There are a lot of ways to run a retail store. If you're following this column, we're focused on how to run your store as a community hub, and that means you want people to come to your store often and stay a while. For gaming stores, that usually means lots of events.

People have some funny habits. It takes some unusual incentives to get people to show up, even when it's to have fun. Having a clean, well-lit, free gaming space isn't enough. You'll get a few folks, but not many. Even declaring particular nights as devoted to a certain game doesn't quite cut it. For the same reasons you need leaders, you need structured events to bring people together.

What kind of structure do you need? Each community has its own needs, and it takes some experimenting to figure out what works best for each group. Some games, especially card games, thrive with regular tournaments. Others, such as wargames, vary widely between casual league-style play or highly competitive events. Still others, like board games or roleplaying groups, may need no more structure than a day and time.

Of course, it's never that simple. Your Warhammer 40,000 group has two brand-new players, half a dozen semi-casual players, and two hardcore tournament players. How do you get them all to enjoy themselves?

A Successful Event

We could define this in a lot of ways, but I'm going to focus on a very particular aspect. A successful event is one with a growing attendance. This is a long-term view, but I feel it's the most important metric you can measure. Growing attendance means two things: new players are entering the player pool, and you're retaining existing players. Ideally you want to cater to both new players and veterans, though often you'll have to compromise something.

First, let's talk about new players. You want new players more than you want to retain long-term ones. That may sound backwards - surely the long-term players are keeping your store in business, and their loyalty and experience deserves special attention, right?

The biggest reason you want new players is attrition. The simple fact of life is, for some reason or another, people will stop coming. They may have had a job change, moved, had a baby, or just decided they need a break. People stop playing for all kinds of reasons. Beyond attrition, new players are the only way you'll grow your business. It also keeps your community fresh, as new players bring new play styles, and new opponents for competitive games.

Another reason is investment. A new player will spend more getting caught up,  no matter the game. A new roleplayer needs their set of core books, a new card player needs cards, etc. Long-term players need less product, and in competitive games like Magic they may also be winning product or store credit and spending even less.

The last issue is attitude. All players should be glad to welcome someone new into their hobby. Communities are about sharing what you enjoy. Your best long-term players will gladly have their preferences less catered to if it means bringing in more new people. You will find some players who play specifically to win, and likely to win prizes. Winning isn't bad, and you should reward your winners, but those competitive players will often turn up winning often, which creates an environment of exclusion. There's ways to give something to everyone though; I'll get into prize structure more below.

Critical Mass

I want to dig into the details of planning an event, but there's one critical topic (pun intended) we have to address first. For each game or event, there's a critical mass of players - the number of people attending - that will make your event viable. Without that critical mass, no matter how good the event, it will flounder and ultimately fail.

The exact number varies for each game, but I find most often critical mass is around eight players. That means on any given event day, you expect no less than eight. The reason is twofold.

Have you ever played with the same group of four or five people for a long time? If you're on RPGnet, I'll be you have. It gets old after a while, right? This is true for almost any group. I don't have any group psychology studies to cite here, but experience has told me eight players creates a diverse enough group that players can go a much longer time before getting tired of the group.

The other reason is attraction. People are more attracted to success, and well-attended events look successful. This is called the virtuous cycle, and is a very important concept in business. We're predisposed to assume groups of people taking a given action have a good reason for it, even if we can't tell what it is, so we're more likely to follow suit. There's a great XKCD comic about all your friends jumping off a bridge that highlights it beautifully.

Even if we don't realise it, we're more likely to think favorably about a game lots of people play. Not everyone, of course; there's plenty of contrarians out there who need to go against the tide. But for most people it holds true. If I'm thinking about playing a card game, I'll probably choose Magic: the Gathering simply because it's the most popular. If so many people play it, it must be fun, right? That expectation also means I'm more likely to enjoy it, because I expect it to be fun.

An event may need some time to gain critical mass, but not a lot of time. You'll usually know after about four sessions, whatever the schedule is. A newer game may take longer to catch on; the math on this stuff is fuzzy. A game is more likely to catch on if the staff is passionate about it, too, since they're more likely to point it out to customers, talk about it, and have an easier time selling it. Prominence of display also affects it, since it puts the game on people's minds if they see it more often. Games that reach critical mass and later drop off may just need a short break to create more demand. If a break doesn't work, it's probably time to put your energy elsewhere.

Planning an Event

There's a few key factors you need to consider, and should be part of any event's announcement and information.

Schedule - Day and start time, as well as projected end time. Some events may have unclear end points, such as tournaments, but at least give information such as number of rounds and average or maximum round length. All-day events should include meal breaks.

It's very important to have a regular, easy-to-remember schedule. Daily or weekly is the easiest, followed by monthly on a repeating week (first Saturday or last Sunday, for instance). The more straightforward, the easier it is to communicate and for people to remember. New customers will always ask when and where they can play their game of choice; have an answer ready.

Cost - I recommend an entry fee for any organized play, but not for the reason you might think. Paying money, even a small amount, creates a sense of investment. If I run a free Warmachine league, players will feel like it's optional. If I charge $5, now there's a desire to get their money's worth. It can also create a sense of value, that it's worthwhile.

You should usually say what the entries go towards. Sometimes there's a material cost to the event, like buying an RPG adventure module or getting an event kit. Usually it goes to prize support. It's also fine to run events specifically for enhancing the store, like replacing chairs or terrain. Whatever it is, transparency about its use is always good.

Scoring - If there's any metagame, such as a tournament structure, points system, etc., explain it clearly. Anything with organized play from the game maker can include links to the game's official event information.

How an event is scored directly impacts player behaviors. Are you rewarded exclusively for winning? What about for performing specific actions or meeting certain achievements? Are there "fluff" awards, like the best character story, best-painted army, etc.? What about number of games played, or scale of games played, or even just attendance? There are plenty of ways to score an event. Might be good fodder for a future column.

Prizes - Be clear on exactly how prizes are distributed. For regular events, I strongly suggest creating prize categories focused on both competitive and casual play. Competitive prizes are usually easy, winners get prizes. The trick with casual prizes is making sure they go to the right players. Here's a few suggestions:

• Best attitude/sportsmanship, usually by vote
• Door prizes by random drawing
• For big events, you can do things like furthest traveled or run side contests like trivia
• For games with factions, best in faction is a decent way to spread out winners
• For minis games, I almost always award a best painted prize

Incidentals - Always tell people what they need to bring. People always forget things. Do they need a deck? Sleeves for cards? Dice? Rulebooks? Templates or tokens? Army or deck list? Premade characters? For scored events, consider awarding points for coming prepared. For big events, provide directions and possibly even food options and hotel stay.

Drawing Attendance

It takes a lot of work to tell people about your events. I can't tell you how many times I think I've talked an event into dead-horse territory only to talk to someone on event day who would have come if they knew it was happening. People get their information in lots of different ways, at different times, and you have to try to reach as many of them as possible. How do you do that?

Website - It pays to have a website that's easy to update. We use Wordpress as our back end; it's a basic blog platform with a lot of flexibility for how information gets presented, and plenty of free themes for how your site looks. You can also include an event calendar with a free plugin.

Social Media - It's just about essential today for businesses to have Facebook pages. If you don't have one, get on it! Twitter is useful, but I think requires more regular use to have conversations rather than the more fire-and-forget nature of Facebook. I like using Hootsuite for posting to multiple social media sites at once, with scheduling options.

When posting to social media, keep up with comments and replies. Ask questions, too; engagement with customers creates a better relationship, and gives you a chance to better understand what's important to them. Facebook has a handy polling option we use periodically to great effect. People like to feel heard, and feel more invested and involved.

Also look for Facebook Groups in your area you can join, and ask if you can post events there. It's a captive audience you know will be interested, and often times they're glad for the information. Just understand it's a shared space, and they may talk about your competitors as well as your store.

In-Store Signage - We make frequent use of sign-up sheets at our counter for upcoming events. It also pays to create posters, even simple ones printed yourself. You can also try flyers, either handed out at events or dropped in bags with purchases. What you choose is often dictated by what you're able to create and how much time it takes.

Placement is key. It may come as a surprise, but anything posted within about twelve feet of the door is a waste; nobody looks at anything that quickly on entering. Post notices where people will see them: at the counter, standing in line, while sitting at gaming tables, in the bathroom, or while leaving. Those are areas people tend to linger and look around, and will be glad for something interesting to read.

For My Next Trick

Next time I'll talk about playing nice with your other FLGS neighbors. Good working relationships are worth far, far more than fighting to own the local market.

If you have any questions, feedback or topic requests, please email me at jeremy@plu1sgaming.com! Thanks.