"Demo Days" at local board / card game shops?

Codex
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With this post I’m looking for advice from the community and any information from @Sirlin and company about growing my local player base.

I reached out to a game shop event organizer (maybe the owner? I’m not clear, messaged him via meetup.com) and asked what day would the most receptive audience be gathered to try out codex. He came back to me with a list of questions like:

  1. When will the game be available for retailers to purchase and sell in-store?
  2. Does the publisher offer “demo day” materials?
  3. Will the publisher sponsor tournaments?

I was pretty sure the answer to one was now / very soon for Starter & Core, with late this year / early next year on the other 4 colors, but had no idea on two and three.

I’m also curious to hear anyone’s experiences introducing the game to a larger group of new players, and any tips they’ve had to be successful. (I only have one deluxe set and one print and play set so it can’t be too big of a group ^_^)

So far, I’ve only taught the game to 4 or so people IRL, and the first time did not go great for me. The opponent had extensive MtG experience so he wanted to try full-game Blue vs White right away. I was so excited to play a “real game” that I did not go easy on him, and that gave him a terrible taste of Rook + Sets maxbanded that made him feel like the game was super imbalanced. Even after trying to explain politely that the way to stop that plan would be Free Speech, he left the table with a pretty neutral experience.

So far, that taught me:

  1. Always play a few games of 1-hero mode first with new players, to teach all the mechanics of buildings and heroes and spells and teching and patrolling and… :wink:
  2. Stick to the starter and Core heroes to start, as they are the most forgiving in their techs (you can’t tech too poorly)
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As you noted, the most important thing is that after someone plays their first game, they want to play again.

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This was a question for @Leontes, fyi.

  1. The game is already available for game stores to sell right now. That includes the Starter Set, Core Set, and Codex card sleeves. The Flagstone vs Blackhand (blue vs black) expansion street date is 10/21/16. The Whitestar vs Vortoss (white vs purple) expansion street date is 11/18/16. Game stores can get this stuff from any distributor who carries it, or from here: http://www.hitpointsales.com/buy-contact/

  2. Stores can get demo copies by contacting James@hitpointsales.com

  3. We fully encourage tournaments as it’s a game designed specifically for high level play. It’s MADE for tournaments. Players should enter tournaments because they love the game itself though, rather than for external rewards that a publisher provides. Instead of spending time and effort on developing tournament-only freebies, we put all that effort into making the game as good as possible for everyone. Entry fees and splitting the pot are the way I’ve personally entered fighting game tournaments for 20 years (in games that I loved, but not in games I didn’t, so that worked as it should have!). We’d love to promote Codex tournaments at game stores by posting on our front page and social media, highlighting the local store, showing pics, etc. Pass that info on to Leontes and he’ll work with any game store to spread the word about their events (and help with tournament rules too).

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Thank you for all that info, and I will remember to hit up Leontes next time, thanks Sirlin!

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