I want to develop a small playgroup in central Indiana. My call out for players in the meta section for this game has gotten zero responses.

I'm asking for anybody who has been faced with a similar situation to offer suggestions (big and small) to trying to recruit some players and interest in the game. I'm not looking for huge numbers. But if I could get 4-6 players I could at least schedule game days where we could get together and have a variety of people to play with.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I sympathize, though being involved in a thriving game club in NYC I don't face the same problems. But I hope you don't mind if I offer what my be obvious suggestions:

1) Reach out to game shops and comic shops: Do you have game stores, comic stores, and and maybe even progressive book stores in your vicinity? If so, see if they will permit you to recruit there with a flier or poster or counter-top post card. They may even be willing to sponsor or support a small game gathering.

2) Be the expert: Make sure you know the rules so well that you are able to quickly and painlessly guide someone through their first few hands without you wondering how things work; get them into the flow and fun without them having to bother too much with the details at first.

3) Be the host: Our experience is that we take up games when one of our group is willing to host the game: someone with a passion to play a game who is willing to take on the logistics of owning the game, bring enough for everyone to play with, and introduce us all in a friendly and engaging way will usually find partners and maybe even fellow fanatics.

This one is harder:

4) Come to lovely Brooklyn NY and jump into our ongoing games a NYC Metro Wargamers www.nycwargames.com ! Only half kidding: if you travel or get to other parts of the country you will probably get to meet gamers and play your favorites and theirs as well.

Good luck, and hopefully you will find a few players to share your fun.

Those are excellent suggestions. I will try them all, except for the NYC. Sorry but vacation time is used up for the year.

Did you try among book fans? You could ask on forum (for example asoiaf.westeros.org) if anyone in your area want to try this game with his favourite characters.

That was another great idea. I have registered at the site you suggested but have to wait for approval before I can post.

If you know of other I&F sites with boards please let me know and thanks.

Brooklyn Mike, is your group playing AGoT LCG? If so, I'm in a group that plays AGoT in Manhattan on the occasional weekday evening and would be happy to have anyone from your group interested in playing at that time to come join us some night. (Btw, I think one of the guys in our group was going to try to meet up with your group some day to try out the CoC LCG.) Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you'd like to talk about it by email.

Trying to get into contact with you Rickert and maybe try and find some more Indiana AGOT players... I've got a lot of deck testing to do before Gencon...

BrooklynMike said:

@Rickert: I think one of the best ways is to start with a couple friends who like card gaming. But rather than just playing at friends' houses, try to set up a pseudo-regular game day/night at a local card/game shop (once a month or more). In other words, you don't have to heavily advertise the game...just being at the card shop you'll attract a couple new players. Also, if you hang out there a bit, you get to know the manager, and they'll be more likely to promote the game and/or help you connect with others who are interested.

~and here i thought me, paul, anthony, and some of the DE/PA guys scared brooklyn mike and the metro wargamers away after we were all competitive at their melee regional last year good to see you posting on the forums man!

I have a friend who is attempting to attract EDH players by first teaching them a basic joust, the rules of melee, and finally introducing the Hand of the King Variant. I did tell him there is a highlander variant as well he could combine with HotK too make it feel a little more familiar.

There are several things you can do to build a meta no matter where you are. However, in my opinion the best thing for you to do is set a time and place to be either twice a month or once a week. If you have other people to play with already make sure to hit that time and place everytime. Even if it's just you, make sure to have another deck to teach someone else with. It is perferable to do this in a game store if possible!

The best attribute a demo person can have is enthusiasm. People want to play games that they have fun playing! Knowing the rules is good but you don't have to know them inside and out. It's ok to sacrifice going over every triggered effect when teaching the game.