Scheduling a Game Night Across Time Zones
Discord's timestamp syntax solves most of this
Staff Writer · · 2 min read
If your group spans more than one time zone, the hardest part of a game night is agreeing when it is. Discord has a built-in feature that solves most of this, and a surprising number of people have never used it.
Post times as timestamps
Discord will render a Unix timestamp as a local time for every person reading it, so you write one thing and everyone sees the correct time for where they are.
The syntax is <t:TIMESTAMP:FORMAT>, where the timestamp is a Unix epoch in seconds. The format letter controls how it appears:
tshows a short time, like 8:00 PMFshows a full date and time, like Saturday, May 3, 2026 8:00 PMRshows a relative time, like in 3 hours
R is the most useful one for events, because "starts in 3 hours" needs no mental arithmetic from anyone.
To get the timestamp itself, search for a Discord timestamp generator, or take the epoch seconds from any date converter. Type the result into your message and it renders once the message is sent.
Use scheduled events for anything recurring
Discord's scheduled events display in each member's own time zone automatically, they notify people who mark themselves interested, and they can repeat weekly. For a regular game night this is strictly better than a pinned message, because it survives you forgetting to post a reminder.
Pick a time that isn't fair
The instinct with a spread-out group is to find a time that's equally reasonable for everyone. Usually there isn't one, and the compromise slot ends up being mildly bad for all parties, which is worse than being good for most of them.
Pick the time that works for the largest cluster of people and hold it, because a consistent slot that suits two thirds of the group beats a rotating one that nobody can commit to.
If your group genuinely splits across incompatible time zones, you're better off running two nights rather than one bad one.
Have something for the people who miss it
A recurring event where half the group is asleep needs something that doesn't require everyone to be present. Asynchronous games fill that role nicely, because a chess game or a running leaderboard keeps the people in the wrong time zone connected to the group between sessions.
That's most of the argument for bot-run games in an international server. They don't care what time it is.