You see a lot of fix/save topics on here these days and this one is a little different. In my local area X wing has died out and I'm having a horrible time finding any other players. Even my local store is getting away from it they focus more on magic and other card games and have no plans to push x wing anytime soon. We have a local Facebook page with 40 members but only one or two active. I've tried reaching out and even lurking at the store for players no one is interested. How do you save the game in your community?

Maybe try Heroes of the Atari Cluster? Draw people in (or back in) with a co-op setting, then ease them into versus matches.

For us it was all about building a social community. Yes the game is important but I honestly think we could switch to another game (assuming everyone could buy in) and have the same vibe.

But apart form that we structure a regular league with just one game a week as that allows people with minimal time to drop in for a game and those with extra times can play social games. But we also make sure that 2 out of the 6 weeks of the league use alternate rules (hanger bay, generics only etc).

A good social environment is the key, create an environment that people want to come back to regardless of the game. If HotAC allows you to get a social system going then go for it!

I had success by taking the game out of the LGS. We have a tabletop club that is a spin-off from an RPG club which has a good any growing group of X-Wing and Armada players. By getting away from the shop we removed the space pressures (minimum two CCGs can be played in the space needed for X-Wing) and the toxic elements that hang out in the shop making being there an unpleasant experience. The only downside is no official OP support but if we really wanted to do prizes for something Cog'O'Two's tokens and rulers are at least as good as the ones FFG are putting out.

First of all, build relations, not only play a game with Mr Nice Guy. I play one weekly Epic with my friends at home but about the Community it is quite strong... smaller than 12 months ago but ok.

Really we should talk about 2 different groups of players.

1- Hardcore 100/6 gamers who play Tournament way. Mostly young players under 25.

2- Casual players who "twist" the rules and looking for fun. A lot of 40+ years old players and some kids, their sons.

There is a "break" between this 2 groups. Perhaps 2 different games. Parattanni and Triple D one way, OTS ships the other.

5 minutes ago, Hexdot said:

First of all, build relations, not only play a game with Mr Nice Guy. I play one weekly Epic with my friends at home but about the Community it is quite strong... smaller than 12 months ago but ok.

Really we should talk about 2 different groups of players.

1- Hardcore 100/6 gamers who play Tournament way. Mostly young players under 25.

2- Casual players who "twist" the rules and looking for fun. A lot of 40+ years old players and some kids, their sons.

There is a "break" between this 2 groups. Perhaps 2 different games. Parattanni and Triple D one way, OTS ships the other.

Try merging the 2 groups of players, they aren't so different after all. Make a 'worst list' tournament where you bring the list your opponent flies. Or a 40pt small-ship-only free for all. Or a hunger games. Try a team epic tournament. All of these can appeal to both types of players and help keep the community cohesive.

Good point. The problem is perhaps a gap about player's age. 20 years old students and 40 years old fathers and 10 years old children. When I was a hardcore ASL player back in 1990 it was anathema who play with a father with his child. I was young and... a purist.

I played a lot LGS and organized that kind of games. But there are some players that only wants 100/6. Train their skills. Go Tournament. Like water and oil...

Roll the game back to what attracted you in the first place. Play a game with a friend when the store is busy using the famous ships - x-wings, the Falcon, slave one etc. Or maybe some Epic with an imperial bomber force with a few escort fighters attacking a Corvette. If it looks great and iconically Star Wars then people will be interested. If they're anything like me, if they see any random EU stuff they'll just walk on by.

8 minutes ago, Hexdot said:

1- Hardcore 100/6 gamers who play Tournament way. Mostly young players under 25.

I can't speak to your experience, but in mine, this is grossly untrue. The majority of the tournament players I meet are 23-50. They're also more than willing - excited, even - to accept a game against something janky or thematic. In my experience, the tournament players are usually the ones who spend the non-formal tournaments iterating through ideas for lists that vary from dreadful-in-practice to ingenious, with the hope of finding the next "thing".

Regarding the OP, I think it's important to showcase the fun of it. Heavy meta play is just one aspect of the game. Often times, the most fun ships are the tier 2 ships. The Turr Phennirs and Tel Truveras of the game that have super interesting abilities, but rarely - if ever - get showcased in high level competitive play.
You know who's SUPER fun? Torkil Mux. You know who I never see unless I'm breaking him out? Torkil Mux. You know who starts cheering whenever they see him? Everyone. Win or lose, you know that game will be fun.

Case in point; I won last years regionals with a list designed to counter the meta at the time. It worked perfectly, but I can't honestly say I enjoyed it. This year, I took 4x TIE Bombers to regionals. I came 10th, and had an absolute blast. I could have finished higher, but for a terrible mistake in my last game (I read cluster mines as cluster missiles on a K-wing build... guess which side was the wrong side to approach on...). I wasn't there to win, I was there to have fun, and I did. As an added bonus, I seemed to make the day of a few people who'd never seen a Bomber at a tournament before. Some had never even seen them on the table before. It became a talking point, and made people smile. I'll take that over a trophy any day.
Focus on the fun that you can have and the stories you can generate from them. Those stories always foster a desire to play more, create more, and ultimately draw in more people. Don't be afraid to mix up the format, either. Perhaps introduce 150pt games instead, or draw in multiplayer furballs (6 people is a great number for a furball on a 3x3. More players in less space might interest your LGS). Epic games always draw a crowd (and you don't need epic ships to do it, really).
Lastly, if you're trying to encourage new players within the LGS, set up demo games. Something around 60-ish points, 4 rocks, with one named pilot on each side, and some generics as wingmen. Keep the upgrades light enough to be easily followed. You'll be shocked how quickly people can be hooked by the game when the entry is simplified, as the game can often look as daunting as it does interesting these days.

Dood, it's a table top miniatures game, there's no save button! You might be thinking of the 90s X-wing game, it saved your game automatically.

oh, wait. Never mind.

I had a similar situation in my area - the only LGS had no XWM scene, even on the "X-Wing" night. I kept posting in the (almost dead) FB group and twice I even setup shop on that night hoping to find a game. Ultimately one guy replied in the group and we played two weeks in a row. Both times, Magic players came over to watch. Then a third player joined and before we knew it, we had a regular group of 8-9 of us.

perserverence is the only advice I can give. Sorry you're having so much trouble. I was almost "a collector" more than a player due to lack of games. Good luck.

Yeah, I have ressurected X-Wing and even BattleTech at the local level before. We had a small x-wing group that dies right before the original Falcon released. I got a friend playing, it grew from there as people saw it, liked it, tried it and stuck with it.

My advice is just like Bojangles, exposure. Even if its you and a friend every week if you play it with someone and people see it interest will grow.

Exposure for sure.

If you can fine ONE player and arrange to play at that store that's doing magic while they are doing magic(there's gotta be a table somewhere)

We play during magic nights and always get people hanging out watching and wanting to know more.

Have fun with it. Laugh ,quote the movies,use a soundboard on your phone.laser line tools seem to draw attention. Get fancy.

Make it more appealing and they will come.

41 minutes ago, CJKeys said:

Yeah, I have ressurected X-Wing and even BattleTech at the local level before. We had a small x-wing group that dies right before the original Falcon released. I got a friend playing, it grew from there as people saw it, liked it, tried it and stuck with it.

My advice is just like Bojangles, exposure. Even if its you and a friend every week if you play it with someone and people see it interest will grow.

Battletech is a good example on how to handle exposure to bring back the game. It's come and gone a few times over the years. I was constantly meeting people who had played years before and immediately wanted to jump back in.

Classic 3025 Battletech took my hearth when I was 14 and is one of my top games. So visual and impacting. Pure joy. Locust, Warhammers, Marauders...

13 hours ago, Hexdot said:

Good point. The problem is perhaps a gap about player's age. 20 years old students and 40 years old fathers and 10 years old children. When I was a hardcore ASL player back in 1990 it was anathema who play with a father with his child. I was young and... a purist.

I played a lot LGS and organized that kind of games. But there are some players that only wants 100/6. Train their skills. Go Tournament. Like water and oil...

Bringing my 7 yo son seems to be a great way to draw attention to the game from potential players. He wins more than he loses and is working hard at showing a great attitude. It helps make it seem approachable.

Not everyone likes playing a kid, some, they don't quite speak the same language (yet), but most really seem to find it fascinating to see him go.

I was actually asked by many why he wasn't playing in our regional. When I got home past midnight, I knew I'd made the right call on that one

17 hours ago, AdamGATX105 said:

You see a lot of fix/save topics on here these days and this one is a little different. In my local area X wing has died out and I'm having a horrible time finding any other players. Even my local store is getting away from it they focus more on magic and other card games and have no plans to push x wing anytime soon. We have a local Facebook page with 40 members but only one or two active. I've tried reaching out and even lurking at the store for players no one is interested. How do you save the game in your community?

Tough to say. Have you tried asking on your Facebook page why folks aren't playing as much?

On 3/4/2017 at 9:27 PM, AdamGATX105 said:

You see a lot of fix/save topics on here these days and this one is a little different. In my local area X wing has died out and I'm having a horrible time finding any other players. Even my local store is getting away from it they focus more on magic and other card games and have no plans to push x wing anytime soon. We have a local Facebook page with 40 members but only one or two active. I've tried reaching out and even lurking at the store for players no one is interested. How do you save the game in your community?

Been there with other games. In these cases where the community is non-existent, you're going to have to take it on yourself to build your own and that means teaching the game. Start w/ family, friends and acquaintances that dig Star Wars. Become an impresario for the game. Pick up an extra core set or two so you can have extra damage decks, templates, dice, etc and play quick 30 - 60pts lists with people at lunch, or school, or at church (it happens), our your place, etc. Organize stuff yourself. You could go as far as stocking up on some single ship expansions when they go on sale, or find them cheap online otherwise, and give them away to potential new players who have shown interest in the game and have been playing with your stuff but haven't quite pulled the trigger yet themselves. This can be quite effective. I'm in another local gaming community where we do some of that to get players biting to take the hook. It shows them how much the game community means to the you if you're willing to give them free stuff. They'll leave with a smile and take that one ship home, unpack it, and want to buy more ships (usually). If you drum up enough interest in playing, suggest you all try going to the game store to play. If the game store has people showing up to play a game they're not stocking, they might start stocking it again. If potential new players see a lot of peeps playing X-Wing in the game store instead of one guy, they might be inclined to give it a try.

This all depends on how far you're willing to go to build a local X-Wing community. Another way to look at it is, how desperate are you to build a local X-Wing community Because you could play online via VASSAL.

Wanted to thank everyone for all the advice. Started pestering my local game store more to posh X-Wing, best I've gotten is for them to post on there events X-Wing free play on Sundays, started this last week I'll be there every Sunday trying to grow this game I love in my area.

Even if you're the only one there at first stick around. Leave some ships set up.go through your cards,build some squads etc . Be visible.

Happy hunting

We do a mix of casual play and prize tournaments. Every Thursday night is casual star wars play (X-Wing, destiny etc..) and the first Saturday of every month we do a tournament.

Also we do fun events every third Saturday of the month, like Epic or Large Ships only.
Even finding one other person to play with regularly will help! Good luck!

I've found that new players can breed a new excitement for the game. One of the things I've appreciated is that fFG have put effort into releasing articles that show you can build a fairly competitive squad for about $100. Some games (CCGs, some LCGs) are either 'pay a lot every six months) or 'pay a lot for the cards we all have and you need', x-wing could be like that, and in fact is like that, except that there are ways to start playing without buying everything.

Also, one of the biggest things in my area is that we promote the proxy idea. Try it before you buy it as it were. This enables new players to not have to dump tonnes of money to be 'competitive' right away.

A good centre person is so very helpful. If your community has an effective ambassador that introduces, organizes and welcomes players into the community, that helps so much.

Jqcob

On 3/5/2017 at 0:27 AM, AdamGATX105 said:

We have a local Facebook page with 40 members but only one or two active. I've tried reaching out and even lurking at the store for players no one is interested. How do you save the game in your community?

I think the most important aspect is to find out WHY it died in the first place? Was it the tournament scene? Was it not enough tournaments? Was it a bad day of the week? Was it one or two people that everyone didn't like? Finding out the reason why it died is the most important thing you can do. You can't really fix it until you know the problem.

People move or their life changes, or they find other places to play or people they want to play with. I think with xwing in particular there is a constant supply of new blood coming in, you can also try checking out any 'star wars' fan groups in your area and see if they are interested in playing xwing.

As others mentioned... if you've seen the way people have been reacting and the type of people coming it might give you some clues... are they star wars fans that just want to play with star wars ships? then organize some casual and be consistent, put the effort in and be seen doing it at a certain time every week... are they tourament players? then they might not playing there for lack of good practice... and you need to work on your game and try to attract some skilled players to hang out at the store.

I have helped grow my local scene a bit since two years ago. Our core group is up from four to about ten, but our game nights have had between 12 and 16 for the last month and a half.

If people stop playing, there is only so much you can do. Try to find a better night/time to meet; if things were too competitive then encourage some casual games. If people want more competition then someone needs to step up and run a tournament; talk to the LGS and see if you can work out a good time and some prize support.

Number one thing though, make sure someone is playing the game on X-Wing night. I spent a lot of Thursdays playing with just one or two other people. Imagine you are a new player, maybe you haven't bought anything yet, you are still on the fence. You call or stop by a LGS and find out there is an X-Wing meet up night. You make plans to be there and no one is there when you arrive. That person may never come back. Make sure someone is there playing X-Wing every game night.

Number two: Work on teaching the game. Shut Up and Sit Down has a great video for advice on this for board games that still applies to X-Wing: https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/rules-explanations/

I've practiced my rules explanation a fair bit and I can explain how to play the basics of X-Wing in minutes. I also have two 60ish point lists available any time that I am at my FLGS to play X-Wing in case a new person shows interest and would like to demo the game.

Good Luck.