im a teacher at quite a large middle school and am starting up an X-Wing club at my school.

any suggestions for running this sort of thing with total newbies???

thinking of using just my 1.0 stuff (cards/cardboard) as iv only converted scum into 2.0 but havescum, rebels and imperials for 1.0

im shoulder tapping specific boys i know are sw fans and will lve the game. im using all of my own stuff (i have a reasonable selection of ships from the 3 older factions most of which i dont play anymore). im pretty sure the game will be popular enough for hem to want to buy there own stuff eventually but thats not the goal. My hope is to just create a group of kids that hangout and introduce a cool new game i know theyl love. some of the kids iminviting dont play much of anything and really need something to help them meet new friends (sort of the geeky chess kids that avoid the sporty kids )

Will start with maybe 6 kids and play furballs 1x week. see how that goes.might start up a campaign with points awarded for kills and have a leader board. your pilot earns experience for each kill and after 3 kills they get to take an extra upgrade for their ship. start with generic academy pilots (man i have so many tie fighters i havent flown since 1.0) or rookie x-wings with a sprinkling of generic scum ships.small base ships only... after a certain number of games under their belt illlet them upgarde to the next most expensive unique pilot. lets see if we can get wedge, or soontir or fenn

can maybe have a 'best in faction' medal awarded each session to the top pilot in each faction on the day.

might intro a few different scenarios and have them work cooperatively on accasion with some missions happening as well or just working togther in each faction (2 of ships from each faction). i'll let destroyed ships respawn right away at the starting edge of the board but you might lose one experience point (minimum of zero) if you get destroyed so staying alive the whole game gets you more xp/kills. I quite like the idea of having a leader board and/or Top Pilot title for each faction could be awarded each week to guy with most current cummulative kills.

Aces high with a bit of campaign experience earning (very light reward) is probably best for a big group format.

Sadly I find that the joy of this game is getting multiple pieces to work together and playing as a single ship encourages a lot of single player single entity mindset, which I find is crucial to overcome to play xwing at the larger level.

I ran a hotac group for young people of about the same age (12-14). We ran tutorial games for the first week and then just dived into the missions after that. It was fun but I think 'Aces High' has the potential to be even better as a learning experience.

X-wing is a tough game with complex rules. What you do is going to depend a lot on who comes to your club. I find that the 'story' elements, collaborative play, etc. can help if the people involved are not into the super strategic aspects.

Keeping it simple is good.

allow respawns.

Starting with some basic ties sounds like a good idea.

After a few Furballs see if you can transition to say 3x3 games of very limited point sizes (to stay on time)

say 50-66 points per person only.

1.0 Campaign Idea

Rebels

Z-95 (starting ship) Bandit (0-2 kills), Tala (3-4 kills)

After 5 kills in Z-95 you upgrade to an X-Wing = Rookie Pilot (0-2 kills), Red Squadron (3-4 kills)

After 5 kills in an X-wing upgrade to unique pilot (Wedge or Luke)

Empire

Tie-Fighter (starting ship):Academy (0-1 kills), Black Squadron (2 kills)

After 3 kills upgarde to unique pilot (Dark Curse or Backstabber)

after more kills upgrade your ship to... Tie-intercepter and you kills restartover.

Alpha (1 kill), Sabre (2 kills),

after 3 kills upgrade to unique pilot (Turr Phennir or Carnor Jax) with stealth device

after 2 kills with unique pilot upgrade to Soontir Fel! with Stealth Device and Hull upgrade.

Scum

Fang Fighter (starting ship): Recruit (0-2 kills), Veteran (3-4kills), Ace (5-6 kills)

after 7th killupgrade to Old Teroch

after 3 more kills upgrade to Fenn Rau!

probably needto balance a few things out using upgrades. those empire tie fighters might need stealth devices.

im thinking i might just play as a full loaded vader and help out the empire

I've been working on a skirmish format that you may find interesting, up to you.

Alternately, I think 12 year olds are totally capable of playing the regular game, but starting with smaller squad sizes and less/no upgrade cards might be a good place to start.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XM7o4K_HBjTJqW46fzUr9FwQ1E0hSPRa22xT32-_8p4/edit?usp=sharing

Aces High is a good plan to start with, but basic TIE fighters are not: they only hit if the target rolls badly; thay always miss if the target rolls well. This can be very frustrating.

Fly X-Wings instead. Damage happens much more reliably.

I've run similar groups, starting with 7 year olds, and they work well. Watch for the more autistic ones taking the game too seriously and being upset if their ship gets picked on - 2 of my nephews are severely autistic and playing games with them is one of the ways to help them to learn how to respond to adversity in a socially acceptable manner rather than sulking/throwing a temper tantrum/etc.

I'd say make it an even mix.. Furballs, as a way to bring them into the game to teach them the basics, but go the campaign route (HOTAC) to keep them interested.

4 minutes ago, Gilarius said:

Aces High is a good plan to start with, but basic TIE fighters are not: they only hit if the target rolls badly; thay always miss if the target rolls well. This can be very frustrating.

Fly X-Wings instead. Damage happens much more reliably.

I've run similar groups, starting with 7 year olds, and they work well. Watch for the more autistic ones taking the game too seriously and being upset if their ship gets picked on - 2 of my nephews are severely autistic and playing games with them is one of the ways to help them to learn how to respond to adversity in a socially acceptable manner rather than sulking/throwing a temper tantrum/etc.

good call about the ties. maybe start them in intercepters with stealth device?

16 minutes ago, Greedo_Sharpshooter said:

good call about the ties. maybe start them in intercepters with stealth device?

Same problem! Far too RNG-dependent. Interceptors without Stealth work fine, give them a Shield instead? My local group spent a long time flying these naked in furball games before Aces High came out, to improve our positioning skills and they are superb if everyone has one at the same time. But having a reposition plus a focus makes them far better than x-wings if they move afterwards.

Do rotating First Player, by the way, not fixed.

EDIT: Bah, 2nd ed mindset there! No linked actions makes Interceptors less potent, but having repositioning means they are still better than X-Wings.

+1 for rotating first player. Have them all just pick ships they love and want to fly and don't worry too much about points balance the first few games. I guess with exception to TIE fighters, maybe give anyone that picks one of those a shield. Furball or Aces high ruleset with regen is definitely the way to go early on to build interest!

Both.

My boys love campaigns, the story telling stimulates their imagination, upgrading as you go is the hook in so many different game genres. One of the other big benefits is that it sidesteps competition, which can become extremely fraught.

Campaign is a real draw for repeat players at a young age, but light breaks of aces high are terrific for keeping things fresh.

They like to do daft things as well, so bringing some creative comedic spark to some scenarios should go down well. Summon the Exogorth!

And don't forget Mario Kart, that's a real winner.

Set up 3 tables. Last place after each lap progresses to the Exogorth boss battle, while 1st place gets to raid a Banking Clan convoy escorted by nice squishy drones

Aces high, as others have suggested, is a great format to start them off with and a good place to learn the game mechanics. As others have suggested, stay away from tie variants as 3 green dice makes them a bit eng dependent for a new player. You don't want them getting frustrated by either doing no damage or by blanking out and exploding.

I would also strongly recommend the hotac campaign after a couple of sessions of aces high, once you've worked out which players are keen and locked down the rules. You are in the perfect position to GM and fly the imperials and helpanage rules as their teacher. HoTaC will teach them the importance of teamwork (make sure you use a shared xp pool) and gives them a reason to keep coming back each week. What will happen next in the story?

As they grow and learn the game mechanics, they might want to play 100v100pt games and eventually progress to full 200pt games, but you should be able to see how they are going and know whether aces high / hotac is enough.

I forgot to add: cutting out and laminating all the hotac gear will be much easier with a team of students and school stationery supplies, and will help get them invested

2 hours ago, gadwag said:

Aces high, as others have suggested, is a great format to start them off with and a good place to learn the game mechanics. As others have suggested, stay away from tie variants as 3 green dice makes them a bit eng dependent for a new player. You don't want them getting frustrated by either doing no damage or by blanking out and exploding.

I would also strongly recommend the hotac campaign after a couple of sessions of aces high, once you've worked out which players are keen and locked down the rules. You are in the perfect position to GM and fly the imperials and helpanage rules as their teacher. HoTaC will teach them the importance of teamwork (make sure you use a shared xp pool) and gives them a reason to keep coming back each week. What will happen next in the story?

As they grow and learn the game mechanics, they might want to play 100v100pt games and eventually progress to full 200pt games, but you should be able to see how they are going and know whether aces high / hotac is enough.

Hotac rules? are these available here on the forums?

3 hours ago, gadwag said:

(make sure you use a shared xp pool)

The Campaign i am running at Origins i do a modified XP pooling system.

Damage XP, Tie fighter kills, and the BASE Kill xp of any other ship goes in the pool.

The +1 you get for the other non-fighter Ties (or large ships) go to the individual getting in the kill.

So i second this option.

3 hours ago, gadwag said:

I forgot to add: cutting out and laminating all the hotac gear will be much easier with a team of students and school stationery supplies, and will help get them invested

Great idea..

59 minutes ago, Greedo_Sharpshooter said:

Hotac rules? are these available here on the forums?

For the first edition rule set, is on a site, that seems to currently be having difficulties).

But

here is the link.

http://dockingbay416.com/campaign/

If that link doesn't work, I think I can email you the PDFs as I'm pretty sure I downloaded them somewhere. There's also a hotac group on facebook who half a sortof half-complete x-wing 2.0 version, but since it's a campaign and you have your old cardboard you may as well play the 1.0 version

how long do you have? a 45-50 min lunch break or 3 hours after school/weekend?

-I would not give out TIE ints as starting ships. Apart from the dice dependence, it is better that they first learn to fly a "stiff" ship with a not so fancy dial with very limited reposition and fixed arc, in order to learn basic flying (not being able to bail out all the time with double reposition).

-Going against a bunch of ship flown by the HotAc AI without any mission is a good learning experience as well.

HotAc 2nd ed maneuver charts are better though, as stress has a real effect on the AI ships in these.

-the new environment cards from the card packs are probably also a good way to spice up things

- what I have done with my children is let them fly escort for a Huge ship (Huge flown by you) along a 6x3 mat, with enemy fighters popping in from the sides, controlled by the AI, attacking the Huge. Great team experience.

-what I also have done with my children is scattering randomly out obstacles and TIE ln cardboard inlets. Learn own movement and one's own and enemy firing arcs, by the Tie cardboard inlays acting defense satellites. The one with most destroyed satellites wins. Satellite: PS 8, 3 red dice, 0 green dice, 4 Hull, 0 shields. No movement. Actions: Focus or Rotate 90deg. Attacking the nearest target, rotating toward the locking ship, if someone target locks the respective satellite. Allow attacking each other according to taste.

-Look up Shuttle Tydirium Podcast, they have a lot on casual and mission play!

Sadly I would kind of agree that Tie Fighters with 2 dice, and the "base core game" of 2Ties vs 1xwing is really not good. A lot of times variance makes you go for 3 turns without a single damage. In a demo, that can usually mean the END of the prospective player's interest, and sadly its not even indicative of a normal game... there are games where I finish off an entire opponent's will to live in the first 3 turns only.

13 hours ago, Blail Blerg said:

how long do you have? a 45-50 min lunch break or 3 hours after school/weekend?

50mins 1x wk. 1hr tops

gonna start them all as rookie x-wing pilots. im going to play imperials and throw some scenarios at them. xp for kills and group xp for successful completion of missions.

Hey Greedo_Sharpshooter!

My brother has been running an X-Wing Club with middle schoolers, this is his second year. Send me a PM and I will try and get you two in touch

Pity guys like you were not around, when I was a kid in school...

HotAC!