Friday, February 9, 2018

U.S. Age of Sigmar Community Group Modular Pack


Hey Everyone!  This week saw the release of the initial project of the U.S. Age of Sigmar Community Group.  The group is made up of Community Leaders, Content Creators, Play Testers, Hobbyists, and Gamers from across the U.S. who are all dedicated to improving the Age of Sigmar community and its growth.    The group began after a Community meeting with Games Workshop at Adepticon last year and we all began dedicating our efforts to supporting their new connection to the community and wished to help with the unique issues within the U.S. scene.  Everyone in the group works in their own way to better the community and a selection of us decided to put effort into creating the "Player and Event Organizer Modular Pack" who are credited for their work on the document within the pack itself.

The primary home for the pack is on the U.S. AoS Community Group Page where you can find the latest version of the document to view and download as well as any other notes or future projects associated with the group itself.  The site also includes a simple event calendar to help spread the awareness of upcoming Age of Sigmar Events across the U.S. and its various regions.  We encourage anyone to reach out to the group's contact email usaoscommunity@gmail.com to submit their event to be added to the calendar.  That same email can be used for general comments and suggestions as well.

The site may expand in the future to include other projects supporting the growth and health of the Age of Sigmar community.  As for now, the plan is to keep it simple and keep the focus on the pack as well as the calendar, but if you have a project or item you feel would be good to link from the page in the future please feel free to reach out.  It may not happen for some time, but we are always looking ahead in order to grow and connect our community.

The group held regular monthly calls as we worked through the pack to cement its philosophy and design elements. It was a great way to peer review and offer suggestions and critiques to individual models from perspectives of other members through general support or by ensuring a more consistent message where some modules overlapped.  It was great fun working through this process and having so many great minds work and support each other and you can be sure it wasn't all business.  With so many enthusiastic Age of Sigmar Hobbyists, we would divert into Hobby talk as would be expected.

 

The pack was created in a modular format with the added layer of breaking down different modules into three different levels of play with the U.S. in the form of Local, Regional, and National.  Each module is built to tackle specific parts of our hobby whether it is painting, gameplay, finding a venue, narrative play as well as others.  The pack encourages clubs, events, and individuals to use the parts they need in order to create the pack that best suits their needs.  It is all aimed at being a guideline and not meant to mandate how to play Age of Sigmar and participate in this hobby.  We hope the pack can be a foundation to get events, clubs, and players started and see where they can grow and how the three different levels of play (Local, Regional, and National) support one-another. 

The approach of presenting each module in the three levels of play is to help present the issue with distance in the U.S. and facilitate the understanding of how they interwork and support one another despite the distance.  It also helps a local club openly see what the next level might be for their club or event by focusing on becoming more regional.   We hope that it might also help individuals who might play locally understand the difference between playing at a local store and playing at NOVA Open Grand Tournament so they can be more prepared for events at the different levels of play.



The plan is to update the pack on regular time frame 3 months after Games Workshop releases the Major FAQ's for the game in order to fill any gaps that might be formed with rule issues in the form of potential house rules that can be used to limit any unforeseen "broken" lists, combination, etc...  We also plan to make adjustments to the pack overall as needed to keep up with the changes in the community that naturally happen over time.  It is possible that additional Modules could be created to examine other parts of the game and hobby as they are needed.

While there is a set time period to introduce updated versions of the pack it is likely we make small tweaks and adjustments as needed in between major updates.  Word clarification, spelling, sudden army Errata and FAQ's could create a need to update the pack sooner than expected.  We are leaving the option open in order to ensure the pack stays as relevant as possible.  We suggest you check back regularly to ensure you have the latest version.  You can also follow my Twitter where I will post anytime there is an update big or small.

I would like to take a moment to personally thank those who were able to put forth their time and energy to work on the pack over the past months and work together to create this tool for the community it wouldn't have happened without these hobbyists putting in their time and effort.  I would also like to take a moment to thank the group as a whole for their support and continued effort in making this community great as well as Games Workshop for being so willing to connect to the community whether it is groups like The U.S. AoS Community Group or individual hobbyists openly and honestly.  It was exciting being part of this group as a whole to work with such people and it is an honor to be able to call them all friends.

This is only the first project by the group and we are examining other future projects, but a lot of the group are already diving into their own projects to help the community and game as a whole.  Our community is healthy and growing and everyone's goal across the country is to grow their club and host and attend more and more events.  We hope this pack can help the community across the country at all levels to help "Unify without Homogenizing" our national scene.  Feel free to check it out, offer us feedback, and make it your own.

Until next week, Happy Hobbying.

Chuck Moore