I'm looking for some suggestions on recruiting new players for our dwindling local X-Wing community?

Here's our current situation:

We currently have a Facebook page for our local group with 38 members on the page. Only two of us on the page are very active players and that tends to be a game ever other week. There are members of the page I've never met. The guy that kind of ran the X-Wing group recently moved away and the scene seems to have died off. I'm trying to revive and grow it.

We're in a small rural town of about 25,000 locals. However, there is a large university here with about 25,000 students. We're a 2 hour drive from any town larger than 100,000. Our local (only) game store is conveniently located next to the university campus and walking distance from most of the dorms on campus. Our store supports us playing X-Wing as far as having tables available to play but that's about all. The focus of the store is more towards, Magic, Pokemon, D&D and 40K. He orders X-Wing supplies when we request it and will host tournaments or other organized events if we put it all together.

In trying to build our group, I thought I would first try to revive our current players interest. To start off, I've got a HotAC campaign starting next week. It's peaked some interest. We'll see what turnout is like and if it draws any new interest. I'm also going to run some Mario Kart and a store championship later this summer. The last thing I've got planned is a trip to GenCon to pick up a set of 2.0. I want to do several 2.0 demo sessions between GenCon and Sept 13 to grow some interest with our current players.

After getting some revived interest from our current players, I want to encourage them to help recruit new players. So, I'm looking for any advice on ways to advertise our X-Wing group and draw new players. One thing I tried to do was to get the local theater to post some fliers for our group while Solo was playing. That didn't seem to work out. So now, I'm looking for other ways to advertise.

All suggestions would be appreciated!!

EDIT TO ADD:

What about suggestions on advertising? I just started playing X-Wing about a year ago. Didn't really know it existed before that. Furthermore, even being from a small town, I didn't even know we had a game store until AFTER I picked up X-Wing at an area bookstore. So, what are some ideas on advertising to capture those Star Wars fans out there that may not know the game or game store exists?

Free alcohol. College student bait

leader board. head to head. prizes? wooden spoon and top 3 get a prize. give ur new players extra copies of stuff to get them started.

Build to your community. What works for other groups might not work for you. EG Other shops in my city tend to run single night events with 2-3 rounds after work. But this means that they start relatively early (6:30pm) and can run quite late (11pm). We tried doing 2 rounds at my LFGS but we found that most of our players actually either work earlier shifts so need to leave earlier or want to get home to their families. So we now run a 4 week league but have only 1 official game per week with casual play before and after. This means those who are short on time can still participate and it has allowed us to grow and flourish. Also if you are running leagues and trying to attract new peoiple then consider how you do your rewards! You really don't want the new players to be funding the experienced players constantly because they will just stop coming back. Flatten the reward structure for a more balanced outcome.

3 round tournament with game night kits are also good. u just need ur guys to pitch in a bit each to cover it. make sure all participants get something regardless of points awarded.

Have events for people to show up where they don't have to buy anything. College students are broke all the time. If you hook them with free, they will find money to buy their own ships. Epic games or HotAC or Mario Kart or cool looking games with props. That and flyers.

I started with 3 players. We now have 120 in our local fb group. 11 players In the local league I set up, 4ish casual games and 4-6 HotAC players every week. 8 players at the last tournament I ran (big drop from the 24 at the first one I ran 2 years ago but...).

It takes work and can be tough to draw people out of the woodwork but it’s doable. Just keep plugging away with hype and things that can get folk involved. Give people a reason to come and play as opposed to on their table at home.

Tell them that 1.0 is dead.

As has been said, you have to get a feel for your local community- what they want and what they enjoy and what will keep them coming back week after week. For example, I’ve learned that at my FLGS (I’ve been running the league there for the past couple years) thw players tend to prefer a lot of basic 100/6 matches with the occasional epic/furball/HotAC/alt-format game thrown in just to keep things interesting. But if I stray too far from 100/6 then I start losing players. Maybe your community will be the same, maybe it will be different, but I suggest having 100/6 games as on option if people would rather do that over HotAC or whatever special thing you have planned.

But some general advice that should be helpful regardless of your community’s preferences:

Consistency. Consistency consistency consistency. If at all possible have a set day of the week where people can show up and be able to get a game in. For us it’s Thursdays. Our “official” league nights are every other week, but people in the community know that they can show up at the store on any given Thursday and there will be people there to play against.

We used to alternate leagues with Armada (X-Wing league for ~2 months, then Armada league for ~2 months, and repeat) and it was a terrible idea. People would come for the X-Wing league and then when we switched to Armada they would disappear, even though the store still kept space open for anyone wanting to do casual X-Wing play. Then when it was time for X-Wing league again most of the players wouldn’t come back. At the start of this year we dropped the Armada leagues (which weren’t getting great turnouts anyway, unfortunately ) and started doing back to back X-Wing leagues and it’s worked wonders. Our community has never been stronger.

The other piece of good advice I can give is do plenty of advertising for tournaments and leagues and special events. Plan them out as far in advance as you can and let players know immediately and frequently up until the event. Don’t be annoying about it, obviously, but create events on Facebook and post reminders as the date draws closer. Put posters up in your game store with event dates on them and fliers that people can grab for the info. See if your game store has a Twitter/Facebook/email list or newsletter and announce the events via those channels there.

Learn about the community. Find out their likes, their daily routines.

Then kidnap a handful of them and wait for Stockholm syndrome to kick in.

Once that happens, teach them X-Wing. If they refuse, well, you know how many family members they have by now.... so you know the maximum number of times they'll say "no".

Host a Star Wars night with showing of "A New Hope" and some basic X-wing demo games e.g. at the University/Frat house.

Pay a sexy hot girl to dress up as Princess Leia and play/learn some X-wing an afternoon, that community will be revitalized in no time!

Play your games at the university common for awhile. People at the game store already know it exists and just aren’t interested.

47 minutes ago, RedHotDice said:

Pay a sexy hot girl to dress up as Princess Leia and play/learn some X-wing an afternoon, that community will be revitalized in no time!

And a sexy boy to dress as Han Dolo or Lando.

Tips,

•Be a person of your word. This is the same for gaming and real life, if you say your going to do something do it.

•Understanding and fun is always more important then winning. As new players come into the game show them with lists that are easy and slanted in their favor (you have 3 Ties give them 4 x-wings) Don’t intentionally try to lose because that’s insulting but iF a new person has a list that is heavily favoring them and unfair to you that’s better.

•Bring extra ships, for college kids the ones without money will be discouraged By spending 40 on a core set of their eating Ramen for a week straight. If they know you have stuff to play with you should be good.

•Set a date and time or it will never happen, after being involved in many college groups I can tell you being consistent is the best thing even if it’s only you and 1 other person.

•College kids are super flaky. Too often even when everyone says there in they get stressed out by classes, homework, being dumped, drunk, too cool because of peer pressure

• Don’t be discouraged, there is a lot posts above about methods and styles but at the end of the day a positive attitude wins out. If people see you as upbeat and kind your going have a lot of people that want to hang out and bring friends out.

•Personally message each person in your group. The human touch extends to win people over vs just facebook

•Pursue people, don’t be creepy but get phone numbers and once a week check in to see how people are doing, often Facebook is this I don’t care it’s not real thing, if your texting people it shows you care.

• Reach out to some podcasts and ask people to contact you. The word in the podcast community seems to travel faster then anything and everyone tends to know someone else. I would go on the podcast pages and ask around for people. There are a ton of x-wing people wanting to get back into the game at this point that would be happy to give it another go.Also a lot of players I know hate this forum as they see it as toxic and a waste of time so again check in with other Facebook people and ask around.

•this is a tiring process be fully committed

•There are non torny players that hate/Dislike HOTAC and other formats. At my store I have three people that do not like the exp gathering Aspect of HOTAC but will be happy to play a standard game keep that in mind.

•Weird house rules are a deterrent to most players, even if everyone hates bombs and TLT don’t change the FAQ rules a lot.

•Last your group will be known for something make sure it’s in line with your purpose statement. That’s super Corp America but if you look at groups around the world each is know for something keep that in mind as you build your group.

One other thought as board games are becoming a thing maybe do a half step at a coffee house with Catan. I know a lot of people that will never step foot in a gaming store but will play games at a coffee house if that makes sense, a lot of Starbucks in my area are doing coffee and games these days, it might be worth looking into then introduce them to x-wing.

Catan seems to be a staple of board gaming even if you hate it it’s a great first step into larger board gaming/mins.

Put fliers on the campus message boards advertising your x-wing night. Keep checking on those fliers every 2 weeks and replace them if they get covered/removed. Make sure you advertise free demos and that college students play for free on weeknights.

15 hours ago, drail14me said:

I'm looking for some suggestions on recruiting new players for our dwindling local X-Wing community?

Here's our current situation:

We currently have a Facebook page for our local group with 38 members on the page. Only two of us on the page are very active players and that tends to be a game ever other week. There are members of the page I've never met. The guy that kind of ran the X-Wing group recently moved away and the scene seems to have died off. I'm trying to revive and grow it.

We're in a small rural town of about 25,000 locals. However, there is a large university here with about 25,000 students. We're a 2 hour drive from any town larger than 100,000. Our local (only) game store is conveniently located next to the university campus and walking distance from most of the dorms on campus. Our store supports us playing X-Wing as far as having tables available to play but that's about all. The focus of the store is more towards, Magic, Pokemon, D&D and 40K. He orders X-Wing supplies when we request it and will host tournaments or other organized events if we put it all together.

In trying to build our group, I thought I would first try to revive our current players interest. To start off, I've got a HotAC campaign starting next week. It's peaked some interest. We'll see what turnout is like and if it draws any new interest. I'm also going to run some Mario Kart and a store championship later this summer. The last thing I've got planned is a trip to GenCon to pick up a set of 2.0. I want to do several 2.0 demo sessions between GenCon and Sept 13 to grow some interest with our current players.

After getting some revived interest from our current players, I want to encourage them to help recruit new players. So, I'm looking for any advice on ways to advertise our X-Wing group and draw new players. One thing I tried to do was to get the local theater to post some fliers for our group while Solo was playing. That didn't seem to work out. So now, I'm looking for other ways to advertise.

All suggestions would be appreciated!!

What's the one thing you've neglected to mention here? It's an important thing, and I want you to figure it out before I tell you. It's the one thing that a player in your area would want to know if they were reading your posting, but you haven't provided it. What is it?

Tick tock.

For me personally, it helps that there's always an event out there I'm looking forward to going to. Even if it's 2 months away, I'm looking forward to this "big thing." I like that much more than a weekly game night.

7 hours ago, DagobahDave said:

What's the one thing you've neglected to mention here? It's an important thing, and I want you to figure it out before I tell you. It's the one thing that a player in your area would want to know if they were reading your posting, but you haven't provided it. What is it?

Tick tock.

Where we are?

7 hours ago, Boba Rick said:

For me personally, it helps that there's always an event out there I'm looking forward to going to. Even if it's 2 months away, I'm looking forward to this "big thing." I like that much more than a weekly game night.

We have our first event scheduled for this Saturday. We’re starting a HotAC summer bi-weekly campaign. As of late, there has only been two of us actively playing X-Wing. A moment ago, I got the 11th player signed up for HotAC. This may be the spark we need! I have hope.

8 hours ago, DagobahDave said:

What's the one thing you've neglected to mention here?

Is it Star Wars? X-wings? Luke Skywalker & Vader?

I'm sure it's obvious, but I can't tell what you're getting at.

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I was going to suggest playing at the campus commons too, one night a week and maybe at the LGS on another.

Too bad summer is here. You might not see as many students.

7 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

Is it Star Wars? X-wings? Luke Skywalker & Vader?

I'm sure it's obvious, but I can't tell what you're getting at.

-------------------------------------

I was going to suggest playing at the campus commons too, one night a week and maybe at the LGS on another.

Too bad summer is here. You might not see as many students.

Us locals love summer. The town is QUIET!!!!

Playing at the Commons (Student Union) is a good idea. We’ll try that when school starts back.

I’ve got a bold plan that involves the Student Union, a large X-Wing event and a “Star Wars” day all rolled together. Hope we can pull it off.

8 hours ago, drail14me said:

Where we are?

Yep. Make sure you have a Facebook group called "X-Wing in [Your City]". Post in the Organized Play forum that you are "Looking for X-Wing players in [Your City]". Post the same thing on Reddit and Discord. You'll probably hear from some new players in your area just from doing that.

6 hours ago, DagobahDave said:

Yep. Make sure you have a Facebook group called "X-Wing in [Your City]". Post in the Organized Play forum that you are "Looking for X-Wing players in [Your City]". Post the same thing on Reddit and Discord. You'll probably hear from some new players in your area just from doing that.

Exactly, which is why, for instance, we know that DagobahDave, is... in fact... from...or playing X-wing in... ahem.. Dagobah.