Building Community: Running Learn-to-Play events

Hey folks,

I'm back with another community building article! This time we're looking at Learn-to-Play events (LTP).

If you do follow me on Twitter or Hive, you probably have seen me posting about building the decks for LTP events and running them as well. They are a great way of growing your community after building them up. This article will give a quick recap of how I made the LTP events at my local a great experience. Hopefully, it will give you some ideas for running LTPs for your local as well.

Listing the event

LTP can actually be listed as official events, which can be located using fabtcg's event finder. So, make sure your local is listing the event, and choosing 'Welcome Deck Event' as the Event Type. Listing the event on the event finder makes it easier for new players to find the event. And, since its listed as a 'Welcome' event, it should encourage participation.

I'd recommend listing the event way in advance, at least a month. This way, new players wanting to get in the game have a whole month's window to find out about the event. Your local would also then have the opportunity to promote the event as well to their regulars who aren't onto FaB yet.

Prepping for the event

Likely the most important part, prepping for the LTP itself. For a functional LTP, you will need at least:

• Starter Decks
• A volunteer
• Booked tables at your LGS

Starter Decks

I would recommend introducing new players with Blitz, the format was also originally intended for this purpose before growing into its own.

If your store does not have a load of Ira starter decks, I'd recommend building some dedicated starter decks. I actually prefer building dedicated starter decks because the advantage is that the power level is just right for new starters. Additionally, you can let them keep the deck! A very enticing way to get them into FaB.

Whilst you can use your spare Blitz decks, I'd reckon the power level and difficulty to pilot is too high for learning purposes. Although they could buy a precon Blitz deck from the store, I think asking new players to commit to buying will be a deterrent and not a great idea.

A brilliant place to start building starter decks is with Deck and Draught's Joey Senart's Learn-to-play kit. The kit is essentially commoner deck lists for all the heroes in FaB. If your store's got bulk chaff, or you yourself have some, this is a fine opportunity to both get rid of chaffs and build starter decks. I spent hours building decks from chaffs and can confirm Joey's lists do justice to the playstyle of each hero. Grab a friend, chill out, and build starter decks!

Volunteer(s)

A volunteer's purpose at the event is to guide new players through a full game.

It does help to have at least 2 people at the event to help new players learn, so drum up some hype at your local! If you are expecting a really big number of people showing up, or there are way too many for your volunteer group to handle, I can also recommend doing an introduction section at the beginning of the event when most people have showed up. The introduction section can go through the gameplay, then people can go off and try it out and your volunteers can just help answer questions.

If your local also have a screen, I can heartily recommend showing The Professor's how to play video, if you don't feel as comfortable doing a whole game introduction yourself.

Booked tables at your LGS

This probably goes without saying. But, I thought I mentioned this anyway as you do really want to ensure that there's little interruption. An LTP session can go anywhere from an hour to three hours, depending on the number of people or how immersed the new players become.

Extras, extras!

If you want to do your LTP up a bit, I also prepared this PDF you can print out. Its the Hero art for the 6 heroes we built for out LTPs, accompanied by their Hero Highlight section on the fabtcg webpage, like Bravo's.

This could help new players pick their starting hero. Its not essential as you can just explain each hero's playstyle. But, I found this to be more visually impacting and easier for new players to understand. You can also simply replicate this for other heroes not in the PDF.

Running the LTP

And you're ready to run your LTP! Grab your tables at your LGS, lay out your starter decks and get ready to talk, a lot, about our beloved TCG!

For my two LTPs, the numbers were manageable at around 5-6 people. As they arrived, the store staff pointed them to our table. I greeted them and let them choose from the selection of beautifully displayed starter decks. Then, since I'm comfortable explaining the game, I also picked a starter deck and played against one of the new players whilst others watched, open-hand so everyone can see what cards there are. After everyone had some grasp of the rules, they then played each other whilst I stuck around to answer any questions.

Everyone really enjoyed the game and we did manage to convert a couple to become regulars at our Armoury, so it was all worthwhile!

I wish you all the best in getting new regulars for your local Armoury nights!

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