Thread for do's and don'ts of running ACTA:SF at conventions

[scoutdad]

doublingthe number of ships per side more than doubles the tactical choices and drastically increases demo time.

The purpose of a demo game is to give them the basics in a short time, run as many thorugh as is possible, and then provide an opportunity for them to come back for more during a later scheduled session.
Using the D7 vs CA uses the iconic ships that everyone is familiar with and immediastely says, "Star Trek!"... even though we actually are saying Star Fleet Universe.
Using two ISC CAs vs two Hydran Rangers is not going to have the same instant appeal as those are much less easily recognized units.

If you want to do 4 vs 4 in a two hour (or longer block), then its not truly a demo so much as an introductory game. Similar in principal, but different in execution.

 

[billclo]

Scoutdad,

I misunderstood what you meant by 2 on 2. I thought you meant 2 players, each with 2 ships vs 2 players (each with 2 ships also).

You probably meant 1 person with 2 identical ships vs 1 person with 2 identical ships?

I think I will go with 1 CA vs 1 D7, and schedule for an hour per demo. If they finish before 30 mins are up, switch sides and play again to use up the time slot. Run this 4 times on Friday evening.

Saturday, run a 4 ship vs 4 ship (2 players vs 2 players) in the late morning, allowing 4 hours and introducing some terrain (permitting an eliminated player to rejoin the game with a new "reinforcing" ship perhaps).

Then a larger battle in the mid-afternoon. Say 6-8 ships/side...

 

[scoutdad]

You probably meant 1 person with 2 identical ships vs 1 person with 2 identical ships?

Correct. Keeping it simple like this and you can easily run 2 players through a demo in less than an hour, or four if doing two demos side-by-side on the same table.

I think I will go with 1 CA vs 1 D7, and schedule for an hour per demo. If they finish before 30 mins are up, switch sides and play again to use up the time slot. Run this 4 times on Friday evening.

Saturday, run a 4 ship vs 4 ship (2 players vs 2 players) in the late morning, allowing 4 hours and introducing some terrain (permitting an eliminated player to rejoin the game with a new "reinforcing" ship perhaps).

Then a larger battle in the mid-afternoon. Say 6-8 ships/side...

Similar to what I did at NashCon in May.
Friday was the big introductory game. We sucked in a few new players and one even borrowed a fleet and joined in the tourney on Saturday.
A few more small demos on Saturday and then Sunday was the every man for himself, multiplayer battle to allow everyone who'd demo'ed/learned the game on Friday and Saturda to play again. This time, for real.