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So a fair few people are panicking a bit that in 3 years time GW is going to drop and Old World game and suddenly their local AoS players are all going to run off to the hills to play this new game. This got me thinking that too many are focusing on the wrong end of the stick and that there's a core symptom with many wargaming groups (be they a local club or run through a store or even through an official GW store); which is that the population is about as big as its going to get and that people are less likely to change games and will often only play one at a time.



So I thought it would be good to sit down and talk about what you can do at your local club an what you do do in order to help in what I think are the core areas:

1) Recruitment of new players

2) Return of old players

3) Representation of different games

4) Introduction of new games.

5) Skill sharing.

To me these 5 segments are the key to growing a groups interest in games and in growing the group itself into a larger, more stable and, importantly, more diverse group of players. Where the loss of one or two isn't going to be damaging; where new people are not an elusive rarity and where multiple game systems can co-exist alongside each other.

1) Recruitment of new players.

This is a big thing and many of the points touch on this. The attraction and retention of new players is critical to the health of any game group. If you don't actively promote the club and don't seek to constantly be taking in new people then the club is already on risky ground where the loss of players will often start a steady landslide of diminishing returns for all. I would also note that groups which are open and active in taking on new people often avoid the problems of tight knit cliques forming, which can often make it harder to get new people into the group

There are loads of things you can do to help recruit new players including, and not limited too:

a) Advertise. Yep advertise and keep advertising the group. Get yourself a Facebook group and keep it updated with photos and content; organise and advertise events through it. Put notices in local shop windows and advertising boards (post office); if you've a local hobby store (and the group isn't run through the store) then advertise there. Consider approaching local schools and universities.
Basically get the word out there and keep it out there. The more you can spread awareness and the more you can appear an active and engaging group the more chance you've got to get people into the club. Keeping active is important, even if its something as simple as replacing worn paper adverts with new ones (updated media and perhaps an upcoming event date).
Also don't just think of hobbyshops. Toyshops, craft stores, book shops, libraries, corner shops, all noticeboards etc... There are loads of places to put an ad. Plus if you've a good covering locally there's more chance that you appear active and welcoming and thus way more chance for people to give the group a try.

b) Run introduction events/games. If you can run an introduction event which can be geared toward introducing new people. Ideally this should be paired with an advertising push - eg if you've just managed to get the local university to let you put up some ads/advertise to the students then give a date and run an intro event.
Even if you're not doing a big welcoming event make sure you've got a few core games with introduction armies and such on hand at each meeting. The idea here is anyone walking in the front door new and without any models can be welcomed and introduced to a game with some models to play with for the evening - ergo involve them; make it someone's (or yours) duty to welcome and give them a game. It's a huge difference in making them part of the group instead of "Oh yeah nice to see you, you can watch some games if you like". That's passive, might hold no connection to the person and unless they were already wanting to play really badly, most will walk away as nothing engaged them.

c) Active social media. Active is a very key word. A lot of places start a social media and within a few months its dead. The key is to realise that the local club members might not ever use it and will chat and organise things through text messages or at the club itself. That's fine, the social media account isn't there just for them. It's there as part of advertising the club. Social media is a big thing now; you can bet anyone with a casual interest locally will hop online to look for a local club. Make that first search result yours - keep the club page active with photos from recent games and events; update it with score results; post about upcoming events. Again make it a duty of one or more people in the group to keep it updated and running smoothly. At the same time if you run multiple social media accounts (eg a FB, twitter, instagram) and one or more just end up not being updated ever either address it and get them updated; or close them. "Dead" accounts can show a sign that the clubs health is bad and a dead account is WORSE than no account. No account means they might find you through other channels, but a dead account suggests that the group is not worth chasing.

d) Prepare for the unprepared. I went into this a little bit above with the idea of having a couple of forces ready for intro games. Basically building on that be prepared for people who can walk in with nothing. There's a reason that when PP ran their Press Ganger system that one requirement was two painted starter armies owned by the PG person. You've got to be ready and able to welcome people with no gaming experience with a game. There has to be something in it for them to connect and get some real experience which might turn into a growing interest.

e) Network. Locally you might have one game store and no other clubs; or you might be in the middle of a city with a dozen clubs and several various stores. Whatever the local scene - network wit hit. If there's another club or group running don't "fear" them, embrace them. Inter-group competitions; joint events (eg hiring a bus to go to a major gaming convention together or pooling for discount rooms at a hotel by bulk booking etc...). Even if they don't play the same games you can network with them. The idea here is you're not out to "poach" players, but simply ensure that the local scene remains as connected as possible with each other. By having a good working relationship with the other groups you can all benefit from it.
Plus if your club/group starts to really dwindle and, through no fault of its own might have to cease you can easily work with the local network and blend into another group without issues. Similarly if you've got a really big local population you can organise bigger joint events or even competitions between you.

In the end the key is that locally you want more gamers and more recruitment of gamers to help provide more games and potential for variety of games to be supported. Networking is part of that parcel and can be a critical cornerstone to the growth of the overall local scene. Similarly bad local networking can lead to social isolation which can bleed into the local social interactions - this can be a negative thing that turns new people away. Even if you don't like whoever runs the other club, at least have a solid working relationship with them and their group. Heck you might even find that if your game nights are on different nights many people will locally use more than one group if they've the option

d) Inform and connect. Email and social media are great and can provide a fantastic casual resource for retaining communications. If you put your social media and newsletter email on all the advertising material you can get people signed up to those even if they've never turned up to the local club. A weekly/biweekly however you want can be a very powerful tool.

f) Avoid isolation of players. I touched on this above with demo games; if you're part of your group then part of that is making sure people don't get isolated. That is someone standing around not engaged with the group or separate from them. Make a point to approach them; make sure they are ok. They might just be waiting for a friend to turn up; they might be feeling shy or excluded; they could be nervous or even just feeling like they don't fit in because they don't yet have an army or such. Basically don't let them drift to the side - people who drift to the side are more likely to leave than get involved. They might not leave wargaming, but if they go home and hobby alone and maybe only play games with a sibling or one other friend then your club is losing out on at least one or more players. Sometimes people just need the ice breaking and it takes someone willing to approach them and lend a hand.

Plus its not always new people; established people can get isolated too. Perhaps they are the only one who plays a certain game; or they've just always been a bit shy or not very forward. Perhaps you could help them demo their game that they'd like to play with others; or give them a demo game of the popular game of the time for the club etc....

2) Return of old players/members. Where possible use social media and keep peoples emails and contact details. This lets you inform locals of major events coming up even if they aren't part of the currently active playerbase. If you still send them the emails for upcoming events that is still giving you a chance to get them back. Also don't be afraid to include links to major events in the game world - eg the recent GW news about an Old World Game in a few years is just the sort of thing to mention and put into an email for a weekly newsletter.



3) Representation of different games. this can be a tricky one and depends greatly on your local group size and focus. It also depends if you run through a store (be it 3rd party or GW) or if its a club without any store connection.
At its most basic you've a greater chance of securing a wider range of players if you run a club that is seen to support multiple game systems. The kind of people who want to play Historical games might also play 40K, however if you only play 40K at the club you might miss out some of the Historical players. The more members you gain to the club the more power that club has - that power can mean more club fees for facilities and upkeep; it can mean more people for events; for helping broaden the reach of recruitment; providing more skills to the group etc...
Furthermore I think that encouraging a variety of games (be that totally different systems or if its a store with limited stock that wants to focus on its stock; or even a GW store then sticking within the GW library of games) encourages a healthier club dynamic. It also means that you encourage people to retain their membership of the group if they switch games. If, instead, you only run an AoS club and force Old World into their own club then anyone who flits between the two has two clubs to split attention and their energy between. That creates a higher chance of them leaving one club to join the other; dividing people and resources. Plus it cuts out a lot of casual players who will flit game to game.

Don't just think wargames either- cardgames (magic the gathering); dice games; board games are all worthy additions. Of course if the club grows and gains powerful sub-groups within it you might well start having multiple club nights focused around specific games. A MTG night might well focus the clubs energies on magic for an evening, but where possible you could always have a spare table for other games for those who might not make it to their themed club night etc... Again this is another thing that is going to vary a lot based on your local scene. The idea is to try and avoid the local playerbase splitting along "company/game loyalty" lines.



4) Introduction of new games. This is pretty much already covered above. It's about not just new games to people who already game; but new games to new gamers and new people joining in. Another aspect is encourging people who might be interested in a different game that isn't played; into how they can promote it. Encourage them to have two small starter armies (or decks or the board game etc...); help them run the odd into game or show them how to set them up. Basically ensure that people have the tools and, where it fits into the group (eg at a GW store based club you're not going to start introducing Kings of War), present new things.

5) Skill Sharing. This is a big one many clubs forget. Skill sharing is all about working out the local skillbase and using those resources to better the club.

Newbies will need loads of new skill learning; be prepared to have someone guide them through how to build and paint; to run building and painting evenings every so often. Heck if possible have a painting and building table off to one side on regular club nights. Welcome in those who are just there to hobby and not war.
Such open welcome and skill sharing can help improve peoples loyalty to the group and their connection with the game and hobby. Newbies get increased pride and quality of their results; experienced people get to share their hobby in a different way. Heck if someone stops playing just being open to being a place where they can come and hobby and share with other hobbyists can keep them in the group through periods when they just don't want to or can't play (eg time constraints).



Organising tips - volunteers work best in pairs or greater. It's my experience that whilst individuals can be powerfully motivated and very enthusiastic; they are also fickle and easily lost. "Real Life" can take them away very fast. Working getting busier; family life even a short holiday can knock them out of the group for a while. So when you set tasks try and set them to pairs/teams. That way if one fails there are others to pick up the slack without having to be told to do it.

Volunteers, where possible, should have as few responsibilities as possible and practical within the group. If the whole group relies on Dave to do everything then if Dave leaves or gets busy with life outside the group the group can suddenly suffer. This links back to the previous point in that its very easy for volunteers to vanish without word or warning. Plus its their free hobby time, you don't want it eaten up only with club-stuff; so spread things out as much as is practical and sensible for the group.
These two points are about helping ensure that the load is spread and that whoever ends up doing club work is still getting their own free time. By building in redundancies it lets people easily step back and forward and slip into roles; plus preserving team approaches helps people avoid becoming isolated.

With online content remember that few comment, many read. You might find you do video battle reports and photos and written reviews and loads of content and yet don't seem to get many replies. REmember that such content (properly marketed of course so that people know its there to see); might not generate much buzz. However It's important to keep up with it. By keeping up you keep the online presentation of a lively and healthy club; each one is advertising your group.

Take responsibility not control. A lot of the above sounds like "things the club organiser/owner/store owner "should do" however they might not be. The idea of the above is to present a selection of ideas and concepts to think about to promote in your local scene. Plus if they aren't done, to be prepared to take over responsibility (not control) over them if you're promoting them. Growing your local club benefits you as well - it means more social interaction; more gamers; more potential games etc... So if you end up being the one to suggest it be prepared to also help put it into reality. In the end you've got to be part of the energy and drive that helps your local club survive and thrive.





So that big wall above (which isn't really that big) is a smattering of my ideas and observations of groups and game clubs. I hope I've presented some tools and ideas that can help you out; plus you might have ideas of your own or contrasting viewpoints and experiences. Come share them; we can pool ideas here and help use that to drive local club growth and diversity. Maybe you've run events that turned out really well; or found places that really get lots of people in fast. Perhaps you're a school teacher and can give some ideas on how people can approach and tap into that segment of society etc... Basically come share your experiences and ideas. The more we do that the more we can help each others local scene grow.

In the end bigger local clubs are what we want - that means more games; more players; more stability in the local scene and more potential to grow.

Great post.... I will need to digest it and think about it more before I have a useful comment.

Have an exalt!

A good read and some very solid points, I have notting much to add but I will keep an eye on the thread. Thanks for posting

some excellent points there

I'd add even if you've tried all the above and the club is still struggling don't take gamers fickle and fey natures personally, (attendance at mine swings wildly between a handful up to the mid-twentys with little rhyme or reason week on week)

Thanks guys!

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
some excellent points there

I'd add even if you've tried all the above and the club is still struggling don't take gamers fickle and fey natures personally, (attendance at mine swings wildly between a handful up to the mid-twentys with little rhyme or reason week on week)

Yep and that's where social media can be quite a big help. If you've got a down week or two (esp if your group has a lot of people in education chances are exam and summer are downtimes when everyone is either revising or away on holiday) then anyone new can still see that the group has very active periods. It's something to show if someone new turns up and there's only a handful of people there.


Which actually reminds me of one good point that I forgot, but which one would assume is always the case. Have whoever organises the club turn up EVERY week. This might not be the same person, like all the jobs it might be shared between people, but always have someone who is in charge attend every event. This helps with the start up and end of the event as there is someone responsible for unlocking things; accessing stuff and also making sure its all put away at the end of the night. Furthermore it means someone there is responsible for what happens that night. In addition that kind of person is more likely to be able to go forward to new people who turn up and make sure they settle in. Sometimes just having someone who is "in charge" helps a lot in these cases as it means you don't get the whole group loafing around waiting for someone else to take charge. Ensure someone is there every week who has the duty of taking charge for that day.

On the GMG Let’s Talk.... about community building they mention posting a “scenario of the week” to help people visualize what they will be doing at the next session.

I think that Overread has a spot on post that should be pinned to Page One.

I'll put to it also, that People don't need to worry about just 1 game, but this thread is great information addendum for ANY game system/ game club/ game shop to keep their local game communities healthy and keep it going.

Case in point, if you want to play A D and D, your welcome to. If you want to play Old School Rogue Trader, Go at that too. This comes down to the basic premise of keeping a community healthy, engaged, and self perpetuating. By getting new players involved, generating interest, and Not being a mutt, you cultivate a game system, and generate interest, while engaging new players, and pairing them up.

Some systems, maybe you can start with Skirmish level forces, or can start them out by playing RPG characters, and then adding them into the unit, then growing the units into armies of whatever game you are playing.

The biggest focus, I think, is to keep your game community going however you can.

I think that Overread has put a lot of thought and care into this post, and I would like it put to the Mods to see about pinning it to the top page, as an excellent conversation that everyone should contribute a little to, and tell what works in your areas, that might be carried over to others.

Wonderful information, Overread. Great post.

All good stuff.

I'm a member of a local club and one of the youngest (if not the youngest, there's another guy around my age). All the other members are 50-60+, and unfortunately it's very insular. More than half the club members just show up, maybe play in someone else's game, and then go home.

I've been pushing for more community interaction. Flyers put up in local libraries, talking about the club while gaming, going to local events, setting up a forum. It's been an uphill struggle with virtually no help from the rest of the group apart from a couple other old timers who are as enthusiastic.

And unfortunately, the response hasn't been great either. I'll continue to persevere, but I think part of the problem is the reputation of the group kind of being an insular club for historical gamers. We've been expanding our games recently, but we're definitely ignoring GW's games. I'm not sure that's a good idea, but then again, there are two game stores withing a half hour north and south of us that don't require a $100 yearly membership fee (which does get us a full day at a local senior center which has its own parking lot, bathrooms, and tables/chairs so it's very nice).

I'm planning to run another advertisement game at a local comic convention to drum up more interest in the club.

A $100 sounds a lot, but its not really that much and many hobbies can be far more expensive just to turn up to meetings. The key is to offer one or two visits for free and then also have different sign-up agreements. Eg perhaps a $50 half-yearly charge etc... so that the sting of the full amount is broken up.

That said if you've got a group that don't really want to grow it is going to be an uphill struggle to get more people on board. Some clubs do end up being more of a single group of friends who want to keep it like that, but won't refuse new people coming; they just likely won't work hard to get more people through the door. Even if doubling their membership could halve their membership costs or put that money toward more than just rent fees (such as terrain and other facilities etc...).




You might find that one reason is no one wants do to it and put th extra effort in when someone else (and younger) is suggesting all these ideas. Sometimes you've got to make the poster and show it to them and say "here Iook I made this, I can print more and put them up etc... how about we go with that?" Ergo be upfront about going the extra mile and show that you're willing to put work where your ideas are to grow the group. Take responsibility for it - though always come back to confirm with the group organisers before taking action. Taking responsibility is different to taking over/bossing the group around.

It's going up to $110 to cover renting the senior center and insurance.

We do let people show up for free to check us out the first time (and we've got that bolded on our club introduction).

And there's a proposal to allow for junior memberships, which lets you attend six times a year for $60.

We're also looking at partnering with a board gaming group to share the space and the costs. Hopefully this will encourage some intermingling.

 infinite_array wrote:
It's going up to $110 to cover renting the senior center and insurance.

We do let people show up for free to check us out the first time (and we've got that bolded on our club introduction).

And there's a proposal to allow for junior memberships, which lets you attend six times a year for $60.

We're also looking at partnering with a board gaming group to share the space and the costs. Hopefully this will encourage some intermingling.

All seem like solid steps in the right direction.

Interesting thread. A bit disheartening to see that the promotion relies a lot on social media these days, but I guess it is just a very useful tool. I found facebook generated a huge amount of anxiety for me because I have a specific phobia about not keeping on top of notifications and stuff and that interface was basically designed to overwhelm someone like me. So I deleted my account.

I guess I could use meetup or something though.

@ OP:

I guess your post took quite some time to write down. Good work.

Well, introducing new folks to tabletop gaming? Been there, done that for twelve months last year. Here are my experiences:

I visited my local GW store and a youth centre for intro games. The games introduced by me were as follows:

Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Rumbleslam and Freebooter's FATE (FF). Keep in mind that the two latter games couldn't be shown in a GW store.

The audience in the youth centre were mostly RPG people who form tight knit social circles which won't deviate much from playing said game once a month. If you find someone who is interested in the games I presented above then you should consider yourself extremely lucky. I provided all the minis for play which were well painted and in the case of FF even custom built jungle terrain.

So how reacted the audience? It was a mixed bag and very tough to "sell" a tabletop game to people. I had the most success with BB as a couple of people bought the starter box from the GW store. Two guys started to introduce FF in their social circle after ca. six months of my intro game. One guy bought a couple of wrestlers from ebay and afaik no one bought a Necromunda box. The few people I have spoken to explained that they would rather play 8th 40K because in that game you could also command tanks and have more dakka on the board.

Did anybody of the audience form a stable group in the youth centre for one of the presented games? Nope, the majority of my "clients" enjoyed in most cases a free game and balked at the idea to buy models, paint them and read the corresponding rules. These statements encouraged me to refrain from further activities to promote games as I wasted often my precious time visiting said locale without anybody inclined to have an intro game. A lot of people even had the audacity to point out the fact that those games were pretty expensive. Expensive?! Those games?! As you can see it would have been a fool's errand to try and sell them any kind of 40K or 9th Age.

Did I try to communicate via social media? Nope, but I read 1984 twenty years ago and therefore will never touch this stuff even with a gun pressed to my head.

Last but not least I have an advice for all of you out there who still want to do intro games to total strangers:

You need the patience of a Saint and an eye to identify your target audience to have success.

Have a nice day.

I just want to note that I mentioned social media more so specifically not because other methods don't work, but because its often overlooked by some older generations who might be more in a position to be doing introduction games and organising events and groups. I also did it to highlight how an "active" social media presence is more important over just having had one once and then letting it die off.

Honestly the whole "social media is evil" is pretty overblown if all you use it for is to advertise your local group and organise events for it. You're baiscally doing nothing that a forum can't do - save that you're using a platform people use and check daily (often many times) rather than attaching them to a forum that they might check once a week or month if ever. It's about removing online barriers.



Interesting that you mention RPG Groups as whilst they are "geeky" there's often quite a divide to wargamer ones. RPG games are typically very low cost to get into and even when they use models they are happier with prepainted affairs (or at least more used to them being marketed and sold them).

You mention "once a month" which also, I think, hinders some games getting a foothold because if events happen so far apart there's less time to reinforce your own "marketing" on them and to spark interest. The bulk of a month without any reinforcement means that you like as not would have a very hard time selling a new game to them; esp one with a big startup cost and time investment before they can "play". Once a week you can introduce growth campaigns and narrative growth games - ergo where people add a box of models every week or two and they can see growth moving from say a 100 point matches (Killteam/Warcry) into larger and larger games - spreading out the cost.

I think one mistake some make is that they do mention the price too early on in a "oh it will cost hundreds to get an army" which presents the false impression "It will take ages before you can play "proper fun games""

The only reason that I'm on facebook is because of my gaming groups. It is what I use to organize and advertise my events. Nothing else comes close to being as effective.

Couple of additional points and observations from my personal experience:

1) @40K: organizing large "open battles" frequenlty is a great way of accomodating players that have just started collecting and are nowhere near having own full 2000pts list. I started this way in 2nd ed with just a unit of Striking Scorpions, without even owning a codex yet. It is also a good way to get people accustomed with rules and feel of the game with minimal investment, so there is less room for bad purchase choices.

2) organizing such open presentation games at conventions, instead of more typical two-players introductory games greatly widens the net and increases the chance of someone getting hooked. Just let people command a unit or two for a turn and then either walk away or stay at the table. Even those who walk away to other convention activities may eventually get into the hobby/system you are promoting. It is also easier for introvert people to join in that way rather than ask for a full game, because they can walk away when it gets too intense for them.

3) it is far easier to recruit working adults with disposable income than high schoolers. There are a lot of boardgamers out there who are open to the idea of a game system larger than Zombiecide, but they are put off by 40K reputation - and to my experience it is more the reputation players being antisocial donkey caves than the game being an awfull mess.

4) Kill Team makes a great introductory 40K universe game, because it is cheap to own more than single force/faction and have a self-contained game newcomers can in turn show to their friends. You can then "upgrade" your favourite faction to a 40K force while leaving the rest for "boardgame night" Kill Team use.

5) Kill Team is also far better than Necromunda as an introductory GW game, because you don't need as much terrain while still playing in full 3D. Underhive is too similar to a typical miniature board game experience to sell the differences well enough to get people hooked on wargaming. And dense enough Necromunda table can easily cost more than a full 40K force.

6) have a public copy of at least basic rules available. People often prefer to invest in their own miniatures first, rules second.

And to expand a bit on Skill Sharing: if you have the space, keep a modeling/painting table and some basic resources/tools available at all times, even if it is just a jar of water, plastic glue and some clippers, so people who came in without prearranged games can stay and socialize without feeling unwelcomed. And this is really huge for introverted people, as it provides a necessary buffer of getting acquainted with regulars first before asking anybody for a game.

@ Overread:

The youth Centre in my home town is only open once per month for RPG and tabletop games.
While I did demo games on a few occasions in a GW store, I must admit that the narrow space provided there is detrimental for the enjoyment of any kind of games played in such a locale.

And yes, RPG gamers are as cheap as they come. I have been a Ravenloft DM for ten years and my fellow gamers invested in this time span their hard earned cash on a pencil and a rubber. Books, adventures and dice were provided by me.