One of the main goals of this blog is to assist Underworlds fans in increasing the size of their local playing community. However much you might love the game, it’s hard to keep a head of steam when there’s nobody to play, or things may peter out if your local scene consists of only a couple people. More players is more fun, and begets more players! So with an eye towards bringing in potential new players, I’ll take a look at some of the strategies I have employed to help grow the number and frequency of meetups in the Seattle area, which you can hopefully apply to your own hometown. You can also read about how the Alberta Canada scene recovered post-pandemic here.

Develop an Online Meeting Place
The first thing you’ll want to have is a place for people to meet and arrange games. My local scene originally was fractured into different segments largely in part because they participated in a local game store’s social media page, but not a centralized underworlds one. Somebody might ask for a game this weekend on Store A’s Facebook page, while somebody else is trying to meet other players on Store B’s Discord server. We built an underworlds specific Facebook page for our area in 2017, and eventually added a Discord server in 2022. The challenge now is that not everybody uses the same system, so I act as an intermediary and do a lot of double posting, but having a centralized ‘water cooler’ goes a long way toward getting people involved. You could try a Reddit page, Pinterest page, group chat/text message chain, or whatever else works for your community, but you will need someplace to congregate remotely. Once you’ve got one, let me know and we can get it added to the Worldwide Underworlds Community Directory to help others find you

Establish a Consistent Location and Time
Once you have gathered at least one other player, try to set up some kind of repeating game night that you can maintain. For many this will be a weekly or every other week couple of hours at a local store or club. Advertise this online in both your local page you developed, as well as in other community pages (the store the game is being played at might have a page, or a general area gaming page that’s Warhammer specific, board game specific, etc). If possible, try to get it added to the store calendar/promo mailer or whatever they use to promote their own events so that it reaches a broader audience. Once you’ve laid that ground work, show up as best as you can, and be transparent with the others when you can’t make it. A community grows most reliably when there is something they can rely on, and knowing that they will be able to get games every Wednesday at 5PM can increase people’s confidence when they’re on the fence. Would you join a new game community on the assurances of ‘oh yeah, people play this, you just gotta find them’? It is a much easier sell if you can say ‘we’re always around at this place and time, see you next week’

Host Tournaments or Other Events
If you have grown your local scene to 4+ people on a somewhat consistent basis, it might be time to think about hosting an official ‘event’ or even a competitive play tournament. This becomes even easier if your local store or club has access to the Organized Play kit that includes promo cards, a glass trophy, etc, so ask around your area to see if anybody has one and needs a community champion to run an event they host at their location. Some players are committed to casual gaming and may not come out to a structured event like this, but others are more likely to come out to a competitive event if they know there are prizes on the line. I’ll talk at length in another article about how best to organize, promote, and run an event, but for now suffice it to say that they can be a lot of fun and create memorable and positive experiences for players that have them hungry for more compared to their usual play experience. After it’s over somebody has bragging rights, a certificate or trophy or some other prize, and you might find you have the impetus to run another next month or quarter. For tips on how to run your own events, click here.

Advertise Physically
Many stores have bulletin boards or some kind of “Looking for Game”/classified ads corner wither in their physical shop or in a mailer or catalogue they might have. Once you’ve established an online page, talk with the location and try to your information out there. It can be more eye catching and easier for people if you are able to to make a QR code for discord or Facebook or whatever you use to allow people to more easily get an invite link. This doesn’t just have to be at the store you play at either – some places will let you advertise because they know that a rising tide lifts all ships – more players means more sales at many locations. Bonus points if you’re able to get your handout located on the same shelf as the underworlds products! I’ve personally gone so far as to carry around a “talk to me about Warhammer Underworlds” sign to be displayed at casual game times to help increase the odds store-goers to come by and chat/get a test game.

Host “Learn to Play” events
This one can be difficult because there is a chance nobody shows up, so it might be worth your time to bring another player with you or a friend who you’re trying to recruit so at least one game will get played. Talk with the store owner or manager if able to get them to feed you potential players and help promote it. I usually bring two rivals warbands that are “easy to understand” (My recent go-tos have been Xandire’s Truthseekers and The Sons of Velmorn, but use what you have available) and a couple nemesis decks in case they wanted to play a second round and are ready for a step up in complexity. When these go well, it’s one of the best feelings around because you’ve brought in a curious person who often is able to walk over the the register and buy something that day – rewarding you for your efforts and the store for hosting. However, if you are holding these in a store that you don’t have your routine games at, be up front with them that your community largely plays at some other store and make sure they’re ok with that so you don’t come off as poaching customers. Again, a rising tide lifts all ships, but transparency will help engender positive feelings and cooperation out of the host location’s staff. If you are working with younger, inexperienced, or ‘non-gamer’ players, here’s a technique to help ramp them up slowly.

Hand Out Goodies
If you’re financially able, it’s not a bad idea to have things to give away to newer people who show commitment to coming back and might just need the push to cross the line. It’s not a bad idea to have a couple of new rivals decks or even an unopened warband in your bag to give out to somebody who shows promise. I’ve also handed out tokens and dice from prior seasons and boards that have rotated out – it lowers the bar of entry for somebody who might not want to buy a whole starter set or season core box. Now they have what they need to play with their friends and get them into the game for the cost of just the warband they like! This may work better on people who have come out for a second or third time, or you could restrict it to people who have already made some purchases on their own – you want to encourage more engagement but only on people who have done some of the work themselves lest you find you’re simply throwing essentials packs into the wind.

Leverage Your Personal Connections
Am I starting to sound like an MLM? Don’t let games interfere with your real life, obviously, but there’s no need to sequester this hobby in a separate bucket than the other aspects of your day. I know when I was younger I didn’t tell many people about my shoebox full of Space Marines, but to Quote C.S. Lewis (I won’t do this very often): “When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to appear very grown up.” If and when you feel comfortable, consider inviting your personal friends, family, or coworkers along for a game or two! You could take baby steps by inviting people you already share activities with; do you play in a D&D group? Some of them would probably like Underworlds. Does your area have a 40K community? Go to a casual meetup with them and invite some people to play Underworlds with you later. Sportsball season is ending and now what are your buddies supposed to do on the weekends? Maybe they’d like to try rolling some dice with you!

Look for New Friends in Diverse Places
Be aware that people come from different gaming backgrounds than you do and reach out to a varied set of people. Some underworlds players saw the game on a shelf and jumped right in, but most come from some other avenue. The easiest group to appeal to is people who already play GW games – they might already own some warbands if they play AoS or Warcry, or are at least familiar with the concept of how GW works. That said, don’t exclude the other miniatures gamers out there – plenty of skirmish fans exist in other systems, so if your local community has people who play Marvel Crisis Protocol, Battletech, Infinity etc. and they could be potential players. Some players in my local group came from playing card backgrounds – your area almost certainly has a Magic the Gathering scene, and may also have other TCGs that are in play. It’s not a huge stretch to grab some of them for a game (especially since they won’t have to chase singles or pay 50 bucks for a ‘rare’ card!). Board game players are another avenue that may be options. If there’s a board game swap or open board game play night in your area, bring the starter box with you (or buy an extra to trade) – just be sure to let them know that it goes much, much deeper than the contents of that box alone if they enjoy it!

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That was a marathon, I know – thank you for reading this far if you have, and I hope some of the above approaches can help establish and/or grow your local group. As always, I welcome any ideas you have to add or feedback on this process. But for now, my glory is spent! Until next time, friends.