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Hey everyone I have a problem which I hope you can help fix. I live in NW Iowa in a town of 155 people called Brunsville. As you can imagine, there are not many gamers, in fact I have to travel a half hour to get to my hobby shop in Sioux City. And now I am the only gamer in Brunsville since my bro just denounced gaming as stupid and boring. I am asking for help to convince my friends at school to play. Any tips or tricks? Also it would be nice if any gamers from Sioux City or even Lemars revealed themselves to me. If you want to contact me just PM me and I will send you my phone # thanks in advance.

Peace

Blood Bowl.

The widest appeal game of all.

Sorry I forgot to add that I am more into 40k and not likely to change to FB anytimes soon. Thanks anyway

Will be difficult. All you can do is invite people round to try it out.

If you have any Black Library Novels, why not lend them out?

Any particulars? I am thinking Gaunts Ghosts or other small books so that people arent immediately frightened by them

ANy really.

Whatever floats your boat might float theres. It's trashy Sci-Fi done pretty well, so not too hard for even the most reticent reader.

Trying to drum up interest in a small town is hell on earth.

What I did when I was a kid was to buy a few of the guys and played the game with my friends. I drummed up some interest by making a flyer up and posted it where I was going to get some players, such as the Library, and the community center and made it a point to show people about the game.

We had a pretty solid group of about five to eight of us. Eventually I had to leave the town, and the gang went thier seperate ways.
When you leave, you have a pretty solid hobby, and people magicly appear, wherever you go that play, as well.

Start small by leaving the house and going down to your local library. There, set up a few small games on a 2X2 board, then gradually go up to a 4X4 one.

Some of the time, a squad or a basic commander, and 2 squads is enough to start out with. As with other things, you are introducing something new to your area, so expect that it is going to be hard. Stay focused, and read the rules. It won't do you any good if you play the game and don't know how to teach other people how to play.

Because you are introducing a new concept, make it a point to know about the game. Rules, Fluff, and some of the basic information. Have a couple of give aways, such as the cheat sheets, some card stock buildings, or a few dice, if you can spare. The free things are good to get interest and hook people to getting a few more.
If you can't, then just go with telling them where to get some of the things.

If you need another angle, try the modeling aspect. You and your neophytes can get together and build a couple of squads together, and devide the figures up between yourselves and build the sets. Each guy gets one or two, depending on how many people you get interested.
After you build the guy, you can go ahead and do a couple of single marine games, where each of the guys is essentially his own unit. A game like this is basicly to play and showcase the rules. Its about teaching the basics and getting the guys interested.
If you have some cool enemies, such as some orks or bugs, it helps the intertested players in seeing what they play against, otherwise, you play a game qlong the lines of HALO with the new players own guys.
Gradually introducing things is fun, and gets the interest, as well.

Between your few, you will drum up interest, and gather a few more as more people are getting exposed to it.

YOU will experience some flack from some people that don't know what your doing, but stay focused and that will eventually subside. Don't be a turkey when people show interest, and let whoever shows up at least have a chance to try the game.

Eventually, you can get your group together and start making collective orders for things, and distribute things like scenery building, getting raw materials for the battlefields, and finding the free cardstock stuff and putting them together as a group.

That is your club, then. It continues as long as you keep the interest, and you have players.

Start with the starter set paint them up ask a buddy to try is the best way to start them out.

I don't think you can or should convince unwilling people to play. It's possibly futile and most likely will end badly.

What you need is a simple, fast-paced game that acts as an introduction. Space Hulk (original) would be perfect.

Ignore the cobblers about the Emperor's sacred armour chips being embedded in the armour and just say it is a bunch of Space Marines tooled up like walking tanks, who have to invade a giant derelict space ship infested by Alien type monsters.

People can be hooked in by a story in terms they understand. Once they get used to moving figures and shooting, and they enjoy the game, you might be able to suggest a more complicated game with different troops and stuff. Then reach for AoBR.

If you want to get people to play, you probably need two armies (even small, 500 point, even without a legal Force org is fine).

indroduction to a game must be:

Fun
Fast
Simple

A great first book is the first in the Ragnar saga (Space Wolf?).

It starts out like a fairly typical "fantasy novel," then slowly intorduces the reader into the 40K universe at the same speed Ragnar is.

So, they start out in something more familiar (fantasy), and graduate to this *new* thing (40K).

Plus... it's a REALLY good book.

Eric