Brand New Tournament Organizer

[LordStormblood]

Hello, I am prepping to run my first Age of Sigmar tournament, and while I have a good idea of what I want to do, I would like to look at something to kind of get my mind in the right place. Are there any good small scale tournament packs I can look at to get my mind right?

[Kaylethia]

I ran a small 1k tournament about a month before 2.0 released, so you'll have to think about more stuff that what I laid out. 

I made a list of things that players should know: 

 

Terrain was set up before the tournament, and didn't change between rounds, that included random terrain effects on terrain pieces.

Tables were 4x4, to account for smalles army sizes.

Matched play rules, and I didn't specify that round times would be based on the ghb table for different army sizes (should have done that)

Random opponents each round, no repeat matches (six players were set on coming, final count was four, if I'd had more, I would have used pairings based on wins and losses)

 

Other admin stuff:

Get your space booked early, talk to your LGS about a flexible number of tables if you can, with the caveat, that you'll finalize some time (a week?) before the event.

Set a reasonable price, and try to work out prizes based on that once you know how many people very likely to come.

Your LGS might be willing to sponsor the event, last year, our ten player even was sponsored by two LGS-s and a big computer game store. My even was sponsored by two, one with free tables, the other with prizes, and I put in a bit out of my own pocket.

Don't be afraid to change some things if a player asks, and it's reasonable. My event started out as WYSIWYG, and when a player asked about it, explaining he would have to either buy, build and paint or convert 20-30 greenskins, so it changed to appropriate models instead.

 

[gjnoronh]

The advice above is excellent!

Peak at large scale packs and steal what you like.  You don't need all the detail but you will need some and you can adjust it to make it your own.  Mine is up here:

http://www.daboyzgt.com/fantasy/

 

[svnvaldez]

Blackout is a very large event, but I feel like its player pack is not very controversial opting to play mostly from the book. Definitely worth a look.

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/c/0/2/c02574115ee18cab/BLACKOUT_2018.pdf?c_id=22151883&cs_id=22151883&expiration=1533314970&hwt=3f5e3a9414808873314bb50e98159e0a

[amysrevenge]

In general, managing expectations is key to people enjoying an event.  Make sure that the tone is clear.

There are lots of different styles of event, and most of them can be successful, but the best way to fail is to have attendees expecting a different style of event than you are running.

[lolwut]

My advice: 

• Provide mission pack ahead of time. You don't have to tell people which missions will be used, but have the totality of the pack, and the scoring, available beforehand. This way you don't have people showing up with no chance to win from the get-go. 
• If you're using realm of battle rules, make sure that it is clearly explained. As you saw from another thread, this is a topic where people feel strongly for and against them. Best to get ahead of this emotion and just make it known up front. 
  • Further, I would take a moment and clarify certain things. For instance, if it's set in Ghur, you might have monsters provided.
  • Another good option is to have each table be set in a specific realm, and that way as people move from table to table after each game, they find themselves in a different realm.
    • I strongly recommend these! GW went through a lot of work creating this new content for us. Let's find a way to use it! If something is too strong in your opinion just chop it, or alter it. Include this in your mission pack provided beforehand.
• Use the Best Coast Pairings app.
  • It has swiss pairings and also tracks scores for you. Much of your clerical work is handled automatically by this app. 
  • Require players upload their lists into BCP the day of the event. Make sure this is clearly communicated. This way, the players can review each other's lists at their leisure on the day of the event. 
  • You should review the lists while people are playing. It's rather frustrating to encounter people who have illegal lists. 
• Have a strict start time. People budget their time around showing up, rolling dice, and leaving by a certain time. If you start 30 minutes late, people might have to drop out. Stop the rounds on time, with plenty of warning. 
• Print out the FAQ and Erratas for 2.0 and have them in a binder. This will help settle rules disputes. 
  • Also, print out scenarios, special rules, etc, and have them available for players for each round. Bring a few pens for scoring. You'll lose some of these pens, so don't bring like the world's nicest pens.
• If you are requiring paint standards, make sure this is communicated up front before people sign up. 
• Make sure you have enough terrain. 
  • Even if you have to use foam terrain, it's better than nothing.

Hope this helps!