A wonderful and daunting task has fallen into my hands. I have found a game store in my little/big town of Naples. No big deal right?...Not so fast, there are complications and I need your help.In the past 4 years I have had to drive 40 to 85 miles each way (or more) just to get a game in a store. There are 4 of us who live in Naples and we do play at home but the sad fact is there is no chance of getting players in the hobby without exposure. If people never see a game go down or even know that there are others playing they will never take the plunge into the blood filled pool we call 40K.
A lot of the time this is what its like for table top war games where I live.Its this kind of alone time that has even led me to play full scale games against myself.
Side Note: Playing yourself is one of the most reviling things I have ever done. You can take your sneaky plan of attack and throw it right out the window.
So now I'm driving down the street the other day and I see the mass of multi-colored posters plastered all over the front window of a store. This really stands out in Naples, if you don't know we have 1000 shades of tan here! I flip around and low and behold its a Magic card flopper store.
So now I'm driving down the street the other day and I see the mass of multi-colored posters plastered all over the front window of a store. This really stands out in Naples, if you don't know we have 1000 shades of tan here! I flip around and low and behold its a Magic card flopper store.
As it turns out the store has been open for over a year surviving on card games alone and the owner is interested in expanding into table top games. Lucky for him he now knows me and that's a good start.
My plan: Build it and they will come. (I had to say it.)
First thing I'm going to do is build 2 tables for the store and donate terrain for said tables that can stay there.After that its time to look for hopeful players to convert and start a regular night of training to get them off on the right foot.
One thing I'm going to do is print up flyer's to put in the High Schools and the like to invite people out to get into the game. I will be bringing in 2 or more of my own forces for people to play with, have building/painting classes and a mini league to start.
I will definitely be supervising players to get them into the mind set of fun games and not arguing about the rules.Other than that I'm looking for ideas to help get new people involved and build a solid base of players. If you have any thoughts please let me know, as I'm kind of on my own here.
Swags
Swags
One big thing is getting the store to work with you. For example, print up a bunch of "info cards," these would be things the store could ask people to fill out when they buy GW stuff... It should (at the very least) include their name and email.
ReplyDeleteThen once you har all this data you can create a mailing list to notify people what is going on. If it grows you can start a meetup (not free).
Getting the store to gather this info for you is invaluable.
Duke
Hmmm...That will happen for sure.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest doing the hook em with marines vs your IG troopers technique that got Swags. Make sure to ease them into it with 500 pt games on small tables. The game would have alot more players but it's hard for them to get to 2000 before quitting. Some people will be able to jump right into big games but you might need to carefully hook some more average players who weren't born 40k fanatics.
ReplyDeleteI think so much of the first "hook" is the story telling aspect of the game, being able to imagine warp spiders appearing out of nowhere to kill a whole squad of guardsmen!
ReplyDeleteThen once they have bought their first army you smash them into the ground and tell them that their Warp Spiders are stupid! This is 40k, lol.
Duke
I plan to play a bunch of kroot and pass out Chaos Marines like candy!
ReplyDeleteWe got the room so I tink im gonna build 8 foot tables so we can get 4 small games going on 4'x4' or have the extra 2' to store your army.
Naples, Florida? I take my family down there every year...never knew that there was any gaming at all! I would love to bring my Nids and BAs to help evangelize...I'd be happy to donate some terrain as well. I look forward to reading about your progress.
ReplyDeleteI slightly disagree with the 8' tables, but that depends on how much space you have... If space is seriously not an issue then go for 8'. In my experience every time I have done 8' boards I always cut them down to get more 6' tables on.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I don't know the space at all, so...
Duke
4x4 is really good for beginners. playing a 4x6 for anything under 1500 is crazy. I think 1500 is the maximum size for 4x4, playing 1500 on a 4x6 is probably very different than using 1750 or more
ReplyDelete@Zero-If your serious about getting a game on while on vacation in Naples we can work something out for sure. Stay tuned for progress updates.
ReplyDelete@Duke-Im going to go take a second measurement today to confirm the space. One thing you will see when I take pics of these is that the plastic tables he has are 6' now. So that cuts down on the stability for how the toppers are going to work. At 8' I can get more support.
@Brian-I love playing small on 4x4, its sad but I cant even remember the last time I did.