Belegarth

ok like i wanna get ppls interested but i live in a small town and everyone here is all like country music and driving in trucks and stuff like that and think lord of the rings is dumb but i liek lord of the rings so its gonna be hard do u have any advice?

Take some Ritalin.

1. Calm Down
2. Take your time when you type
3. Start with your friends
4. Find other people that like LOTR
5. Build a few weapons
6. Find another group nearby

ok ok its kinda force of habit becuz i txt a lot

thanks!

First, let me say Hail and welcome. Now to your question. My advice become knowledgable. People who you try to recruit are going to want to know what in the world Belegarth is. You need to be able to give a brief explaination on the rules our weapons and how we play. This section is still rather new so you may not be able to find all the answers you want but it shouldn't be to hard to get the answers if you ask. By pure odds someone will know the answer which is why this forum is here.

Welcome to Belegarth,

recruiting new people can be really hard, especially when you are just starting out. The thing to remember is there are many sides to Belegarth and many reasons for people to be interested. For example: Fighting, outdoor activity/sports, combat strategy/tactics, making weapons and armor, role playing, medieval studies, historical reenactment, reenacting movies like LOTR or 300. Different people will be attracted to different aspects of Belegarth. You need to know your audience.

If you are talking to people who "like country music and driving in trucks and stuff like that and think lord of the rings is dumb" then you might say it is like paint ball but using swords instead of guns. Paintball is fairly popular and gets the idea across. Or you could say it's a full contact sport like football but instead of running with a ball you beat on each other. Compare it to things they know and like and they're more likely to be interested.

That should help you attract people, but be careful because you might not like the people you attract. It's safer to attract people who have the same interests as you, but it'll be a lot harder to get a good number of people.


Two other things that will really help:

Get a website. It doesn't have to be fancy, maybe just a yahoo group or something. Just have a place where you can send people to get more information on when and where you practice.

The other thing to keep in mind is BE CONSISTENT. Once you get a few people to play start practicing in a public place on a regular schedule. In my realm, a lot of our new players are people who just walked by and thought it looked cool. But they'll only be able to find you if you are at the same place on a regular basis. I was in a small Amtgard group that couldn't get any members because we kept canceling practice and new people would show up and not find anyone there.


I hope that helps. Good Luck!

Mungus wrote:ok ok its kinda force of habit becuz i txt a lot

thanks!

Because.
Text.

Also, try checking local highschools and colleges

All hail the great and murderous Dagg. He has spoken.

Is there a local section in the paper, with listings of activities around town? Try that.

He was a troll. (The bad kind)

Theres a good kind?

No, there isn't. The ones from the mountains are great, though.

Getting back to the point of this thread....

Mungus, put up fliers anywhere and everywhere. I too live in a area where most people drive trucks and listen to country music. (Freeport/Lena IL is in the middle of a corn field.) But the fliers have brought out nearly half the guys that come out for practice. The other good thing is word of mouth. Tell your friends, have your friends tell their friends, etc. That works really well. And just because they are redneck doesn't mean they won't like Belegarth. We have a couple of them who come to practice once in a while.

Also, since they tend to think that real men play sports like football, brag about the physical aspects of Belegarth, like use terms like "full contact" and such.

get a really good picture of someone getting crushed or in some way looking like an awesome sport, someone throwing a shot while 8 feet in the air looks good too. Next go to college and under age parties and explain and show the picture to everyone. have a bunch of bussiness card type things to give to people, the cards should have realm name, belegarth name, practice location, practice days and time. Make sure you give the card to every person that will take one. The picture should also be shown to every person possible.

I run a satellite realm for Dun Abhon in Corydon. I live in a small (<2000) people town that is economically depressed and full of people... well, not much different than described.

Here's what I did... I cal it Wal-Mart marketing. I found the closest town with a Wal-Mart. I found a decent sized park with a lot of traffic, and got Mansquatch and his sister, The Clobberer (aka my wife), to start playing with me in the park on a specific day each week (Saturdays * 2:00 for us).

This may sound counter-productive to take the practice field away from your locale, but although people would have to travel to get there, it is a place people are already used to traveling. We have a greater chance of people in Corydon going to Corydon, and people from the other areas going to Corydon as well (because they are used to going there for Wal-Mart). If you don't have a Wal-Mart, pick something similar that many people already travel to go to on a regular basis.

The first week we had someone stop who "had to try this out". They were already familiar with the SCA, but this seemed to appeal to both the guy and his girlfriend, who liked the swordplay without the big hard stuff and bruising.

With only a little encouragement, the next week, they were back out and bringing more with them.

We still have yet to have a large group (about 7 or eight consistent), but we are rapidly building as this is our fourth week.

We have yet to put a flyer out, though I have them made up thanks to someone else who made templates here on the board:
*Warning* image heavy:
http://www.belegarth.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=22135
http://www.belegarth.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=22078

Hope it helps,
RB