Ambassador - Lesson 5
Forging a Community
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Hello there and welcome back to the Ambassador Program for Star Wars™: Unlimited.
As always, I’m your host Jonah, and today we’ll be talking about forging your own community, building one from scratch or growing one that already exists. You can take a branch from your local game store and develop a scene for Unlimited if one doesn’t already exist. You can found at your school. You can join forces from across multiple stores and have their communities come together and help each store grow.
Your community doesn’t need to be geographically based though! You can define yourself based on shared experiences - for example, players who travel frequently for work and can never make it to their local weekly play sharing tips and tricks! You can develop your own videos and talk about off the wall strategies or explore the intersection of lore and mechanics in the game. You can bring together aspiring designers and come up with custom cards or play with developing new formats and sharing those with the broader community.
There are so many different ways to approach building the community that is best for you, but there are a few ideas that will help provide a solid foundation and get you started on the right track.
Have a Vision
Every great community begins with direction. Before you organize events, start group chats, or invite others to participate, take the time to clarify what you want this community to become. You’re not going to be able to find success if you don’t know what success looks like! Are you trying to create a welcoming space for brand-new players? A competitive hub that hones top-tier talent? A creative collective focused on custom formats, lore discussions, or experimental deckbuilding? Your vision doesn’t need to be rigid or permanent, but having a clear goal helps guide your decisions and attract the right participants.
Think about your values and priorities: accessibility, growth, fun, education, competition, creativity, or connection. Write those down, even informally, so you can refer back to them as your group takes shape. That clarity will also make it easier to communicate your purpose to others - you’ll be able to explain what your group is, why it exists, and why someone should get involved.
A vision also prepares you for challenges. When conflicts arise or motivation dips, revisiting your community’s purpose can help you refocus and move forward. You’re not just gathering people; you’re building something intentional. Whether your goal is to host the best weekly draft in town, create a digital hub for theorycrafters, or connect scattered playgroups under one banner, knowing what you’re aiming for gives your efforts meaning - and helps others rally around your cause.
Find Your Niche
Communities thrive when they know who they’re for and what makes them distinct. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone and competing with every other creator or group, focus on the kind of experience you want to offer. Maybe your area already has plenty of competitive events, but no one is running casual leagues or teaching nights. Maybe your online group can specialize in budget play, lore deep-dives, or variant formats like Eternal, Twin-Suns Trilogy, or Cube drafting. When you lean into a niche, you give people a clear reason to show up and stay engaged.
Your niche doesn’t need to be permanent - it can evolve naturally as your group grows and members add their voices. What matters is starting with a defined focus so people know what to expect. Often, the most successful communities start small and specific, then expand once they’ve built identity and momentum.
Look at what’s missing in your area or sphere of interest. Look for what you want, that nobody else is providing. Chances are, there are other people like you who have a similar desire. Are there people who play at odd hours, travel too much to commit to weekly events, or want to improve but feel intimidated by established groups? Filling that gap not only draws members - it provides value.
Ultimately, a niche isn't about limiting yourself - it’s about creating a home for people who currently don’t have one. Once you establish that identity, others will seek you out because you stand for something clear and meaningful.
Your niche can also be as simple as “a place to play Unlimited” in an area that doesn’t have a lot of support for the game! It doesn’t have to be deep, but you want a reason for people to participate.
Collaborate
You don’t have to build your community alone - in fact, you’ll go much farther when you connect with others. Collaboration can mean working with local game stores, partnering with other organizers, coordinating across schools or regions, or teaming up with online creators who share your interests. When groups pool their players, resources, and ideas, everyone benefits.
Reach out to existing communities that overlap with your goals. Maybe another store runs weekend events while you host weekday sessions - there’s room to share attendance and cross-promote. If your niche is content creation, collaborate with podcasters, streamers, or writers to amplify each other’s voices. If you’re cultivating a grassroots scene, talk to judges, retailers, or event organizers about how you can support each other.
Collaboration also prevents burnout. Sharing responsibilities like scheduling, communication, logistics, and promotion allows each person to focus on their strengths. It gives your community resilience - if one person steps back, others can keep things going.
Don’t overlook cross-pollination. Inviting guest hosts, merging small groups, or holding joint events can energize both communities and help members connect beyond their usual circles. Collaboration builds legitimacy, expands reach, and creates a stronger foundation than any one individual or store can provide alone.
In short: you’re not competing for players - you’re growing the ecosystem together. When you lift up others, your community grows with them. But that also doesn’t rule out competition! Are there two stores that have their own community in your area? Have a multi-store showdown where the top four from each compete to establish dominance or see which store’s players earn more qualifier points over the course of a set or competitive season.
Utilize Your Resources
You likely have more to work with than you realize. Start by identifying the resources already available to you: local game stores, school clubs, campus spaces, libraries, community centers, online platforms, and social media groups. Even a Discord server or group chat can serve as a central hub for organization and growth.
If you’re working with a store, ask about event space, prize support, marketing, or cross-promotion. If you’re in a school or university, look into clubs, bulletin boards, or faculty advisors who can help you secure space and visibility. Online communities can use streaming platforms, content-sharing tools, and collaboration apps to reach members beyond geography.
We here at Cascade Games also want to support you! We provide resources in the form of educational content, repositories of knowledge, and ways to get in touch with other communities, and are expanding our offerings regularly.
People themselves are one of the most valuable resources. Maybe someone in your group has design skills and can make flyers or graphics. Someone else might be a great teacher, judge, or storyteller. Others may lend equipment, bring snacks, or help coordinate rides. You don’t need to do everything - just learn what assets your group already has.
Also consider digital tools: scheduling apps, shared documents, sign-up forms, or social media pages can streamline communication and planning. Use what’s already in your reach rather than starting from zero.
When you take stock of your Resources, galactic ambitions become achievable. Knowing what you have lets you build sustainably, scale intelligently, and create opportunities that feel effortless instead of overwhelming.
Get Participants Invested
A community becomes stronger when people feel like they’re part of its success, not just visitors passing through. Give participants ways to contribute and feel like they belong. That could mean letting members suggest formats, host sessions, moderate chats, run events, or share content.
Ask for opinions and act on them when possible. People engage more when they believe their voices matter. If someone suggests a new draft variant or wants to start a deck clinic night, support their initiative. Even small acts - like spotlighting community members’ decks, artwork, or gameplay moments - show that individuals are valued.
Involvement also grows through consistency and recognition. Create routines - weekly events, monthly challenges, regular streams - and give participants ways to show up and stand out. You can track achievements, use leaderboards, issue fun titles, or shout out contributions.
Encourage collaboration among members, not just with organizers. When players teach each other, share resources, offer rides, or co-create projects, they start to invest emotionally in the group’s success.
Ultimately, people stick around when they feel like it’s their community, not just yours. The more you empower participants to build alongside you, the stronger and more resilient your group becomes.
Celebrate Your Community
Take time to recognize the people and moments that make your group special. Celebration isn’t just about trophies or top finishes - it’s about acknowledging contributions, progress, creativity, and shared experiences. Highlight players who helped organize events, newcomers who showed courage, regulars who bring good energy, or community members who create content or innovate formats.
You can celebrate in many ways: shout-outs during events, social media spotlights, end-of-season recaps, fun awards, or community highlights in newsletters or group chats. Even informal praise goes a long way when it’s sincere and specific.
Celebration builds pride and identity. It reminds people that they belong to something worth being proud of. It also draws in others - when people see joy and recognition happening in a group, they want to be part of it.
Don’t underestimate small milestones: your first event, your tenth member, a collaboration between stores, a successful test of a new format, or someone’s first top finish. These moments create momentum and memory.
By celebrating community, you reinforce your culture: welcoming, enthusiastic, and appreciative. It turns participation into passion and attendance into loyalty.
Keeping the Community Healthy
Growth is meaningful only if it’s sustainable. A healthy community is one where people feel safe, respected, and supported. That starts with setting clear expectations - whether through formal guidelines or informal norms - and modeling the behavior you want to see. Encourage inclusivity, kindness, and fairness. Address harmful behavior early, privately when appropriate, and publicly if necessary.
This last subject is one that we’re going to go into more detail on in the next lesson. In the meantime, share your communities and development with us! If you have a Discord channel or other online community that you want to share with the Judge Program community, just fill out this form, and we’ll add it to our repository of communities.
Like with being a host, you can also learn a ton from seeing what other people do when creating and managing their own communities. You can look at many of the above recommendations and see that we here at Cascade Games have been practicing these strategies. I hope that your community grows and begins to feel like home to you as much as the judge program does to me.
If you’re watching this on YouTube, and you want more lessons in your feed, go ahead and subscribe. Join us after new lessons on twitch.tv/swu_judges for live broadcasts covering the content of these lessons as they are released, and join the Star Wars: Unlimited Judge Program Discord to join the community in discussion of this and much, much more.
Until next time, good luck and have fun!