Hearing one of my friends sincerely say "you're really good at teaching this stuff" while explaining game rules to them is genuinely one of those nice rewarding little memories that keeps coming back years later.
I have received this comment before, and I agree it was a nice confidence boost. I think I'm better at explaining games now just from the confidence of multiple friends saying "You're really good at explaining games!" Confidence goes a long way. It also puts people at ease that you know what you're talking about, you're going to be able to answer their questions later and keep things organized.
Definitely. It's one of those things where putting in almost any amount of effort into preparing makes you way better than 90% of the people teaching their friends how to play games. People notice the effort and it means a lot
One of my friends is awful at explaining games. He can explain a game ive played 20 times to me and i still wouldnt know how it works. It happened multiple times that he got a game. And people asked me to read the rules so they can actually understand the explanation
I am entirely on board for the implication that teaching someone boardgames and bringing them into the hobby is done with the inevitible long term aim of convincing them to play Twilight Imperium.
This is exactly what i did. I taught my friends board games for 4 years and then dropped TI4 on them :) They picked it up quicker than they thought they would. Next game is scheduled for July XD
I'm sensing a new game already ;-D One: You are freezing survivors of the apocalypse. Two: you win by most effectively scrabble through piles of junk. Three: It's fun to weigh who to invite in your bunker and who to send to the wastelands all while ruining your friend's plans in each other's fight with a surprise explosive charge.
One: We are funny cube tossers. Two: You win by scoring points for the groups of the funny cubes you toss. Three: It's fun to do mental math and gamble your points away as you toss funny cubes around over and over again.
My last game of monopoly we ended up having a slumlord millionaire and a boardwalk tycoon turned crackhead drag queen. If you’re not storytelling, the game is almost not worth playing at all!
As someone who has had to teach Spirit Island to at least a dozen different people 6+ times, the skill of teaching how a board game works has become an art.
Woah it's Hello Future Me! it's always awesome to see your favorite creators just existing on youtube, not as a creator. Love your videos, especially your avatar stuff.
You should absolutely watch this brilliant video first but if you need a quick reference to the tips made then read on: 1. 1:17 Actually know all the rules before you teach, and don’t be afraid to google unclear or ambiguous rules. 2. 2:33 Before starting to teach you should setup the game in full so players can see it. Allow players to fiddle with game pieces. 3. 3:13 “Introduce the game” by asking these three questions: Who, How and Why? Who are we, How do we win and Why is this game fun? 4. 4:46 Rules teaching is a performance, rehearse it. Know what the big talking points/mechanics are relevant to the game and think about in what order you want to explain them. 5. 6:30 Use your friends names in rules examples to get them engaged. 6. 8:00 Foster an environment where questions are encouraged. Compliment them for questioning. 7. 8:48 Only have one player teaching the game. If another player knows the game, make them an assistant to you: Let them help you set up the game. Let them point to relevant game pieces while you teach. Let them ask questions about rules you’re missing. Let them fetch food and drinks while the new players learn the game. 8. 10:00 You’ve successfully taught players the game well if they win you. Try not to stomp them and scare them away from the game. 9. 11:16 Ask players if they need a dummy/fake first rounds of the game to get familiar and then restart. You can have open hands to explain why you made your game choices 10. 12:20 Maybe begin teaching smaller games so new players get familiar with different mechanics so they can more easily understand harder games. 11. 13:57 Learn how to teach rules well by watching Board Game Convention Demoers, your Local Board Game Store employees or your other well experienced Board Game Friends.
IMO the best tip Quinn's gave was, teaching the objective / How-To-Win early in the process. By doing this, every player can structure the rest of the rules around the objective and it helps to facilitate strategies early on in the teaching process.
Yes. Even in usually excellent tutorials on boardgamegeektv they sometimes miss that out Knowing your audience you are teaching is also vital as regular gamers will grasp ideas fairly quickly compared to casual players and the latter may need to be given different terminology and relate to classic ubiquitous games ...for example with a regular gamer you will get away with gamer jargon like 4x or asymmetric play or mechanism....you will just confuse the hell out of casual or newbies if you tried that!
My in laws are big card game players and that’s their number one teaching rule - start with how you win and work backwards. Board games typically have more systems in play so it’s not quite that straight forward but it’s a great rule of thumb.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I've heard this tip repeated by seemingly every board gamer on the internet but I don't agree that it's the most important thing to start with how to win. I'm a huge advocate for teaching what you do on your turn and what the structure of the game is going to be first. It almost always leads nicely into a point where you can say, "And this action is important because the first person to do whatever wins the game." or something similar. For example, the goal of blue moon legends is to lure 3 dragons onto your side of the board. You could say that right up front but if you explain what you do on your turn, how to play cards, how battles work and THEN explain that battles are important because they move dragons and that's how you win the game, it's completely in context at that point and it doesn't let the person being taught the game wonder what's going on with these dragons I mentioned for 10 minutes until I finally get there. If you explain how turns and rounds work in logical way, I don't find people to be confused or thrown off by not knowing what the goal is until they have a way to frame it. But like I said, different things work for different people.
@@Phildiculous I'd disagree with that. I find if you talk about all the things you do, particularly if the game is complex, it doesn't MEAN anything until they know WHY they'd want to do them. If you start with the goal, and they can see how those actions get to the goal, they have context, and are more likely to remember.
Something I always avoid is teaching strategy as part of the main rules. I often see people go off on tangents when teaching rules with, "...and if you have this card, you'll want to use it right away because if someone else has this card then this can happen, etc." All that confuses people, it makes people mistake what is advice and what is actually rules, and it robs the players of the joy of coming up with their own strategies and playstyles themselves. To be clear, I'm not talking about basic principles of the game, but more advanced strategies that come from time playing the game.
Conflating strategic concepts and basic concepts is so easy to do and it's absolutely a mistake. Examples of play or open hands are definitely the place for explaining strategy stuff.
@@Enkufka Exactly! That moment of realization is so nice when a certain strategy occurs to you, and I try not to rob new players of that moment by telling them how to play "optimally as part of the rules.
Yes! It's especially quite annoying to be explaining rules and have someone else interrupt and start explaining strategy before you've even explained the mechanism(s) that underpins it...
Great advice. I absolutely hate it when someone throws strategic advice into the mix, especially since it's often dubious or wrong. Like "There are 3 types of materials: stone, clay, and fabric. But the only one you really need to worry about is fabric because it's BROKEN so the game basically becomes a race to get all the fabric." Not only have you biased everyone at the table to play a certain way and not discover strategy for themselves, but you've also heavily implied that the game you've decided to teach is bad/unbalanced which begs the question, why did you suggest it in the first place??
I work in a board game cafe doing this stuff professionally, and these are all very good tips. I'd also add that knowing what kind of audience you're dealing with and what kind of game you're teaching will have a big impact on how you teach. Also, learn how to rephrase information when one form of delivery doesn't click with someone - simply repeating a rule to someone who doesn't understand it is not helpful.
Absolutely top notch scripting and delivery. It's so satisfying to see someone who's really brilliant at their work. It's so easy to share your videos with friends and family, even if they're not that into board gaming, because of the obvious quality of the work you produce! Thanks for trying to teach us too. A pleasure as always. Don't work too hard you lot.
I mean, he is right, even some of the lightest board games, even tiny ones like Startups or any of the Oink games, take a measure of explaining. Hell, even /CHESS/ isn't that easy if you have to outright explain it for someone that never saw a chess set or knows the 'theme'.
Additional tip specific to teaching hidden role games: ALWAYS show a visual example of what the cards look like that say "Traitor" on them. Otherwise, even if you explain the existence of traitors in a game, you're guaranteed to have one person looking at their cards with a confused look who will say "so where would it say that I'm a traitor?", completely giving away their innocence.
The player who honestly misunderstood is one issue that can be troublesome but also there is the player who will deliberately misinterpret any rule or written material and the same tip of show it off to every one ahead of time helps with both issues.
i feel like its kind of obvious in most situations to not ask a question like that. its sort of like hiding from a murderer and shouting "im not in here!"
Ahh, this takes me back to that time when we were going to have a game night at my place and one enthusiastic member of our group suggested that we played his latest addition to his collection: "Twilight Imperium, a space game with war and politics." "That sounds awesome" I replied. Fast forward to game night, 7:00 PM when we had been setting the game for 1:30 h. "How many times have you played this game?" I asked "Never" he replied. "Have you at least read the rulebook?" I asked "I've skimmed it" he replied. After facepalms all around we played Smallworld instead.
haha i resonate with this so much. The first "real" board game I got was a game of thrones the second edition. I tried to set it up, learn it, and play it at the same time; needless to say it was a nightmare
I love reading manuals and learning how to play new games. My friends now exploit this mercilessly. One of them brought Eldritch Horror round to my house after he’d bought it. Him and another friend wanted to play it. They just put it on the table and said “Steve, let’s play this”. I then had to teach myself while teaching them, as I’d never played it before. I’m pretty sure I got at least two rules wrong, we lost miserably but apparently everyone enjoyed it and want to play it again. I think my teaching tip would be “Act confident even when you are massively out of your depth and have no idea what’s going on”
@@skyblazeeterno Especially if they're not boardgamers per se, so people that like the systems that make boardgaming fun. So you have to draw them in with the theme, and you want games which have a theme which is also very present in the actual game itself, so you can say stuff like "i'm using my elephants to stomp on your archers" and have that be the actual action. Not just "i'm trading two workers and an ore to create a factory that gives me one steel per turn! WHEE!".
I've been in the hobby and teaching games for almost 9 years now, and I still refer back to this video every now and then. Such a great reference for how game teaching can still be fun.
As another tip: I like to explain the "exceptions" last, like variable player powers or unique scenarios like shooting the moon in hearts. It's less confusing when the players have a solid grasp on the rules before they learn how the rules get broken, even when the powers or weird scenarios are central to the game. Great video!
I've always considered teaching how to play part of the experience of board games and that this step makes or breaks for new players, especially those who are new to the hobby. This is a much needed video and I'm relieved to know I'm already applying some of these tips. Thank you so much!
Great tips! One more sub-tip: use your turn to use mechanics that they may have forgotten about, or even to do something tactical and creative that your friends might not have thought of yet, even if it doesn’t actually help you much. It gets their own brains working on how they might use the mechanics more creatively without feeling like they’ve been spoon fed information, with a bonus result that you look like a badass for 3 seconds.
Great job this video gave me some extra ideas to implement. I sound add three more tips: 1) be enthousiastic 2) at the end of an rules explanation, give a very short summary 3) at the end of this summary, I always tell the players to don't panic, it's just a (learning) game, just have a fun time!
Regarding the comfortable environment to ask questions thing. Whenever I'm teaching somebody a board game, I always make it apparent and clear that the only dumb question is a question that they are afraid to ask and they guess wrong. And that if they don't understand something that it is not a result of their intellect. It is a result of my teaching not being as good as it needs to be so they need to feel comfortable asking me for clarification on anything that I don't do a perfect job explaining and that there's not going to be any judgment for doing so.
Thanks again for this, Quinns! I’m teaching Eclipse today and fired this up for a quick reminder of how to do things back around the table again. Very excited to see my pals and play. 🤞🤞
I once bought Smash-Up, 2 expansions, and a special storage box, and then I proceeded to absolutely stomp them. We never touched that box again. If you're trying to start a regular group of board game enthusiasts, I highly recommend starting with an attainable COOPERATIVE game. Cheers, love the videos.
I regularly come back to this video for a refresher. Recently, a newer member to my board gaming group has expressed a preference for getting people to watch a “how to play” video beforehand (not when we arrive like in your example) and I’m just not a fan. I never used to do this with the longer term members (and they didn’t either) and it was absolutely fine. I’ve found that it’s become a crutch where others are doing the same to avoid having to teach the game on the night but if not everyone coming has the time or opportunity to watch a how to play video then it puts those people at a disadvantage from the start. I also find that giving people too much of a heads up for what game we’ll be playing has led to certain people winning a lot more often. I can’t prove it definitively, of course, but based on comments made and observing play styles I’ve come to the conclusion that some people are not just watching a how to play video but reading the Strategy section of the forums on BGG. Games aren’t exams to study for so there shouldn’t be a need to swot up on how to win. In short, I’ll gladly send this video to my group as a hint hint that teaching games is best done without a video (most of the time).
Mao may be the hardest game to get friends on board with, given how fundamentally antagonistic a dynamic it is to know all the rules and not be allowed to share them.
Great video. An additional tip I'd like to add is that you finish of the "How to" with a recap. People are required to absorb a lot of information and the first thing you teached is probably hazy at best at that point. Doing a recap gives everyone another chance to structure the game in their head and also brings up another opportunity for questions. It also gives you an addional chance to check if you've missed something.
I am avid board game player who really only played with one group of people for years. I recently moved cities, and my new friends aren't really board gamers. I've always found it hard to teach my maybe 3 dozen games to them, and I'd basically given up at this point. so thank you for this lesson! Hopefully once the quarantine ends I'll be more successful
As a lifelong educator, I can honestly say this is excellent advice for many people. One little saying I keep in the back of my head when teaching anything is this: When helping others arrive at the destination of understanding, don’t point and declare it’s over there… instead, escort the learner to the understanding. This comes from how Disney trains employees to help guests find bathrooms and other locations in the park when asked.
Great video! Tip 12: Try to look at the new player's reactions. You can usually see if they have mentally "caught up" with tricksy rules by the way they look at things, their mouths, their hands, etc... A glazed over, slack-jawed, unsure expression means you should ask if they'd like you to repeat a rule.
The worst thing is when you forget a (sometimes minor, sometimes not) rule and you have to break the news to someone mid game, disrupting their strategy. I have botched a couple teachings doing that and it can really sour people. Totally agree that knowing the rules and rehearsing are super important.
Another great video thank you Quinns A couple of handy sub tips that I think are helpful: 1) don’t be afraid to teach the language of the particular game that you are playing early on, especially for big concepts. Eg “in blood rage, each player takes control of a Viking clan and battle with the other players in the 9 realms, across three different ages. At the end of the third age, the player who has the most glory has won. GLORY IS ALWAYS SHOWN ON CARDS ETC AS A NUMBER IN A BLUE DIAMOND LIKE ON THIS CARD HERE. In order to do most actions, you will need to spend rage. RAGE IS SHOWN AS A NUMBER IN A RED CIRCLE LIKE ON YOUR PLAYER MAT THERE.” 2) introduce the manual and player reminders early on, and refer to them when going through that rules section: Eg: “On your turn in blood rage, you will be able to do 1 of 5 actions. THESE 5 ACTIONS ARE LISTED IN BLACk ALONG THE BOTTOM OF EACH OF YOUR PLAYER MATS, THERE” and then talk through each of those actions. That way a) it’s easier for players to learn, because visual learners will have am aid, and b) when players get stuck they know where to look in order to find the answer.
I think one of the best ways, and how I know I did a good job with the rules, is after giving an example turn people want to jump straight into playing. You can even use the example turn as your first turn of the game.
Good tips! I do most of my advertising "Who, How, Why" before we even sit down, when I am trying to convince them to play, as most of my game play is in our home or familiar social gatherings in other peoples homes. When I get to the rules, I try to follow this pattern for most games: 1) How you win the game, 2) What you actually do on your turn, 2b) Possibly some basic beginner strategy as a kindness, 3) How this all fits in with the fun theme (a recap of Why it is fun). By going in this order, people are aware of the goal right at the beginning, then see how they pursue this goal. Usually, starting out with the theme, while good marketing for buying the game, muddles how you actually play. But if you say, you win by getting the most Green Victory cards (ala Dominion), then when you start talking about how you have a certain amount of money to upgrade your kingdom and get more money, then still are looking for the association of how that gets them their end goal. I also like at the 2nd stage to try to sneak in things like (turns are supposed to go pretty fast in this game, because you can look ahead and plan your turn). :-)
Fantastic Video! I am the teacher in my board game group and I like to think I'm pretty good at it but these tips are all great reminders - well done! I definitely took away a lot from this video to incorporate into my teaching. I do find I almost never win (even when I'm trying) just because I'm so focused on the other players to make sure they aren't missing any rules and answering their questions instead of thinking about my own strategy when it's not my turn. But that's ok - I would rather everyone have fun than win the game myself! The one idea here that I struggle with is playing the dummy round - while it seems like a great idea, it always backfires because even though clearly stating we would scrap everything and start over.... players tend to get invested and don't want to start over and always insist on "let's just keep going". Happens every time.
Tip for learning a game: After the rules have been explained don't make an intentional couple of awfull moves with the intention of figuring out if the game has good catch up mechanics. This will most often than not lead to a weird situation of unintentional kingmaking.
Hello from Argentina! Can Shut Up & Sit Down get any better? YES! and bam! u got a normal ordeal of playing boardgames and made an amazing video with excelent empathy and resolve. Please never give up.
I mean, TI is a fantastic way to spend a day with friends. I think it's the kind of game where some distractions actually help it. Pulling a trick on your turn while everyone's eating pizza and not paying much attention is amazing.
These are helpful. I would add that Board game geek in the forums usually has paired down player aids and FAQ or easier versions of the rules. I like to find a good one of these and print out nice color copies so people can all have their own to read as some people learn a bit better that way.
Thank you! This is a video I wish I had years ago. I've been teaching boardgames at my middleschool gaming club for years, and I had to learn a lot of this the hard way. But by watching your videos I've learned how to refine my teaching techniques and make the club really fun. Sidenote, I found "Tales of the Arabian Nights" through your reviews and it became the favorite game at our club. We have 5-6 playing it autonomusly, and as we'd pack it away their excited share this stories for the week. Thanks for all you guys do!
This is a very helpful distillation of what makes a rules explanation successful or not. The flow chart, in particular, was a nice way to crystallize the points you need to hit and in what order. Don't get bogged down in the details first! Give your players a framework before you start bombarding them with rules because they won't understand why they exist without the broader context of what they're trying to accomplish and why!
Your 8th point was funny- don't wipe the floor with new players. I'm a big fan of "Five tribes" and every time I teach that game to someone else I tend to lose that game. And every time they tell me that they won because I gave good advice to them during the game. I can't remember when and how many times I won this game- but that doesn't happen very often.
Starting with "who, how, and why" is so true. The "how" is critical. People _need_ to understand how they're going to win before they can learn to play. I start with exactly that, and work backwards. How do you win, when the game ends, and what actions you have available to reach the end victorious.
I love how you mentioned that most seasoned board game players don’t care to much about winning. I thought I was the only one! I could care less about winning, I just want to play! Good to know there are others like me out there!
As someone who is generally responsible and truly enjoys teaching to my game groups, I really enjoyed this video as further support or validation of my efforts. This is a really important video to have out there and you guys did a wonderful job with it. Thank you
I've been working on my own board game for a while and been really stuck on how to write the manual. This has really helped me, too. Hopefully I can get this game on shelves now.
Tip 12: Only the strong survive. Start with Twilight Imperium and filter our the weakest from your friend's list. Then, teaching a new game to those that remain will be a piece of cake!
Thanks for making this video! I don't play heavy games, but I still found the 3rd tip particularly useful. Nothing is more frustrating than botching an explanation and having no one believe you that it was your fault and not the game's. I remember when I tried to teach the card game "regicide" to my dad but I tried to make it abstract without talking about the theme of the game, and I ended up making it sound like the colour maze minigame from Undertale. I never got the chance to teach him again and now I only feel confident asking him to play the game thrash. That's how important knowing how to teach is.
I've found that if you explain the rules in reverse, people tend to follow along better. *You win by getting this many points, you get points by collecting these things. To collect things you need to defeat these guys or build these things. To defeat bad guys do this, to build things do this, etc.*
Nice of Quinn to say that explaining rules can be horrible, and that even he has to prepare carefully. Also that its not unusual to be nervous about it!
The rules are the necessary part of the game like washing up the dishes after a good meal, but it must be done before the fun happens. Rule sets are written up very well or rather badly.
"If you win a game you are teaching you have already lost" I learnt this one the hard way, there are still games in my collection that never make it to the table because of this. Its a shame too because they are some of my favourite games
Wish I had found this video 10 years ago and I might have saved myself the pain of learning literally all these tips through trial and error🥴 But hey! I appreciate the tip at the end of just watching other people do it and how the more you teach, the better you get! I can vouch for that in spades! (I've never attempted to teach a game I've never played at least haha, that is ballsy)
I just taught my roommate Star Realms. The first game I won handily. The second game I won, but really had to work for it. The third one came down to the final hand, and he won it. Most fun I've had with a game in a while!
As soneone who also does give demo's at conventions, watching demoers do their thing is hit or mis. If they know their stuff, it's great, fast and entertaining. At the other end of the spectrum are the ones that spend 15 minutes explaining a game, and you still don't even have a clue how to actually win the game, let alone play it.
I agree, don't crush new people. To balance not "letting new people win" and not destroying them I've found I just try to make very quick decisions. That way I'm not thinking too long and coming up with optimal strategy but I'm also not intentionally making bad choices to try to let them win.
Hey man. Thanks so much for this! I got a copy of Catan the other day, rewatched your video, and had the best time teaching and playing multiple games of Catan over the weekend! Was able to teach no problem, and people really liked the little tidbits I gave about stuff that makes the game cool and fun. Followed this video to the letter and had a great time. Everyone wants to play again next week, and they're wanting to play the 5-6 player expansion sometime. I really feel like this video gave me a lot more confidence in teaching games to people. =D As an extra thing: if you ever do a Catan video, mention the beginner's setup where settlements are already on the board. That gave a great example where people could see how the game works before we randomized all the tiles and played a full game. Thanks for helping us get through this tough time! 🍐
Great tips! I have to disagree on one detail though. In tip 3, I usually do not talk in terms on why I find a game fun or not, except maybe at the very end. This because many times what people find fun in a game is highly subjective, and I feel it would put a lot of pressure on the listener ("this game has a totally amazing auction mechanics? likeitkthx?"). Instead, my last question is always "When does the game end?". I feel it is critical to give players an idea of how long will the game last and what are the ending conditions early, so that they can put each turn into perspective (the game ends after the 5th round, every round you get 1 actions -> every action is critical). Other than that, keep going!
I had a friend try to introduce out friend group to board games and they started with a game of talisman and their method of teaching was to let us look at the rulebook for like 5 minutes and then start. As you can imagine, some of my friends are hesitant to play them now, but I've since picked up a few light games like Carcassonne and when we meet up now they're always up for having a game.
My utter best way to teach is to present the overall game and concepts, and then go straight in and try to play a turn or two and go with each one of the players making their turn. Even a whole mock game, 'assisted', would hit upon most of the things they need to know. It's important not to coach, but to let them make mistakes and feel their repercussions. Just make sure they're playing the game correctly and that they're not breaking the rules. Which btw, the actions of what they can actually do, outlined as a list, is ultra important. Everyone can pick a choice from a list, but they should never not know what they can do at a moment. Mention just the actions available, NOT also the consequences, unless directly asked. Also, while cooperative games work better for teaching, i find them to be more confusing as there are no 'real' opponents they can feel. Fighting with your friends is a lot more engaging. In short, draw people in with fun and a value of their agency within the framework of the game. Don't make it feel like you're plopping people down in a game system, even if they know everything. It's easier to play for fun than to play for the systems when you start out, no matter the type of personality you have.
On the can, reading the rules for TI3, game night in one week. (People are ordering tests and staying isolated.) Thank you SUSD for all the great videos and podcasts.
I liked this video so much that I created a Geeklist for BoardGameGeek called “‘How To’ videos for teaching games to your friends” and made this the first video.
The only thing I do differently (and that's because I own a lot of games or I'm teaching at a public board game meet up) is to first bring everyone to the shelf and ask them what looks good. People are a lot more likely to be invested in learning if it's a game that they picked. Plus, this means they're involved in the setup process and get to study the pieces little by little before I even start explaining the rules. It feels less daunting than arriving at a fully setup game with tons of unfamiliar components all over the table.
May I add 2 more points, from my experience: - Consider "lightening up" rules - some board games have REALLY complicated rules (I'm looking at you Terraforming Mars and Twilight Struggle). For a first game, you might wanna skip on bonus objectives (Awards in TMars for example). - Do not overextend games - this might be more personal, but may apply to you. Let's say you've played 100 games of Ticket to Ride or Twilight Struggle (or something) and you will be playing a game with people of grand total of 0 games. Don't try to make the game last more because you don't wanna win too fast (because of course you will win).
How my friend teaches boardgames: A)Before gamenight 1) Sends everyone a link to the rulebook. B) On gamenight 2) Asks if anyone has read the rules. 3) When you (or in this case I) admit to have glanced over them once... 4) Says "Then you know them better than me, C. Why dont you teach the game? (Please!)"
I could have done with this last night. I introduced my family to 6-Nimt. That is my bossy older brother who read the rules the night before, my mum who has vascular dementia, and my dad who is stressed out from looking after mum. We managed one round and then Mum wanted to go to bed. I had not reckoned on the dad block. PS I think people with vascular dementia can learn new things. It will take a lot more reinforcement, and you have to be sensitive to how tired they are. This is a maybe project so far.
great video! I've come to the majority of these tips myself during my long experience of teaching people to play and I can say that they 100% a must if you wanna do it nice and make everybody feel at ease. Still I've got some new ideas from the video, so thank you again!
I like working backwards - telling everyone the winning conditions, and then telling them what aspects or mechanics influence that winning condition - usually involves reading most manuals backwards!
I'm lucky enough to be in a position where my board-gaming friends are also the friends I grew up with. We play new games every week and we don't really mind explaining or listening to game rules. It's the least fun part of board games but at the same time it's very exciting to learn a new game.
This is brilliant. I've been doing demos at cons for some time and this really coalesces some stuff I've been missing and doesn't make me feel stupid about it. Bravo!
What a fantastic video! In addition of "starting small" i think its essential to estimate what your players are capable of. If you have noobie boardgamers with strong strategic brain power, a game that's based on 80% luck could leave them frustrated. Start playing what you think will fit with your group as apposed to what yóú want to play regardless of their character traits/level/abilities. I'm excited to get more people excited about boardgames by learning to explain the games succinctly. Let's gooooo.
Love the list and how it points out at least a dozen mistakes I have made in the last couple of years while teaching board games :D I used to HATE people interrupting me during rule-teaching sessions, because they made me loose track. Now I understand that it was my fault, and they interrupted me because they were bored, felt awkward, or did not understand what I was talking about. Perhaps I was tired, or just didn't know the rules much, or was focusing too much on giving a perfect speech, but what really happened is that I lost focus on what truly matters: SPENDING TIME WITH PEOPLE AND HAVING FUN. Sometimes I don't have time to properly prepare for teaching, but when I do, maaaan it feels so good. When you are fully confident and relaxed while you are teaching a game, it makes the whole learning process fun for everyone. Would also suggest that try not to be too tired when teaching rules, and also making reference-sheets for games that don't have those, or just remake reference-sheets to fit your group's thinking. Can make or break a game night. Sincerely, Vincent Dice Her Majesty's Department of Fun
I am the rules guy who comes in with new games to play so I explain a lot. Instead of this stuff, what works for me is starting the game and telling everyone what they can/can't do and talking them through the entire thing phase by phase. Usually by turn 3 to 5, everyone is playing. If anyone has any questions, they ask and I either answer or look it up real quick because I know approximately where to find the answer I'm looking for in the rules. It's by far the fastest and most engaging.
They are meant to be watched by one person who can stop the video at any time and repeat certain sections of the video. They are not meant to be watched by 5 people for 30 minutes on game night.
To be honest, I mostly skip the "Why" part. Why is that game fun? Well, I learned the rules, backed the game on kickstarter, spent a couple hundred euros on the games, the game shelf, the gaming table and a lot of other gimmicks. If that game isn't fun, I wouldn't put it on the table or I wouldn't even have it in this room. Or if we play this game for the first time and find out it sucks, how could they trust me when I tell them a game is fun beforehand? And I'm okay with people touching stuff but I really become pissed when they bend the cards while placing them down. There is only so much a sleeve can do.
i always do the explaining in the other way around then the manual: First how to win, then what your actions are, then Turn order. I find that way more logical: How do you win, what action can you take to victory, and then when you can do those things
Hearing one of my friends sincerely say "you're really good at teaching this stuff" while explaining game rules to them is genuinely one of those nice rewarding little memories that keeps coming back years later.
Agreed. Though I feel guilty when they get a game on my reccomendation and have a hard time if I'm not there to teach it.
I have received this comment before, and I agree it was a nice confidence boost. I think I'm better at explaining games now just from the confidence of multiple friends saying "You're really good at explaining games!" Confidence goes a long way. It also puts people at ease that you know what you're talking about, you're going to be able to answer their questions later and keep things organized.
Definitely. It's one of those things where putting in almost any amount of effort into preparing makes you way better than 90% of the people teaching their friends how to play games. People notice the effort and it means a lot
"You're a lot better at teaching games than you used to be" is also a nice one :)
One of my friends is awful at explaining games. He can explain a game ive played 20 times to me and i still wouldnt know how it works.
It happened multiple times that he got a game. And people asked me to read the rules so they can actually understand the explanation
I am entirely on board for the implication that teaching someone boardgames and bringing them into the hobby is done with the inevitible long term aim of convincing them to play Twilight Imperium.
all games and gaming sessions are aimed towards that goal. Thanks for making me realise that.
Well this is how I introduced my partner with weightlifiting, video games and board games. Start small, let them out-nerd you by themselves.
This is exactly what i did. I taught my friends board games for 4 years and then dropped TI4 on them :) They picked it up quicker than they thought they would. Next game is scheduled for July XD
X'D
Wait... do some people think they're not? Weird...
One: We are an iron, boot and a hat. Two: You win by bancrupting your whole family. Three: It's fun to make your younger sister cry.
I'm sensing a new game already ;-D
One: You are freezing survivors of the apocalypse. Two: you win by most effectively scrabble through piles of junk. Three: It's fun to weigh who to invite in your bunker and who to send to the wastelands all while ruining your friend's plans in each other's fight with a surprise explosive charge.
One: You are numbers. Two: You win by not collecting numbers. Three: It's fun to make other people collect numbers.
One: We are funny cube tossers. Two: You win by scoring points for the groups of the funny cubes you toss. Three: It's fun to do mental math and gamble your points away as you toss funny cubes around over and over again.
My last game of monopoly we ended up having a slumlord millionaire and a boardwalk tycoon turned crackhead drag queen. If you’re not storytelling, the game is almost not worth playing at all!
@@daugarten Yahtzee?
As someone who has had to teach Spirit Island to at least a dozen different people 6+ times, the skill of teaching how a board game works has become an art.
Woah it's Hello Future Me! it's always awesome to see your favorite creators just existing on youtube, not as a creator. Love your videos, especially your avatar stuff.
Hello
Spirits Island Is amazing and is yet another crossover of our interests I never expected to realize.
@@blaizecramer6052
Mp^m
We still haven’t played our copy for this reason. I wish I could have you come teach us… 😂
You should absolutely watch this brilliant video first but if you need a quick reference to the tips made then read on:
1. 1:17 Actually know all the rules before you teach, and don’t be afraid to google unclear or ambiguous rules.
2. 2:33 Before starting to teach you should setup the game in full so players can see it. Allow players to fiddle with game pieces.
3. 3:13 “Introduce the game” by asking these three questions: Who, How and Why? Who are we, How do we win and Why is this game fun?
4. 4:46 Rules teaching is a performance, rehearse it. Know what the big talking points/mechanics are relevant to the game and think about in what order you want to explain them.
5. 6:30 Use your friends names in rules examples to get them engaged.
6. 8:00 Foster an environment where questions are encouraged. Compliment them for questioning.
7. 8:48 Only have one player teaching the game. If another player knows the game, make them an assistant to you: Let them help you set up the game. Let them point to relevant game pieces while you teach. Let them ask questions about rules you’re missing. Let them fetch food and drinks while the new players learn the game.
8. 10:00 You’ve successfully taught players the game well if they win you. Try not to stomp them and scare them away from the game.
9. 11:16 Ask players if they need a dummy/fake first rounds of the game to get familiar and then restart. You can have open hands to explain why you made your game choices
10. 12:20 Maybe begin teaching smaller games so new players get familiar with different mechanics so they can more easily understand harder games.
11. 13:57 Learn how to teach rules well by watching Board Game Convention Demoers, your Local Board Game Store employees or your other well experienced Board Game Friends.
I would never presume that a game I find fun is going to be the same fun for someone else.... definitely leave the fun part out
So.. you made a manual, for the video.
Very helpful to have the steps written out like this if you ever want to actually implement the guidance, thanks!
@@skyblazeeterno Sharing why you like the game and are enthusiastic about playing it then...I know some people are allergic to the f word.
Regarding 8, I was unaware we were meant to offer ourselves as prizes.
IMO the best tip Quinn's gave was, teaching the objective / How-To-Win early in the process. By doing this, every player can structure the rest of the rules around the objective and it helps to facilitate strategies early on in the teaching process.
Yes. Even in usually excellent tutorials on boardgamegeektv they sometimes miss that out
Knowing your audience you are teaching is also vital as regular gamers will grasp ideas fairly quickly compared to casual players and the latter may need to be given different terminology and relate to classic ubiquitous games ...for example with a regular gamer you will get away with gamer jargon like 4x or asymmetric play or mechanism....you will just confuse the hell out of casual or newbies if you tried that!
Absolutely agree. I teach for a living, all tips are great, but this IMO is the most important.
My in laws are big card game players and that’s their number one teaching rule - start with how you win and work backwards. Board games typically have more systems in play so it’s not quite that straight forward but it’s a great rule of thumb.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I've heard this tip repeated by seemingly every board gamer on the internet but I don't agree that it's the most important thing to start with how to win. I'm a huge advocate for teaching what you do on your turn and what the structure of the game is going to be first. It almost always leads nicely into a point where you can say, "And this action is important because the first person to do whatever wins the game." or something similar.
For example, the goal of blue moon legends is to lure 3 dragons onto your side of the board. You could say that right up front but if you explain what you do on your turn, how to play cards, how battles work and THEN explain that battles are important because they move dragons and that's how you win the game, it's completely in context at that point and it doesn't let the person being taught the game wonder what's going on with these dragons I mentioned for 10 minutes until I finally get there. If you explain how turns and rounds work in logical way, I don't find people to be confused or thrown off by not knowing what the goal is until they have a way to frame it. But like I said, different things work for different people.
@@Phildiculous I'd disagree with that. I find if you talk about all the things you do, particularly if the game is complex, it doesn't MEAN anything until they know WHY they'd want to do them. If you start with the goal, and they can see how those actions get to the goal, they have context, and are more likely to remember.
Something I always avoid is teaching strategy as part of the main rules. I often see people go off on tangents when teaching rules with, "...and if you have this card, you'll want to use it right away because if someone else has this card then this can happen, etc." All that confuses people, it makes people mistake what is advice and what is actually rules, and it robs the players of the joy of coming up with their own strategies and playstyles themselves. To be clear, I'm not talking about basic principles of the game, but more advanced strategies that come from time playing the game.
Conflating strategic concepts and basic concepts is so easy to do and it's absolutely a mistake. Examples of play or open hands are definitely the place for explaining strategy stuff.
@@Enkufka Exactly! That moment of realization is so nice when a certain strategy occurs to you, and I try not to rob new players of that moment by telling them how to play "optimally as part of the rules.
Excellent point and well made
Yes! It's especially quite annoying to be explaining rules and have someone else interrupt and start explaining strategy before you've even explained the mechanism(s) that underpins it...
Great advice. I absolutely hate it when someone throws strategic advice into the mix, especially since it's often dubious or wrong. Like "There are 3 types of materials: stone, clay, and fabric. But the only one you really need to worry about is fabric because it's BROKEN so the game basically becomes a race to get all the fabric." Not only have you biased everyone at the table to play a certain way and not discover strategy for themselves, but you've also heavily implied that the game you've decided to teach is bad/unbalanced which begs the question, why did you suggest it in the first place??
I work in a board game cafe doing this stuff professionally, and these are all very good tips. I'd also add that knowing what kind of audience you're dealing with and what kind of game you're teaching will have a big impact on how you teach. Also, learn how to rephrase information when one form of delivery doesn't click with someone - simply repeating a rule to someone who doesn't understand it is not helpful.
Absolutely top notch scripting and delivery. It's so satisfying to see someone who's really brilliant at their work. It's so easy to share your videos with friends and family, even if they're not that into board gaming, because of the obvious quality of the work you produce! Thanks for trying to teach us too. A pleasure as always. Don't work too hard you lot.
Yeah, this was a really satisfying video to watch.
I started watching review videos of games I never heard of and probably will never play just because it's so entertaining😅😂
12:28 "Have you ever thought about what this stuff looks like to a non gamer? Sometimes I think we should all be arrested."
I nearly spat out my tea when he said that 😂
I mean, he is right, even some of the lightest board games, even tiny ones like Startups or any of the Oink games, take a measure of explaining. Hell, even /CHESS/ isn't that easy if you have to outright explain it for someone that never saw a chess set or knows the 'theme'.
In my experience, in the eyes of my friends, everything with hexes is Settlers of CATAN and everything that depicts a world map is Risk.
Additional tip specific to teaching hidden role games: ALWAYS show a visual example of what the cards look like that say "Traitor" on them. Otherwise, even if you explain the existence of traitors in a game, you're guaranteed to have one person looking at their cards with a confused look who will say "so where would it say that I'm a traitor?", completely giving away their innocence.
The player who honestly misunderstood is one issue that can be troublesome but also there is the player who will deliberately misinterpret any rule or written material and the same tip of show it off to every one ahead of time helps with both issues.
i feel like its kind of obvious in most situations to not ask a question like that. its sort of like hiding from a murderer and shouting "im not in here!"
Ahh, this takes me back to that time when we were going to have a game night at my place and one enthusiastic member of our group suggested that we played his latest addition to his collection: "Twilight Imperium, a space game with war and politics."
"That sounds awesome" I replied.
Fast forward to game night, 7:00 PM when we had been setting the game for 1:30 h.
"How many times have you played this game?" I asked
"Never" he replied.
"Have you at least read the rulebook?" I asked
"I've skimmed it" he replied.
After facepalms all around we played Smallworld instead.
haha i resonate with this so much. The first "real" board game I got was a game of thrones the second edition. I tried to set it up, learn it, and play it at the same time; needless to say it was a nightmare
i would never speak to them again. im convinced TI is a cult lmao
I love reading manuals and learning how to play new games. My friends now exploit this mercilessly. One of them brought Eldritch Horror round to my house after he’d bought it. Him and another friend wanted to play it. They just put it on the table and said “Steve, let’s play this”.
I then had to teach myself while teaching them, as I’d never played it before. I’m pretty sure I got at least two rules wrong, we lost miserably but apparently everyone enjoyed it and want to play it again.
I think my teaching tip would be “Act confident even when you are massively out of your depth and have no idea what’s going on”
The 'Why this is going to fun' is a good idea, but tricky cause I am sure i'll go off on a tangent.
Peoples idea of fun in boardgaming varies a lot
@@skyblazeeterno Especially if they're not boardgamers per se, so people that like the systems that make boardgaming fun. So you have to draw them in with the theme, and you want games which have a theme which is also very present in the actual game itself, so you can say stuff like "i'm using my elephants to stomp on your archers" and have that be the actual action. Not just "i'm trading two workers and an ore to create a factory that gives me one steel per turn! WHEE!".
I've been in the hobby and teaching games for almost 9 years now, and I still refer back to this video every now and then. Such a great reference for how game teaching can still be fun.
This might be one of the greatest board game videos in history.
The Teach: The Teach
As another tip: I like to explain the "exceptions" last, like variable player powers or unique scenarios like shooting the moon in hearts. It's less confusing when the players have a solid grasp on the rules before they learn how the rules get broken, even when the powers or weird scenarios are central to the game.
Great video!
Underrated comment. If I were teaching chess, castling would be the last rule I mention, and I wouldn't even bring up en passant.
I've always considered teaching how to play part of the experience of board games and that this step makes or breaks for new players, especially those who are new to the hobby. This is a much needed video and I'm relieved to know I'm already applying some of these tips. Thank you so much!
Great tips! One more sub-tip: use your turn to use mechanics that they may have forgotten about, or even to do something tactical and creative that your friends might not have thought of yet, even if it doesn’t actually help you much. It gets their own brains working on how they might use the mechanics more creatively without feeling like they’ve been spoon fed information, with a bonus result that you look like a badass for 3 seconds.
Great job this video gave me some extra ideas to implement. I sound add three more tips: 1) be enthousiastic 2) at the end of an rules explanation, give a very short summary 3) at the end of this summary, I always tell the players to don't panic, it's just a (learning) game, just have a fun time!
As a person with no friends, could you PLEASE do one for how to teach Dads a game?
Regarding the comfortable environment to ask questions thing. Whenever I'm teaching somebody a board game, I always make it apparent and clear that the only dumb question is a question that they are afraid to ask and they guess wrong. And that if they don't understand something that it is not a result of their intellect. It is a result of my teaching not being as good as it needs to be so they need to feel comfortable asking me for clarification on anything that I don't do a perfect job explaining and that there's not going to be any judgment for doing so.
Thanks again for this, Quinns! I’m teaching Eclipse today and fired this up for a quick reminder of how to do things back around the table again. Very excited to see my pals and play. 🤞🤞
Actually, this is THE BEST RUclips channel about board games reviews... Long live to SU&SD!!!
I once bought Smash-Up, 2 expansions, and a special storage box, and then I proceeded to absolutely stomp them. We never touched that box again. If you're trying to start a regular group of board game enthusiasts, I highly recommend starting with an attainable COOPERATIVE game. Cheers, love the videos.
I regularly come back to this video for a refresher. Recently, a newer member to my board gaming group has expressed a preference for getting people to watch a “how to play” video beforehand (not when we arrive like in your example) and I’m just not a fan. I never used to do this with the longer term members (and they didn’t either) and it was absolutely fine. I’ve found that it’s become a crutch where others are doing the same to avoid having to teach the game on the night but if not everyone coming has the time or opportunity to watch a how to play video then it puts those people at a disadvantage from the start.
I also find that giving people too much of a heads up for what game we’ll be playing has led to certain people winning a lot more often. I can’t prove it definitively, of course, but based on comments made and observing play styles I’ve come to the conclusion that some people are not just watching a how to play video but reading the Strategy section of the forums on BGG. Games aren’t exams to study for so there shouldn’t be a need to swot up on how to win.
In short, I’ll gladly send this video to my group as a hint hint that teaching games is best done without a video (most of the time).
I don't often comment on videos, but wow, your board game companions are very lucky. I will take note of these tips. Cheers.
Mao may be the hardest game to get friends on board with, given how fundamentally antagonistic a dynamic it is to know all the rules and not be allowed to share them.
Great video. An additional tip I'd like to add is that you finish of the "How to" with a recap. People are required to absorb a lot of information and the first thing you teached is probably hazy at best at that point. Doing a recap gives everyone another chance to structure the game in their head and also brings up another opportunity for questions. It also gives you an addional chance to check if you've missed something.
I am avid board game player who really only played with one group of people for years. I recently moved cities, and my new friends aren't really board gamers. I've always found it hard to teach my maybe 3 dozen games to them, and I'd basically given up at this point. so thank you for this lesson! Hopefully once the quarantine ends I'll be more successful
As a lifelong educator, I can honestly say this is excellent advice for many people. One little saying I keep in the back of my head when teaching anything is this: When helping others arrive at the destination of understanding, don’t point and declare it’s over there… instead, escort the learner to the understanding. This comes from how Disney trains employees to help guests find bathrooms and other locations in the park when asked.
I have taught a lot of games, and I consider myself quite experienced at it. However, I still got a lot out of these tips. Thanks!
Great video!
Tip 12: Try to look at the new player's reactions. You can usually see if they have mentally "caught up" with tricksy rules by the way they look at things, their mouths, their hands, etc... A glazed over, slack-jawed, unsure expression means you should ask if they'd like you to repeat a rule.
The worst thing is when you forget a (sometimes minor, sometimes not) rule and you have to break the news to someone mid game, disrupting their strategy. I have botched a couple teachings doing that and it can really sour people. Totally agree that knowing the rules and rehearsing are super important.
Another great video thank you Quinns
A couple of handy sub tips that I think are helpful:
1) don’t be afraid to teach the language of the particular game that you are playing early on, especially for big concepts.
Eg “in blood rage, each player takes control of a Viking clan and battle with the other players in the 9 realms, across three different ages. At the end of the third age, the player who has the most glory has won. GLORY IS ALWAYS SHOWN ON CARDS ETC AS A NUMBER IN A BLUE DIAMOND LIKE ON THIS CARD HERE. In order to do most actions, you will need to spend rage. RAGE IS SHOWN AS A NUMBER IN A RED CIRCLE LIKE ON YOUR PLAYER MAT THERE.”
2) introduce the manual and player reminders early on, and refer to them when going through that rules section:
Eg: “On your turn in blood rage, you will be able to do 1 of 5 actions. THESE 5 ACTIONS ARE LISTED IN BLACk ALONG THE BOTTOM OF EACH OF YOUR PLAYER MATS, THERE” and then talk through each of those actions.
That way a) it’s easier for players to learn, because visual learners will have am aid, and b) when players get stuck they know where to look in order to find the answer.
I think one of the best ways, and how I know I did a good job with the rules, is after giving an example turn people want to jump straight into playing. You can even use the example turn as your first turn of the game.
Good tips! I do most of my advertising "Who, How, Why" before we even sit down, when I am trying to convince them to play, as most of my game play is in our home or familiar social gatherings in other peoples homes. When I get to the rules, I try to follow this pattern for most games: 1) How you win the game, 2) What you actually do on your turn, 2b) Possibly some basic beginner strategy as a kindness, 3) How this all fits in with the fun theme (a recap of Why it is fun). By going in this order, people are aware of the goal right at the beginning, then see how they pursue this goal. Usually, starting out with the theme, while good marketing for buying the game, muddles how you actually play. But if you say, you win by getting the most Green Victory cards (ala Dominion), then when you start talking about how you have a certain amount of money to upgrade your kingdom and get more money, then still are looking for the association of how that gets them their end goal. I also like at the 2nd stage to try to sneak in things like (turns are supposed to go pretty fast in this game, because you can look ahead and plan your turn). :-)
Fantastic Video! I am the teacher in my board game group and I like to think I'm pretty good at it but these tips are all great reminders - well done! I definitely took away a lot from this video to incorporate into my teaching.
I do find I almost never win (even when I'm trying) just because I'm so focused on the other players to make sure they aren't missing any rules and answering their questions instead of thinking about my own strategy when it's not my turn. But that's ok - I would rather everyone have fun than win the game myself!
The one idea here that I struggle with is playing the dummy round - while it seems like a great idea, it always backfires because even though clearly stating we would scrap everything and start over.... players tend to get invested and don't want to start over and always insist on "let's just keep going". Happens every time.
Tip for learning a game: After the rules have been explained don't make an intentional couple of awfull moves with the intention of figuring out if the game has good catch up mechanics. This will most often than not lead to a weird situation of unintentional kingmaking.
Hello from Argentina!
Can Shut Up & Sit Down get any better? YES! and bam! u got a normal ordeal of playing boardgames and made an amazing video with excelent empathy and resolve. Please never give up.
When a video is just another (notso) hidden attempt by Quinns to get people to play TI
I mean, TI is a fantastic way to spend a day with friends. I think it's the kind of game where some distractions actually help it. Pulling a trick on your turn while everyone's eating pizza and not paying much attention is amazing.
Great advice. Need to start doing these things. Whenever I try and explain game rules it comes across as a old professor reciting an algebra lecture.
These are helpful. I would add that Board game geek in the forums usually has paired down player aids and FAQ or easier versions of the rules. I like to find a good one of these and print out nice color copies so people can all have their own to read as some people learn a bit better that way.
"Sometimes I think we should all get arrested"
Thank you! This is a video I wish I had years ago. I've been teaching boardgames at my middleschool gaming club for years, and I had to learn a lot of this the hard way. But by watching your videos I've learned how to refine my teaching techniques and make the club really fun.
Sidenote, I found "Tales of the Arabian Nights" through your reviews and it became the favorite game at our club. We have 5-6 playing it autonomusly, and as we'd pack it away their excited share this stories for the week.
Thanks for all you guys do!
Not all hereos wear capes. This was so useful. Many thanks to Quinns.
This is a very helpful distillation of what makes a rules explanation successful or not. The flow chart, in particular, was a nice way to crystallize the points you need to hit and in what order. Don't get bogged down in the details first! Give your players a framework before you start bombarding them with rules because they won't understand why they exist without the broader context of what they're trying to accomplish and why!
Your 8th point was funny- don't wipe the floor with new players. I'm a big fan of "Five tribes" and every time I teach that game to someone else I tend to lose that game. And every time they tell me that they won because I gave good advice to them during the game. I can't remember when and how many times I won this game- but that doesn't happen very often.
No need to be even playing as a teacher of the game
you...are a SAINT of Board games by making this vid!!! Saint Shut up? Saint Sit down? Saint Shut up & sit down ?
Starting with "who, how, and why" is so true. The "how" is critical. People _need_ to understand how they're going to win before they can learn to play. I start with exactly that, and work backwards. How do you win, when the game ends, and what actions you have available to reach the end victorious.
I love how you mentioned that most seasoned board game players don’t care to much about winning. I thought I was the only one! I could care less about winning, I just want to play! Good to know there are others like me out there!
As someone who is generally responsible and truly enjoys teaching to my game groups, I really enjoyed this video as further support or validation of my efforts. This is a really important video to have out there and you guys did a wonderful job with it. Thank you
12:29 😂😂😂
I take this by heart. Saved it. Thank you Quinn.
Mmmmh, we basically started with Twilight Imperium, that might explain some things..
I've been working on my own board game for a while and been really stuck on how to write the manual. This has really helped me, too. Hopefully I can get this game on shelves now.
Tip 12: Only the strong survive. Start with Twilight Imperium and filter our the weakest from your friend's list. Then, teaching a new game to those that remain will be a piece of cake!
Absolutely correct.
So glad I found this because I'm going to teach some people Dune after watching the SUSD review of it
Thanks for making this video! I don't play heavy games, but I still found the 3rd tip particularly useful. Nothing is more frustrating than botching an explanation and having no one believe you that it was your fault and not the game's.
I remember when I tried to teach the card game "regicide" to my dad but I tried to make it abstract without talking about the theme of the game, and I ended up making it sound like the colour maze minigame from Undertale. I never got the chance to teach him again and now I only feel confident asking him to play the game thrash. That's how important knowing how to teach is.
Terrific video, as always!
I've found that if you explain the rules in reverse, people tend to follow along better.
*You win by getting this many points, you get points by collecting these things. To collect things you need to defeat these guys or build these things. To defeat bad guys do this, to build things do this, etc.*
"Sometimes I think we should all be arrested." 😂
Nice of Quinn to say that explaining rules can be horrible, and that even he has to prepare carefully. Also that its not unusual to be nervous about it!
The rules are the necessary part of the game like washing up the dishes after a good meal, but it must be done before the fun happens. Rule sets are written up very well or rather badly.
Twilight Imperium: When you want to spend an entire day devoted to just one game.
"If you win a game you are teaching you have already lost" I learnt this one the hard way, there are still games in my collection that never make it to the table because of this. Its a shame too because they are some of my favourite games
Wish I had found this video 10 years ago and I might have saved myself the pain of learning literally all these tips through trial and error🥴 But hey! I appreciate the tip at the end of just watching other people do it and how the more you teach, the better you get! I can vouch for that in spades!
(I've never attempted to teach a game I've never played at least haha, that is ballsy)
I just taught my roommate Star Realms. The first game I won handily. The second game I won, but really had to work for it. The third one came down to the final hand, and he won it. Most fun I've had with a game in a while!
As soneone who also does give demo's at conventions, watching demoers do their thing is hit or mis.
If they know their stuff, it's great, fast and entertaining.
At the other end of the spectrum are the ones that spend 15 minutes explaining a game, and you still don't even have a clue how to actually win the game, let alone play it.
I agree, don't crush new people. To balance not "letting new people win" and not destroying them I've found I just try to make very quick decisions. That way I'm not thinking too long and coming up with optimal strategy but I'm also not intentionally making bad choices to try to let them win.
Hey man. Thanks so much for this! I got a copy of Catan the other day, rewatched your video, and had the best time teaching and playing multiple games of Catan over the weekend! Was able to teach no problem, and people really liked the little tidbits I gave about stuff that makes the game cool and fun. Followed this video to the letter and had a great time. Everyone wants to play again next week, and they're wanting to play the 5-6 player expansion sometime. I really feel like this video gave me a lot more confidence in teaching games to people. =D
As an extra thing: if you ever do a Catan video, mention the beginner's setup where settlements are already on the board. That gave a great example where people could see how the game works before we randomized all the tiles and played a full game. Thanks for helping us get through this tough time! 🍐
Great tips! I have to disagree on one detail though. In tip 3, I usually do not talk in terms on why I find a game fun or not, except maybe at the very end. This because many times what people find fun in a game is highly subjective, and I feel it would put a lot of pressure on the listener ("this game has a totally amazing auction mechanics? likeitkthx?"). Instead, my last question is always "When does the game end?". I feel it is critical to give players an idea of how long will the game last and what are the ending conditions early, so that they can put each turn into perspective (the game ends after the 5th round, every round you get 1 actions -> every action is critical).
Other than that, keep going!
I had a friend try to introduce out friend group to board games and they started with a game of talisman and their method of teaching was to let us look at the rulebook for like 5 minutes and then start.
As you can imagine, some of my friends are hesitant to play them now, but I've since picked up a few light games like Carcassonne and when we meet up now they're always up for having a game.
Nicely done. I like board games, sadly my family calls them "bored" games, so I will use your tips!
Quinns NAILED it at 4:35. That is the way it feels teaching rules.
Thanks man. Been playing and teaching games for 25+ years and these tips are still useful to me.
I think this is a video I will rewatch whenever I want to teach a new game; there's lots of great tips here and rewatching should help enforce them.
My utter best way to teach is to present the overall game and concepts, and then go straight in and try to play a turn or two and go with each one of the players making their turn. Even a whole mock game, 'assisted', would hit upon most of the things they need to know. It's important not to coach, but to let them make mistakes and feel their repercussions. Just make sure they're playing the game correctly and that they're not breaking the rules. Which btw, the actions of what they can actually do, outlined as a list, is ultra important. Everyone can pick a choice from a list, but they should never not know what they can do at a moment. Mention just the actions available, NOT also the consequences, unless directly asked. Also, while cooperative games work better for teaching, i find them to be more confusing as there are no 'real' opponents they can feel. Fighting with your friends is a lot more engaging.
In short, draw people in with fun and a value of their agency within the framework of the game. Don't make it feel like you're plopping people down in a game system, even if they know everything. It's easier to play for fun than to play for the systems when you start out, no matter the type of personality you have.
On the can, reading the rules for TI3, game night in one week.
(People are ordering tests and staying isolated.)
Thank you SUSD for all the great videos and podcasts.
I liked this video so much that I created a Geeklist for BoardGameGeek called “‘How To’ videos for teaching games to your friends” and made this the first video.
The only thing I do differently (and that's because I own a lot of games or I'm teaching at a public board game meet up) is to first bring everyone to the shelf and ask them what looks good. People are a lot more likely to be invested in learning if it's a game that they picked. Plus, this means they're involved in the setup process and get to study the pieces little by little before I even start explaining the rules. It feels less daunting than arriving at a fully setup game with tons of unfamiliar components all over the table.
May I add 2 more points, from my experience:
- Consider "lightening up" rules - some board games have REALLY complicated rules (I'm looking at you Terraforming Mars and Twilight Struggle). For a first game, you might wanna skip on bonus objectives (Awards in TMars for example).
- Do not overextend games - this might be more personal, but may apply to you. Let's say you've played 100 games of Ticket to Ride or Twilight Struggle (or something) and you will be playing a game with people of grand total of 0 games. Don't try to make the game last more because you don't wanna win too fast (because of course you will win).
How my friend teaches boardgames:
A)Before gamenight
1) Sends everyone a link to the rulebook.
B) On gamenight
2) Asks if anyone has read the rules.
3) When you (or in this case I) admit to have glanced over them once...
4) Says "Then you know them better than me, C. Why dont you teach the game? (Please!)"
I bet it works well. Or it would work well with the right people.
I could have done with this last night. I introduced my family to 6-Nimt. That is my bossy older brother who read the rules the night before, my mum who has vascular dementia, and my dad who is stressed out from looking after mum. We managed one round and then Mum wanted to go to bed. I had not reckoned on the dad block.
PS I think people with vascular dementia can learn new things. It will take a lot more reinforcement, and you have to be sensitive to how tired they are. This is a maybe project so far.
As a man teaching his group Imperial assault from heroquest, I fucking lost it when you pulled out twilight imperium
great video! I've come to the majority of these tips myself during my long experience of teaching people to play and I can say that they 100% a must if you wanna do it nice and make everybody feel at ease. Still I've got some new ideas from the video, so thank you again!
I like working backwards - telling everyone the winning conditions, and then telling them what aspects or mechanics influence that winning condition - usually involves reading most manuals backwards!
I never expected a video about teaching board games would make my eyes wet. I haven't even played a board game in a decade. Amazing job!
I'm lucky enough to be in a position where my board-gaming friends are also the friends I grew up with. We play new games every week and we don't really mind explaining or listening to game rules. It's the least fun part of board games but at the same time it's very exciting to learn a new game.
This is brilliant. I've been doing demos at cons for some time and this really coalesces some stuff I've been missing and doesn't make me feel stupid about it. Bravo!
What a fantastic video!
In addition of "starting small" i think its essential to estimate what your players are capable of. If you have noobie boardgamers with strong strategic brain power, a game that's based on 80% luck could leave them frustrated.
Start playing what you think will fit with your group as apposed to what yóú want to play regardless of their character traits/level/abilities.
I'm excited to get more people excited about boardgames by learning to explain the games succinctly. Let's gooooo.
Love the list and how it points out at least a dozen mistakes I have made in the last couple of years while teaching board games :D
I used to HATE people interrupting me during rule-teaching sessions, because they made me loose track. Now I understand that it was my fault, and they interrupted me because they were bored, felt awkward, or did not understand what I was talking about. Perhaps I was tired, or just didn't know the rules much, or was focusing too much on giving a perfect speech, but what really happened is that I lost focus on what truly matters: SPENDING TIME WITH PEOPLE AND HAVING FUN.
Sometimes I don't have time to properly prepare for teaching, but when I do, maaaan it feels so good. When you are fully confident and relaxed while you are teaching a game, it makes the whole learning process fun for everyone. Would also suggest that try not to be too tired when teaching rules, and also making reference-sheets for games that don't have those, or just remake reference-sheets to fit your group's thinking. Can make or break a game night.
Sincerely,
Vincent Dice
Her Majesty's Department of Fun
I am the rules guy who comes in with new games to play so I explain a lot. Instead of this stuff, what works for me is starting the game and telling everyone what they can/can't do and talking them through the entire thing phase by phase. Usually by turn 3 to 5, everyone is playing. If anyone has any questions, they ask and I either answer or look it up real quick because I know approximately where to find the answer I'm looking for in the rules. It's by far the fastest and most engaging.
Definitely agree that "How To Play" videos suck.
They are meant to be watched by one person who can stop the video at any time and repeat certain sections of the video.
They are not meant to be watched by 5 people for 30 minutes on game night.
@@Reggie1408 My "How To Play" videos are specifically meant to be watched silently in large groups.
@@TheDragonsTomb Yeah now I see it.
Often essential when rulebooks are poor
Practice rounds are always amazing especially with complex games
I'd love to see quinn explain the robinson board game
I use this video to make sure I explain the board game I'm working on as best as possible to my playtesters. Really useful stuff!
To be honest, I mostly skip the "Why" part. Why is that game fun? Well, I learned the rules, backed the game on kickstarter, spent a couple hundred euros on the games, the game shelf, the gaming table and a lot of other gimmicks. If that game isn't fun, I wouldn't put it on the table or I wouldn't even have it in this room. Or if we play this game for the first time and find out it sucks, how could they trust me when I tell them a game is fun beforehand?
And I'm okay with people touching stuff but I really become pissed when they bend the cards while placing them down. There is only so much a sleeve can do.
Been keeping this video in my back pocket since it came out. Because I will be teaching Mage Knight soon. God help me.
quinton smith, still trying to make "the teach" happen.
It's a technical term. It already happened.
i always do the explaining in the other way around then the manual: First how to win, then what your actions are, then Turn order. I find that way more logical: How do you win, what action can you take to victory, and then when you can do those things