Hey guys, looking for some input. I have been running events at my local store for a little while now and Im having a little trouble making a strictly casual event the competitive players wont abuse and try to get all cut throaty with the casual players or those that are using the event as an opportunity to playtest.

We had a specifically designed beginner 50pt furball and someone brought a beefed up Dengar, one of the best known furball options, against newbies.

This last one is a league with a lot of newer players so Im bringing B Wings and stuff to playtest like the new bullseye arc and a light Vader with accuracy corrector and we have some bringing ghost/fenn and x7 defenders.

Everyone gets a prize in this event from a draft pool based on their placement but there is a small trophy for first. I think I will eliminate this.

We even had a ban list implemented for one tourney but of course some lists thrive once tlt, harpoons, etc. are banned so that also did not work well.

The next league or tournament I am thinking about taking the top two worst ranked ships from meta wing for each faction and requiring at least 1 of them used per list. That way competitive aspects of lists can still be tested but the chances of people getting tabled by something brutal are less.

Any other ideas?

Make it small base only.

Chase The Ace / Stay On The Leader - only one unique pilot or large base ship allowed per list. Unique pilots and large base ships give up double MoV if destroyed.

Two Drink Minimum

Make it Small base only and No Titles allowed.

That will take away the X/7 defenders and make the Scurrg less of a problem. If you think TLT y-wings or TLT TIE Aggressors might still be an issue, ban either the TLT or ban all turrets.

I find scenario play shifts things pretty nicely since it changes things up... team play and still that competitive beat the other guys....

https://goo.gl/photos/WHmXm9WWRKzfisTAA

Thanks for all the input so far! Keep it coming. I really like the large base, named pilot, and title restriction ideas.

Do a Trench Run? Generic only lists? I like the PTL format where you rule out the top x-number of list archetypes in metawing - you could just as easily rule out the top x pilots too.

Our club ran a learning league where you got points for certain things such as including specific pilots or ships, epic games and so on.

Also, HotAC.

24 minutes ago, Estarriol said:

Do a Trench Run? Generic only lists? I like the PTL format where you rule out the top x-number of list archetypes in metawing - you could just as easily rule out the top x pilots too.

Our club ran a learning league where you got points for certain things such as including specific pilots or ships, epic games and so on.

Also, HotAC.

Yeah we have been doing hotac. Started with 4 players, now around 9. We are creating our own clone wars campaign to run both simultaneously.

Another idea: set the list maximum to 50 pts and require a minimum of two ships. Or set a ship point maximum to 36 pts (no small based ship costs more than 36 pts without upgrades; some large base ships, including Dengar, cost less than 36 pts, so keeping "small base only" might still be good).

My group is going to run a casual event at GenCon. 24 player max. Here are the ban lists I came up with:

- No TLTs
- No Harpoon Missiles
- No PTL
- No PS 7-9
- No VI, Adaptability, or other PS change.
- No Deadeye
- No Adv Cloaking Device
- No Engine Upgrade
- No Crackshot
- No Captured Tie title

Can you find something that would still break it? Sure, but I think that's good enough.

Also, you should be able to hold full veto on any list. If you see some Yahoos trying to break it then just veto their list. Keep doing it until they get the hint. Nothing like a couple of trolls that want to club baby seals. Just block them from doing it.

16 minutes ago, heychadwick said:

My group is going to run a casual event at GenCon. 24 player max. Here are the ban lists I came up with:

- No TLTs
- No Harpoon Missiles
- No PTL
- No PS 7-9
- No VI, Adaptability, or other PS change.
- No Deadeye
- No Adv Cloaking Device
- No Engine Upgrade
- No Crackshot
- No Captured Tie title

Can you find something that would still break it? Sure, but I think that's good enough.

Also, you should be able to hold full veto on any list. If you see some Yahoos trying to break it then just veto their list. Keep doing it until they get the hint. Nothing like a couple of trolls that want to club baby seals. Just block them from doing it.

Congrats- You've created Wookiee Cancer world.

Half of the suggestions in this thread are terrible. Restricting a bunch of upgrades based on what you feel is gamewarping isn't a good idea- everyone lives in their own local enviroment. Nspace has some terrible ideas that do nothing to actually address most problems, and the best suggestions are LagJ and the 2 drink minimum.

10 minutes ago, Kaptin Krunch said:

Congrats- You've created Wookiee Cancer world.

Half of the suggestions in this thread are terrible. Restricting a bunch of upgrades based on what you feel is gamewarping isn't a good idea- everyone lives in their own local enviroment. Nspace has some terrible ideas that do nothing to actually address most problems, and the best suggestions are LagJ and the 2 drink minimum.

Don't hold back Krunch, tell us how you really feel!

1 minute ago, FTS Gecko said:

Don't hold back Krunch, tell us how you really feel!

Do you actually want me to go on a rant/explain what is powerful vs what is meta prelevant vs what is fun? I was in the process of writing an article up as part of some bonus content for a Podcast, I could just post it here.

Quote

How would you craft a casual x-wing event?

15 minutes ago, Kaptin Krunch said:

Congrats- You've created Wookiee Cancer world.

Half of the suggestions in this thread are terrible. Restricting a bunch of upgrades based on what you feel is gamewarping isn't a good idea- everyone lives in their own local enviroment. Nspace has some terrible ideas that do nothing to actually address most problems, and the best suggestions are LagJ and the 2 drink minimum.

Leave Krunch off the invite list?

1 minute ago, Kaptin Krunch said:

Do you actually want me to go on a rant/explain what is powerful vs what is meta prelevant vs what is fun? I was in the process of writing an article up as part of some bonus content for a Podcast, I could just post it here.

Well, you have my attention at this point, since you've got it all figured out.

The reality is that some people will try to optimize whatever you do. I have a very good friend who, no matter what game we're playing, will optimize the character build, etc. It's just the way his mind works and he's very good at it. If there are prizes, people want to win them. So if you're not talking something cooperative (like HoAC) then you need something that either a) can't be optimized (or with great difficulty) or b) incentivizes them to challenge themselves with non-optimal builds.

There's a lot of suggestions here on creating non-optimal conditions. You could restrict things, require a certain ship in a list ("hey, it's B-wing night!"), do generic only, small base, etc. My guess - there will still be an optimal version of this and if they're already better players, they're going to fun-stomp the newbies. Maybe try something like everyone builds a list and then randomly assign them? (That's probably not that fun if people have their favorites.)

I think I'd lean toward incentivizing them away from optimization. You're on track with the prize pool and removing trophies for winners. Why not add incentives for challenging builds - if you run multiple x-wings, b-wings, a-wings, strikers, etc. "Hey, whoever wins with a list of all T-70 X-wings gets this Poe figure." I like @Estarriol's suggestion of a league where you get more points for including different things. That actually sounds like a lot of fun. If it's a league, maybe they can earn points toward different specific prizes. Like if you use Nien Numb enough times, you get a Nien Numb miniature.

1 minute ago, Darth Meanie said:

Well, you have my attention at this point, since you've got it all figured out.

Again- sarcasam doesn't convey well via text- it would be a 3+ page article, and if people actually want to read it, I could post it here when finished. That's actually a point in it- This style of forum actively breeds the mentality that makes it difficult to acknowledge you are wrong. I'm basically only here for messaging specific people, but every now and then Caesar's "every once in a while" quote in Fo:NV applies.

So lmk if you are being sarcastic, or if you actually want to read an article.

Epic team battle.

6 minutes ago, Kaptin Krunch said:

if you actually want to read an article.

I am interested in seeing your opinion on the matter, although I dare say "fun" is already horribly subjective.

50/50 rules worked pretty well at my club - each player brings two 50 point lists and picks one of their opponent's lists to fly.

Set bounties. “If you win with a swarm you get X.”

”If your list is only OT ships and upgrades you get Y”

”If win with Eaden Vrill in your list you get Z”

I think you're always going to have folks that are better at the game than others. Sometimes they are truly better at flying anything, at special awareness, and at thinking 3 turns out. Other times they are better at optimizing a netlist for their playstyle. Both are just fine, but I think you're not going to be able to properly "handicap" those players and NOT have them curbstomping newbs with anything that hits the board.

To craft a more casual event I'd say add more randomness in general. I've run a few over the years and all were a ton of fun:

Anti-secret santa tournament. At the start of the tournament, all names go in a hat. Draw names and "gift" a pilot for that player to use in their list. Play out the tournament. (This assumes that almost anything can be loaned to a player that needs something)

No uniques/no doubles - Imperial PS8 aces took the day, but the format is a lot of fun and very challenging

59 point cross factioning - http://www.backtodials.com/59-point-cross-faction-a-quick-and-fun-tournament-format/ - 59 points with 2 ship minimum isn't enough to break this cross faction format, emphasis is on flying with double the obstacles on the map

Randomize whether players fly their list or their opponents lists each round of a tournament

Play objectives as per the objective rules from the podcast collective

And the thing that's worked best to casualize a tournament? Flatten the prize structure. Make sure there's lots of picks (at least one for each player) and the 1st place one isn't leaps and bounds better than the last place prize. I also use an app called CHWAZI which is awesome to take your phone to a bottom table, hold the prize above your phone while people put a finger on your phone. The app simply chooses one person as the winner by highlighting their finger. Works great!

Do the Spam TIE Fighters challenge. Everyone brings as many TIE Fighters that they have and fly them all at once. The winners face each other, and the finalist is crowned victor.

At a store monthly at Island Games in Chantilly, VA (shout out to FLGS!) a while back they had a boobie prize for last place which objectively was better than 1st place prize. A bottle of decent tequila makes losing a lot more palatable.