My friend said my game explanations were a total snooze fest

We were setting up a new game last Friday and I was reading the rulebook out loud, like I always do. My buddy Mike cut me off and said, 'Sam, you sound like a textbook. Just show us a round.' So I put the book down and we just played a practice turn with the cards face up. It clicked for everyone in about five minutes, which was way faster than my usual twenty minute lecture. Now I always do a quick demo first before we dive into the full rules. What's your go-to method for teaching a new game without putting people to sleep?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_green862mo ago

My group used to groan when I pulled out the manual. Last month I tried something new with Cascadia. I just laid out the habitat tiles and animal tokens, then placed one of each to show how a turn worked. Took maybe three minutes. Everyone got the basic idea right away, then I filled in the scoring details as we played. Hands-on demo beats a lecture every single time.

abby_palmer2mo ago

I read a blog post that said exactly what you did, @blair_green86, about teaching games by just starting to play.