Your players

Your players don't install anything. You send a link, they open it in a browser, they allow their camera. That's the whole of their setup.

They do need Discord, because that's where the voices are — but that's for your table, not for BobbleHub.

Inviting people#

On the Cast Invites tab, press Start CastTime. This opens your room, and it's the moment your hours start counting — so do it when you're ready for people rather than well in advance.

Copy the invite link and send it however you normally talk to your table. As people arrive, rows appear on this tab. You don't have to do anything to accept them.

You can seat up to eight players.

Putting a face on a character#

Each player who has joined gets a tile showing their camera. Press the capture button on their tile to take a still of their face.

That still is what goes on the bobblehead. BobbleHub cuts the head out of the picture — no green screen, no lighting rig, no special background.

Retake it whenever you like. If someone changes seats, turns a lamp on, or puts a hat on halfway through, capture again and the character updates.

Faces don't move, and that's on purpose#

A captured face is a still. Mouths don't move, eyes don't blink, and there's no lip sync.

This is a design decision rather than a missing feature. Animated faces on a bobblehead land somewhere between uncanny and comic, and every attempt at it fights the look. Reaction happens on the body instead — the character moves, gestures and reacts, and the character's ring lights up when that player is talking.

If someone's connection drops#

Their face stays. A bad connection doesn't strip somebody's face off their character mid-scene — the captured still remains until you decide otherwise.

To clear it, use the release control on that character. Only you can do that, and once released the character falls back to a generic face rather than a photo.

Telling BobbleHub who is who#

Two different links are worth making, and both live on Cast Invites.

Name the seat. Whatever someone typed when they joined becomes the starting name, and you can edit it. It's a hint, not a rule.

Link them to Discord. BobbleHub can light up a character's ring when that person talks — but only if it knows which Discord voice belongs to which seat. Pick their Discord name from the dropdown on their row.

If somebody speaks who isn't linked yet, a row appears offering to link them. It never pops up or steals focus. You can ignore it for the whole session and deal with it later; it just waits.

A link stays until you change it, and it's saved with your show — so this is once per person, not once per night.

Saved casts#

If you play with the same table regularly, save the cast. Loading a saved cast doesn't apply it immediately: it first shows you what will happen to each person in it, and you press Load after reading that.

That's deliberate. Re-binding a cast decides whose face goes where and whose ring lights, so it's worth a glance. Within the same session the match is exact; across different nights it's a best guess, and the preview tells you which you're looking at.

When someone's video is struggling#

There are two separate controls, and they do different things. Using the wrong one is the most common source of "I changed it and nothing improved".

If someone's laptop is struggling or their upload is weak, only the second one helps. If your own machine or connection is the bottleneck, the first one is the right lever.

Troubleshooting#

A player joined but I can't see their camera#

They probably dismissed the browser's camera prompt. Ask them to reload the link and allow camera access. Their row appears either way — a row with no picture means they're in the room but not sharing video.

The wrong character lights up when someone talks#

That's the Discord link. On Cast Invites, check that person's row points at the right Discord name. Until somebody is linked, BobbleHub is guessing from who spoke first.

Someone is in the room twice#

An old browser tab that never closed will hold a seat. Ask them to close the other tab — and remember a seat counts toward your hours even with the camera off.

I captured a face and it looks wrong#

Capture again. The most common causes are a strong backlight behind the player, or the player being very close to the camera. Moving a lamp usually fixes more than any setting will.

Somebody left and their character still has their face#

That's intended — a dropped connection keeps the face. Use the release control on that character to clear it.

I can't seat someone#

There are eight seats. If they're all taken, free one by removing a player you're no longer using.