PAX Post-Mortem
Demos
- I didn't take my demo stuff on Saturday and Sunday, so I capped out at 9 demos at the show. However, I did 2 more for friends of friends outside of the show - they knew I played this dumb game, but they became more curious when they realized how dedicated I was to evangelizing on its behalf.
- Many of the demos at the show were entire games. Several times people would tell me that they had something to do next, so they couldn't stay for a full game - but then, when I got to the first natural break point (after the second attempt at the same mission, to demonstrate how the "overcome" mechanic works), they'd often want to keep going.
- I started out sticking to Klingons for the new player, because they are the simplest of my demo decks. Everyone just wants to play TNG Fed though, so eventually I'd just set that up.
- Eventually I started pre-arranging an opening hand with one of each (non-equipment) card type, that worked quite well (and guaranteed I'd be able to explain things like downloading, "your core", and how to play an interrupt against that Rogue Borg Ambush I used on them).
- I have my demo decks in penny sleeves so that I can give them away more cheaply, but boy did I regret not having the dilemma piles color coded for clean up, especially when someone would be "helpful" and start putting the dilemmas from under their missions in their dilemma pile for clean-up.
- Next year, I think I'll use Thursday to enjoy PAX myself, since it was the lowest traffic day, and plan on demoing all day on a busy day like Saturday. Friday's demo-per-hour was much higher than Thursday too, which is what I mean by "accidental" demos. I'd just set up while my wife was in the Merch line, figuring I'd see if anyone came by while I was waiting, and ended up doing 4 rapid-fire demos.
Non-Demo Trek Activity
- Plenty of people were happy to just reminisce about the game. Actually, one guy, who used to play during the Decipher days in Slovakia and recognized Vlad Vrbata's name, started off by reminiscing and then just couldn't help himself and wanted to play a game.
- I gave out a bunch of the Picard,
Genial Captain promos. I'd glued up a bunch a while ago, but printed off some more just in case. I didn't have time to glue the more recent batch though, so I just put them in penny sleeves with junk commons - that actually proved to be a popular means of distribution though. It allowed me to quickly demonstrate how the game can be printed, and people were tickled to be able to see the card underneath too.
- Actually, when I'd show that the cards aren't glued halfway through a demo, people would often be quite surprised that they'd been playing with all-home-printed cards the entire time.
Demo Deck Playtest Thoughts
- I got a chance to see the
TNG,
DS9,
Borg, and
Klingon demo decks in action, though most commonly used were TNG and Klingons.
- Starting off, it really felt like the Klingons were at a severe disadvantage, since I would have to avoid putting the four auto-stop dilemmas in the pile (2x
In Development, 2x
Intimidation) into the stack against newbies. It became clear, once I switched to the TNG deck in the newbie's hands, that they really are pretty equal, it's just that I know how to play the game.
- It was good to have identical piles, since it helped the new players get familiar with the dilemmas that they draw by facing them themselves. I am sorely tempted to give myself some sort of garbage pile for demos though, just so that I don't have to hold back as much.
- The demo decks need some sort of anti-megateam dilemma, but
Setting the Stage sure isn't it. Even the type of newbie that actually reads the dilemmas before throwing them into the stack would have no idea what Setting does, and they'd often just throw it in to find out. I'll need to switch back to something like
Mark of Gideon.
Bottom Line
- Demoing at a big con was fun, I got more traffic than I expected, and I got to play a lot of trek.
- By Smatchmo
![[KCA]](https://www.trekcc.org/forum/images/smilies/icon_alliance.png "Klingon/Cardassian Alliance"){kind=icon}
- By Hobie