On the ladder games you have to tell how big a spread between character levels you will accept in your game. Maybe the same for non-ladder games? I think it also tries to automatically create your character as a ladder character. That probably explains why I couldn't get in either. Mine are all ladder characters. I was also only seeing "Your friend Lucretia is in a private game" no game name - that must have been because I was a ladder character ...

~DragonQueen~