The Victorius Guide To Hosting A Great Participation Game

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Defining Your Goals as a Host
• Designing an Engaging Participation Game
• Setting Up an Attractive & Functional Table
• Running the Table: Best Practices for Hosts
• Encouraging Further Engagement
• Summary & Final Tips

Introduction

What  is a Participation Game?

We all know that wargaming comes in all shapes and sizes. From the sprawling fields of Salamanca, to seas around Guadalcanal, all the way to the slums of the hive world Targus VIII. The systems that are available are as diverse as the settings. There is a niche for everyone, and at Victorius we want to showcase the amazing range of options available. To help people find something they can get excited by.

We also know that war games can be complicated, and even time consuming. We love them all the more for it. Sometimes this may appear to conflict with the aims of a participation game. No matter your aims for the day, with this guide we hope to help you put on a great show.

A participation game is a tabletop wargame adapted for quick and easy player involvement. Unlike your standard wargames, these games are designed for walk-up players who may not be familiar with the rules. They should emphasize fun, engagement, and immersion over strict competition. You may even want to streamline the regular mechanics for quick onboarding.

Core Principles of a Successful Participation Game

• Accessibility – Easy to learn and play.
• Engagement – Encourages active player involvement.
• Flow – Smooth and efficient gameplay with minimal downtime.

Defining Your Goals as a Host

Before running your participation game, consider what you want to achieve. You may simply want to show off your favourite ruleset in the hope you can draw others to it. Perhaps your desires are a little broader – to encourage people into the hobby or just to your club. 

Think about the focus. Are you going for an immersive experience, fast-paced actions or strategic depth?

Clarifying your objectives will help shape your approach to adapting your chosen game, to achieve the pacing you want, and the level of player interaction. 

Designing an Engaging Participation Game

All wargames have a learning curve. Whether it is shallow or steep, for a participation game you want to focus on some key elements to keep people engaged

Simple Mechanics – Reduce complexity to ensure fast gameplay. Wargames have layers, complex interactions of systems designed to allow players to develop mastery over time. Perhaps you could intentionally choose to pare it back to its most basic. Initially introduce only the foundations of the game. Let the players get comfortable with the system before layering on too much nuance. Some systems are easier to adapt than others, just make sure you don’t take out too much and lose the essence that makes the game compelling in the first place! You could arrange your scenario in such a way that it sets short, snappy objectives. That way you can both give a taste of the system as well as allowing for simple spots to jump in and out. 

Quick Onboarding – Players should be able to start within minutes. A regular game might take a while to set up and get everyone ready. For those systems, it might be better to have things set up already. To limit the amount of decisions the participants have to make before getting stuck in. Perhaps having the units already pre-deployed for the scenario so all they have to do is start rolling dice? Get your spiel sorted ahead of time, the way you want to explain what actions the player can take, and how those actions are resolved.

Compelling Scenario – Have a clear and engaging battle or challenge for them to be part of. There are so many options in the space but try to pick something that will get the players stuck into the action as quickly as possible. If you aren’t going for a specific historic re-enactment or setting, perhaps even try something specific for the day.

Game Structure and Duration

It may be tempting to put together some epic scenario, set to impress. That can certainly be fun, but do bear in mind the length of the day and the number of people who we all hope will come through the door. So a focus on short, self-contained scenarios, perhaps even as short as 15-20 minutes. Just enough of a taste to get them hooked! That is not to say that you have to scale back all your ambitions. You can still do a grand – day long adventure, but if you do, make it really easy for people to drop-in and out of the game.

Approaching a game in full flight can be daunting and oddly, so can leaving one in the middle. So if you are planning something at a larger scale, try to make it as easy and comfortable for people to engage and disengage as possible. Perhaps have “boxed” commands that operate on a portion of the battlefield at a time.

Setting Up an Attractive & Functional Table

Creating a Visually Appealing Battlefield

Here is where you can go to town! Use detailed terrain, miniatures and props to draw attention. Wargaming can be as simple as a few paper miniatures _{(more on this later)} and books for terrain, but nothing attracts people more than a visually exciting field of battle. Remember you are likely playing a modified or scaled back version of your chosen rules set.

So you can take some liberties with how you dress the field. This doesn’t need to mean spending lots of time and money on fancy terrain. You can also lean into a narrative that works well with the game.

Games with deep lore such as Star Wars, Warhammer or those based on actual history are great for this. Could you have held back the empire at the battle for Yavin 4, how about trying your hand at defeating the British in the Battle of Trafalgar? A thematic scenario can be just as engaging if not more so. 

Signage and Player Aids

If your participation game is a drop-in or out at any time type game. Prepare some signage to make that clear to those who are passing. It’s also worth having some stands on your table to help people identify the game or system you are playing. Perhaps a visitor has always wanted to try out Guild Ball and see how it compares to the memories of Bloodbowl they have from when they were younger? If you are going for a unique, narrative scenario – then spell that out to them too. Let them know what they are in for. Make it clear what their role is going to be, and the objectives they should be aiming for. 

A key point to remember is that people will tend to look at your table from a bit of a distance at first. So make sure your signage is clear from that distance. Text is likely to need to be larger than you expect it to be. Places like Officeworks sell cheap A4 acrylic stands that you can slip a printed sheet between. 

If your game has cheat sheets available, then print out a few copies to make it easier for your players to remember how things work. 

Running the Table: Best Practices for Hosts

Engaging Different Skill Levels

Any show is going to have a mix of people.  People of different ages and experience. To get the most out of the day you will need to think about the differences in the way you might approach these groups. In general you probably want to focus on having fun with newcomers. Keep things simple and fluid, there is no need at this stage to bring in all the nuance, you can even bend the rules a little to ensure things are smooth and enjoyable. More experienced players want to have fun too! Quite right, but those with experience are also more accustomed to the ins and outs of wargaming and are likely to be both adept at picking up more complex rules. They probably even enjoy working their way through how those rules interplay with each other in interesting ways. In other words – they enjoy the tactical side as much as the pure fun of wargaming. So adapt your approach as you go, speed up or slow down your expansions on core mechanics as the players allows.

Regardless of the levels of experience – take a “Show, don’t tell” approach to introducing your game and its components. Only introduce the minimum needed to get things moving. Perhaps even suggest you do the first turn as a demonstration.

The player can then follow suit in their own turn. This will help encourage them to make quick decisions and you can then easily introduce more as you go. Assessing how interested the player is in taking a deeper dive. 

Using Quick-Start Tools

Like we talked about earlier. Have you game set up to go, units already picked out and deployed so you are ready to get stuck in. It also really helps to have pre-made reference cards for player actions.

These can be official quick reference sheets or unit stats cards, or you could produce cut down versions tailored to your scenario. These are also excellent things to consider allowing the players to take with them afterwards. A reminder and possibly even a starting point for their continued play.

Don’t Forget Yourselves

8 hours of putting yourself on show is a long time – even for the most extraverted amongst us. We want you to have fun on the day too. Don’t try to do it all yourself, work as part of a team. Having more than one person with you gives you the flexibility to take a break when you need to. Grab lunch or some sunshine – or even just take it in turn to playing whilst the other engages with others passing by. You could even consider splitting a table between different groups. You and your club could take the morning slot, with another club doing the afternoon shift. That way you all get to fully enjoy all the Victorius has to offer. 

Encouraging Further Engagement

Providing Takeaway Materials

When you first thought about hosting a participation game you no doubt already had a series of goals in mind. It is worth considering how you can further those aims, after the player has wrapped up their game and is moving on to something else. 

This could be as simple as providing some suggestions for where they could look online for more information about the game. Even putting together a short list of links they can get to by scanning a QR code. 

You might even want to put together a take home pack some sort. It could contain quick reference sheets or rules summaries. For games designed to be run as campaigns – the unit roster that they used during your game so they can easily build on it. Maybe even the details of the scenario you ran so the player can re-create the experience in their own time. There are lots of options both small and large. 

Connecting Players to the Community

Your goals may be more lofty than just the promotion of your chosen game, and even if it isn’t, the best way to achieve that is often to simply encourage people to participate in the greater gaming community. If you are joining us representing your gaming group or club. Make sure you have details about that group. When and where do you meet? What sort of games are played in addition to the one they are participating in. Even if you are here independently – pointers to online forums, social media groups and websites can be helpful to people. 

By having take-away items ready, you are ensuring that they will be reminded of you and your game, even after they have seen all the other things that Victorius has to offer. 

Most of all, if they enjoyed the day – make sure they consider coming to Victorius again next year!