Getting people through the doors

So you've got your hall booked for a date, and your terrain, tables mats, etc, together. You're past the hard parts now, but we're missing the most important part - the players! So how do you get people to turn up?

Step one (as always) is to approach your local clubs, to see if there's interest from players in and around your area already. If you're very lucky you can fill your events with just these guys. But what if your local club(s) only fill half your tournament? This is where we have to reach further afield. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools available to help us with this.

Facebook (like it or hate it) is incredibly useful for this. For those operating out of the UK, the UK Warmachine group is a great place to advertise your event and most local clubs have groups too, join these! International readers will know their own local facebook groups better, look to them. Using social media can help you get yourself known around the local area, and even nationally. Creating an event on Facebook can help you share to these groups and get people signing up to come to your events. Using these, you can really spread the event round the community and get people through the doors.

Use your own connections as well, such as adding people you've met at events (they're likely just as passionate about Warmachine as you and other Warmachine events are a good recruiting ground for other Warmachine events). Networking is quite important in general for Tournament Organising and for growth of the community. When you ask players to come to tournaments, you can ask them to invite their friends as well. Other tournament organisers are great resources as well. Ask if they can invite people, from regions other than your own, to your event. The more the merrier!

Getting the right information out is also very important. Your potential players will want to know everything about your event, even the things you haven't thought of yet! When you put your event up on social media (whether that's Facebook or something more wargaming specific, Tiebreak for example) you'll want to include information such as:

•What format your event is
•What the players should bring
•What time they should be there
•How many rounds it will be
•Where it will be held

All this information should be readily available to anyone who wants to come to your tournament (if you're using Facebook, this usually means setting the event as Public rather than Private).
Your players should have lots of stuff to bring: models, lists, tape measures, cards, tablets for Warroom, pens, tokens, etc. There's a lot of stuff to remember, so naturally some things might be forgotten. Bringing your own spares for some of these can really help out a player in need and will net you some good karma too. Usually, the most forgotten item are list sheets, so it's a great idea to bring your own stack of spares. I've almost always had to give out spares when hosting tournaments (Blanks of these can be found in the PP Tournament packs here on page 15). If you forget these you can pass out blank paper and get players to write their list out. You'll also need lots of pens for this part, so I suggest bringing several spares.

You will need information from your players as well. If players can't make it, they should let you know! If they're going to be late, they should let you know! If they have any conversions they're using they should let you know! If they don't like the format, don't worry, they'll let you know! Communication is a big part of the tournament experience and you need your players to communicate with you just as much as you need to communicate to them.

Finally, before I get to talking about the day itself, I'll just cover some tips to think about when your players turn up on the day. Before the tournament begins, wander round as people turn up, chat with them, ask them about their armies. If you don't know them introduce yourself, ask what they're playing, about where they've come from or how their trip was. The aim is to make players feel both comfortable and to be approachable. You don't want to come off as stand offish if there is a rules query or judge call to be made. Chat about anything you might have in common, introduce them to other people who they might not know. Play the host. Players will tend to sit in their own groups, but if you can get the groups talking to each other you can help people make new friends and make them more likely to come back.

Next time - The day and event itself!