My friend Kevin, who plays magic, I had made a deal with. He would show me Magic and I would show him SWM. Magic isn't bad, but I'm not a fan of card games. Now he liked SWM, but i had made a simple squad, and I used a simple squad. Keep it simple. Now I don't know if he was better learning with a real competitive squad, or a simple one. Now I taught people minis before,
My Friend Glenn
Kevin
Gavin
Stephen(no longer friends)
Justin(no longer friends)
Rich(no longer friends.)
My Mom
My Dad
My Brother.

All of which I used simple stuff. Now what My Question is,
How many people have you taught?
Did they like the game?
What kind of squad did you use?

I think teaching someone to play SWM using simple squads is a better idea than teaching with competive squads. Usually as you learn the game more, you'll start to see better combinations of ce's and other combinations of special abilities, when someone just starts out SWM, its best just to keep it simple. I taught one of my friends SWM, he kinda liked it, but he doesn't play it often, and he has a lot of extra ciriculars, so I can't hang out with him often.

I've taught 5 or 6 people how to play now, I use pieces from Rebel Storm because they are recognizable and very simple. They also address the basic concepts of game play without fancy abilities and force powers that could confuse younger/newer players. I would not start someone off with Unleashed versions of characters, for instance.

I don't know if I could count, but I have gotten so many people into the game, and they have gotten people into the game, and so forth. Being passionate about something shows to other people, and people who know me know my passion. Anyone know what my license plate says
The only way this game will survive is to bring in new people to replace those who will inevitably leave the game behind for some reason or another. We must keep it alive with fresh meat, um, I mean new players!

I really agree with this statement. Without lots of new players, this game will be dead in 2 years.

Locally, two of the best teenagers are graduating HS this year. One or both will be moving away for college. This will have an impact on local play. Ideally I think you need an age ratio something like this to sustain a gaming group.

ten 8-12 year olds
five 13-16 year olds
two 17-18 year olds

Each time the boy (a few girls do play, very few) moving into the next ageframe, hopefully 50% of them will continue playing.

When is the last time you saw someone in their 20's (or even 30's) playing a chit/hex game. Who in their right mind is going to learn the rules to ASL? BTW, ASL is a great game, the 3 inch binder of size 10 font rules scares me.

I met a guy through a mutual friend this spring who used to design the rules for that game. I never played it, but he showed me the rules and I too was scared. he had a funny story for me and my friends though, since we're all red sox fans. He used to plat ASL with red sox pitcher Curt Schilling.

but back on topic, I think that is more or less correct. assuming the game continues on for many years yet, you're going to need fresh influxes of players. I'm just getting enough people at LGS to start DCI tournies, but they are getting friends to play, too. I hope to have 10 or so people playing at my LGS by this time next year, but I expect that some of our current stock will drop out before then.

http://www.yottaquest.com/Specific%20Ev ... 0Event.htm

We're doing a Dynamic Duo for this
with the backing of the Store owner, (Very important) we hope to at least bring in 8-10 "new" players and net at least 4 from that...


If you are asking what are good squads to use to teach...
I'm of 2 minds about this -
1. let them choose a booster or starter and open it up and let them play with what's inside... that's about a 40/60% chance in your favor

2. have a ready made squad of 100 points of basic figs that allow you to SIMPLY expalin and use basic Minis' techniques-
something like:
Clone troopers
Clone trooper Commander
Jedi knight
Polis massa medic

Stormtroopers
1 scout trooper
Stormtrooper Commander
Sith Witch

both squads should be equal in teachable skills and abilities; movement, Force, combine fire, stealth targeting and commander effects


the "other" thing I often forget and so do Store Managers/Owners
it [SWM] is harder to sell if no one playes it
DEMO
DEMO
DEMO and DEMO some more
honestly, the league kits are 'nice' prizes... but they are meant to entice and draw in new players as well as the loyal

Rebel Storm is a great intro; familiar characters and limited interactions. I had my wife playing for a bit, but I got over eager and started pulling in CotF figures too quickly (within 10 games) I never bothered with annoying super stealth, but that was enough interactions for her to get annoyed and say she didn't want to play minis with me anymore

We're both competitive people though so any game can get a bit heated....having me know the rules so much better than her was just too much.

for truth, almost the exact situation happened with me and my wife when I tried to teach her. Suffice to say she does not play minis with me now

This is an interesting topic to me because from the perspective of an older gamer who isn't in school and works with "adults" I often wish to get some new people into the game, but don't know where to start. When I was younger, it was much easier to get people to try new things and I made many friends into gamers (especially back in the SWCCG days).

Does anyone have some success stories for how they have recruited co-workers or "older" gamers?

I have helped 3 different friends get into the game and in my experience the best way to show them the basics of the game is simple squads. But the key is letting them use the simple squads a few times and then have them move onto more advanced squad concepts and ideas till they get the full grasp of the game. So far this method has worked great as Boba the Fett can attest to.

yeah pretty much

I got 3 people in. We had a falling out, IDK if they still collect, they may have a username somewhere. My friend Kevin who played magic really liked the game, but lacks the money to play another game.

I'd like some tips for getting older gamers into this as well. I like playing poker a lot, but I can only BS with cards so much before I want to force choke someone

I've gotten 7-8 "older" gamers to play (people in their 20s-30s). I usually start off by making simple squads to play against each other. I've found that people get overwhelmed when they see all the different cards and try to build a squad (even with a lot of help, it's just too much to take in).

I like to start with me playing Vader Dark Jedi and a bunch of Stormtroopers against the main Rebel heroes from Rebel Storm. Before the game, I go through each stat card on the table and explain what all of the special abilities do. Then throughout the game, I talk about the different options available on each turn. i.e. "You could run Han Solo up next to Darth Vader, but because he's a shooter, he should probably stay as far away as he can. Remember, he has Accurate Shot so he can shoot anyone he can see. If he shoots Vader who has already activated, he won't get his Cunning Attack bonus, so maybe you want to attack one of the troopers. But if you combine fire with Chewbacca, then Han has a pretty good chance of hitting Vader, and I know you're worried about him."

Usually after one game, the new player has their own ideas about what they want in their next squad. i.e. "I want to play someone with a lot of hit points like Vader." or "I think I like shooters better than melee attackers--who's a good shooter?" or "Do you have Darth Maul?"

The next few times we play, I help them with squad construction. They'll usually want to play a specific piece, so I'll try to find other characters that synergize well with that piece to give them some options.

To be fair, only one player I've helped get into the game actually buys his own pieces (scottjones on the Wizards boards). But I have plenty to share when I play against others, so it works out okay.

One other thing: I had one new player tell me he enjoyed his first match (an epic 3 on 2 multiplayer match) better than his subsequent 1 on 1 matches. He liked that he had experienced teammates who could help him with his strategy, and he liked that he was just a small part of a team, so his (inexperienced) decisions carried a little less weight.

My buddy and I have taught several people.

We like to do a large, 6 to 8 players, dynamic dou game. This give newbs only two pieces to worry about. i have used this for different age groups and it works well.

With younger players I have had pre made 100 point squads that have one commander effect, and maybe one force user. After playing these 4 or 5 pre built squads. I let them try to build there own.

I have been playing for about 6 months now and I learned to play when a couple of guys at the LGS built me a squad and just let me play. I had purchased the ROTS starter and read the rule book the week before so I kinda knew what was going on. We just played and every move I made the person teaching me would stop me and tell me why move x would be better than my move. I guess my point is that if they can glance through the general rules it can help a bit when they play because the demonstration will reinforce what they have just read. Then again most people would rather have someone explain it.

I am thinking of teaching my wife too, as someone mentioned above. I think keeping the squads simple is great advice so that you don't overwhelm the person.

Nothing worse then when you want to test a squad and what not, and end up teaching someone at a tourny. I mean I have done it twice, and each time I basically told them what to do, as you had said.
"dont move x here, if you did I'd get LOS and shoot him. You should find a place where I can't see him."
It's great having new people, but I just hate having to do it at a tourny.

Its nice that you do that when playing in a tourney. I don't know if I have that much patience, I wouldn't expect someone to teach me during a tourney though. But I guess it may be necessary if you don't want to scare people away from the game by destroying them in a game and not pointing out mistakes they made.

we completed our "New Recruit night" at Yotta Quest and the store owner gave away over $220 in store merchandis
AT-ST kits, Starters and Pewter Collectables to those who brought in New Players
our core group (8 players) brought in 10 new people or those who had basicly never registerd for DCI events before
it was a great turn out and we ran 4 rounds of a DCI 100point tourney

now of those 10 people I'm expecting at least 5 to come back on a regular/semi-regular basis
not bad

Heh....I practically had to do that in a few games at GenCon this past year. I don't think it happened at all in the Championship on Saturday, but it happened at least a couple other times on Thursday and Friday. Isn't too bad. I usually don't worry about it too much, because at that point, I know I'll win simply because I know what I'm doing (barring anything stupid like an insane number of crits or Disintegrations or something). But my feeling has always been, whether it's a tourney or just a fun game, if it isn't fun for the opponent, then they may not keep coming back to play. And if we want this game to survive, people have to keep coming back to play. So in the end, both myself and the opponent (ESPECIALLY if they're new) having fun is definitely more important than winning.