Showerthought: my buddy's take on teaching games totally flipped my view

I was at a meetup last Thursday and my friend Jake watched me try to explain a new game to a group. He pulled me aside after and said, 'You're giving them the whole rulebook before they even know why they'd want to play.' I realized I always start with setup and turn structure, which is boring. Now I try to give the cool goal first, like 'you're spies trying to steal a painting,' and add rules as we go. How do you guys handle teaching a game for the first time?

4 comments

4 Comments

mark_green2mo ago

Chill, it's just a game night.

mark_chen622mo ago

Ugh, that phrase is everywhere now. It's like people say "it's just a..." to avoid any real talk. What are we so scared of?

richard_young8013d ago

I have to push back on this a little. I've been running game nights for about 15 years now and I've found that skipping the rules leads to confusion and arguments later. Last month I watched a guy teach Cosmic Encounter by just saying "you're aliens fighting for control" and then twenty minutes in someone tried to play a card that completely broke the turn order because nobody knew you could only negotiate during the main phase. We had to restart the whole thing. Starting with the full turn structure might be dry for two minutes but it saves everybody from that awkward moment where someone feels cheated because a rule wasn't mentioned upfront.

max_cooper212mo agoMost Upvoted

My cousin made that same mistake with a game called Sub Terra. He spent twenty minutes explaining cave tiles and stress points before anyone knew they were supposed to escape. People just tuned out. Now he starts by saying you're trapped cavers with a flashlight that's dying, and the water is rising. He only brings up a rule when someone asks how to run from a cave-in. It makes a huge difference.