I was curious if anyone had ideas on how to encourage players to return to a weekly meet?

I joined a group last fall that met every Friday near my house, it was led by a rather charismatic dude who unfortunately had to move out of state recently. I tried to keep the group together by taking up his responsibilities in communication but since he moved we haven't had close to a full crew on game night. They all have justifiable reasons when I ask if they're gonna show, so I may be reading too deep in to it, but it's been a month and it feels like they're just bored. Anyone have any ideas? No one showed last week and I really don't want my favorite hobby to dry up.

Maybe run a CC campaign or two? Having some building incentive is really helpful. Or get a league going of some form.

20 minutes ago, Alzer said:

Maybe run a CC campaign or two? Having some building incentive is really helpful. Or get a league going of some form.

We're still trying to finish one of the CC events, a league may not be a bad idea.

Guinness ...works every time.

CC I think is a great engagement tool for people currently in a malaise with the game. If you are trying to introduce new players to the game, a multi-week, multi-game commitment with either be a boon or a bust.

I am currently trying to build a community in my neighborhood. I live in a gated community that is somewhat isolated from the outside world (40 minutes to my nearest gaming store on weekdays thanks to traffic) so I am trying to build a gaming group at our clubhouse to meet once a week. I am using a bunch of my old duplicate alt-arts and tournament swag as prizes. I also ponied up to buy an ISD on sale recently that I am going to offer as the grand prize for the #1 player at the end of the 6 week competition. If your group has done a lot of tournaments then the first idea would be a bust, but maybe picking a ship and ponying up to provide a prize worth playing for would inject some energy?

If I get a few games a month more than I am getting right now, a one, or even two time investment of $40 is well worth it.

Just now, clanofwolves said:

Guinness ...works every time.

Seriously, beer is a huge lure as well.

When things seem to wane here, I resort to overt bribery.

... Sometimes its organising a Kit Tournament.

If I don't have kit available, then I find out something I can do (at minimal expense) to get people in... Maybe drop $10 on a Gift Voucher to the 'box (1/3rd of a Squadron Pack!) to get people in, where I can sell a League or Campaign to them. Get them advertised and exposed.

A Couple of bucks on something "Unique", like a cheapass 3D Printed Death Star as a station proxy to reward people who end a "Take the Station" Mini-League.

Overt Bribery.

Then sucker them back with something lasting.


"Oh, you're a new player? Never done a leaguebefore. Awesome, just for joining the league on top of everything else, since you're a new player, you'll also get a Copy of TIE Fighter Alt-Art Card." Because I had 15 of them from doing tournaments back on the day (and traded even more on the Armada Swap List on the Forum)... Because they're something someone getting into the game now would never see otherwise.

Costs me basically nothing, but its an overt bribe to get someone coming back - to uphold their end of the bargain, as such

35 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

When things seem to wane here, I resort to overt bribery.

... Sometimes its organising a Kit Tournament.

If I don't have kit available, then I find out something I can do (at minimal expense) to get people in... Maybe drop $10 on a Gift Voucher to the 'box (1/3rd of a Squadron Pack!) to get people in, where I can sell a League or Campaign to them. Get them advertised and exposed.

A Couple of bucks on something "Unique", like a cheapass 3D Printed Death Star as a station proxy to reward people who end a "Take the Station" Mini-League.

Overt Bribery.

Then sucker them back with something lasting.


"Oh, you're a new player? Never done a leaguebefore. Awesome, just for joining the league on top of everything else, since you're a new player, you'll also get a Copy of TIE Fighter Alt-Art Card." Because I had 15 of them from doing tournaments back on the day (and traded even more on the Armada Swap List on the Forum)... Because they're something someone getting into the game now would never see otherwise.

Costs me basically nothing, but its an overt bribe to get someone coming back - to uphold their end of the bargain, as such

I was thinking offering a couple of free pizzas. I know one of the local pizza guys and he could use the exposure, so I could probably get them for a fair price.

We've got a kit in, unfortunately the Q1 kit kinda sucks, after the 1st tournament we did only about 4 people wanted to do another. It's scheduled, I'm hoping to talk everyone into going in a little more so winner gets store credit too. Bit of a better incentive I think.

Everyone at my local shop showed interest in the squadron command plates I made, maybe I could offer a set as part of a leagues winnings?

I'm surprised that the TRC kit stated as "Sucks".

9 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Everyone at my local shop showed interest in the squadron command plates I made, maybe I could offer a set as part of a leagues winnings?

I like this idea... Unique stuff like this is always a pretty big hit around here. For regionals we got some Corsec loot custom-engraved with our group's logo and a custom dice tray with the logo, which I think is even cooler than the official prize support.

7 minutes ago, Drasnighta said:

I'm surprised that the TRC kit stated as "Sucks".

We have a small group, so last tournament pretty much everyone in our group walked away with 3 of the TRC cards, on top of that, many members of my group own almost 3 of everything... so TRCs are pretty full up. (personally, I own 9 TRC cards now). I shouldn't say sucks , just underwhelming for us I suppose.

4 minutes ago, Ardaedhel said:

I like this idea... Unique stuff like this is always a pretty big hit around here.

I may do that, see what everyone thinks