I recently listened to episode 71 of the Iron Agenda podcast which focused on Fight Club, a special campaign-like system that the St. Louis community developed to help build their local gaming community.  I found the episode to be very interesting because I’m very focused on building my local community and am always on the lookout for new ideas.  The hosts asked people to share their ideas on community building, so I thought I’d write about mine – one local and one regional.

  On the local level, we’ve instituted an annual championship system at our store, The Only Game In Town.  The idea came to me from motorsports.  Racers race to win each race, but they also earn points at each race towards the annual driver’s championship.  I figured this would be a good way to encourage participation in our store’s activities if various activities could pay points towards a prize at the end of the year.  It would also help encourage people to finish tournaments because even if they didn’t win, they’d still be collecting points for the championship.

  So we instituted the “Biggest SOB” championship as tribute to being the most accomplished SOB.  (Somerville Ogrun Bokurs is the name of our club.)  You earn points depending on where you place in a tournament, winning an organized league award, winning painting competitions, having a certain percentage of your armies painted, and special events like terrain days or painting days.  I’m keeping a running total for each event.  Meanwhile, the store’s agreed to kick in a certain percentage of entry fees into the purse as store credit.  The larger each tournament is, the larger the amount that gets kicked into the purse.  At the end of the year, the winner will take 50% of the purse, while second gets 30%, and third takes 20%.

  On the regional level, I’m organizing the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament (MATT).  This idea comes straight from the New England equivalent that I’ve been particpating in.  Basically we’ve chosen a central location between the mid-atlantic states for a large tournament.  Stores and clubs are encouraged to send teams of 3 people each to the MATT to compete for a traveling trophy.  The tournament is run like a regular Steamroller where individuals are all competing to win it like normal.  However the team players are never pitted against one another and their wins are pools together to get a running total.  The team with the highest number of wins gets the trophy.  I’m really hoping an event like this will get some people out who don’t normally get to see each other, and better still, cross-pollinate between our gaming communities.

  What do you think of these ideas?  If you are interested in more details, ask to join our group on Facebook with the name “NJ S.O.B.s”.  Do you have other ideas to share that are happening in your area?

–Norbert