Getting People Interested

[Valen is my name]

Hi, ive been playing ACTA for a while now, unfortunately i have no-one else to play against - its not as good playing against yourself as it is when playing against someone else, you dont know your enemies plans etc.
Anyway, i still go to school and theres a war games club so im thinking of going along and trying to get more people interested (especially the battlefleet gothic crowd) and i was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to get people interested. Ill take my best models along, but any suggestions to get people hooked would be most appreciated.

Ta

 

[Valen is my name]

has anyone got any ideas?

 

[victor romeo]

I have to admit I am in a similar boat. The plan that I am currently using is to draw them in with the pretty boats and simplicity of the basic rules. The few whom I have mannaged to win over I have encouraged to buy models rather than shelling out cash on multiple rule books that will be invalidated within six months. Essentially I ran a few games using the counters, bought the iconic ships (Omega, G'Quan, Primus), let them use those for a few weeks, then suckered them into buying their own ships.

 

[emperorpenguin]

Getting people interested? In all honesty I got the most number of people interested by getting them to watch the series!
Failing that pick a cool episode "Coming of Shadows" or a battle heavy one "Severed dreams" and hook them....

 

[Ripple]

Get the video montages of the battle scenes from YouTube or where ever they can be found. Play those on a laptop or other device during a demo set up.

Push the fact that you can use the counters to try it all out and only really buy in if you have fun.

Have some photo copies of the crit chart and special action lists handy to make the initial games go very smoothly without any reaching for books. (sure sure they will need to someday, but if all seems smooth and organizined folks are more likely to buy in. Think polotician promise much and look very slick, let them discover the thorny realities on their own.)

All I can think of real quick....talk about the campaign game, folks will often buy into something like that especially if you use some of the slick NASA space pics for your site list. Folks like stuff they can build up over time.

Ripple

 

[emperorpenguin]

Get the video montages of the battle scenes from YouTube or where ever they can be found. Play those on a laptop or other device during a demo set up. Ripple

Even Rocky had a montage...... :wink:

 

[JayRaider]

Hi Valen, if u don't have any luck finding players locally checkout Vassal ACTA, perhaps you'll have more luck finding players on the net

 

[Tankdriver]

I faced this problem myself. I was a bit luckier in that I have a built in group in my inlaws and thier friends, but I found that by showing them the simplicity of the rules, especially compared to Battletech, which they like a lot, makes it easier.
Take the basic set. Show off the minis, but use only the counters to show "hey, what you NEED is in the box!" and run them through a few games. The guy who taught me did not play himself in my intro game, he just showed us everything and offered advice. I traded a White Star for two Omegas, and was hooked.

 

[angstpuppet]

Sounds like the problem is getting a few people to start. Do you have any friends that you could talk into playing? The group I run started out at 4 people (3 of us work at the local game store). As we started playing, running demos, and just sitting around painting miniatures people got interested. Our current group is 12 players in the campaign plus 2 more that are interested in joining. Basically get someone you can trust and just play the game as often as possible around other people, the fluff and the ease of play will suck people in.

 

[animus]

Being that I love modeling, my plan to interest people in my area is pretty involved. I plan on painting up several fleets and getting a star background playing mat. I will then put on an official demo at our local gaming store. I'm interesting my friends in the game under the ruse of helping me with the demo. The scene should be impressive. I think I'll be ready by the end of the month - I'll post pics.

 

[Locutus9956]

As suggested the best things I can suggest are: Get some random games going, get people to watch the show, dont mention the myriad of books, just give them a nice shiny set of ship control sheets or cards and start them off with a nice easy match up (no Centauri Beam team, No Minbari Stealth, and absolutely NO VORLONS OR SHADOWS!!! They scare new players )

 

[Burger]

Tell them all they need to buy to get started, is the revised set
j/k.

 

[Locutus9956]

Or better yet tell them 'theres lots of flaws with the current fleet lists but it will all be better in 2nd Ed'

 

[prelude_to_war]

My intro to the game was a Sharlin versus a Hyperion and two Tethys' at a GenCon demo back in '04. Not a fair game by any stretch but I was hooked simply because it was B5.

I think well put together demos with a number of good looking minis will do the trick.

Although I still love the series, the visual FX don't stand up well over time IMO.

 

[verdantgreen]

Demo games at my local game store always worked out well for whatever game I was interested in at the time. I got a lot of people into Battletech that way (about ten years ago) and more recently I managed to convince some Warhammer guys to learn No Quarter for an occasional game against me.

With A Call to Arms, I would do as other posters have suggested and have everything photo-copied...or possible reproduced on each ship sheet depending on the sheet design.

Most office supply/printing places (Staples and its ilk) can mount a printing on a thick foam board for only a little money. You could get a sturdy copy of the most commonly used charts and prop it up where everyone can see. To save money, you might do the same thing but on poster-board (not as rigid as foam board).

Overall, however, I think one of the most important aspects of a demo game is that it not beat the players with a terrible, terrible rules club. I've heard horror stories of people being introduced to Battletech as a junker 'mech going up against top of the line technology...or a first Warhammer experience involving only core troops going up against a well-designed army.

My first ACTA game was two Vorchan versus two Xill. It was a pretty nice match-up that was easy to learn...though back then the Xill didn't have the SM movement...so maybe not so good of a choice anymore.

Anyway...I would avoid the following:

stealth
boresight-reliant starships
extremely large ships
extremely small ships
gravitic energy grids
Shadows
Vorlons
Ancients
lots of fighters
squadrons

I think the optimal demo force would be both iconic and easy to learn. Perhaps some Narn vs. Centauri action? A G'Quan force vs. a Primus/Vorchan force?

Anywho, just some thoughts

 

[Celisasu]

To get people interested I'd suggest:


1. Have two assembled and painted fleets. Lets be honest, pretty looking models are going to get more attention that pieces of flat card board. Choose good looking ships over good game stat ships for this first engagement. The Vorchan is a subpar ship but it looks great when painted and assembled right(alas, I suck at painting) making it an excellent choice if you can use it.

2. Have a couple of engagements planned of different types. Starting with something simple(say 2 Vorchans vs. 2 G'Stens). For the first engagement avoid boresite ships although it's worth introducing them to players who want to know a bit more so have some for a 2nd engagement.

3. Just use the rules in the basic game. Don't worry about SFOS, Armageddon, etc.

4. Make sure that you've double checked all your interpetations of the rules to be sure that they're in sync with the official rulings. The last thing you need to do is explain how a rule works because that's how your gaming group has been doing it and then have one of the new players you're trying to get come by two days later and say "But I visited a Call to Arms site and they said......" On this same note, for now leave house rules out(and if you have been using house rules, make doubly sure you check the official rules since you've probably been ruling differently on things due to your rules being different). Sure you might allow ships to dodge E-Mines or have anti-fighter weapons fire before the fighters do, or weak guns that can't score criticals but for introducing new players you should stick with the official rules. Let them decide among themselves if they want to use house rules.

5. Now one thing you have to take in account is that 2nd Edition is supposedly coming out soon. Considering how short a wait(relatively speaking) we have until it's arrival, it might be bad to introduce anything until after 2nd Edtion arrives. After all, what player wants to hear "Oh, the current game uses 3 books, but in about six months 2nd edition is coming out so all of those books will be invalid and indeed, certain ship combinations you use now such as Shadow Hunters for the Shadows won't be allowed once 2nd Edition is introduced so now you have a model you can't use unless you buy the fleet it's now part of"?

 

[Silvereye]

I also would suggest culling the Special Actions down to the following four; All Power to Engines!, All Stop!, Come About!, Concentrate All Firepower!

Tell your prospective players that there are a lot of others in the full game, but only these four will be used for speed and simplicity.

Also where crew quality is mentioned, just turn it into a dice roll. So Damage Control just becomes a 4+ roll, and Dogfighting is just a D6+Dogfight roll

 

[Locutus9956]

Primus and 2 Vorchans vs G'Quan and 2 T'Loths makes for a nice intro game and all the ships are from the show too

Alternately for little more advanced 'get people into the gameness' try the following:

Step 1: Tie victim to a chair with eyse pried open a la Clockwork Orange.

Step 2: Play 'In the Beginning' DVD

Step 3: Place 1 Sharlin against 1 Nova and 2 Hyperions

If that doesnt get you wanting to play the game you can get the hell out of my galaxy

ps. In the latter case the game should be played twice swapping sides, this is in my experience a good way to prevent 'omg stealth is so unfair' bitching

 

[H]

I was able to get into the game being Mongoose Infantry, was asked to run a demo at a local shop, but then Nomad turned up who knew way more than me, but it meant I met Nomad and had someone to start playing with, over time I maneged to convince a few other friends to join, and then stumbled to ID gaming where their WAS a lot of interest. Sadly that interest died with Armageddon, but a few people still play.

Maybe contact Mongoose, find out where your local MI rep is and get him to come demo a game for the store, maybe a small competition, with the winner getting a couple of ships to start a fleet and suchlike?

 

[Ripple]

I try not to 'dumb down' a game too much when I demo it. I find the people who will stay with a game don't want something without options.

Ripple