What is the best way to create a community?

I read that article on how to sell Netrunner, but there exists one problem: The nearest FLGS is 114 miles away. In a different country. And there is a thriving Magic community, because the coin shop also sells magic for some odd reasons, and runs magic tournaments. Another issue is the magic community itself. I’m going to be blunt: Most of the active Magic community is special Ed kids. What’s the best way to go about this in this situation. I’ve got some friends who I might be able to convince to join, but they are so stuck on Magic and refuse to except another game.
What should I do?

Move to that other country? Best I got.

Thanks. Great advice. Don’t think I already thought of that? :smile:

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I moved to a new country not so long ago, it’s fun, give it a shot!

I switched because Netrunner is cheaper.

That’s all I got, maybe grab the poor ones.

If you’re feeling ambitious, make up some decks to use to teach other people to play and try to organize a “Try Netrunner” event where people normally play Magic on a non big Magic playing day. Best way I can think of.

Other than that, try using the weekly reddit player finder thread?

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I try to be as opening, and as welcome as I can. I tell people why the game is good, what draws me to it. If you’re trying to sway magic players tell them why it’s better. Examples such as no mana flood/screw, it’s way cheaper, the games are about smart moves and intelligent plays, not about who has the most expensive deck. The lines of play are generally more broad than in magic and there’s almost always a chance for either player to win at any point in the game.

For Gateway Drugging people into Netrunner, I’ve found Pre-Made Teaching Decks -> Draft Cube is a good pathway to set up.

The fact that you can all draft for free forever with basically 1 x Core/FFG Draft Starter each and one draft cube is a pretty good draw.

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Me too! much more active Netrunner scene where I live now.

I tried hard to revive a dying netrunner scene where I lived in Asia, but pretty much all of the active players had moved on from the game to Conquest and Force of Will. I managed to get a tournament together once, but then I had to leave that weekend on an emergency business trip.

I kept playing at a local board games meeting with 1 or 2 quick games before the main board games would come out for the evening (BSG, Dead of Winter, etc.). I was able to get a few people to play, but it was hard to keep the scene going.

You might try to find some poker players that live in the same country. They might enjoy it.

I agree that having a few beginner decks from core set to teach people with is a good idea. Having a couple core sets for that would help.

Trying to convince fans of mtg that netrunner better seems like a tough sell to me. Don’t be pushy. It sounds like your friend sees Netrunner as a threat to their beliefs. They have invested heavily in that system - in terms of time and money. And if you push them and merely tell them they’re wrong they will dig in.

I wouldn’t even really attempt approaching the conversation from the draft angle. I don’t doubt magic does draft play better. At this point the game centers around draft to some degree. Any magic player would be able to build a cube using cards they already own. And I have heard fairly few wholely posistive reviews of netrunner drafts. It certainly isn’t where the main netrunner community is.

If you really cant convince them to play a couple games I might try to get a magic player playing different board/card games that won’t replace their ccg (try a deck building game like Dominion, they are great). If you can get them into a place where they are willing to learn the rules to more games you can probably convince them to play a few games of netrunner with your decks.

Once people play both sides a few times they will make up their own mind about whether or not they like Netrunner. Rhetoric will only get you so far because people like what they like and it is always irrational. All you can really try to do is get them to give the gane a fair shot.

Netrunner drafting is definitely awesome, but I agree it’s probably not the best strategy for converting people

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You’d think that I lived in some small obscure country after reading this. I’m American. And the different country is Canada. :wink:

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The distribution of Store Championship Kits has made me wonder how evenly distributed players are. In my state (MA) we have 5 store championships all concentrated at the east end of the state, with 3 very close to each other. Any other players in the state will have to drive for hours to get to one.

Lots of other states look similar, one concentrated center of activity, but most of the state completely left out. I assume that the store champs are meant to reflect where active players are located? This would mean that there are centers with many players in a relatively small area, with a much sparser distribution outside of these areas.

I think some kind of patterning happens. Someone gets into netrunner because he only has to drive 45 minutes to play it. But he’d rather not drive 45 minutes so he tries to get people in his area to play it too. Something like that. I think it’s probably reflective of the distribution of actual interest in netrunner.

Where are you located, if you don’t mind me asking.

Presque Isle, Maine. In Aroostook County. I bought Netrunner at a game shop in Bangor, while I was there for a doctor’s appointment. But Bangor is like 160 something miles away, and doesn’t have a community.

There is no community in Maine. As far as I know, my brother and I are the only ones. But there is a tournament in Standish, but everyone who goes there is from Boston area.

Return the favor! Come crash Boston Area tournaments every now and again!

Look at a map. Look for Presque Isle. Then look at Boston. Then look back.

It sounds like you and your brother are going to be very sick of playing each other…

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