Why we built it
We wanted one simple place to:
- find every game in the collection easily ;
- see which platform each title is available on ;
- jump into the next session quickly, without hunting around.
Filter by players, play time, or mechanisms, open a game page, star favorites, or mark what you want to play — it’s our shared shelf.
Browse it here: Ludothèque Online.
I'm new to board games, is that a problem?
Of course not! Whether someone has been passionate about board games since their early years or is just discovering this rich world full of wonderful things to discover, everyone has their place at BAJO.
You'll always find someone on our server to play with you while taking the time to explain the rules / how a game works / how to use a gaming platform if you need it. This is especially true during our Learn&Play sessions where our Staff focuses on explaining a game before playing it together.
The goal here is to help you quickly familiarize yourself, but always at your own pace, with the gaming world and the use of our server, so that it can become your pocket companion to use whenever the gaming urge strikes...
What else?
Well, we also organize ongoing events directly on our server without going through third-party sites, such as an Advent Calendar around Christmas, a Virtual Easter Egg Hunt for Easter, (...), and also occasional events with Stream support such as Burger Quiz nights, Mysterium, Little Murders and News Items...
Also know that we feature a game of the month, and, once a week (on weekends), we successively organize a discovery session, training sessions, and we end with a tournament of the game in question. Enough to know the game inside out by the end of the month!
Once I'm a BAJO member, what happens next?
It's up to you to decide! But here are some suggestions:
- You can go introduce yourself in the #Presentations channel, while taking the opportunity to learn more about other server members;
- You can go break the ice and chat in writing in the #General channel, where we discuss everything and nothing, but mostly games;
- You can also take a look at #planning to find out about upcoming game sessions we have planned and sign up if you wish, which would be an opportunity for you to experience BAJO's flagship activity and meet some other players/Staff members. These are just some ideas, but you can quickly get more value from BAJO by taking advantage of everything our Staff puts in place to satisfy you.