Author Topic: A breakdown of my current playgroup.  (Read 2378 times)

Offline Crashfach2002

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A breakdown of my current playgroup.
« on: December 06, 2018, 03:31:26 PM »
Hey everyone,

I wanted to go into a little more detail as far how I currently run my playgroup.  If you will please read my articles on Land of Redemption, so I don't have to go into extreme detail here (Part 1 & Part 2).

So when a player is ready to take the step to become a "full time player" instead of just playing the I/J decks, I want to reward them by giving them cards.  When this decision is made, I (like I said in my article) do push for a player to purchase the I/J starter decks that they have been practicing with, and that would allow them to have a nice "base" of cards as well as getting "better" cards from me as well.  So before I give a player any cards, I had to determine how I would give them away and what to do to possibly protect myself from giving away too many "high priced cards."  So here is the "Tier list" that I personally use.  Again, feel free to adjust those based on your haves.

So when I give cards to the new "full time players" I do this in two different forms: Those who decided to purchase the I/J decks and those who didn't.

For the ones who didn't purchase the I/J decks I give them:
*   45 - tier 1 cards, 4 - tier 2 cards & 1 - tier 3 card
*   Player must also pick 7 Lost Souls (2 with abilities and 5 without), 8 of each: Hero, Good Enhancement, Evil Character & Evil Enhancement (all must be single color) and then 11 other cards of their choice.

For the ones that did purchase the I/J decks I give them
*   40 - tier 1 cards, 7 - tier 2 cards & 3 - tier 3 cards
*   Player must pick 5 Lost Souls (with abilities), 8 of each: Hero, Good Enhancement, Evil Character & Evil Enhancement (no longer required to be single colored) and then 13 other cards of their choice.

*Note: The reason I have them pick that many Heroes, Evil Characters, etc. is to have a player continue to have a "balanced deck."  While most "competitive" players don't play a truly balanced deck, I feel it is the best way for newer players to learn and not get frustrated by not having what they want when they want.  If a player has 7 of each of these in their deck: Dominants, Lost Souls, Heroes, Good Enhancements, Evil Characters and Evil Enhancements, that leaves them with 8 "utility" cards.  If you move the four (specific picks) to 8 (like they get) they still get 4 "utility" cards which is a large step up from the I/J decks.*

*Note: What I have done is given each tier a color.  I have then put every card eligible to be picked within a 3 ring binder and slid a colored paper into the bottom left hand corner of the card sleeves so players can see very quickly and simply what tier each card is.*

Once a player has a deck built they now get to start playing my "level decks" to earn more cards and to earn a new "level."

A list of all of my current decks is here.  Players will play the first 4 decks in order.  So this allows them to "move up a level" when they beat one of the decks.  Once they have beaten all 4 of those decks, they are now officially a "level 4 player" and are ready to be introduced to different styles of decks.  These decks are an "introduction" to the different styles of play within Redemption.  These decks are built to focus on one aspect (and generally only that aspect).  So these decks are not made to be extremely competitive, but rather to showcase that style, and then let players pick their favorite play styles and mix and match from there.  So again, these decks are made to introduce the style/type rather than be a high tournament level deck.  Please let me know if there are changes you would make to these decks to make them more "efficient."  I really only want most of these to be on a Local/District level so that players can beat most of them (if not all) without a ton of difficulty.

Since I typically have 12 "introduction" decks, I've always had the player role a 12 sided dice and they play the deck they rolled.  This gives it a random aspect and they don't know what is coming.  This helps them get ready for tournaments as they don't know what each player will be playing and they have to learn to adjust during each game.

Offline Crashfach2002

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Re: A breakdown of my current playgroup.
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2018, 03:32:08 PM »
Every time a player beats one of my decks I give the player more cards.  My original prizes were based on the cost of the cards, but I've decided to stop doing that and just give them a flat number of cards.  This makes my life easier as I not longer have to find out how much they cost and then tell them what cards they can and can't afford.  Now again, if you can't "afford" to just give anything (and everything) away, then please find a method to keep it reasonable for you.

Once a player defeats a deck I proceed to give them 16 more cards.  This again is based on the "balanced deck" idea, so they can get either 7-8 new characters and enhancements and fortify a color they currently have, or build up a new color.  This also means they could use all of their cards to get only "utility" cards and potentially upgrade all of their decks.

Here are the tier prizes I give for beating each deck:
Level 1-3 Decks:       16 - tier 1 cards
Level 4 Deck:            8 - tier 1 cards, 6 - tier 2 cards & 2 - tier 3 cards
Introduction Decks:   14 - tier 1 cards & 2 - tier 2 cards
When they beat all 12 introduction decks, I give them the Level 4 deck prizes again instead of the "normal" introduction deck prizes.

This allows the players to acquire (including the first 50 cards given) at least 258 - tier 1 cards, 38 - tier 2 cards & 5 - tier 3 cards (for free)!  Since I have 560 cards alone on my tier 1 list, I still have over half of them to give away.  So once a player defeats all the "introduction" decks, I'm going to start making the player start playing "identifier" decks.  What this will be is a "balanced" deck that will include at least 7 Heroes and 7 Evil Characters that have a particular identifier.  I plan on these decks being MUCH more competitive than the "introduction" decks.  I haven't truly planned these out as I haven't had anyone beat all my "introduction" decks yet, but I'm thinking they still need to be "neutered" a little.  While players need to understand the power of some cards that can be in every deck (3 Woes, 2nd Coming, awesome LS, etc.) I don't want them to get discouraged.  So I'll probably set a price limit on each of these decks and build them from there.  What this will also do is allow me to give away more cards.

My goal is to make it where a player has plenty of challenges to continue to grow as a player, but with me giving cards away for free so they don't feel the pressure of having to purchase anything.  Which brings me to the last thing I do and that is encourage all players to participate in a tournament.  This is the most difficult (and expensive) part.  I will start by saying this.  If your players are happy with your "Redemption Game Night" where they play against your level/introduction decks or a fun "pick-up game" with another player, then don't rush to this part.  But if you feel like players are looking for more bragging rights than the level system, a tournament is the next natural step.  In my experience doing lots of locals/districts gets very costly, as very few of my players have the money to pay for a tournament.  So there are two options here:  Pay for a tournament and only give promos to the players that pay the entry fee (and keep the others so you can trade for cards you need), or have a free "unofficial" tournament.

While the "official" tournament idea is explained above, the "unofficial" tournament can look many different ways.  If you have some extra (older) packs laying around that aren't being used, or an excess of cards then use those as a prize(s).  So what I mean is this: don't pay to have an official tournament if you are going to pay the entire cost, and really can't afford to do that without some (or any) reimbursement.  Instead just simply give your "game night" atmosphere a different feel by having prizes.  You would run the game night like a typical tournament, just without a cost and the prizes are simply what you have laying around.  So if you have some old packs laying around give 2 to the 1st place winner and 1 to the 2nd place winner.  If you have multiple packs, then give 3, 2 and 1 (to 3rd place).  If you don't have packs laying around but have some extra commons/rares from the newer sets, simply use those.  1st place gets their pick of a rare, 2nd gets 2-3 commons and 3rd gets 1 common, or something along those lines.  Anything the players can get for free would be satisfactory (especially if they are not willing to spend money).


Offline Crashfach2002

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Re: A breakdown of my current playgroup.
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2018, 03:32:23 PM »
So the last suggestions I have for newer playgroups (and something I still do) is have a modified tournament layout.  I typically run two categories in my local tournaments: Sealed deck and (an extremely modified) Type 1.  I love sealed deck because everyone starts with the same cards (at least only 2 options), and then it more about luck of what you open and a little deck building.  So brand new players can beat even me with the correct play (and maybe better luck).  The second category is the modified Type 1.  I call it modified because it helps everyone that doesn't have a lot of cards be able to compete with people who do have a lot of cards.  What I have started doing recently is a point system.  What this looks like is simply my tier list.  Players are allowed to use any I/J starter card or anything from tier 1 for free.  Then we pick a number (generally based on what my newest players deck is) and everyone is allowed to use that many points in their decks.  So for example tier 2 is 2 points, tier 3 is 3 points and so on.  This allows players who have spent money to show off cards like 3 Woes & 2nd Coming, but those would be the only cards they could (potentially, based on the number picked) play above tier 1.  While not all tier cards are on the same level, it is a very simple and concise way for everyone to understand the point system, but feel free to adjust this.

So thank you for taking the time to read this.  I have wanted to show people what I've done for a while now as I really like this method of building new players.  This allows me to get to know each player better as well because they have to play me in so many games.  For those of you who are extremely creative and great at deck building please let me know any suggestions on how to upgrade/perfect my methods.  I really also need some people who are great at deck building or tweaking to look over my introduction decks and help make them more streamlined/better.



Wow this is super long!  Sorry, but I again felt lead to share!

 


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