(How To) Run Your Own Damn Event!

Some of the most frequent questions we get are 1)”Are there any events near X?” and 2) “Will you run an event at X?”. While we wish we could be everywhere and have more than a few events a year, the realities are that we don’t have the money to travel about the US (and beyond) hosting events, nor do we view ourselves as any kind of sanctioning body for organized play. We do however, support and make attempts to publicize any Retro DBZ (or GT) events we hear about, so long as there are solid plans behind it. That being said, we felt that it would be a good idea to create a brief “How To” guide for getting your own event going.

1) Can I get people to show up?

The first thing you should consider is, will you have enough people committed to the event that it can be run without cancellation. Ideally see if you can get at least eight people to commit, but you can still run an event with six or at worst four participants. If you can’t get at least that much, you might not be in an area worth having an event and the whole thing could end up costing you money (more on that later). Sometimes the hardest part of trying to start an event is determining if it’s worth having or not.

2) Where is this thing going down?

While it might be tempting to host the event at a private residence, ultimately it’s going to be best for your players and any potential participants to host it at a public venue. You generally want to choose a place where gaming is accepted and accommodated, like a games or comic store. You can choose other venues if you want, like a library or meeting hall, but for comfort I’d strongly recommend  a games store.

Now here’s the thing: space ain’t free. A games store hosts things like Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh tourneys for no costs, mostly because they make money on selling packs and singles to the players. In this day and age, it’s unlikely to find a store that still has a quantity of DBZ product that a player would want, so you’re essentially asking that store to give up game space with no chance of return in profit. You might find a store cool enough to host one for free, but most will want some kind of return for the space and increase in traffic. Your best bet is to collect an entrance fee and give it to the store in exchange for store credit, as this is a fair exchange for the time and space you are taking from the business.

You should not be running an event with the expectation of making a profit or having a prize pool in the thousands or even hundreds of dollar range unless you yourself are fronting all that money. Every once in a while we’ll hear about someone kicking around this idea and even trying to spread it to the masses on Facebook groups and message boards. But there’s a reason why these ideas never materialize: They aren’t feasible. I can tell you that most every event that Score ran with even a paltry prize pool of $500 did not make the company any money directly. Score LOST more money running events than it made at them. That’s because Organized Play is a marketing tool to sell product, not generate it’s own income. Bottom line: If profit is your sole motivator, you will fail.

One final thing to consider for events is running them at conventions. You can usually find an events or gaming contact for conventions on their website, which you can always give a go to see if they’d be willing to host an event (you do have Gen Con as an upper example of what a DBZ CCG can bring to a con). You might even score a free badge for yourself. The downside is, your attendees will have to pay for a con badge on top of any entry fee you charge.

3) How do I publicize my event?

This is probably the easiest step. For starters, you can always post on the DBZ CCG Championship Group on Facebook. You can also email it to us at RetroDBZCCG@Yahoo.com where we may post it on the website after some vetting (if you don’t have the location and date secured, you’re not ready to send your event to us). You can also request your venue to post it on their website and Social Media outlets to get the word out. You want to start publicizing at least two months in advance so folks can make plans to attend your event, beyond just the locals you might have confirmed already.

4) Follow Up!

Be sure to follow up your event with tourney reports, decklists and even videos of the event. This will go a long way to help your turnout at future events, and can be used as references when next you try to secure a location or venue for an event. Heck, it even makes great experience to post o your resume.

Later, Broz!

Joshman

@ArguablyTrue

Latest Comments

  1. shannon September 9, 2013
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