We’re back again with some pointless philosophical navel-gazing, which I consider a major part of all wargaming and hobby projects. In this case, I’ll be laying out some basic elements of running game demos, what the point of them is, and how to ensure that your demo game can hopefully lead to building your community.

I’ve been running demos for games for a very long time, starting way back in 2011 with Malifaux and steadily moving through a range of games down the years, including Mordheim, Blood Bowl, Infinity, Wild in the Streets, Hairfoot Jousting, and many, many more. I have run some absolutely god-awful demos where everyone walked away with less interest in the game, and I’ve run some that have helped set up hobby communities that are somehow still going strong. As such, these are some of my notes from years of running demos to hopefully be successful.

What’s the core goal?

The core point of any demo is to convince people to play whatever game you’re demonstrating. This is obvious, because of course you want people to play a game you’re enthusiastic enough to build multiple forces for, paint all of them, and schedule a time to show others who might have never heard of it. What makes an effective demo, however, is understanding what factors can influence people to have a good (or bad) impression of the game.

• Show off the killer features: Maneuvering can be interesting, but you want to show the unique mechanics of the game as soon as possible. For Freebooter’s Fate, that would be the hit location mechanic for combat, critical hits, and event cards, so setting things up so the players can get to them as quickly as possible will be more successful.
• Cool models and terrain: The game board should be clear and thematic, with everything looking as complete as possible. You want every crew to be fully painted, the demo space to be a fancy table with appropriate terrain, and the game itself to feel like a proper pirate skirmish. You’re looking to show off the best version of the game.
• Tailor the rule complexity: Different people are comfortable with different levels of rule complexity, so aim for the lowest level possible based off of what people might want. There are some example complexity tiers down below, but you should also consider the individual model’s rules and availability when planning a demo.
• Have a strong identity: In a game with some specific faction niches, it’s incredibly important that the demo crews feel like they fit together and have a good reason to have a scrap. If you’re personally running the demos and can control both crews, ask your opponent what looks interesting of the choices you have and play an opposing force that feels appropriate while showing off some of the mechanics that their crew might not have.
• More than just combat: Try to have a game objective that isn’t just “fight the opposing dudes”. This introduces the idea that there’s more to the game than simply smashing minis together, and it’s a great opportunity to reinforce the identity and theming. The Hunt for Rats in October is a great scenario for this purpose, as is To Arms!

These are probably going to be explored in further detail via other posts when I have the time because there’s only so much time in the day, plus I clearly need a hook to keep people reading this blog.

Rules Complexity and Crew Tiers

Since I can’t just present a list and then not detail anything in it, let’s talk about rules complexity and my rough ranking of how each crew plays based off of their planned demo crews. For the purposes of my demos we’ll be using 300 doubloon pre-built demo crews, all of whom will come with a sheet breaking down the basic gameplay, all traits they have, and what role each model plays.

Having all of the rules for models readily available is extremely important for running a successful demo. Having to look things up from the books will slow down the demo, which is the last thing you want. The more friction there is between the players and the ruleset, the less likely they are to want to keep playing.

This also informs which rules you should use for a game: I do not recommend starting with Loas, boats, or any artillery weapons. This is a recommendation, of course, and if someone interested in a demo is dead-set on trying those rules, then it’s in your best interest to figure out a good way to present those rules.

As far as crews themselves, here’s my recommended complexity tiering:

Straightforward

• Pirates: A good pirate crew is pretty straightforward. They do a little bit of everything, and you can teach a lot of the mechanics with them pretty easily. You can make some fun, thematic crews for them, as well!
• Imperial Armada: Good gunlines and leadership makes them an ideal crew to bring for beginners. They also do a great job of acting as an opposing crew to most other factions, so you never have to worry about the theming of anything.
• Debonn: So long as they’re not heavy on the rank-and-file models, Debonn can be pretty easy to grasp. Their musketeer theming is especially good for most players – everybody loves Dumas, in my experience.

Somewhat More Difficult

• Amazons: Their fragility and reliance on jungle terrain can make them a little harder for new players to grasp. Their mobility also makes them need players willing to try climbing terrain and attacking while avoiding front-on confrontations and using their hit-and-run tactics.
• Brotherhood: Similar to Amazons, they can have a lot of difficulties in ranged combat, but their ambush-style of play really helps them out. Trying to avoid more complicated leaders is key – Queen of Shadows is my preference, as she’s the least “here’s a whole heap of different actions” out of all the Brotherhood leaders.
• Goblin Pirates: The universal Cowardly rule, some of their stranger shenanigans, and the number of models in play limit these delightful little green pirates in terms of new player friendliness. They are, however, good for running demos if you’re the one playing them, because they give your opponent a chance to fight some weaker models, demonstrate the morale rules beautifully (especially if you ‘forget’ to keep a bunch of them together!), and can introduce concepts such as paying attention to the fate card colors or limited ammunition weapons.
• ELTC: While they can be an easy demo crew, they tend to have a lot of special traits that can trip up newer players, and the lack of deckhands in an ELTC crew breaks enough of the game’s basic rules that it can feel unfair to new players.

Advanced Demos Only

• The Cult: Cult has so many additional rules and conditions that they do not do a great job of teaching the game to a new player. While they can be a great opposition crew if they’re run by an experienced player for similar reasons to Goblin Pirates, explaining Souldriver, Loas, Spirituality, and No Authority can be confusing.
• Shadows: Shadow force, Wisps, shadow portals . . . what’s not to love about the complexities of Shadows? I adore Shadows as a thematic crew and they have some incredible models, but they are not new player friendly at all. They also take a lot of prep work – because I’m the kind of person who likes to have models for everything, you can double the model count if you want enough Wisps to present everything in the coolest light possible. If you are going to play Shadows in a demo, maybe try running The Alliance scenario.
• Tianyu: Balance is a somewhat intuitive mechanic, but explaining how to maintain said balance and their deckhand rules mean they’re not the best for new players just getting to grips with the mechanics.

These are, of course, my own impressions of the factions and how I’m demonstrating them to others.

Hobby Progress

Today’s hobby progress has mostly been related to planning – all of my demo crews are written, I’ve at least assembled all of the models that I’ll be using for demos, and I’m getting started on the writeups explaining all the rules. This is a more complicated project than what I first envisioned, but it has me excited to keep doing things.

I’ve also been working on the Compañero’s English translation checks; apart from a brief detour into Ironball mechanics that I don’t have the rules text for that are applicable to a single, discontinued, limited edition model, it’s been going smoothly. Thankfully, this is less translation than it is tracking down where the rules live in the rulebooks.

For actual painting hobby news, I’m nearly done with one of the first demo crews and have started on the second, which should go much faster because it doesn’t need me to make as many decisions while painting. For those curious, here’s the planned order of operations for crew painting unless someone requests something specific:

1. The Cult: Mostly done at this stage. I know they’re “not good for demos” as I said above, but I’ll be the one playing them and I promise there’s a cool reason for it that I’ll get to momentarily.
2. Imperial Armada (Cazador): Technically a theme around the Imperial Armada requested by a specific player, I’ve started my test model for them and should have the crew done in by the end of the week. They’re also the reason why my first demo crew is Cult – I am intentionally letting my opponent get access to all of their cool special rules to deal with Mystics.
3. Pirates: Models are primed and ready to go. One deckhand (as seen in an earlier post) is painted already!
4. Debonn: Also awaiting paint. To help distinguish them from Armada given the similar colors, they’ve received a zenithal prime to establish lighting.
5. ELTC: In an incredibly strange state: I have a mostly-painted leader who just needs touch-ups, several primed models, and a few that haven’t even been taken out of the packaging.
6. Amazons: Still need to prime a couple models, but skintone practice has commenced for them!
7. Brotherhood: A mix of assembled models, partially-painted models, and primed-and-sub-assembled models. I will be posting about the sub-assembly process at some point, because it’s pretty key to painting some of these models.
8. Goblin Pirates: A lot of models are assembled, which I suppose counts for something!
9. Imperial Armada (Basic): Surprisingly, they’re already mostly painted, but I’m cleaning them up because they were painted 10+ years ago and thus are clearly not my best work.
10. Shadows: I have written some lists, and I own models, but they’re not planned for any time soon.
11. Tianyu: I’m gonna be real with you – I haven’t even bought any Tianyu models yet because I have enough of a backlog that I’d like to finish it before I purchase even more miniatures. I inevitably will break this plan when my eBay alerts show me a price drop on a starter box at some point in the future.

This will, of course, change as life evolves and my own painting interests are challenged. Also if someone asks me for to try out any specific crews.