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Ok here is my question for all you dakka monsters out there.

I am getting ready to run an Apoc game in December. And I am really trying to do it up nice. I have some new concepts for and even more adventurous Apoc event next year and some of the concepts for that are being tested. So I got to thinking. Is this something that people would pay to do?

What if (and I plan to do alot of but not all for this little event) you wrote out really good story concept for the 1 or 2 day campaign. Info would be provided in nice notebooks with maps of boards tactical information and intelligence, background and fluff, special characters made specifically for the event. You have your missions on the various boards and maintables and then you would take your massive Apoc army and assign specific elements to achieve the various objectives.

Special rules will be used for communications and the movement of army elements to various boards.

Divided up teams with lots of various missions for not only the main army but indivdiual armies and players.

Provided the best possible terrain for the event.

T-shirts for each team.

Prizes would be given out for things like best sportsman, army suffering the most losses, funniest moment, greatest last stand. Game cahnging moments things like that.

The thing that I am stressing to the players for this test run is, this is a narrative campaign...not a tourament. Decisions should be made to drive the story not just win the game.

Now if you were attending an Adepticon (Adepticon used for description only I am not affiliated with them ) like event and this was offered would this be something that you would pay to play in? Or say this was a stand alone event held in a game store or something...would this something you would pay to play in?

My cost in the one I am hosting is going to be about $300.00. Now the stuff I am buying is stuff I would have gotten anyway this is just my excuse to get off my butt and get it. THe one I am doing is for a bunch of my friends and they are not going to be charged anything (unless they want shirts). As I said above this is a monster test game to see if some of the ideas I have will work. Once this event is completed I will post the game with pics in the dakka battle report section for feed back and in our own game group forums.

Now I know big tourneys have done the massive floor battles and things like that. This would a smaller scale with more detail and control over the armies and stuff. In a major event setting (Adepticon, Dicehead Siege) you would have more than just one so that all armies are get a chance to play. For the campaign to work you have to limit the amount and types of armies to some degree. (For instance no Necrons or Tyranids are allowed in my event as they do not fit in the story)

So guys let me know what you think.

Personally, I would not pay.

I only pay to get into tournies, where there is a chance of winning a cool prize, as well as a competitive environment. I might have just read things wrong, but it just seems to me like you're charging people to play a d&d game using warhammer figures and rules.

Then again, I do not know how much you're charging (I don't think I looked over it). I pay upwards of 200 usd a year just to go to oklohoma and be a psuedo ww2 soldier in a massive paintball event, so I basically do the same thing but instead of shooting guns with dice rolls, I use paintballs.

If you have prize support then this seems fairly in line with a tournament - so paying makes a lot of sense.

Frankly, most of what you're describing sounds like 'game club fees' which most assuredly exist and most assuredly have people pay them (my personal club pays for snacks and food, and occasionally a new terrain piece though usually we scratchbuild)

Logically you need to talk this over with the players who will be participating - not the internet war machine. If you explain your goals, and your expected out of pocket expenses, you can get a feel for how much they're willing to pay. Maybe they'll all say they don't want T-shirts or color printouts, but are willing to pay to help buy terrain and prize support.

It's not an unreasonable idea - you just need to find out what they want as well as what you want, Apocalypse tends to be a cooperative event.

Necroshea wrote:I might have just read things wrong, but it just seems to me like you're charging people to play a d&d game using warhammer figures and rules.

Which is a perfectly valid and fun way to play wargames with rich stories, backgrounds and fluff like WH40K

Not everybody thinks 40k is a sport, nor do we all enjoy that mindset or approach to wargaming.

Sounds like a fun event. IF it was done well, had cool terrain, swag, etc. I would pay to play.

I also think I would be in the minority...

CT GAMER wrote:

Necroshea wrote:I might have just read things wrong, but it just seems to me like you're charging people to play a d&d game using warhammer figures and rules.

Which is a perfectly valid and fun way to play wargames with rich stories, backgrounds and fluff like WH40K

Not everybody thinks 40k is a sport, nor do we all enjoy that mindset or approach to wargaming.

Sounds like a fun event. IF it was done well, had cool terrain, swag, etc. I would pay to play.

I also think I would be in the minority...

Depending on the setup I would also pay to play something like this if the opportunity presented itself nearby

Every well-run mega battle or apocalypse event in my experience has a fee. Why? What is the primary a store owner allows 20+ adults to take up his entire gaming space for a day? He expects to move some product. Turning entree fee into store credit door prizes goes a long way to moving product.

1. Provide lunch or dinner. Pizza, drinks, snacks as part of the $$ per person.
2. Have secret individual player missions. This is a fun way to add a level of competitiveness to a megabattle.
3. Have door prizes which result in basically 'store merchandice' being moved. Everyone gets a raffle ticket and then people who complete their secret mission get a second chance.

You want to basically make sure the store owner nice enough to put up with you guys for a day and taking his space gets product sold. For a tourney this is usually done by prize support which goes fromt he entry fee into store credit for small events. Apoc, do the same thing but make them smaller batches and door raffles for participating.

Food, a full day playing, a well run event and a chance at a door prize is well worth money to me. it can be a nice alternative to tourneys if done right. You may get a different response from Dakka members who are primarily competative play focused but I know many successful annual megabattles out there which I have attended and seen on the net and people do pay money to attend them.

It all depends on the content. If it was something I could get involved in and enjoy I certainly wouldn't mind throwing a few bucks someones way. How much were you thinking to charge per player?

I'd pay to play if it was as well organised as you are planning it to be. Especially if you provided food and beverages as well!

And good luck with it, sounds like it could be a lot of fun. If only I had the money and the time to take a trip over the pond.....

In speaking with others around this area (i.e. my area)...most tourney players say they would not pay. Necroshea is right in that it comes across as paying to play DnD. This type of event would be the focus of more fluff/story oriented players. Ultimately the goal of playing 40k is to win the game. Nobody plays to lose. I guess it comes down to the typ of player and what they are willing to pay for. I have not even thought of a cost...I really do not even know if this even viable as a format

When you go to Adepticon and play in the Gladiator you get to play with your Forgeworld Imperial armor awesomeness. Back in 08 I played in an event called the Big Waaagh in Memphis TN. THey had a huge Apocalypse floor battle in the back of the halll during the 40k event. While it was well managed (shoutout to Fishboy) it looked like bring your big stuff put it on the floor and blow stuff up.

I think more can be done with Apocalypse that could attract scenario, fluff based players in an effort to give them a worthwhile experience outside of playing in a tourament. THere is still potential for swag and prizes if done right. And mind you I am not trying to make money off of this merely seeing this could be done to add to some of the big events in our area.

Thanks for posting guys it is good food for thought.

The reason people 'question' money is they need to know what it is being used for. When I pay 10$ per person for a small RTT and there are 20 people... We usually expect about 200$ of effort.

Things people seem ok with paying for:
*prize support
*Cost for the VENUE (either by helping the store with prize support or renting a hotel location)
*Food if a meal is provided
*Consumable materials like mission cards, objective markers, tropheys.

What people are not usually Ok with paying for:
*People's time so an event organizer can make some personal money.
*Paying for terrain or models for the event, people expect terrain and models to be donated or borrowed from supporters or store owners.

The last good megabattle I went to had 20$ per person and we had close to 35 people. They bought us about 200$ of pizza and drinks. They also gave out about 20 Door prizes throughout the day for 25$ in store credit. End of the day they gave out some other prizes too. Most people felt like it was a good time and value as the terrain was fun, the event was well run. I think the store sold about 8-900$ in product that day. I personally bought a box of Kanz because I got a 25$ store credit so they got an additional 20 bucks out of me over the 25$.

The store wins, the players win, everyone wins.

Could they have had a tourney and give out a large prize support to the winner and still had pizza and door prizes? sure. I don't think people mind paying as long as they see the money is actually used for what they think it should be used for.

I would consider doing a megabattle day at a large event like NOVA or ADEPTICON on the days I am not in a tourney.

I think the thing here is this: when I go to Adeptacon, I KNOW that the event will be there and if they say it will be awesome, it will be. If some guy I didn't know so well was running it, say, in his basement, I don't know for sure that it will be awesome. Maybe he'd buy all the terrain stuff and come the day of, maybe he'd quit or he'd save all the work to the last minute or it would otherwise not be what I expected.

In the end I might be open to playing with a private individual for a small fee if I trusted that he'd come through. But if anything fell through, I'd want my money back. Or more than likely, I'd prefer to pay AT the event rather than in advance.

It depends what the fee is. I would probably pay, but then again I'm in a game starved state...

I pay to play at Battle for the Shrine every year, but the money goes toward the Shriners Hospital. I'd pay to play in a well run Megabattle, especially if there were food and prizes involved. I also pay to play in tournaments, I guess I'm a schizophrenic gamer because i like competitive and fluff based stuff.

You pay for the models to play the game, paying to participate in large events is a minor detail.


Reality is, if you don't want to pay/support said event, don't go .

Well for what is worth I have hosted a big Apoc game before but have never run one. So I have along way to go before I would feel right charging for money it. I may just keep this an annual home run event for my club and friends and leave it at that. As I started writing and plotting and designing it just got me thinking about good scenario based play and how you do not see alot of that anymore. We read battle reports on tourneys all the time. To compare that to Apoc games or scenario games we read about here there is a clear separation in the amounts posted.

I appreciate the posts....The one I am doing is going to be about 25,000 to 35,000 points a side. I have special scenario rules written for the event to include army restrictions and stuff. I will pre-build the tables and photograph them for strategic planning and army building purposes. I have some of the fluff writtn out (that is going to take awhile) and I still am buying the pieces I need for some of things I intend have on the table. Terrain pieces and a Stormlord. Personally I think it would be cool to go to an event and immerse yourself in an Imperial Armor like campaign and duke it out with some other major baddies.

Is my math correct?
$300 overall cost.
Say 10 per side so $15 a head in.
2 day event
Prize support
Maps/tactical readouts/books all provided
Bits 'n' pieces o top of that.
Good quality table/models/campaign structure

All for 15 quid? Sounds like a great event to me. I'd pay.

Bikeninja wrote:Well for what is worth I have hosted a big Apoc game before but have never run one. So I have along way to go before I would feel right charging for money it. I may just keep this an annual home run event for my club and friends and leave it at that. As I started writing and plotting and designing it just got me thinking about good scenario based play and how you do not see alot of that anymore. We read battle reports on tourneys all the time. To compare that to Apoc games or scenario games we read about here there is a clear separation in the amounts posted.

I appreciate the posts....The one I am doing is going to be about 25,000 to 35,000 points a side. I have special scenario rules written for the event to include army restrictions and stuff. I will pre-build the tables and photograph them for strategic planning and army building purposes. I have some of the fluff writtn out (that is going to take awhile) and I still am buying the pieces I need for some of things I intend have on the table. Terrain pieces and a Stormlord. Personally I think it would be cool to go to an event and immerse yourself in an Imperial Armor like campaign and duke it out with some other major baddies.

In my mind this isn't really a large apoc event... Hell I could field both sides of this battle and not even put everything I own on the table...

Anyways, in order for me to pay for an event like this I'd have to know more specifics before hand.

Also bear in mind that apoc battles at any point level tend to get very confusing and drawn out just useing basic rules. I'd play through your idea first just to make sure it isn't to much more complicated.

I think I would definitely pay for something cool like that. I'm one of those people who like the story more than the tournament style gameplay. (Which none are bad, just up to preference)

As far as it being like paying for DnD.. my players pay to play, if not money they pay with there souls. Souls have an exchange rate like AUS to GBP though, so I think i'm getting ripped.

I'd certainly chip in for stuff like food, drink , t-shirts and the like.

If the game were at a hall or some other place you had to rent, I'd chip in for that, too.

We play most of our games at each others houses, though. Two of them have rooms large enough to lay out some pretty big Apoc games, so I'm not sure that I'd go anywhere else to play.