Let's talk matchmaking and player recruiting strategies.

[Cannonshop]

Yeah, I'm going there.  What's your best ideas on how to recruit new players, meet players, arrange for matches, arrange game nights, gather other players together, find opponents...in the physical, really real world?

It's something that's kind of nagged at me since I backed away from the scene ten years ago (mostly due to lack of open venues nearby), but it's something that really touches a lot of threads here in 'general', including the thread talking about what a revamp of tW would or should look like.

Rules changes mean nothing if you can't get a game together.  Custom designs only impress on the internet for so long before they all blend together as repetition of the same thing-that is, idly theorizing with no table-top-time to really prove your position.

so, let's talk about what it would take to drive up the population of new players and the frequency of live games!!

I'll take my time responding on this one, because this isn't about me talking, it's about me (and hopefully lots of lurkers) trying to listen.

[ActionButler]

The Demo Team is, of course, the best vehicle the game has right now. A group of people who have been passionate about the game well before, during, and after the current renaissance is worth its weight in gold. Whether they are hosting basic demonstrations with another friend already familiar with the game, showing off the rules to potential new players, or managing a small Grand Melee/Grinder/Whatever, you can't put a price tag on that kind of advertisement.

What (I suspect) a lot of people are not going to want to hear, is that the next best strategy is competitive play. As awesome as its members are, there is a limit to the reach of the CGL Demo Team. That's not an accusation, a criticism, or a weakness, it's just a fact of math, time, and geography. A local tournament hosted by your FLGS, your school's gaming club, or an upstart gaming convention is a terrific way to attract attention to the game. That's not going to happen without a basic set of competitive play/tournament force organization rules, though, because "just take whatever you want" is, has always been, and will always be terrible advice when "whatever you want" refers to 100+ possible options that all do very different things at varying levels of success. Some people will appreciate that sandbox approach for what it is, but others are going to want rules, suggestions, and limits before spending money on stuff.

A basic set of tournament guides, rules, and restrictions allows for people/clubs/cons/shops with no current affiliation or access to the Demo Team to host fair, balanced, and accessible games that can be enjoyed by new players and veterans alike. Does that pose a potential threat to the ages old beer-and-pretzels, everyone has access to everything because salvage approach to the game? Maybe. It definitely might. But something is going to have to give somewhere. Either we take this opportunity to help the franchise grow by creating new mechanisms and opportunities for new people to enjoy the game without direct interaction with CGL or we just keep doing what we've always done and eventually watch this new wave of excitement run out of gas.

[Geg]

Ooo.   I have done this twice.   Once pre-Covid, and once post-Covid.

The core everything is scheduling and logistics:

• Play games in a store. Look like you are having fun.
• Have a scheduled, standing event for people to plan around.
• Have a place on the internet for players to join.  (Discord, Facebook, Meetup)
• Be responsive to communications from player and open to what players want to do.
• Have a plan to scale beyond one table.

Having done monthly and weekly setups.  It's MUCH easier to grow a group with weekly game and a dedicated "Battletech Night." Then, if you can get to a weekly tempo, what has worked well for me is having a rolling series of events:

• Head-to-Head Round Robin League, aka Play everyone in the group
• Scenarios (Maybe a Campaign)
• Pickup Game Night
• Alpha Strike Night

The scenarios outside of the campaign is where you can go an Urbie Derby, Grinder, or a Grandmelee just to get everyone around a big table having fun.

I created the Brooklyn Format (BK10K) to specifically facilitate the operation of this type of schedule.  It's tuned for our specific needs.  What is in it, is less important than the consistency it bring to the events making it easy for people to just show up and play.

[Geg]

What (I suspect) a lot of people are not going to want to hear, is that the next best strategy is competitive play.
(snip)
A local tournament hosted by your FLGS, your school's gaming club, or an upstart gaming convention is a terrific way to attract attention to the game.

I have been framing this up as head-to-head play. Framing it as Competitive Play or Tournament Play brings a ton of baggage. While framing it as Head-to-head play implies that doesn't need to be overly competitive and it doesn't need to everything to be geared towards tournaments.

Without head-to-head play you wind up playing something like DnD with Mechs. And as much fun as these narrative games can be, they don't scale.  To effectively scale, and eventually branch out to more stores, you do need a head to head culture that players can port anywhere.  Ultimately, you need to find that balance. The campaign play resonates hard with a lot of players, and can make the game sticky in terms of bring people back to the table, but unless GMing is your literal job, its not going to drive growth of the community.

Necromunda and KillTeam have head-to-head narrative league-like things, that it would be great of CGL adopted for Battletech, along side a more traditional competitive play.

[LAMFAN]

Pickup games with local people, hands down. Facebook groups and discord groups are helpful for finding them.

Demo Team is okay, but limited in that it doesn't happen as often. The honest to God BEST way of introducing people is to advertise your weekly "Battletech Game" day, make sure people who aren't new are flexible with adapting the game that day to include a new player.

Make sure to introduce them by giving them one or two mechs to pilot and try it out on your team, give them tips during gameplay, and show your passion for the setting (be as brief as possible with it but make what you say impactful). Also make sure they get introduced to how the record sheets work slowly throughout the match, that way you EASE them into it (if they still find it too complicated then that's ok, there's plenty of others who wholed the prerequisite autism to enjoy our Mathtech).

[ActionButler]

I have been framing this up as head-to-head play. Framing it as Competitive Play or Tournament Play brings a ton of baggage. While framing it as Head-to-head play implies that doesn't need to be overly competitive and it doesn't need to everything to be geared towards tournaments.

I absolutely love that strategy. All the benefits of an actual plan for playing the game with less "but we've never done it that way before" pushback.