I need some advice. X-Wing in my local community seems to be dying. What can I, as the local TO and only vocal local booster, do to (re-)build community and membership?

A little background. I live in a smaller town which is nearly contiguous with a large urban center (Everett -> Seattle). Seattle and its nearer environs seem to have a very healthy scene - multiple game stores with solid turnout and a strong tournament scene. Up north here, I have a group on Wednesday and another on Thursday - and both groups are just...fading. Three regulars each with no overlap apart from myself, and two or three monthly drop-ins. As contrasted to one location having had six regulars and as many drop-ins two years ago (well before 2.0, so no correlation there). And the other location having 20+ regulars three years ago - which group imploded due to an anecdotal influx of WAAC-netlisters precipitating some vicious interpersonal conflicts (just before I started playing there). Now. I *could* give up on either or both of those locations and travel farther through rushhour traffic to get to other game stores in the hopes of getting more games, but I really don't want to do that. For one thing, I *hate* driving long distances in awful traffic. More importantly, I rather like the very few regulars that we do have.

So what can I do? How, or where, can I...advertise...X-Wing? Trying to draw "lost" players back in has proven impossible, for a variety of reasons. We need new blood, but in such small communities, with other, more vibrant communities relatively nearby, how is that achieved?

Also note that the Thursday group has to fight for space with the MtG and 40k crowds, especially for weekend tournaments, while the Wednesday group is in a pub which leads to occasionally severe space limitations. Because the situation wasn't yet sufficiently complex.

First, if you are not already, get on the facebook Xwing group in the Seattle area, Im sure there is one. Start advertising your game nights there, and posting every week when you are actually heading to the store so newish players know someone is going to be there and welcoming them. I think that is a big one. I know when I first starting venturing out, I only went to the small 4-8 person local tournies because I knew games were guaranteed. Knowing someone is gonna be there and time is not wasted is a big factor. Many people join those facebook groups and dont actual interact on the groups but do read posts, so just keep posting every week you are at the game store.

You will probably have to give a weekend day up once every 3-4 weeks for a play-and-learn day. Advertise it in your LGS with a flyer, etc. Setup 1-2 mats and have basic squads ready to go to teach people. You might only get 1 person, but that person could have friends and spread the word. Getting new players who live in the area is the key, so you need an environment to teach em without them having to invest money. Just teach em and perhaps give them an alt art or something for showing up. See if your store has any leftovers from Xwing kits. Even 1.0 acrylic focus or evade tokens, etc. If you can, pony up and get a $5-$10 gift card (or see if the store can give you a $5 gift card for getting new players to learn the game). What is a person who just learned X-wing to do with $5-$10 in a gaming store? Maybe use it to buy the core set? 😁

Our main TO player here really emphasizes the $5-$10 gift cards for tournaments and giveaways. It gives the players something back, and most people buy a ship worth $15-$40 with that $5-$10 gift card.

I would suggest to try to merge both groups. Bigger group tends to snowball more quickly.

Our local community had some one of its downs when we were changing meeting place and group divided for some time.

Big thing is to be inclusive and friendly. Every gaming community wanted to be competitive and elitist I joined sooner or later fell apart.

Like you're probably already aware, the local scene is pretty much always carried entirely on one person's back. What's worked for me as someone who was previously in a similar situation was basically trying to eventually get people to just play more x-wing in general - so if you can run a league at the store that's actually close to you, on a night that's different from the farther away stores, you'll likely draw in a few additional players. This exact situation you're in is what eventually led us to krayt cup, so it's not entirely hopeless. It sounds like this is the case for more than just you though, the death of store championship-sized events has caused problems all over the place.

Running events that draw in additional people will likely work, but OP hasn't been making life easy for you there in terms of prize support. Are you, or anyone close enough to you to ferry some stuff back some of the krayt stuff we'll have there to use for prize support? I can get some stuff sent your way: some plastic cards, goofy pilots for each faction, range rulers, and big locks, but it would just be a band aid. Thankfully custom prizes are cheap and fun to make, so if it ends up being a draw it's pretty straightforward to get your own stuff made!

24 minutes ago, Kleeg005 said:

And the other location having 20+ regulars three years ago - which group imploded due to an anecdotal influx of WAAC-netlisters precipitating some vicious interpersonal conflicts (just before I started playing there)

It sounds like there might be a bit more to your problem here, but without more detail it's hard to give useful advice other than generally running things such that like-minded players run into each other makes everyone happy. Let the crazy competitive types play the crazy competitive types, and the exhausted parents looking for a day off play the exhausted parents looking for a day off.

These are all good suggestions in here already!

The situation you described, with players having massive beefs, has killed many communities. Give it time, your community is going to take some time to rebound from that.

Also having multiple game nights is probably hurting you. You might want to consolidate everyone to one night, or organize a Facebook group or Discord Server for your "squadron" (everyone in your town) so that people can say when they're going to play so other people know which one to show up at - most people don't have time to play more than once a week.

The worst feeling is being the third person to show up and wondering if anyone else will show or if the game the others are playing will end on time to play a game. As the community lead, be prepared to be the odd man out a lot to make sure other people are having fun. And yeah it sucks. I used to bring painting stuff to game nights a lot, that's a good way to pass the time and have something to do while still being in community.

Look to see if there's a place that will host a "learn to play" - maybe not a game store. I've talked to coffee store owners who wanted to do learn to play events. It's cool because lots of new people show up, which makes good business for the coffee shop. And it gives you exposure to people who wouldn't normally step foot in a game store but could be convinced to do it if they found a group. Yes most new recruits will be unsuccessful but who knows, you might find someone who really likes it!

Upcoming Epic scenarios could be a great hook to have them return to try X-Wing again.

9 minutes ago, LUZ_TAK said:

Upcoming Epic scenarios could be a great hook to have them return to try X-Wing again.

I as well am hoping scenarios give the local scene some extra incentive and hopefully ends up fun for everyone. As of now we have a moderate amount of players each week, but kinda dwindles every once in awhile. As @Brunas mentioned FFG OP hasn't done much for the average weekly nights and I've ended up becoming "THE GUY" who helps the store and general area set everything up. The Seasonal Kits have helped where I just had the alt arts as participation and then extra stuff we had leftover from the Wave Kits from earlier in the year used for placement prizing. We're eventually going to run out and hopefully new fun formats provide enough interest that can deal with the lack of prizes. Our current format structure is Extended every Friday except the last Friday of each month which is Hyperspace. If we get enough variety in scenarios, I'd be great to do Extended, Scenario, Hyperspace, Scenario, and repeat back to Extended in that rotation.

Interacting outside the store is a pretty important part of our local community as well. There is generally one person carrying the load at a particular store to organize events and whatnot, but the greater community has been doing pretty well by chatting and interacting outside the retail environment and there isn't a clear person moving all the strings in that regard.

@wurms , @Kieransi : There are in fact three or four FB groups for the Seattle area, one of which I Admin. And while I have put the open play days into the Event calendars for each, it is true that I haven't been saying specifically that I and others are in fact in the store. That's an excellent idea. I have been reviving the practice of monthly Casual tournaments at the (actual) game shop, and we have been getting the odd "outsider" come through, it's not yet resulted in someone becoming a regular. I just last night in fact talked to the FLGS owner about using store credit for prize support - an idea with which he is generally in favor, assuming that the actual OP prize kit has paid for itself. A learn to play day, though.... That's definitely worth making happen - now that the absolutely insane summer weekend schedule of family events is on the wane!

@Oldpara , @Kieransi : Man, I wish I could get the two groups to merge, because they are all good guys. But they are each resolute in not doing so, for a variety of personal and understandable reasons. And yeah, as I said, the elitist community that existed before I joined did in fact fall apart - explosively.

@Brunas , @RStan : Yeah, the choice of game night is problematic. At least one, and I think two, of the major stores closer to the major population center run their game nights on the same nights as the two locations I frequent. And changing either of those nights is not apparently an option for anyone other than me. I do run seasonal Leagues, and that has gotten a few new people in, but apart from the three regulars none ever became sufficiently hooked to come back - although to be fair most of the new players were high school students who had trouble balancing their workloads. OP prize support is, as you say, lackluster; and it little helps that while we have a huge backlog of previous kit prizes from which to draw all of the regulars already have everything from our previous events, and what is available is nothing to draw in formerly regular players, it seems. The store owner did drop some cash to pick up some Curled Paw acrylics and Paul La Rue alt arts, but the temptation of those items has not yet been sufficient to draw in more players. It just seems like something is missing from that formerly winning formula, you know? And yeah, we're not anywhere close to the Krayt Belt, ha ha.

I dislike how negative I'm sounding here. These are good ideas, and I really appreciate the insights! Keep them coming! Things are percolating in my head already....

Maybe the epic multiplayer expansion will help. Many of the scenarios are team based it works with odd amount of players and probably wont be as competitive.

It stinks that you cannit consolidate them but it does give you a way to describe each group. That way the one offs are at least more likely to play people with similar attitudes towards the game. Which will increase the odds of them coming back.

Also at some point 40k will go overboard or standard will stink and that will lead to new players.

@Kleeg005 I know it's hard but I think you might need to have an honest conversation with the people at both stores. It sounds like there's a weird divide in your community at the root of the problem.

In my opinion X-Wing fights are stupid and people need to be mature enough to move on. Yes it's a big deal to us and we care about it a lot, but it's also just a game. I've heard of cases where someone broke a law or did something worthy of a restraining order but >90% of X-Wing "beefs" are petty and silly and should be put an end to.

32 minutes ago, Kleeg005 said:

Yeah, the choice of game night is problematic. At least one, and I think two, of the major stores closer to the major population center run their game nights on the same nights as the two locations I frequent.

I think this is your biggest problem for Thursday. There's a group in Lynnwood that meets Thursdays of moderate size. Several of the regulars live in Everett and work south, so Lynnwood is convenient stop on the drive home. Unfortunately, that means many of the north-end X-Wing players that could otherwise become regulars are going to choose the more convenient store.

1 hour ago, LUZ_TAK said:

Upcoming Epic scenarios could be a great hook to have them return to try X-Wing again.

As a guy who has been kitchen-table-only since Wave 3 Edition 1 (W3-E1?), and has finally had a LGS open up 10 minutes away, I am kinda waiting to show up until my preferred styles of XWM are Official Styles of XWM.

@Kieransi It's not that the two locations don't get along. The players at each location rather have other commitments that won't allow them to change their night of play such that combination of the two communities is apparently not an option. The two locations are in different towns about a 15-minute drive apart, while there are (I think) two or three or maybe even four other locations in other towns within a 15 to 45-minute drive running X-Wing on the same nights as each of those stores - and all of those stores are closer to the major population center than either of my locals.

The issue that caused the larger group to collapse some three years ago was apparently sufficiently vitriolic that it lead to several people quitting X-Wing entirely. I don't know any particulars as it was before my time. Again, as I don't know any particulars, I don't know if it could be responsible for keeping any of the erstwhile regulars away nowadays, but I have no way of contacting any of them even if it were the case.

@reqent Both locations are filthy casual, basically. I'm the most tournament-oriented player at either one, ha ha. One is slightly more inclined to co-op play, and is looking forward to the new releases in a big way. Advertising it as such is a decent thought. Thanks!

@hargleblarg Yeeeeeahhhhh.... I am oh-so-very aware of Around the Table. In fact, if it weren't so far in the wrong direction for me, that might have ended up as my regular location. I've put out feelers about changing the timing of our group before - I think it's time to make a stronger push, maybe.

So I know based on your post that your looking to build a specific store. That is pretty difficult and takes a considerable amount of time and effort to make happen with many legitimate practical constraints in the way. There is no substitute for time, you can make it happen no question but you have to invest seriously over an extended period of time. Thats not practical for most individuals life circumstances, certainly not mine. X-Wing players that organize and support individual store communities have my respect. The most important component is time invested to make it happen. If you dont give up significant amounts of your own free time it simply wont materialize even in smaller groups. Money to, physically investing in prize support does wonders. Its incredible and bizarre the difference it makes even for grown adults.

Its a challenge because the reality is our X-Wing communities are regional and not at all FLGS specific, nor should they be. Cities exist for a reason, X-wing communities blend with that. The idea that any one store can be the primary support for an entire community has always been confusing to me. It doesn’t seem easy or realistic. They dont strictly compete with each other, they feed and re-enforce each other, we are our cities even in x-wing. Much simpler to focus on broader regional community development. That can lead to players at local stores taking up the cause for their specific FLGS on its specific day of the week.

A store might be super convenient to me but is likely a long drive for many other players in my area.

So I tend to focus on regional community development. Get people hyped to be part of their area. Play on weekends if drives are an issue. For me playing at night is difficult, im often exhausted after a long day of work trying to do everything i want to do in a day everyday, weekends are just easier.

This is what I did: find the nerdy youth, get them hooked, then introduce it to their dads. Works like a charm. Your player base might be young at first, but it will begin to mature as the youth get older, and as they bring their dads.

@Boom Owl Interesting and thought-provoking observations on regional versus local community. To some extent, it feels like the regional community is...fragmenting? Local communities feel like they are becoming more isolated, more insulated. I reckon I can lay the blame, at least in part, on the alteration to Organized Play. The loss of Store Championships and the fragmentation of Regional-level competitions - the two of which were seemingly blended into the Hyperspace Trials - has reduced regional coherence, it seems. My FLGS's last two Store Champs drew people from throughout the region, and the the last local Regional had 160+ players. But these HST's have struggled to get much of anything going. And that certainly provides fodder for thought - between running monthly weekend Learn-to-Play events and tournaments, maybe we can perk things up a bit. Although to be fair, there are a couple of locations running some very interesting monthly tournaments with awesome custom prize support which are also anecdotally struggling to draw in the numbers they used to enjoy. Some are closer to the regional population center, and some are even more removed than I am. But we have to start somewhere.