Sunday 24 April 2011

Demo Day

Yesterday's Demo day went really well, (except for poor Ron leaving his Dust Tactics box on the train, during his morning commute the day before!).

People from the club showed up, which was great, but what was really encouraging was the number of people who just wandered in and had a game. Kenny has lots of photos, which I'll snaffle off him and post up here very soon.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Hurry up with the write up, can't wait :) Any tips at all? As I'll be running DT at a few events in Kentin a couple of months.

Uncle Truth said...

Coming up once I get my pics from Static Dave ;)

There'a cracker of a picture taken by my pal Stoney. I appear to have airbrushed the silhouette of a large, flaccid cock and balls in profile on the side of an allied walker's chassis.

That's one tip for you: airbrush a large, drooping member onto one of your robots if you want to keep your attendees entertained ;)

You want to try and play the first mission with the most basic units available. I recommend recons and gunners for both sides as well as Ludwig and pounder until they get the rules down. If you're dealing with gamers who can handle it, then throw in a special unit on one side.

I always take the first turn on a demo. It lets people see how its done.

Try and use painted gear if you can.

Bring a friend or two so that people will see, or hear the game being played as they walk around the shop. People can be reluctant to play if it's just them and the demonstrator at first. I had 2 friends play it while I chatted to onlookers and arranged for them to join in.

If you get the chance, wrap your demo day up with a large-ish 4 player; 2 to a side with as even a split of units as possible. We did this on the fly during the day and it went down an absolute storm! Bear in mind, these people had been playing it since that morning, so had at least 1 game under their belt by this point.

Don't Demo the game to kids unless there's nobody else there at all. Whether you're doing it to get sales for the shop, or encouraging others to get into the system then it still makes sense. Adult gamers have more chance of forking out for that expensive starter set than a kid taking a look. Let them join in the bigger game that you wrap the day up with.

Don't take the expansions with you. People were really impressed with the amount of stuff in the core set during my demo and that made a few of them take the plunge. I know that not taking my expansion kits and heroes swayed a few of them in that regard!

Unknown said...

Cheers. The two events I'm going to are not shops, but wargame shows, so there will be traders and several other clubs putting on games. Did the noobs pick it up quick? I'll be going with a few mates so we might be having a 4 player games, depends on the interest.

Uncle Truth said...

Very quick mate. I would even go so far as to say quicker than my first sexual experience that didn't involve my thumb, forefinger and a stolen lipstick.

Just don't go into detail about the cards, or rules before the game starts. Give them a rough idea, then let them get straight into it. Most of the people I've introduced so far have no wargaming background at all and have picked it up very quickly.

If your pals are going with you, then try letting them play the noobs while you alternate between fielding questions from passers-by and drumming up interest. Try having a ridiculously attractive naked woman stand next to your gaming table while you play. Her nakedness should allow her to hold a lot more coats while the wargamers ignore her in favour of plastic wee men, (which is perfectly acceptable in my opinion!).

Metropolis said...

I really enjoyed the day though and am almost back up to full capacity with replacement parts courtesy of our mystery shopper...

Once again - I officially retract my assertion that BBQ squads were great on paper but crap in practice. They are amazing. I think Andrew found the smouldering Sigrid very satisfying and I'm not talking about her cleavage.

Uncle Truth said...

Glad you're nearly back up to full model count Ron!