Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Greeting all.

God has called me to do a ministry that I enjoy and will help bring together His body.

I believe that God is calling me to go to different churches and to teach them Redemption.  Though it would be fun to have a lot of people playing (especially since I have to drive 3 1/2 hours to the closest tournament), that is actually not the main focus on it.  I believe that God wants me to use Redemption to help the churches around my town to come together for a common goal.  I know there are so much other things that would benefit others greater than this wonderful card game.  However, this is more for the body of Christ than for outreaching (though I'm sure it will be used for outreaches as well).  I believe that God will use this so that people at different churches can get to know others in the body of Christ that are outside their walls and even their denomination (like how this group is).  It would be great for believers to know who their fellow brothers/sisters are when they go to work/school/whatever.  This could be used to strengthen us and encourage one another.

Anyways, I'm still working on how to say it correctly for my mission statement .  The reason why I'm posting this is to ask for some more advise from ya all.  Here's some things that I already know about:

1) meet once a week or once every other week (instead of once a month).
2) talk to the leaders first before trying to get to the kids/youth.
3) have a mission statement and a description about the game (that way, when I go to different pastors to talk to them about it, it won't sound like I'm just here to teach them a card game).
4) host a tournament once I have a steady group of people (what's a good number?)
5) (from my Pastor) have a steady group at my home church before reaching out to others (so they won't question why I haven't started at my own church first).

I'm sure I know more but o well .

I need as much advise as I can get (and prayer).  Please let me know what helped you guys out (except for going to comic stores because we don't really have a store that has room for card games).

Also, Lord willing, I will be teaching some kids at my co-worker's church how to play and will meet their Pastor to talk about it (it's a small church and she believes there will be no conflicts).  Please keep me in your prayers (for without God's help, it's all vanity).

God Bless,
Chris

P.S. I have an idea for tournaments that I would like to get your advise on.  When enough people get cards, I am thinking about inviting the people who don't really have their own decks to come and play seal deck (the people who do have decks will be playing T1-2P).  I also want to have Booster draft for those who have a decent deck and would like to get some good cards (I will probably run T1-multi during it for those who don't want to do booster draft).  I have never played either (though Seal deck sounds simple enough).  I am planning (Lord willing) to go to the March tournament in Arcadia and finally play booster draft to see exactly how it goes.  Do you all think it would be a good idea or do you think I should wait for those?

P.S.S. My father has donated a box of six starter box.  I have been selling them for $10.00 each (atleast they save on taxes/shipping ).  My goal with that is to have one of the first tournament completely free.  How many should I sell to accomplish my hope?

Do you all think it would be a good idea or do you think I should wait for those?

I do recommend playing (or at least watching) a tournament Booster draft before trying to host one yourself.

My goal with that is to have one of the first tournament completely free.  How many should I sell to accomplish my hope?

Selling starter decks for $10 is a good idea.  Having you first tournament be completely free is probably a bad idea.  If your first one is free then people will expect free ones in the future as well.  Also tournaments are a bit expensive these days, and you'll need the fees to help cover the cost.  I would recommend having your first tournament just be T1-2p, and doing it as soon as you have 3 or 4 people playing.  The tournament will cost you $20, and if the 4 people each chip in $5 then your tournament is paid for.

For your second tournament (the next month) I would add T1-mp.  Then your cost will be $24.  Hopefully by then you'll have picked up 1 more person, and so your tournament will be paid for again by each person chipping in $5.

For your 3rd tournament (the next month) I would add Closed Deck.  Then you cost will be $28 + Starter deck and booster pack supplies.  For this I would charge $5 to play in both T1-2p and T1-mp, and then charge $10 on top for the Closed Deck.  That will cover your tournament and your Starter Deck costs.  And if you don't open your packs that you won at previous tournaments, then you can use those for Closed Deck and so you won't have to spend any money for this tournament either.

For your 4th tournament (the next month) I would add either T2-2p or Booster depending on the desires of your group.  Hopefully by this point you have a lot of people coming to your tournaments.  Otherwise as soon as you add in Booster, you'll start to lose money.  Most hosts only charge around $10 for Booster, but the supplies for it will probably cost you more than that.  So unless you have enough people chipping in $5 for the T1 categories, you won't break even.  But if your playgroup is growing, then this won't be a problem

By the point you get here, you'll have it all figured out and you can take it from there.  I applaud your determination, and hope that it all works out great.  But remember "God doesn't call us to be successful; he calls us to be obedient."

Part 2:

By the point you get here, you'll have it all figured out and you can take it from there.  I applaud your determination, and hope that it all works out great.

Thanks

BTW, God has already opened the door for this ministry.  My co-worker I mentioned earlier (see original post) has talked to her pastor and he is fully behind it.  He even told his kids to invite all their friends who would be interested (and I've never met the guy (I didn't go last week because he was gone and my co-worker's mother-in-law went to the hospital (she should be released today)).  I will meet him before the service and will go into more detail with whatever he has questions about.  There is a possibility that I will be teaching more kids at once than I've taught people at my church this whole time (do we serve an awesome God or what ).

I will be waiting a while longer until I start going out and talking to other churches (taking my pastors advise and making sure I have a good core group at home (which would (Lord willing) include the people I will be teaching this Friday)) before talking with other church leaders).  Of course, God probably has different plans and I'll just be following His lead on this (cause He knows how hopeless this is without Him ).

But remember "God doesn't call us to be successful; he calls us to be obedient."

I love that quote.  I need to put it in my Redemption binder I want to create to always keep me humble and not try to compare myself to other playgroups (considering the only other ones I've seen is in Arcadia and that took up two rooms for the last two I went to).

Also, if you are praying for this ministry, please pray that my focus will not be on teaching other Redemption (and therefore be happy when the playgroup reaches a certain number) but that the WHOLE purpose of this ministry is to bring churches together under a common fellowship/outreach (and, Lord willing, will bless some one with more ideas of how the churches can join together to share Christ's everlasting love).

If anyone who had judged/hosted a tournament can pm me some questions that have come up at your tournaments, I would really appreciate it. 

Any one of a million questions could come up at a tournament.  I would suggest that a player who isn't quite familiar with the intricacies of the rules get some help on rulings for a tournament.  The easiest way to do that is to have a computer there with web access and join several Hamachi networks within the Redemption community.  Then if something comes up you can quickly log in and ask someone who has more experience.  There's almost always someone available who would be glad to help.  They can usually answer your question and point you to the REG page or forum thread that backs it up.

Wow.  That is great.  I am very happy to hear about your ministry.  Keep us posted.