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So, after tonight's league game at my FLGS, the owner came over to me and asked me if I'd be willing to join the store's room at a gaming convention (Con of the North, running Feb 18-20 in Saint Paul) to run a 40k demo or two, since I'm a nice enough guy and happened to come out on top of the last three league cycles the store ran.

My problem is, I've never run one before. I know the rules well enough, but I'm wondering how best to explain them to a newcomer, someone who has no idea. Can anyone offer any advice as to how to run a demo game? Or point me in the direction of an article or the like that would provide some assistance?

Edit: Not sure if this is even remotely the right forum - apologies if it isn't. I debated this and 40k General, and decided to go with this one on a coin flip.

I never ran a demo myself but ill try to help. I recommend using the Assault on Black Reach starter set. The reason for this is its automatically set up for beginners, along with that if anybody is interested they can pick up the exact same set rather then getting drowned out in the thousands of models and armies to choose from. Also avoid advance rules like force weapons and such.

Keep the game flowing. Don't worry about the minutae. New players will just want a reasonably fast moving game where they roll buckets of dice and blow things up!

What these other 2 said, and also be sure to describer what makes their faction so much better. Another good trick is to explain things as they come up. If you try to do a read through of the BRB BEFORE anything happens they'll get bored and go away, but if you're in the middle of pitched battle, and you're explaining things as they happen they'll be much more interested.

Maybe, if you really get them hooked you can ask them to stay around and see if you can grab one of your buddy's to have a larger scale game.

What they said.
Also, don't be afraid to offer simple choices like "these ten orks are beating up your marines in melée, shouldn't your capain do something heroic right now...?"
and most importantly - "Let the wookie win". If you've two wookies playing each other (I'd suggest having everyone play you so you can explain your actions and choices and also throw the game sometimes) make them both win.

I would advice to keep the lingo simple. Do not say things like balistic skill and weapon skill. You might mention that there is a characteristick that determins how good they are, but just sya amrines hit in 3's, orks on 5's etc.

A friend of mine had a demonstartion with 10 guardsmenn vs 5 marines, it was very basic but the people who tried it liked it a lott. It is important that they get a feeling of understaning what is going on. And that is something diferent then the rules.

Use AoBR. Make things as simple as possible (orks like close combat, marines like shooting...). Do all of the calculations for them (your ten ork boyz are shooting at these marines. Heres ten dice, you need 5s and up. So you landed 3. Now you need 4s and up, etc...). Keep it moving. I would also suggest making it as narrative as possible. Use silly sound effects (orks bellowing, bolter fire, multi-melta explosions) to keep it interesting. I would suggest simple annihilation, and pitched battle, and use a short board, so they can get into combat faster.

Having worked at 2 games stores, and run demos for them it's really not that hard.

Just remember the "four f's":

'Fours': EVERYTHING requires a 4+ in the demo. It doesn't matter if it's a Space Marine, an Ork, or whatever. Nor does it matter whether it's shooting, assault or saves. The die roll for anything in a demo is 4+.

'Fast': Demo games shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes. To aid this along, demo boards should be 24" x 24", and even marines only shoot twice at 12" (and can assault afterwards). Don't bog the game down with actual rules from 40K, just focus on the very basics: Movement, quickly checking range, roll to hit, roll to wound, check assault distance, move, roll to hit roll to wound. Using the models as single units, or units of single models, or a combination of the two, can help or hinder depending on the person being demoed. Use your discretion.

'Furious': Stuff should die. A lot of stuff should die. Most demo games dispense with armor saves for this very reason.

'Fun': This is pretty self explanatory, although it bears mentioning that YOU should have fun too. Be enthusiastic. If you're demoing smaller kids, be REALLY enthusiastic. Older Kids and adults, not quite as much, although you should still get excited at the appropriate times (Single models doing WAY better than expected etc). If you're not having fun, it's hard to encourage others to have fun as well.

The MOST important rule for a demo game ist to be sure the newbie wins. Not as important if two are playing each other, but if you're giving a demo game to someone, THEY win. If you find the dice aren't co-operating (it happens, quite a bit actually) and the demo is going bad, feel free to make up stuff that isn't even in the game at all.

"Oh damn, Sgt. Ultranus is the lone survivor? Well now that he's the last marine standing, he's filled with righteous wrath over the loss of all his battle brothers! He hits and wounds on 3's now!" This is also a good tactic when one new player is dominating another in a Demo. Be sure to adjust the rules so both players feel it's a tight, fun game.

The person(s) playing the demo might remember these 'rules' when (if) they get into the game, they might not. The important thing is that they remember what a blast it was to play the game. Specifics are not important, they'll get sorted out during the learning curve; the purpose of a demo is to demonstrate the basics of the game: Roll to hit, roll to wound, remove casualties. (Sometimes roll to save, depending on the person being demo'd, use your discretion for this).

Follow these simple rules and your demos will be perfect, and you'll have plenty of converts.

Keep it as absolutely simple as possible. The 40k rulebook is cumbersome and full of minutiae. You'll be best served by setting up armies and playing in such a way where the new person needs to know as little as possible.

For example, the first time I taught someone how to play, it was with squads of 10 guardsmen with lasguns. The only rules they needed to learn were the basic 6" move, D6 run, how rapid fire works, and that everything happened on a 4+ of a die roll. Feel free to teach them rules that are even slightly incorrect for the sake of simplicity to begin with (for example, guardsmen started out with a 4+ armor save in the above example).

Don't take a bunch of goofy weapons that have special rules, or units that have anything strange at all (so, no vehicles, for example), so that you have to explain as little as possible.

Oh, and also give your opponent 2x what you have, and make sure they win their first game

I disagree with those that say to depart from the game. Instead just simplify it by limiting the number of options used. The degree of simplicity depends a lot on how interested the person really is versus how much you are trying to push the game on them.

One or two weapons types is good. One or two different types of infantry is good. But I would only play with infantry.

And you don’t need to explain everything, just tell the new guy what he needs to roll. I don’t like the everything on a 4 system because part of the game is needing different roles based on your guys and what you are shooting at. Just tell the new guy there is a chart that uses the various stats and you need this. They’ll be plenty satisfied with that.

I STRONGLY disagree with making things up that aren’t in the game. Leaving some things out is ok to a point, but adding gives people an idea that the game is something it isn’t.

I do agree that you should let the person win. But don’t make stuff up to do it. Play a little bit silly or use rule mechanics that aren’t in your favor (like going to ground) or if they flub a really important role tell them to reroll it because it’s a learning experience and you want to show them new mechanics.

If people don’t like complexity they won’t like 40k. You’re better off showing them a board game if they want to always roll 4+ and not have to think very hard. So hiding the complexity is doing them no favors. You can keep track of the complexity yourself and just tell them the effect and not the rule, and they will get the idea that there is something deep going on without bogging the demo down.

I second Ailaros' suggestion of sticking with squads of Guardsmen - they're basic, have toys that new players can try out like Flamers and Grenade Launchers, and they work really nicely to demonstrate the basic rules.

I found that three squads of eight Guardsmen per side on a 2'x2' area made a good demo. Why eight? Because of the morale rules. Squads of eight Orks can also work for this.

I would also say yes, don't just make crap up, and don't try to hide the fact that the game is complicated. But do streamline things, for example when an ork gets shot by a bolter don't say that 'the Ork has a 6+ armor save, and the bolter is AP5, so there is no armor save', just say that the ork is dead. Likewise, if a marine gets hit by a krak rocket just say that 'now, this gun is so powerful that even though the Marine's armor would usually protect it? It can't against this, and he's dead!' Simplify, but don't make crap up.

Assault on Black Reach has a small starter game in the little book it comes with that doesn't use all the figures in the set. It's just two small squads fighting I think. Maybe use that smaller starting game to get things moving quickly.

I've run a few small demo games at my GW Hobby Centre when the Manager is busy or what-not so I'll tell you how I do it:

i) Use Black Reach. The starter set is PERFECT for starters (the hint is in the name). Swapping the Orks for Guardsman and whatnot just tends to confuse people even more, it helps that Black Reach is already a rather balanced set so you won't have to second guess point values etc.

ii) Keep the board size small. This is essential as it allows the game to flow quickly and stuff to die fast. You don't want the game to drag down to 3-4 turns of the Orks running forwards and dying to shooting. Space Marines should have the first turn, get to shoot once and *maybe* twice before the Orks pile into his lines. The new players want to see cool stuff happening, with models dying left and right and mighty clashes between Dreadnoughts and Warbosses and Captains taking place; trying to do this on even a 4'x 4' would just take far too long.

iii) I wouldn't do the '4s for everything'. Not only is this needlessly oversimplifying but its just rather boring. How can you convey the inerring accuracy of a Captain if he needs the same roll to hit as an Ork? Introduce the different facets of the game when they arise. Introduce running in the Ork's turn, weapon profiles in the SMs turn. When the SMs shoot, introduce the notion of BS, when the Orks assault, let them know about WS. etc etc. Whilst this may slow down the experience somewhat, its important that the players go away actually having learnt something, not just spent 20mins being told to roll dice.

iv) Make them do the maths. The more interaction the players have with the game the more they feel like they're getting something out of it. Tell them the mechanic of how something hits with its BS (7 - the BS) and let them work it out for themselves.

v) Be enthusiastic. Encourage 'heroic' deeds (charge the Dreadnought with the Warboss!) and laugh when they both smush each other. Make up small narratives on the fly to describe the action thats taking place on the table, and just have fun. If you're enjoying yourself then your enthusiasm will rub off on them and they will too!

Hope this helps.

L. Wrex

One of the things that you've got to remember as well is that the point is for them not only to have fun, but to have a good gaming experience. Getting bogged down by rules will not create a good gaming experience.

I mean, what's worse, giving a new player a slightly off version of the rules, but seeing him like the game so much that he's willing to actually learn them, or a person who learns all of the possible rules correctly, but has as much fun playing the game, as, well, reading the rulebook...

If they don't like the experience they won't come back for the game.

I guess it also depends on the audience. There's a difference between people with some gamer background, and people with ZERO knowledge / experience of tabletop games. In such cases you'd have to adjust your presentation slightly to fit the audience for maximum impact, same as public speaking or running a powerpoint deck.

Ailaros wrote:One of the things that you've got to remember as well is that the point is for them not only to have fun, but to have a good gaming experience. Getting bogged down by rules will not create a good gaming experience.

I mean, what's worse, giving a new player a slightly off version of the rules, but seeing him like the game so much that he's willing to actually learn them, or a person who learns all of the possible rules correctly, but has as much fun playing the game, as, well, reading the rulebook...

If they don't like the experience they won't come back for the game.

While this is true, and I'm all in favor of altering the rules to make things easier for a new player, I have to say there is a limit. The limit I'd use is actually using the numbers and stats to determine what you have to roll to hit, wound, etc. etc. without having to worry about the logic behind those rolls. Don't explain that 'Because the Marine has a BS of 4, he hits on a 3+ while the Orks only have a BS of 2, so they have to hit on a 5+' just say, 'Now when you're shooting you need to roll a 3 or more to hit me, while I need a 5 cause, well, Orks aren't good at shooting.'

Simplify, but don't simplify so much that they think it's a ridiculouslly easy game and all the factions are identical.

Ailaros wrote:One of the things that you've got to remember as well is that the point is for them not only to have fun, but to have a good gaming experience. Getting bogged down by rules will not create a good gaming experience.

I mean, what's worse, giving a new player a slightly off version of the rules, but seeing him like the game so much that he's willing to actually learn them, or a person who learns all of the possible rules correctly, but has as much fun playing the game, as, well, reading the rulebook...

If they don't like the experience they won't come back for the game.

Well...that's the job of the person running the intro game. To marry those two elements together. They're not mutually exclusive, especially in a game like this. If the first impression someone gets of a game is '4s for everything' they could either think the game is rather boring, or get the wrong impression completely and buy, say, an Ork army under the belief that they all have 4+ saves and are as competent as Space Marines.

Also, you shouldn't govern yourself to rigidly, be perceptive of the reactions of the players. If you feel them slacking off and getting a bit weary, tone down on the rules. If they're still looking on with interest, keep doing what your doing. As long as you can combine learning with fun people will go home happy.

L. Wrex