Desperate for tips to awaken waning VTES interest
The Lasombra
What do the official volunteers recommend in this type of situation?
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Desperate for tips to awaken waning VTES interest
Hi
I'm an avid VTES player in ***** *****, having played and loved it
since '97.
We had a small, regular playgroup (4-8 players) and occasionally
encountered other players. There's a roleplaying community in the
region, along with a few people who own VTES cards and play very
infrequently.
Basically, I have access to 2 annual fantasy/comic/gaming conventions,
one of which is smaller scaled and where I met a number of the people
whom I've played with over the past 2 years. During my second
attendance of that event, I set up an area with some simple sheets
advertising VTES, but only drew 3 older players and 1 young MtG
person.
There are 3 or 4 comic/gaming shops which I have access to (spread
between 2 cities), that either supply VTES, or could have contact with
players.
Do you have any suggestions for me to raise more interest in VTES
locally? It seems that there could anything between 6 and 20 potential
local players and more further afield (more than 30min driving away).
I attribute the low enthusiasm to a lack of communication between
players.
Not wanting to sound defeatist, but is it viable to push things mostly
by myself?
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Jay Kristoff
>Do you have any suggestions for me to raise
>more interest in VTES locally?
One key to success for any playgroup is to play in a public place;
Optimally a game store where V:TES is sold. People need to be able to see
that
Jyhad is still being played.
Advertise your play sessions: post flyers in places where gamers might go.
Game
stores, coffee houses, internet cafes, universities, the local LARP
location, etc.
Make sure that every place that sells V:TES in your region has a stack
business
cards (or something similar)next to their V:TES product. Those cards should
let people
know where and when they can learn/play the game, and how to contact the
Prince/
organizer.
As for keeping older players interested, I try to aim my group in the
direction of
tournament play. Lately I have been trying to point us in the direction of
Big Time
tournament play (qualifiers and championships). It can be frustrating that
we can't
always recreate a skill level that is found at those major events during our
local
play sessions. I have a handful of really bright players, and a few really
dull players. Occasionally the bright ones get frustrated with the dull
ones and
loose interest in what's going on. I try to re-focus them on bigger and
better
things (ei: preparing for the North American continental championship).
Feel free to contact me with any other questions.
Jay Kristoff V:EKN Prince of Columbus, Ohio
http://columbusvtes.tripod.com/
j...@columbus.rr.com
David Cherryholmes
> Do you have any suggestions for me to raise more interest in VTES
> locally? It seems that there could anything between 6 and 20 potential
> local players and more further afield (more than 30min driving away).
> I attribute the low enthusiasm to a lack of communication between
> players.
> Not wanting to sound defeatist, but is it viable to push things mostly
> by myself?
I do. I often feel like the ugly kid at the Junior High dance (*not*, of
course, that I can really imagine what that would be like, oh no), calling
and emailing people weekly, trying to round up a game. If it's worth it
to you, just do it. I'd make it especially clear to the wictims that
saying "no" is perfectly acceptable, so that they hopefully will not come
to see your invitations as an annoyance, or anything awkward.
Become a Prince, and start holding demos regularly, then move up to
tournaments when you think you can get seven more people to show up to
one. The lure of free loot may be what it takes.
If the people in your area are internet-savvy, start a mailing list or
make a web page. I recently made a Yahoo group for our area. It took all
of about five minutes and has tons and tons of functionality. I don't
expect to be happily surprised by many free web services, but this time I
was.
I also hear that if the whimsical favor of The Lasombra Web God descends
upon you, you just may wake up one day and find you've got a web-page. It
may be a horribly blue colored web page, and one that has some sports team
you couldn't care less about on it, but TLWG is also very good about
recieving follow-up prayers. ;)
David Cherryholmes
Prince of Durham, NC
Curevei
>players.
Create something like a Yahoogroup. Won't solve every problem, but it does
help communication immensely.
Mike Nudd
Well the affliction I refer to as 'gamer apathy' is pretty big here in the
UK, and I have to fight it all the time. For every 3 players who you run
into who claim they love the game and want to participate, only 1 will
actually make any effort to do so... :/
All you can do is try as hard as you can to keep people informed, whether
it's by e-mail list or by distributing flyers as stores and gaming shows.
The game will work it's magic, and although the response might never be as
big as you'd like/hope, you will develop a core bunch of players who will
come back for more. One key thing is getting the retailers to tell people
about you - after all they're likely to know better than you anyway as to
who's buying V:tES product!
In regards to running demos at conventions, it always helps to be placed
somewhere prominent, where people are passing by, particularly if you're at
a show where there is a shortage of 'pick up' games and things to do. Put
posters up and wear a V:tES shirt to make yourself fairly obvious. Try to be
presentable, and be extravert to attract attention - but don't act stupid,
cheesy or scary (i.e. GW-style) as you'll just put people off. Try to get
more than one of you hanging around at the same time too - not only does
this make you look less like a sad loner, but it means that one of you can
nip off for food/toilet/break time without having to worry about your stuff.
We always find it helps to have a big box or bucket which is clearly
labelled in big letters 'FREE STUFF' and full of spare commons and vampires
donated by players in the local area. New, ex- or prospective players tend
to be drawn by the prospect of freebie cards, and once they're in front of
you, you can wow them with your decks, promo stuff or even talk them into
doing an actual demo or coming to the next local V:tES event. It works for
us anyway :)
Regards,
Mike Nudd
VEKN Prince of London
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