How to arrange a game? Permission, assumption or agreement?

[Mr Mystery]

Evening all.

Bit of a discussion point for you guys here.....

So recently it seems most conversation has been about Escalation, Stronghold and the wider 'meta'. Some love it. Some loathe it. Those in favour seem to be embracing the additional variety this has brought. Those less favourable feel it's just made powergaming more powergamery.

It strikes me that whichever side of the fence you fall on, the main concern seems to be that we ultimately have limited hobby time available for actually gaming, and nobody wants to see things mired in petty arguments about whether you've just ruined the other person's night by being that guy. And in this instance, that guy can vary, from he/she who demands you acquiesce to their insistence on fielding Super Heavies, he/she who point blank refuses to play against them. Or in other words, whichever player feels that their hobby takes precedence over other people's hobby. (this is a delineation drummed into me as a one time GW employee. We share a hobby, but my hobby is different from your hobby, and all hobby is to be ultimately respected).

And if you're still with me, it's time to get to the point..... With all this new variety, whether you love it or loathe it, how best to go about arranging your next game? Doesn't matter if it's a casual game, pick up game, or the final of some long winded tournament with rulership of the known Universe as first place. I'm just interested to know your approach.

For me? It depends what I'm up to. If it's a dull Sunday and I just don't want to sit in watching the gogglebox, I'll likely keep it vanilla. That way I can fall back to any old pick up game. If I've managed to think ahead, I can challenge a specific opponent, and will likely (despite their official nature) enquire as to whether they'd mind facing off in an Escalation or Stronghold scenario.

Should I break the habit of a lifetime and start to regularly attend tournaments, I think I'd rather go for one where absolutely anything official goes. Which does mean GW run ones for sure. Why? Gotta out myself, I'm a massive fan of variety in gaming, and the challenges presented. Doesn't mean I'd necessarily follow suit and Escalate or Stronghold my army, but I would have no bones in taking on such a foe!

And now over to you!

[Auticus]

First off - no one can demand anything of anyone. YOu can't walk into a game store and demand people play Escalation with you if they don't want to.

How do I arrange my next game? Well... I organize events so we already know what rules are going to be there ahead of time when we play.

However if I was going to go back to pick up games, I'd show up with my stuff. Then I'd say "who wants to play an X point game? No escalation as I don't have anything with me for that" or "Apoc, if anyone has the stuff to paly that" or "I brought a super heavy so can do Escalation or use heavy fortifications if you want... otherwise I can use a normal list"

I see this all the time at our local GW store. Everyone is reasonable. It takes all of 5 minutes to set the game up and then they play.

There are very few that guy out there that demand things of other people, and those people usually get weeded out and ignored until they change their attitude anyway. There is, however, a terror of having to face that guy but short of a tournament where you have no choice of opponents, you always get to choose whether or not you spend two hours facing someone and if they are demanding things of you then that choice seems pretty easy, at least to me.

The biggest issue I find is people are miffed that there is no one standard anymore because often those people use pick up games to practice for tournaments, and now that's harder to do since there are more options.

[flatscan]

2013 was my first year playing 40K and I'm lucky to be in a city with a healthy scene for this game. There was monthly tournaments at the big game shop I looked forward to where I would be face to face with the new nastiness. I was aware of other store tournaments that I was interested in, but never got around to attending. Now in 2014 I've heard of yet another store which will be holding monthly tournaments. All 3 stores have a different take on playing the game, the store the tournaments I had been going to like clockwork is introducing comp to at least 2/3 of their games in 2014. While I'll still attend I'm looking forward to the more narrative approach and cut-throat approach the 2 other stores' tournaments will have. This gives me 3 very different avenues for playing 40K.

On top of that, there's talk of an inter-city league starting up. To my mind this is a great idea in organized play and beats showing up to your local store to take on whatever's there (sometimes a great match-up, sometimes a netlist, sometimes nothing).

We now have a ton of varieties to play 40K. If you've got a slow Sunday but know a friend or 3 who wants to throw down, you can suggest Kill Teams, standard, add on any of the supplements, play Carnage or go for the gold with Apocalypse. Just take 5 minutes to talk with somebody you know and arrange the parameters of the game you want to play. Otherwise, if you're just showing up a the store, what you get is what you get.

[Veteran Sergeant]

All of life is a negotiation.

The only way to be that guy is if you don't care if your opponent has fun or not. If you don't care about that, you're always that guy, without exception.

That said, it's up to everyone to decide how they have fun. If you don't want to play somebody's Titan, then say that. Both of you can find different opponents. If there's nobody else to play, then you can find a compromise or just do something else. But there's a massive disparity in the cost structure of Escalation. Some armies have reasonably "cheap" options like the IGuard and the Baneblade or Shadowsword. Others, like Space Marines, are looking at a minimum of a $500 purchase of a titan or Thunderhawk. Everyone needs to accept that it's an entirely new economic dynamic to the game.