KeyForge Events

The Idea

KeyForge is a unique game. Specifically, it’s a game where two players square off with absolutely unique decks that combine a series of fantasy characters and actions in an attempt to gain resources in a race to “forge keys”. This game took our group by storm in mid-2019, and leading up to 2020, we managed to build a solid Chicago-based community of players and like-minded folks we either met through playing the game at events, or existing friends who we roped into the game. Then March ‘20 hit, everything was shut down, closed, or restricted, which meant the literal venues and stores where we’d play this game, no longer were available to us.

After about a year of not playing in-person, some members of the KeyForge community got together and decided to host their own, large-scale, in-person event in Milwaukee. Members of our team were pulled in after some of the major planning was underway to assist with building a digital presence, brand, and whatever we could do to support or offset the overhead of this fan-run event through sponsorships.

As KeyForge – the game, name, the whole nine – was actually a trademark of Fantasy Flight Games (now wholly owned by Ghost Galaxy), our team knew up front if we were to have any association (or collateral) that mentioned the game (we loved so much) we’d either need to be directly sponsored or supported by the KeyForge IP owners, or we’d need to insulate ourselves (as individuals) in case any good will we’d accumulated with the community was not recognized by KeyForge’s owners. Our attempts to gain endorsement or support from Fantasy Flight Games weren’t shot down, but they weren’t explicitly providing permission for us to use the KeyForge name, brand, etc for our event. So we had to tread lightly along that line of supporting the community without alienating the mothership.

The Goods

Showcasing a website used for event ticket sales isn’t super sexy (so we’re not doing it), but as we navigated the waters of building a brand identity for this large scale event, we began to branch out to other game publishers, unrelated to Fantasy Flight Games’ products and titles, to also bring a level of organized competitive events – regardless of scale – to each games’ community. As these discussions progressed, it became clear a division of our organization would be necessary for both legal protection for the individuals working on these efforts (as we walked that fine line) and in case at any point in time there were costs or revenue (like licensing names or characters, or even selling merchandise – with permission, of course). We created Token Events as a subsidiary of Double Bear Rolled, and built a repeatable process for hosting large scale events. Under the same banner, we built partnerships with a handful of local Chicago game stores (and a few out of state) in advance of any pandemic-related restrictions being lifted (or at least looser) to start running additional and more regular events.

As a testing ground for the bits and pieces of event structures and building cadence around prize support, we stepped up in the international KeyForge community to run multi-month and one-day events for various communities. An added bonus from engaging and running international community events was landing additional identity-work for a number of players and communities across KeyForge. Absolutely, one hundred percent of everything done for the KeyForge community was built anticipating a total loss, financially, despite the lessons learned having few economies of scale in the later months of this effort. Regardless, the community was happy, so it’s a win, overall.

The End Result

Turns out, our US-based community weren’t the only ones itching to put together large scale in-person events. Not only did we pull off the US-based event, but a game store and very-active KeyForge community based in Italy also reached out to with their plans to collaborate and run a similar event. The repeatable process we’d established for the US-based event because an a la carte menu for the Italy-based event. The gaps for what we were able to accomplish in the US were quickly filled with the official backing of a game store and the Italian arm Fantasy Flight Games’ parent company, Asmodee.

The communities were jazzed, the in-person competitive itches were scratched, and both in-person events had attendance of over 100 competitors. While rumours and plans for additional large scale in-person events surface as we near the anniversary of the US-based KeyForge event, no official recognition, support, or even acknowledgement has come from Fantasy Flight Games about the efforts to maintain the KeyForge community. A bummer, but not the underlying goal; the players are happy, and want more.

If you’re reading this any of this and wanting to build out a brand for your KeyForge community or host any-size event, feel free to reach out to us. The more the gaming communities support and bootstrap themselves, the better chances for rallying that momentum one the pandemic is under enough control that in-person events have a more regular cadence – and organized (and sponsored) by the game publishers, not just the fans.

We’re excited to see what potential creeps out of the post-pandemic world of KeyForge.