IMPORTANT: What are you doing to bring people into Pirates?

[wantkrakens]

Well, let's face it guys....The community for this stuff is dying, and we need to do something about it. Answear the poll honestly please....... What are you really doing to bring in new players? I was just thinking about it because I have almost 900 ships, and the most people I ever play with is 4. I think this thread should hopefull help give people some new ideas on how to bring new recruits into the game. I had about 3 ideas....


1. Maybe spare some duplicates? My idea was just to teach someone the game, play a little, and once they start liking it don't put them out on the streets with nothing. Give them some of your duplicates, come on guys, I saw the poll results, some of you voted for 50% duplicates in your fleet.

2. Keep the rules light. What I mean by this is just to simply ditch some of those rules that (in my opinion) make the game boring, you don't really want to try and teach a new player and go all nationality, no duplicates, no stacking helmsman....blah...blah blah.. (Okay so maybe that last rule isn't so bad to teach new players..)

3. Try and get players you have recently taught to teach others. Okay so let's say you just taught a guy, try and make sure he knows enough rules to teach others. Then he has a chance to teach and play with others friends or sibli .
Anyway, those were just my ideas (never said they were good..) feel free to post your ideas right here in this thread.

[xerecs]

The last people I taught were my brothers, and that was a looooong time ago now. All three of us are so versed in the rules and intricacies of the game that when we try to teach the game to our parents and friends, we wind up stepping on and over each other try to get the rules across, and it just winds up a muddled mess. I try to set an example and hold my tongue when they try, but it doesn't always work....

Oh, the one exception to that might be the friend who joined us for my Economy game, we three successfully taught him how to play, although he seized the initiative, downloading the Pirate Code before I ever did lol.

[scannerbob]

I've taught the GF last year. We started out simple as you say. Used basic ships (no Scorpions, Switchblades, didn't even use Sea Monsters at first) no terrain to start (no fog, reefs, Sargasso, etc.) And generic crew truly were generic. (any captain would work, not just the nationality that matched the ship) but we kept named crew as having to match.

We just used ships out of my 4" game binder first, but when I could tell she really liked (I mean LOVED) this game, I started giving her doubles. To date I've given her 1 complete OE set, and pretty complete sets of MI, PotC, RotF, F&S, SS. Also random doubles of CC, Rev, DJC, and a few BC and SM. That's why I bought that almost complete SM set from you for her. She's also bought a bunch of packs, value boxes, the Plunder pack (her only 10 master) and a Rev tin from that shop by us. We're thinking of going up there today again. He still has about 2 boxes of CC, maybe a box of MI, and a still sealed 18ct display box of DJC that we might buy up.

I would have to say she's been my most successful pirate student.

[wantkrakens]

Cool, just got a thought reading your post though; You said you gave away a second completet set of PoTC right? Well that's where all the krakens are, which I want.

[xerecs]

scannerbob wrote:

He still has about 2 boxes of CC, maybe a box of MI, and a still sealed 18ct display box of DJC that we might buy up.

He still has packs. Of DCJ. In a store. Where is this person?!

[cannonfury]

I tried getting my girlfriend into the game too, and she enjoyed it but not enough to commit large amounts of time to it. Right now I'm trying to convince a few buddies of mine to clear out some time and play a few games with me, so I'll see how that goes.

The last group of people I taught were my brothers, and now as some of the others are finally starting to get older I might teach them as well.

[scannerbob]

wantkrakens wrote:

Cool, just got a thought reading your post though; You said you gave away a second completet set of PoTC right? Well that's where all the krakens are, which I want.

Well.. mostly complete.. (wink, wink) Actually, I DID buy her 2 of them. But I haven't given her any of he SRs from the sets. I don't really have enough spares of those to give away. I even gave her an LE set from SCS, and one from BC.

[cannonfury]

wantkrakens wrote:

Cool, just got a thought reading your post though; You said you gave away a second completet set of PoTC right? Well that's where all the krakens are, which I want.

Not all of them, there is Terrox which I just got today, which I would be willing to trade for either Polaris (RotF) or Speedy Return.

[a7xfanben]

wantkrakens wrote:

1. Maybe spare some duplicates? My idea was just to teach someone the game, play a little, and once they start liking it don't put them out on the streets with nothing. Give them some of your duplicates, come on guys, I saw the poll results, some of you voted for 50% duplicates in your fleet. 2. Keep the rules light. What I mean by this is just to simply ditch some of those rules that (in my opinion) make the game boring, you don't really want to try and teach a new player and go all nationality, no duplicates, no stacking helmsman....blah...blah blah.. (Okay so maybe that last rule isn't so bad to teach new players..) 3. Try and get players you have recently taught to teach others. Okay so let's say you just taught a guy, try and make sure he knows enough rules to teach others. Then he has a chance to teach and play with others friends or sibli . Anyway, those were just my ideas (never said they were good..) feel free to post your ideas right here in this thread.

I've done the first two with almost everyone I've taught. The third one is MUCH trickier...

Here's one of my all time favorite threads - it could help emphasize how great this game is when trying to get people interested.
Coolest part of Pirates CSG? (for you)

I regret not starting to teach people until January 2015, but I've technically taught 13 since then. (I say technically since around 5 have only played once to my knowledge - coordinating times and getting people free is tough heh)

As for your first comment, I wouldn't necessarily even say the community is dying... this forum has had a lot of new members pretty recently, and the subreddit has more than doubled in size since I joined it, going from 20-25 members/subscribers to 57 as of this post. A picture from my Fleet Review somehow even made the front page of BGG, which increases exposure and potential nostalgia. The rebirth of the VASSAL module gives people a way to play remotely. Even veterans like Cadet Captain Mike, Sariouriel, old_man, and holofernes pop in once in a while. All of these serve to inspire us and "keep hope alive".

[scannerbob]

cannonfury wrote:

wantkrakens wrote: Cool, just got a thought reading your post though; You said you gave away a second completet set of PoTC right? Well that's where all the krakens are, which I want. Not all of them, there is Terrox which I just got today, which I would be willing to trade for either Polaris (RotF) or Speedy Return.

If I'm not mistaken, isn't Terrox a SE from the RotF treasure chest tins? The 4 PotC SEs were the 4 krakens that came in those tins, with pictures of Jack, Elizabeth, Will Turner, or squid-face Davy Jones on them.

[wantkrakens]

I already have a Terrox. And 2 speedy returns, how about we say $5 on that Terrox?

[cannonfury]

wantkrakens wrote:

I already have a Terrox. And 2 speedy returns, how about we say $5 on that Terrox?

I would trade for the Speedy Return, but no I wouldn't sell it at that price.

[wantkrakens]

cannonfury wrote:

wantkrakens wrote: I already have a Terrox. And 2 speedy returns, how about we say $5 on that Terrox? I would trade for the Speedy Return, but no I wouldn't sell it at that price.

Would you sell any of the other krakens? Also what price were you thinking?? My Speedy is punched so you probabally don't want, they are both punched.

[cannonfury]

wantkrakens wrote:

cannonfury wrote: wantkrakens wrote: I already have a Terrox. And 2 speedy returns, how about we say $5 on that Terrox? I would trade for the Speedy Return, but no I wouldn't sell it at that price. Would you sell any of the other krakens? Also what price were you thinking?? My Speedy is punched so you probabally don't want, they are both punched.

Let's take this over to PM so that we don't derail this thread, but I am interested.

a7xfanben wrote:

I regret not starting to teach people until January 2015, but I've technically taught 13 since then. (I say technically since around 5 have only played once to my knowledge - coordinating times and getting people free it tough heh)

How did you get them to want to play initially? Every time I suggest, I get a "sounds cool, but not right now" kind of response, and I was wondering how you managed to get people enthusiastic immediately.

[a7xfanben]

cannonfury wrote:

a7xfanben wrote: I regret not starting to teach people until January 2015, but I've technically taught 13 since then. (I say technically since around 5 have only played once to my knowledge - coordinating times and getting people free is tough heh) How did you get them to want to play initially? Every time I suggest, I get a "sounds cool, but not right now" kind of response, and I was wondering how you managed to get people enthusiastic immediately.

Well, more than half of the people that I've taught have been either family members or 5 people at a game night, so for the former there wasn't a large "barrier to entry", especially when they see how much I love the game, and for the latter it was a game night, so people were there to play games (I'm in college so I need to take advantage of things like that more heh).

For the others, I generally just say I have a cool game about ships and naval warfare that would be fun to play together, and we set up a time. It might help to show them a ship or two first - maybe have a built ship with you when you talk about it, or if it's through text or email or whatever send them a cool picture (maybe one of your customs heh) to illustrate how unique it is. Playing up the 3D nature and giving them their own stuff helps, at least I think. In addition, mentioning some of the points in the thread I linked above could help, though some of it goes beyond the scope of teaching someone who's playing for the first time.