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Post by jefferestinpeace on Mar 4, 2015 10:23:29 GMT -6
Ok guys, so we might be losing a location due to a lack of an increase in sales for Warhammer stuff at Cat & Mouse with the League events. It's an unfortunate reality and something store owners need to keep in mind when running a successful business. So, we need to discuss a few things. First of all, motivating you turds is tough. I know we're all busy and it's not easy to get out to these events some times, but personally, I'm finding it not really worth the time I put in designing rules and events, working with store owners, and setting up and running game days. I know no one asked me to do this stuff and I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty, but I really don't want to lug all the terrain and boards around to a bunch of events every month and then be disappointed with the turnout. On top of that, I got one of the venues telling me it's not working. No shit. So we need to come up with a permanent solution, because I'm getting exhausted. The core is that we have a pretty mixed group of players. We have a handful of hobbyists, a handful of casual players, a handful of competitors, but mostly we each embody a mix of the three in one form or another. However, it doesn't really mesh well when designing events, as everyone's looking for something different. It's this lack of cohesion that makes every event lose steam; a few people can be excited as hell about something, but if others lose interest, that excitement isn't very self-sustaining. Easiest solution: Ditch C&M, store the shit at Wanderer's, play there the last Sunday of every month for pick-up games. If you want to have people over for games, go pick up the stuff, have your day, take it back. Mostly, get the shit out of my house (car). Linda sent me some other ideas, which I'd be willing to try, if I have help. I need to delegate to some other people who are cool with taking the wheel for a minute. The coolest is a Bounty Hunter League. Essentially, it's a $15 buy-in for 3 dog tags. You set up matches on your own however you want them, and the loser gives the winner one of their dog tags. They can then be traded in for prizes, starting at 4 dog tags a pop. It's either a discount on merchandise (the more tags you trade in, the bigger the discount), custom items like templates or objective markers, or whatever else we can think of. We can also try Mordheim or Necromunda (I know Joel's been talking about that a lot) or Kill Team or even the crazy Campaign in the back of the Horus Heresy 3 book, where you can make Ad Hoc units and shit. Something where we all pitch in to buy a bunch of boxes from a store, kit bash for a day, and play shit out. I felt our Mordheim campaign of day's long past actually lasted a good while, and I know I had fun doing it. Whatever we do, it just needs to address the problem of motivation and money (and maybe my sanity). So please, if you have an idea, share it here, let's discuss, and see if we can't all figure out something we'd each be interested in. At the very least, tell me what motivates you to play and spend. Or simply state that you'd rather ditch this shit and just PUG it out at Dice Dojo and people's houses. TL;DR: Shit ain't working. Tell me what might.
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Post by jefferestinpeace on Mar 4, 2015 10:29:16 GMT -6
Upon further thought, I'm once again expending too much energy.
I'm all for telling Linda to do whatever she wants and that we can show up with terrain and hopefully some players. I gotta stop taking on responsibility for organizing events though. The store itself should be doing this. I don't have the time.
All hail Wanderer's Refuge.
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Post by Nick P on Mar 4, 2015 10:57:41 GMT -6
I have only been to Cat and Mouse a few times, mainly because its just not easy to get to from where I live in Old Town; but do they even sell warhammer stuff there? I feel like I didn't even see any when I was there last time.
I love wanderers, Eileen is phenomenal and always treats us well, so I'm 100% for continuing to play pickup games there and spending my money there.
There's a decent chance that Jen and I will be moving in the fall, in which case we're looking at buying a place with enough space for a game-room. I'd only have a 6x4 and maybe a smaller 4x4 available, but that's something - I'm always happy to have people over.
And if we want to continue doing the "chip in a few bucks" game, so we can rent out my condo's party room to play games, we can absolutely keep doing that - there is enough space for 3-4 tables, and a smaller table for board games, plus full fridge and stove/oven for food and stuff.
I also don't mind going to Dojo to play games, but it never really felt like a place we could call home base sort of thing. If that makes sense.
So where does this put us with the tournament, in or out?
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Post by jefferestinpeace on Mar 4, 2015 11:02:02 GMT -6
They do have Warhammer stuff there, at least a Module 1. It's not the best selection, but then again, the dock workers strike has kinda short changed everything methinks.
I'm with you on DD; it just seems like a weird place. However, there's no other place for a last-minute mid-week PUG, so yeah, it has its utility.
I also really enjoy Wanderer's. I'd like to do more there if we could, but space and time are a Warhammer player's worst enemy.
The tournament is a go still if people RSVP. So far, it's me and Tim.
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Post by Nick P on Mar 4, 2015 12:00:09 GMT -6
Yeah right I RSVPd homie, you know I'm in on that shiz. In fact, Jen wanted to go to Ohio that weekend to see my family, and I told her to kick rocks and suck eggs, because I had toys to play with.
Commitment guys, this is what adults do.
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Post by Russell on Mar 4, 2015 13:29:32 GMT -6
Firstly, thanks to Jeff for putting all this garbage together. Even if things don't work out or they inevitably get forgotten, we all appreciate the effort that goes into it. Mainly the MS paint drawings.
Okay, I think our group's collective buying power has been spread too thin across two stores. I'd say it's too little for even one store (see: NDG). We should just stick to one place we play regularly, even if it's only once a month (which fucking blows). My vote is gonna be Wanderer's, obviously.
Speaking of buying power; most of us are pretty good at spending money at the places we play at. But, if you're someone who's been to a place more than once and you've not purchased anything, you're a fucking asshole. We shouldn't have to police ourselves to make sure we're supporting the place we play games at, but I'll happily kick someone out of our coterie if they can't be bothered to drop down some cash every once in a while.
Note: if you know of someone that fits this description, call them the fuck out. Or, send me a message and I'll call them out. I don't want to be a homeless wargamer again.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2015 13:55:36 GMT -6
Biggest issue for me is that the events are always on the weekend. I miss the good ole Wednesday night club.
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Post by Russell on Mar 4, 2015 14:03:25 GMT -6
Biggest issue for me is that the events are always on the weekend. I miss the good ole Wednesday night club. For sure. Why did you have to go and ruin Galactic Force, Andy?
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Post by Nick P on Mar 4, 2015 14:12:19 GMT -6
Okay, I think our group's collective buying power has been spread too thin across two stores. I'd say it's too little for even one store (see: NDG). We should just stick to one place we play regularly, even if it's only once a month (which fucking blows). My vote is gonna be Wanderer's, obviously. We shouldn't have to police ourselves to make sure we're supporting the place we play games at, but I'll happily kick someone out of our coterie if they can't be bothered to drop down some cash every once in a while. 100% agree on all fronts - though I feel like the problem with NDG wasn't so much "we're not buying enough" but more "we're not buying enough to solely support a store's $7,000 per month storefront rent". With Wanderers dabbling in so many sources of revenue, I shouldn't think Eileen would ever have to worry about us. That being said, its blatantly obvious that we should be supporting the store we play at. I try to drop $40-50 in Eileens register every time I go there, whether its for paints, model kits, brushes, whatever. Especially since we're only there once per month, not a big ask in my opinion. I do wish we could have more "pick up game" nights at wanderers, but with so many different game nights scheduled I get why that would be tough to do. Maybe someday in the future, if we actually spend enough money there, she'll be more inclined to make a twice-monthly game day, or even a (dare I say it?!?!?) WEEKLY game day. WHAT.
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Post by englishchris on Mar 4, 2015 14:30:48 GMT -6
I will also echo Russell and say thank you Jeff for generally being awesome with organizing all of this!
Losing my place in old town meant I could no longer host games/events, which I would happily do, as it implied more alcohol consumption than normal :-)
Throwing down a few bucks for nicks party room sounds like a good option if we want to do events, but not a long term solution.
WR and DD are both inconvenient for me to get to from my new place, but I can make the effort. I have no problem with DD, but they already have a warhammer group. But Aileen is pretty awesome.
I will always happily support my local gaming store, but there is a limit even to how much I can buy, and how many projects I can do. Warhammer is only profitable when people are building new armies and if people also buy from the store. NDG showed that we as a whole are not doing enough of this (but NDG also relied upon us alone and pissed some of us off).
I think that long term solution would be to pick one place and stick to it. Last Sunday of every month is quite rare. Can WR host us more frequently? DDs basement is pretty much always available. On top of this hosting an event at Nicks or Dans or someones, once in a while, should be maintained.
May I recommend, that once we've figured this out, we as a group give jeff some time off, and organize things instead? One season I could organize a campaign map, another season, someone else an escalation league, someone else a tournament or apoc, etc etc. Rotating this around a group of volunteers would help relieve jeff and answer to the different needs and desires of the group.
Thoughts?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2015 14:34:41 GMT -6
I will also echo Russell and say thank you Jeff for generally being awesome with organizing all of this! Losing my place in old town meant I could no longer host games/events, which I would happily do, as it implied more alcohol consumption than normal :-) Throwing down a few bucks for nicks party room sounds like a good option if we want to do events, but not a long term solution. WR and DD are both inconvenient for me to get to from my new place, but I can make the effort. I have no problem with DD, but they already have a warhammer group. But Aileen is pretty awesome. I will always happily support my local gaming store, but there is a limit even to how much I can buy, and how many projects I can do. Warhammer is only profitable when people are building new armies and if people also buy from the store. NDG showed that we as a whole are not doing enough of this (but NDG also relied upon us alone and pissed some of us off). I think that long term solution would be to pick one place and stick to it. Last Sunday of every month is quite rare. Can WR host us more frequently? DDs basement is pretty much always available. On top of this hosting an event at Nicks or Dans or someones, once in a while, should be maintained. May I recommend, that once we've figured this out, we as a group give jeff some time off, and organize things instead? One season I could organize a campaign map, another season, someone else an escalation league, someone else a tournament or apoc, etc etc. Rotating this around a group of volunteers would help relieve jeff and answer to the different needs and desires of the group. Thoughts? During the summer when I have significantly more time I'd be down for organizing something. I gm pathfinder and shadowrun every weekend so I'm no stranger to writing up story lines and such.
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Post by jefferestinpeace on Mar 4, 2015 14:36:31 GMT -6
It would be awesome if we could expand our presence at Wanderer's. I sent Linda an e-mail saying that I can't organize shit there anymore, but if she puts events together, I'll happily attend and even provide some terrain. We'll see how that goes over, but yeah, as Russell said, it's just way too much of a hassle to spread ourselves so thin.
Even today, I just ran over to Wanderer's to pick up some Centurions and some more Imperial Assault dice and it was just so nice to be there. Not that C&M was hostile or anything, but it did seem like we were trespassing a bit, even though Jess is really nice and Linda's been as accommodating as possible, if no one's taking a strong hand in organizing shit they want organized. After this month, maybe we can ask about possible expansion into a weeknight somewhere. It would be very nice to be able to get a PUG or two over there.
I feel you Will. Working weekends kinda kills a lot of our group's hobbying and I wish we had an alternative outside of DD. Maybe we should all make more of an effort to make it over there; I know it's really not far for many of us. For some reason though, it just seems so annoying to me.
And look guys, no one's asking anyone to drop a hundo each time we go play games, but it's more than good practice to pay where you play, especially if you have the income. Like Nick said, just paints and stuff go a long way for their turnover and gives them reason to keep us coming back.
With that in mind, would anyone be able to get their hands on a big wooden pallet so that we can safely store the terrain and shit at Wanderer's without fear of flood damage? Getting this shit off my hands, now that I know it's a possibility, needs to happen like meow.
Thanks guys. It's good to know that our group here is a group for a reason. It's a shame one of us can't just win the fucking lottery and open up a money pit games store for us to push our plastic around in.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2015 14:40:55 GMT -6
I feel you Will. Working weekends kinda kills a lot of our group's hobbying and I wish we had an alternative outside of DD. Maybe we should all make more of an effort to make it over there; I know it's really not far for many of us. For some reason though, it just seems so annoying to me. I get this too, any time I'm at DD I definitely feel like an outsider. They already have several long standing groups, and walking in on them just feels odd.
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Post by T1m on Mar 4, 2015 15:03:13 GMT -6
I know that this has been floated in the past, and because they took so long to actually open it lost steam, but what about that Geek Bar place? I think they are actually open now and looking at their calendar they do have a wide variety of events and presumably space.
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Post by Nick P on Mar 4, 2015 15:06:12 GMT -6
It's a shame one of us can't just win the fucking lottery and open up a money pit games store for us to push our plastic around in. Dude, if I can build a game-cave like the one English Chris posted in Mediahammer...I can guarantee you all army storage space for eternity and a place to play, just like, all the time. Omg.
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