How To Persuade A Local Store To Test The Spoils

Written by buubble
Contributions and Editing by former Judge of Great Justice: Terence Jason Dorman

This document is designed for anyone who wishes to help share The Spoils with other gamers or card players by demonstrating to them just how great The Spoils is. In this document you will learn what you need to run a demo as well as learn some tips on how to conduct the demo itself.

You Will Need...

...a few things, every one of which will play a crucial role in the attempt of winning over your local store.

1) Time
Before you read any further, remember what you are about to do. You are going to go into a game store and attempt to sell them a game. This process will take a lot of time, so don't expect immediate success after only an hour. Expect to make multiple trips as this is not an easy job, it is a crusade. If you are a frequent customer then you should not have too much trouble making an appearance consistently.

2) A Good Attitude
You might have noticed I haven't said anything about the actual game yet, and I will tell you why. The most important part of marketing anything is in the impression you make. It has been said that, when you go into a job interview, your interviewer has already made a decision between the time you walk through the door and when you sit down. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant, the point is you must make an excellent first impression. If you're already buddies with your local game store employees, all the better. Once they are willing to lend an eye and an ear, the game will sell itself. it is a great game and you only have to remind the stores of that.

3) Cards
Once you have made your introductions and first impression it is time to get down to business. You will obviously need to bring cards with you as it is hard to demonstrate a card game without cards. A pair of starter decks a constructed real deck would be preferable as you can use the starters to introduce the game mechanics and the constructed deck to show how fun the game can be. It would also be advisable to bring some other materials with you, such as play-mats or sleeves, to show off the other exciting materials the game has to offer.

4) A Friend
It is hard to play The Spoils by yourself. Try and get another one of your local players to come with you if you can. After you teach the owners/employees the game, play a sample game in front of them with your friend to demonstrate the play while allowing them to ask questions. This will let them see a game uninterrupted by demo information and allow them to see how much fun it can be to play The Spoils.

5) Contact Information
You will need to find out the store's contact information so the Arcane Tinmen sales team can work their magic. It would be best to get the store's telephone number, email address, and postal address, so that Arcane Tinmen has every avenue available to get in touch with the store.

You should also bring contact information for yourself and for Arcane Tinmen should the store owner have any questions while you are not around. I would advise giving them your email address as well as the email addresses for Will Clark (Director of Organized Play), Michael Nielsen (Owner of Arcane Tinmen and The Spoils), and Kettil Brochmann (Judge of Great Justice). With this information the store will be able to do some research on their own rather than always needing you around to answer questions for them.

Piquing Their Interest

Once you are in the store there will be a few different approaches available to you regarding how to sell the game. The Spoils is by no means a new game and it is even possible that your local store may have supported the game when it was owned by Tenacious.

For example, Neatherworlds, the store I visited, not only carries a few packs in the back, but the store owner used to play in Limited tournaments with my roommate. For stores like these, the best thing to do is show support of the game by buying a few packs and playing some games with your friends, all while having a good time. By draw attention to yourself the people around you will be curious about this strange yet interesting new card game, and the owners will remember what a great card game it was.

For stores that have never carried the Spoils before, the approach will be similar with the exception that you will likely be unable to buy some packs as they probably will not have any. It is still a good idea, though, to play games in the store from time to time to drum up interest. If you can get players interested in the game they will share that interest with the store and do some of the work for you.

Despite its popularity at one point in time, The Spoils is still a fairly young game. With this in mind, it should not be surprising to meet people that are not familiar with the game. There is nothing wrong with this, and if your local store owner is new to the game, pop out the starter set you brought and explain the basics of the game. You could even play a quick game with your friend or the owner to demonstrate. Having similar basic mechanics as some other common card games, it should be easy to demo and explain to new players.

Be sure to emphasize the uniqueness and creativity of cards, including rules texts, names, and flavor texts. These are some of the strongest aspects of The Spoils, so take advantage of every opportunity to point these things out.

There are some really interesting and/or funny cards in The Spoils.

Appreciate and utilize these as they are often the best talking point when approaching new players!

Wrapping Up

Once you gain the interest of even one person, whether it be the owner or another local player, you have made significant progress in advertising The Spoils. Word of the game will travel exponentially as every person you get hooked on The Spoils is another person that will help spread the word and increases the popularity of this brilliant game.

At this point, you have already done the hardest part of this job. All that is required now is for you to come back often and play The Spoils and have fun! You will naturally receive attention and generate interest, and that is when the sales team comes in. The owner will have an image of the game in the back of their mind, an image that the sales team will jump on and start the process of approaching the store owners. The owners will be interested in taking part in the ascension of The Spoils if there are many people in the area that would like to jump onto The Spoils bandwagon, which will create a profitable demand for the local store.

Lastly, be sure to thank the store, thank the owners, and most importantly, thank yourself for helping spread a great game!

A bit about the main writer: Buuble is a fairly new member to the community, but since his discovery of this card game some months back, he has been playing the game non-stop. He was introduced to The Spoils by one of his roommates who was a big fan of the game and he has been playing The Spoils ever since and even got his other roommate hooked on the game as well. To give you an idea of their passion for the game, take a peek into their living room:

He soon became so deeply enamored with the game that he made it his personal crusade to try and convince the local game stores to support it. He got in contact with Michael from Arcane Tinmen and is currently in the process of trying out the "Tag Team Model." In short, the Tag Team Model is a method in which a local player, with the help of Arcane Tinmen, can promote the Spoils at local stores in an effort help them realize how great it would be to carry The Spoils.