Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Hello, World 

My name ist Stefan (= Steven) I'm 22, from Germany and super excited to join the Redemption community!
I found out about Redemption only a few months ago and started playing a few weeks ago. I've been hooked ever since. It's so just so much fun and challenging at the same time.
I also was very fortunate to find other players in Lackey and already made some new friends
They helped me a great deal and I feel like I'm starting to wrap my head around the basics of the game (mostly starters right now but I played Coney and other decks as well).

I live in a bible belt in Germany (Karlsruhe city, close to Stuttgart) and have a lot of connections to all kinds of different churches and groups in and around Karlsruhe. And since I am convinced that Germany has to learn about this awesome game and especially the churches and youth group I've decided to make it happen!
I'm about to order a bunch of Starters and boosters from TLG and plan to hand out a Starter and two boosters to everyone who is interested in the game. I want to mainly target youth groups but will also approach individuals. The intent behind handing the material out for free is that I want to make it as easy for new players to join the community and get right into the game. I really want to see play groups form and then expand rapidly! I would also like to host a local tournament asap. I have a lot of potentially interested people and groups and am convinced that we could hit double digits in no time! This is where you come into play!

Since I am trying to reach as many people as possible I am asking for your support. I would be thankful for advice on how to start a play group, the potential challenges and everything else profitable to know for a newcomer. Also I would like you to pray for open doors wherever I spread the word and also for practical help. I thought many of you surely have a lot of multiples of different cards you might have no use for. If you would like to donate them to the cause of advancing the game by equipping us all with a larger card pool that would be highly appreciated! Any other way of support that you might be able to think of is a blessing too. Every word of encouragement, every prayer and everything else.

I am just hyped and excited to see how all of this will unfold and eager to hear back from you!
Blessings from Germany,
Stefan

I got 99 views but responses ain't one?

Here are a couple articles written by some guys who have begun successful playgroups.

http://landofredemption.com/?p=1599

http://landofredemption.com/?p=2559

Hope you can find some ideas that will work for you! 

There's definitely a lot to look through...happy to help point you in the right direction. 

Shalom jesse

Thanks for your super encouraging and helpful response! Also your prayers are so appreciated! I’m already having a bunch of friends that are interested in playing Redemption. Tomorrow I’ll play a game with one of them.

I plan to introduce the new players to the game using I/J and G/H. I’ll try to make the entrence as easy and exciting/fun as possible. Thanks for your tips concerning that!
Especially the „free box“ idea is really inspiring! I’ll defenitly borrow that idea for the play group!
I want to learn about booster drafts soon because to me the idea is so intriguing! I agree that drafts will be cool to offer as a category at the tournaments we will be having in Germany. That will be so exciting!
The tournaments will be so much fun. I guess that by offering sealed and drafts in the beginning we will limit frustration on the side of the new players.

Thanks for all the great advice that definitely helped me a lot!
God bless

Finally I've been able to take the time to give you guys an update!
Thanks to all of you that prayed and helped practically. Especially to Travis - you've blessed us so much!
So the cards have arrived some time ago and we started playing and building/refining decks, trading and everything going with that. It's a lot of fun!
I've been able to hand out 5 of the starters already and am hoping to hand out many more in the days to come! People like the game and I'm confident this play group will grow rapidly.
Please keep us in your prayers. I've inserted some pictures for your amusement ;-)

Spoiler (hover to show)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-Fks-okFxHANkRUVDRESjZueXZ2X2JLelltc3lqdmVZRVBF
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19vNN-X_3jQxTkf6nYYssiY9OXpyOOhOR (I'm the guy with the cards ^^)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1piZO4OhawpgxBx0_CIV2ILTNfiHGtGt1

Are you messianic jewish?

It depends on how you define the term. I'm a Gentile Christian that believes in the Jewish Messiah Yeshua aka Jesus. I like that Yeshua means "God is Salvation / God saves". That's one of the reasons I like to use this name but I don't get dogmatic or crazy about it. It just feels comforting to me to know he is the one how saves.
I think there is positive stuff in some of the Hebrew roots movement but don't see myself as a Jew or tell people to obey all of the Torah or stuff like that. Even though I think people should pay more attention to the O.T.
I don't know if that was helpful in "categorizing" me ^^'
Blessings