When you log a play in BG Stats you can add one or more players as Anonymous Players. You can do this when you don’t know someone’s name or if you do not expect to play with somebody again.

An Anonymous Player only appears in that Play, not in any other lists of players, and does not have player stats.

For stats about the number of persons you have played with, each Anonymous Player counts as a unique player.

Quick jump to:

Selecting Anonymous Players

When you select Players for a Play, you can add any number of Anonymous Players. At the top of the Players list you’ll see the current number of Anonymous Players in the play, and + and – buttons. Use the buttons to change the number of Anonymous Players in this play.

When using Teams, you can add any number of Anonymous Players to any team.

In the Play, Anonymous Players behave the same as regular players: you can add roles, set them as starting player, enter scores or use them in score sheets, etc.

Naming an Anonymous Player

You can optionally enter a name for each Anonymous Player. This can be useful to be able to differentiate between multiple anonymous players during a play, for instance when scoring multiple rounds, or remember who you’ve played with later.

You can give an Anonymous Player a name in a New play or by editing an existing play.

On the New or Edit (tap Edit in an existing play) Play screen:

  • Tap on a Anonymous Player:
  • On the next screen, enter the name in the Player name text field:
  • Go back to the main Edit Play screen to confirm

The name will be displayed in the Play between parentheses, to show this is still an Anonymous Player

The Anonymous Player will still not appear in your lists of Players in the app, nor in statistics. It’s also not possible to search for Anonymous Players by name.

Sharing and importing

BoardGameGeek

If you post your plays to BoardGameGeek, the entered name for the Anonymous Player will be posted as the player’s name. In case you have Anonymize player names enabled for posting plays, this will only be the first letter of that name.

Sharing plays

When plays with named Anonymous Players are shared via a QR code or Play file, these players will stay named Anonymous Players when the plays are imported.

If on the importing screen you choose to make a player Anonymous, that player will become a named Anonymous Player.

Board Game Arena & Yucata

If you choose to make players that are imported from Board Game Arena or Yucata anonymous, they will become named Anonymous Players. Their name will be displayed between parentheses as usual and the username will also be saved in the imported plays. This username is not visible and will only be used when you create a real Player from that Anonymous Player, see Creating a Player from an Anonymous Player.

Creating a Player from an Anonymous Player

In a play, an anonymous player can be converted to a Player. This means the Player will now appear in the Player list, have stats, and can be selected in other plays. The anonymous player does not have to be named to be able to do this.

To convert an Anonymous Player to a Player in a Play:

  • Go to the Play overview
  • Tap Edit
  • Tap on the Player you want to convert
  • On the next screen, tap the Create as Player… button at the bottom right

A New Player screen will appear:

  • Enter the details for the new player
  • Tap Save, to save the Player
  • Tap Save, to save the changes in the Play

If you had entered a name for this Anonymous Player, that name will already be set in the New Player. As always, the name for the new player must be unique.

Board Game Arena & Yucata

If the Anonymous Player was imported from Board Game Arena or Yucata, their username will already be set in the New Player. When you save this new player, BG Stats will check for more imported plays from the same user, and offer to update those plays to the new Player as well.

Making an existing Player anonymous

You can make an existing Player anonymous, to remove them from your app. That player will no longer be shown in any lists of Players and won’t appear in stats. Every play with that Player will have an Anonymous Player instead. Their scores, roles etc. will remain in place.

Note that BG Stats offers ample options to sort, filter and tag your players, so there would usually not be a reason to do this.

Making a player anonymous cannot be undone!

To make an existing Player anonymous:

  • Go to the Player overview
  • Tap Edit
  • Tap the Make this Player Anonymous… button at the bottom of the page
  • Read the warning dialog carefully. Once confirmed the change cannot be undone
  • Choose whether you want to keep the player’s name in plays:
    (The change will be applied immediately when you tap one of these buttons)
    • Tap Make Anonymous to make the Player anonymous, without any remaining reference to their name in any Play
    • Tap Make Anonymous but keep name to make the Player anonymous, but add the player’s name (between brackets) to the Anonymous Player in every Play with this Player

It’s not possible to search for Anonymous Players by name. If you chose to keep the name, but want to change that later, you’ll have to find and edit each individual play manually.