http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/7.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net GT event up, running, and flourishing.

How many tables does one need to start?
What sort of out of pocket cost are you looking at?
Are Gaming Stores a bad idea to start up out of?
If its managed properly, is there a sort of "snowball effect" concerning the cost? (do all those entry fees translate into more quality/bigger next year?)

Most importantly,

Is it worth it and why?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/313524/1871159.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/313524/1871159.page GMT GT's you want to coordinate with them to not impact other events schedules. Generally speaking you want 1 month between you event and others. Think of other tournment organizers as your colleagues, not competition. They can help you with Showing you mistakes they made. Example: in the Northeast USA we have~ Conflict (january) Colonial (early spring) Big Show (summer) Crossroads (september. With a nice scattering of some new GT's and smaller events in between

How many tables? This would be relevant to your population size. For example, and 80 person GT should have minimum 40 tables, however your probably want a few more to factor in those day of requests for admission. So you probably want about 50 total. This allows for extra just in case tables, and factors in breakage. Then you need to figure out how many pieces of terrain per table, what they are, and how you want them represented. Most GT's i've been to use 4-6 pieces of terrain, however with 8th terrain changes you want to think what you want to do.

Pocket Cost: no idea on this one, i've heard lots of rumors. Consider pinging Mihaila here, he runs to Big Show. He posts on Dakka a lot.

Gaming Store: if you are referring to running a GT out of a gaming stores, again re-visit the what size your looking to run. Its not a bad idea as most GT's are sponsored by local gaming stores. Conflict is run attached to a gaming store, Big Show is run in the same mall as Showcase Comics, Colonial is sponsored by local shows. Gaming stores can help you with idea and organization IF the owner is savy in the game and population himself/ herself.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/313524/1871211.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/313524/1871211.page GMT
Size: This depends on your local community, word of mouth more than anything will increase the size of your tournament year over year. You should fix a size (thus your costs) at the start. Pick #'s your fairly certain you can fill as far as attendance goes.

Costs: Your big hitters are: 1) Hall rental, 2) Tables/Terrain, 3) Prizes. It is perfectly acceptable to run a tournament out of a local store, and then once it grows beyond the stores capability to host find another venue. Not all area's have cheap easily accessed space. Don't under estimate the cost of terrain and tables, ensuring a good terrain/table setup directly effects your capability to bring players back the following year. Prizes, a lot of this can be drummed up through sponsorship, but if any money is left over from entry fees it can be used to bolster a light prize pool. Again, if you budget plan for an 80 person tournament it will cost a lot more than a 20 person tournament....so you better be able to draw 80 people if that is what you are investing in.

As for the snowball effect, with Warmaster's we've tried to plan that revenue from the current tournament seeds some of the costs for the following tournaments. It didn't always work out that we had money left over in the beginning though. You cannot cut corners on a current event, or the next event will flop anyway. A good strategy might be to use left over "profit" to mitigate costs for growth (i.e. paying a deposit on a bigger hall)

Is it worth it? That depends on your outlook. For myself (and the other key members of Warmaster's) we've greatly enjoyed seeing the ripple effect that it has had on the community in Southern Ontario. People are excited to play and attend the event, with partnerships for the Doubles forming upto a year before the next event. And the greatest compliment in my opinion is when people are building and painting specific armies to come to our event. It is fun to hang around war gaming buddies for the weekend, even if you aren't playing.

The downside is that it is a lot of work (a lot of hours can be soaked up between Information package creation, Mission creation and playtesting, advertising (A couple of us try to travel to smaller tournaments in the months leading up to the event to speak to tournament players and let them know about our event), Terrain creation....the list goes on.

I love doing it though.

Later,
WR

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/313524/1871664.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/313524/1871664.page GMT WR and njpc have good advice. I'll go in a different direction.

In some ways, tables and hall space are the easiest to take care of as money will provide for both.

What is critical are staff and terrain. You need good people to make the event happen. Day of the event you'll need 3-6 people (for a small event) to make the event run smoothly, but leading up to the event you'll need the same number of people to help with promotion, registration, play testing, etc ... Terrain can be cheap - but it takes a lot of labor to turn MDF and pink foam into gaming terrain. Also takes a lot of storage space.

You'll need web space - if for no other purpose than to post rule sets for that all important transparency. Online registration & cash handling would be even better.

Adepticon is an extreme example, but we have about 30 people working year round to make the convention happen. I think the on site convention staff must be over 150 people. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/313524/1871794.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/313524/1871794.page GMT