Need suggestions on organizing a Pokemon event for newbies
My kids are in the phase where they are hoarding Pokémon cards and know a little bit about the game but not much more than that. They've been taught the original rules once or twice and I think they have a play board or 3 . Most of our cards are from several different eras. Not even in binders!
I was thinking about organizing a Pokémon learning event at our church game day.
I don't have a number of attendees, I wanted to sketch it out and get some feedback on structuring a small event that likely encompasses learning and play both. My thought was to solicit help from middle school and high school kids who already are knowledgeable about the game and have multiple stations/tables, each with its own focus.
Tables could include:
Pokemon basics: characters, cards, classes, traits, attack & health.
Basics of turn based games and gameplay.
Deck building, card acquiring.
Intro play, open faced perhaps, or peer partners if we have enough teachers
Some actual play, depending on skill, maybe even a junior tournament of sorts.
My thought on multiple tables or stations was in order to keep the content smaller and less overwhelming. Plus allowing kids to go from place to place depending on what they already knew or when they got bored. We'd be targeting doing this perhaps once a month.
As far as materials, we could either bulk purchase a number of packs to hand out or recommend that people buy a starter kit or some number of packs of whatever the current generation is to bring along.
I'm also willing to accept feedback that multiple tables won't work as well as large group sessions with peer mentors or some other structure that has been proven to be effective.
I'm sure I'm recreating the wheel of events that go on at libraries and game shops everywhere but I would like to do this with our own small community.
Edit. We have dungeons and dragons for middle school and high school on the third Sunday of the month so I try and do this at the same time. Perhaps we can graduate from this other turn based games. One of my goals is also to help these kids get to know each other and have mentorship between the older kids and the younger kids. I will probably include links to some of the regional, hobby shops and libraries who do have tournaments to help facilitate those who wish to do more with the game.
Resources I have found so far:
https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/play-in-a-league
