Open Play Nights (FFG is on the Right Track)
Recently, my friendly local game store received their seasonal kits from Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) to support Open Play events. I was really impressed with the promos when our local tournament organizer showed me some of them. FFG made good choices about which cards to print! He asked me if I would be willing to run Open Play (OP) events for our store, and I agreed. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I scheduled our first event; was anyone going to come out for an event that wasn’t an official “tournament?” Was there any interest in playing games without the competitive atmosphere that comes with a formal structure?
I asked to place an “Open Play” event on our local calendar. After all, there was no way to know how it would go without trying! Three decks and a plate of brownies in hand (I’ll explain that later), I made the drive to my local store and set up. As the evening progressed, many faces popped in to play Star Wars: Destiny – and had fun doing it! I was blown away by the positive response to this event from our playgroup. I’m here to tell you that Open Play nights are not only a lot of fun, but they’re a great way to help build community and enjoy the game of Star Wars: Destiny outside of the traditional tournament structure.
A Bit of Background (Why I Bring Desserts to My Local Tournaments)
Attendance at our local tournaments hit an all time low during the long gap between Legacies and Way of the Force. At its nadir, we would sometimes only have two or three players and fail to fire tournaments at all. Around the time of last year’s Store Championships, I began working with my FLGS to attempt to restore our numbers. We tried many things, but a closer look at prizing was one of the things that did the most good. A new recipe of promos, tokens, and store credit for players who performed well (based on record) was our starting place.
From there, we made sure to award all players with at least a participation promo and a pack of the newest set as consolation prize if they did poorly. We never wanted players to leave empty handed. While we were brainstorming things to draw in players, I looked a lot of different places for inspiration. My wife even started baking desserts for me to bring to share with our players! She and I assumed that everyone likes to eat, and it couldn’t hurt anything to try. It turns out food, prizes, and cards are a great combination to regrow a player base!
Our new setup worked well, and our numbers slowly climbed. We were back to a steady group of six to eight players attending weekly by the time that our store hosted its Regional event last December . These days, we range from small tournaments of four or five players to the occasional large event exceeding twelve players in attendance. It’s really been a pleasure to help recruit and play games with the great group of players we’ve gathered. Even with our renewed attendance, however, weekly tournaments do tend to get monotonous and tedious as metas solidify and deck innovation stalls. We’ve started looking at new things we could try to keep things lively.
Enter Seasonal Play Kits (The Probe Promo is Spicy)
FFG correctly identified that local playgroups are the lifeblood of the game in their recent update introducing seasonal kits. These new seasonal play kits are designed to allow players to “play more to earn more.” Essentially, players no longer need to win events to receive nifty prizing. They just need to show up at your local store, roll dice, and collect prizes. The kits feature a variety of impressive promos, from month one’s Beguile (WF109) to month two’s Probe (CV25) (my personal favorite). Still, even with the promos in hand, I have to admit I was slightly skeptical about this approach to local OP support. Speaking now as someone who has hosted an event with these new guidelines, there’s actually lot of value in this strategy. Open Play events are awesome!
Grievous’ Wheel Bike Isn’t That Bad (Open Play Events Inspire Innovation)
It turns out that I had overlooked the allure for many players of an “everyone wins” event. As I mentioned before, I believed that some players would miss the structure of a four round tournament. I was very happy to see player after player show up for our first Open Play night! Some players attended I hadn’t seen in weeks! In our local weekly tournaments, players typically play three or four games with tie breakers as needed. At the free play event, some players played twice that many games! The freedom of the event structure allowed for games to fire off much more quickly than they do with 35 minute round timers. I played more Destiny at our open play event than I’ve played in several weeks in regular tournaments!
Some of our players (like me) enjoy playing both established competitive decks and home-brewed piles of cards. It’s hard to play both in a given week, since one weekly tournament with prizing based on record incentivises bringing your best. One of the benefits of an Open Play event is the freedom to change decks at will. Want to play some competitive matches? Okay, there’s an opponent for you. Want to play your elite Asajj Ventress (CV1) and elite Arihnda Pryce (WF18) brew? Cool, there’s an opponent for that too. Since every game is a step closer to a new promo, losing games doesn’t make players feel quite as much like Hester Prynne. I saw everything from established meta decks to a General Grievous (CV21) deck that used Armored Reinforcement (AG129) to tutor General Grievous’ Wheel Bike (WF31)! The variety and boldness in deck choices was awesome!
Store Championships, Seasonal Premium Kits, and Primes (Oh My!)
It’s a bit of a shame that these kits were not paired with an announcement of Store Championships. Given FFG’s renewed focus on building up local communities, it’s an odd omission. My local player base is fired up from a great open play night, but there isn’t a sanctioned competitive event on the horizon for us to prepare for together. Given that current rumors place the next Store Championship season this winter sometime, my fear is that local communities are currently lacking a competitive partner to package with the laid back Seasonal Kits. We do know Seasonal Premium Kits are going to be pushed out to stores soon, and I’m hopeful that they can be used to successfully host a local competitive event. They look like they’re going to be cool, at least!
It is also possible that Prime events will be widespread enough that they will replace (in some ways) Store Championships. It appears that the new Prime setup will allow for more stores to apply for “Regionals.” Since details on that are still murky, it’s hard to count on local stores all receiving a Prime event. Logistically, there are many challenges making that unrealistic. However, If Primes are relatively widespread, the prestige of those events will decline. That will make them feel like something halfway between old Store Championship events and Regional events.
Ultimately, this means we will be probably be replacing summer Store Championships with Seasonal Premium tournaments. We should also hopefully see Primes in our area several weekends this autumn. That is potentially a fine trade-off, if FFG handles everything well. To me, this means setting a schedule that doesn’t leave too much down time. It is in our nature to be skeptical about the unknown, but I’m cautiously optimistic this new setup can work.
Thanks, FFG (I’m Really Not Ungrateful)
Regardless, this is a post of appreciation for the new seasonal kits. The focus on Open Play appears to have been a smart move on the part of the FFG OP team. My local group were excited about the event after it was over. Some of them were already asking me when we would have another Open Play night before I had packed up the first one! Players that missed the event have asked me when we will be holding the next one, and I’m excited for what the kits are doing to inject some energy into our local. If your FLGS orders the kits, I highly recommend that you give the format a try!
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