So attendance has been about 2 for the last couple of weeks at our regular hobby league events. That said I'd like to know what ideas people would be interested in seeing in order to make attendance better. Alternate formats, sealed, draft, silver or modern age tournaments?

Also whats the interest in doing either a MVL sealed or draft the night before the elite series or at any other point in the next month?


Hope to see everyone in a few hours for the Build a Legend event.

Hmmm... we had this problem in L5R until recently(Last February I was the only player, now we have enough to hold prereleases and OP tourneys) and here's what we did:

-If you go to http://www.kamisasori.net/kyudencarolina you'll see that we've brought the North and South Carolina playerbases together for a Carolina Regional forum. I can talk to Soshi Tenbin and see if he'll throw out a Vs. Forum for the same purposes.

-Right now we're holding a series of events called Seized Territory(named after the Card) where each playgroup is a team, and the teams visit other stores to 'seize' the store for them. After the circuit is over, the team with the most territory under their belt wins a plaque.

-Organization is hugely important. Get with Hippie Rob and the other Vs. TOs in the Carolinas and try to hold some non OP sponsored events. I know a Sword Tourney(First place gets a Katana) always draws good numbers for me. Play up the themes of the game. Give Epic battle Format a Try. Go on E-Bay and buy a Batman begins Batarang for first place. People will learn the game just to have a shot at something like that(as long as it's prominently displayed in your FLGS so people ask about it)

-Get with your local Comic Shop. Square away a Holiday Tourney where the Prize is a year subscription of their favorite two comics to first place, with second play getting a subscription to one comic. Do it in november/December so that people can use the subscription as a Christmas present if they want.

-Get with your FLGS and see if they'll spring for a box or two of MMK or MWS... one of the expansions you can buy $10.00 boxes for now. Hold Demos for new players, and then hold a free sealed tourney for the new players. Players want free things, and once the cardboard's in their hand they're more likely to get into the game. Your store will eat $10.00-$20.00, but they'll more than make that cash up if even one person picks up the game.

-Make sure there are Vs. posters and such in your store. if people see people playing a game they've never seen on the store walls, they'll think it's either niche or dead. Especially with the big Elite event in two weeks, you need to play up the visibility so that people take interest in a game... which usually happens when other people play it.

If I knew a little more about Vs. I'd have better ideas, but this is what I could come up with based on reviving L5R here. The two elements you need are visibility, and a hook. If there's a hook they'll bite, but only if they see it. Use the comic culture to push the game, and the depth of the system to keep people playing.

Also: bribes. bribes work well.

Thanks for the reply, luckily the store I play/judge at is both a gaming store and a comic book store. The shop owner asked me if we could do a tie in with the comics to try and get some of that crowd involved in the game and the subscriptions as prizes thing may just be the way to first try that out. The cheap sealed is something the other judge and I have talked about doing, along with donating some of our extra commons to do a random punks type event with anyone interested in doing it. But these are what we have geared more towards new players. I do like the idea of the seized territory type series of events. Especially since within 2 hours of here there are maybe 4 different play groups that at one point or another have regularly attended our hobby league events and at least one other shop (Hippie Rob's, which where the hell were you yesterday?!)that we could include. What I'm curious about right now is what players who've attended events at the Hobby Shop think we should be doing to get them back into the store to play.

Edit: While I love the idea of a regional forum for VS I'd first like to see "public" opinion on where to host it, here, yahoo groups or if Soshi Kenpachi can get it on their site then on that site.

The only reason I'm not showing up regularly is its too hard to get away right now. If I've got a clear schedule and the money I'll be there regardless.

I know you would Rob, and I think its a schedule/money problem for most right now. That one of the reasons I'm interested in hearing from you all about formats you'd like to see run for when you can make it.

I've found that some of our most popular events are drafts. If you can get a cheap box of an older set, charge $5 and have at it. Our constructed events don't usually draw as many people.

Boxes of MK and Origins are pretty cheap right now, and there are tons of cards in those sets that are legal for Modern/Silver now with the reprintings.

Also we order 2 of each kit, so that whaen we have a draft, we give away the other playmat. That's a pretty good deal for $5, 3 packs plus a chance for a playmat.