Definitely agree with Jon about using the correct/specific terminology, and touching the (already set up) components as I'm explaining. Also agree with Rodney about being engaging. Rules are boring, so spicing it up with some corny jokes, etc helps a ton. Use examples where the new players are able to do something more effectively than experienced players. e.g., if I'm teaching Carcassonne to a new player, I'll explain a scenario where that player was able to sneak two followers into a city to steal all the points from me. Even if it's just an example, that new player is going to be more engaged by a scenario where their color did something good, than if I would have explained that concept the other way around. Rodney touched on it in his comment below too: context and recaps are CRUCIAL. If a game turn has multiple complex phases, I explain phase 1 fully, then recap 1, then explain phase 2, then recap 1 and 2, then explain phase 3, then recap 1, 2, and 3, etc. This can be applied to other aspects of the game as well. For example, I always spend way too long explaining the various room/tunnel types in Clank!, so as I finish that up, I always do a quick recap of each before moving on to the next section of the rules. Game rules are very difficult to explain completely linearly. It's so easy to get sidetracked by a certain piece (think about explaining how resource production works in Settlers... oh wait, except for when a 7 rolls). In these cases, it's amazing how much people can focus if you simply say "and we'll talk about that more in a minute". Psychologically, if people have something to say in a conversation, we think about what we're going to say more than listening to the other person, so if players can be assured that you'll address the thing they have a question about, they'll grasp the next section of the rules more effectively. That said, questions will still happen, so let anyone know that any question they have is a "qood question". Related: people new to the hobby often want to ask a ton of questions right off the bat, and there is a balance between encouraging "good questions" and having gentle confidence that you can guide them through the rules more effectively than if you just allowed a disorganized forum to ask anything they're curious about. "What does this do? Why is that piece laying down? Why is there a symbol here but not there?" is not the way for anyone to learn. Finally, start with the end. I always start with a one or two sentence explanation of what the end game is, and everything in the rest of the explanation should be treated as context for how we're going to get to that point.
Playing off of "gamespeak", do not compare games as a shortcut to explaining a game. Not everyone has played every game so stating "it's like Pandemic" doesn't really make anything clear. Also, sometimes making a call for a rule that is unclear is better than stopping a game to try to find a clear explanation of the rule. This rule can be found later and be applied to the next game being played.
The teach doesn't end when the game begins; narrate your own turns (and suggest that others do the same) so that new players get a feel for the mechanisms in action. It can also be helpful to set a player order such that more experienced players go first and newer players go last, so that the newer players can see a few turns in action before they have to act .
So fun seeing the final video and all the tips together. Such a good tip on not "assuming knowledge", this is such an easy trap for experienced gamers to fall into. We can really help if we drop all the "gamespeak" in a rules teach with new players. And appreciate Monique hitting on the importance of context. You might be teaching a rule perfectly, but if I don't understand the context of how it fits into the bigger picture of the game, it's not going to stick or make as much sense! A pleasure to be a part of this video with you!
@@chrishuffman4781 It can get a little tricky with podcasts, because some are aimed more at people already in the hobby. I suppose it would be like tuning into an engineering podcast - I'd expect them to use language I might not already be familiar with unless I was an engineer. That said, I think podcasts can be made more approachable the less gamer language they use, to be sure.
@@chrishuffman4781 We hawt shipizo that greenwitch. Because if we nay, she gonna nipe and then we awful minmax. Also, when supported, you can discard the card to uncard the recarded deck bottom-up. Plus one. Minus each per every greenwitch unpertained.
to add what Jon said re: touching components, also when setting up, get everyone involved. for example, 'Sally, please give out $X money to everyone and you'll be the banker this game. Peter, you'll be in charge of the animal tokens, give everyone 3 pieces' etc. It helps gives people ownership of the game which leads to more engagement.
While I have zero problem setting up an entire game by myself, I find it's important to have everyone involved in that process. It totally helps bring attention to the components of the game, it keeps the focus on the game even if people are chatting amongst themselves, and we're all playing this game so everyone should pitch in to make it happen and just not rely on one person.
I use a top down approach. I start with the general goal of the game, them the win conditions, how the end games, round structure, what we can do in a turn, then the specificities. The other aspect I pay attention to, and this depends on the game, but knowing which things to leave out at the starting teach, which things to wait until the situation calls for it, or which rules that is essential to explain from the start
Thanks Rodney!!! Our gaming group has using the golden rule of first game don't count for about 2 years now...but everyone is still dead serious...lol. Thank you all for the wonderful video. Keep up the great work!
One thing I find helpful is using analogies with the instruction or ways for people to recognize that they know what a mechanic actually is. Things like auctions/bidding in Power Grid have real-world counterparts, so those are easy, but things like swaying ministers as the moles in Root may need some twisting: "You basically go up to one of these ministers and say 'Hey, look at all this cool stuff I have. The foxes like us, and we still have some say with them (in our hand), so you can help manage them.'" That and drawing on past examples. "How do you move? Roll two dice and move the number of spaces shown on the dice. Like Monopoly!" If they have a past experience, it can help embed the mechanic better.
Great tip! I can think of a particular gamer that would love this idea … although she would probably purposely extend the analogy to an absurd degree that it wouldn’t make sense anymore. 🤣
As the perpetual teacher and person that introduces friends to new games this is super helpful! Also recommend SUSD’s video (maybe a year+ old). I find it the most difficult to explain the rules to a group without having played the game myself. Sometimes doing a ‘fake play through’ can be helpful but nothing beats a full game to learn the ropes.
I like bigger content creators showing up together and helping the rest of the community, showing there is a community. This is very good for the betterment of the hobby, besides the more "entrepreneurship" or business side of RUclips, it's good for everyone involved. I'm sure there must be rivalries and problems as in any other lines of work, but seeing people supporting each other on the way forward is very comforting. Keep encouraging that, that's the right way. Good teaching tips by the way, greetings from Uruguay.
Definitely agree with the general to specific. I always like to start a teach with a 30 second intro of how you win, when the game will end, and the basic gist of how you accomplish that.
I love how Jon and Naveen pointed out that showing the players the components and calling them by their in-game names makes things much easier for new players to follow. I agree. I like Jon’s idea of letting the players touch the components or pass them around. Similar to what Rodney said, I always invite the players to play a practice round or two first. (Many adults are kinaesthetic learners and like Monique feel like they can’t retain as much audibly as they can through practice.) Sometimes we’ll even reveal hidden information, such as having visible hands of cards, so that we can discuss why a player might make a particular choice. At the end of the practice rounds, we all discuss whether we should start over or continue our game. Sometimes a player finally gets the game partway through and feels hopeless with how they’ve started, so I want to give them the chance to have a fresh start so they get a good experience from the very beginning. Another tip, and this is similar to what Monique said, is that new gamers can often get overwhelmed quite easily. Some people in their explanations will go into strategies and exceptions, and if the new players don’t understand one or two things, or if they’re trying to retain the essentials, they’ll feel totally lost. If you’re teaching a game to novice gamers, I suggest only teaching the critical things-how to win, when the game ends, and the essential mechanics of the game-and let the new players discover the gameplay themselves and ask questions during the practice round. It makes the explanation go quicker so that the game can start faster. The thing I’m still wondering is how to handle it when multiple people know the game and want to teach it at the same time. In my experience this almost never works, because the teachers talk over each other and add little tidbits or question each other’s interpretations of the rules, and it brings that tense feeling that makes everything uncomfortable. What do you suggest?
Great topic, I have no issue teaching to people I know well, but if I am teaching to people I don’t know my anxiety goes way up. I really like these suggestions, it will definitely help with the anxiety. Maybe an obvious tip, but I always try to teach people directly from the player aid when I can, so they start looking at it.
This is probably my favourite collab, these three channels are my top for rules explanations and videos. Incredibly talented teachers and thoroughly wholesome people. I'm immensely grateful for the service you're all providing to our hobby! + Very good tips.
LOVE THIS! All my favorite people on one video. 🤩 Great tips. I am a terrible teacher. So another tip is to just defer to a better teacher (if one is available). Otherwise, refer to all tips above. 😆
Haha Krissy! Thanks so much. It's all a learning process I think. We are also trying to improve in various areas of teaching every time we come to the table.
I watched a Shut Up and Sit Down video about "the teach," and one tip is to start every game explanation with three things: what are we doing (thematically), how do we win, and why will this game be fun. Highly recommend that video after watching this one!
After summarizing the 'story' of the game, we jump directly into describing how to win. This way, when we go back to discussing the mechanics, players have a sense of why/how these things will matter. I totally agree with having visual representation available. One thing that that we found helpful is providing player aids to players. Many games already include this, but that is not the norm. We either copy important pages from rule book, print docs from BGG, or create our own to provide rule summaries, player actions, or other useful information.
My number one rule is connect new info to something they already know. If you're going to teach what actions they can do, they need to know what their turn looks like first. This is like the funneling you guys talked about, but it's important to connect the dots. They need a framework to hang the information on. Like, you don't start by telling them what their special abilities are before they're taught what rules they're breaking. And at the very beginning, when the players have no knowledge of the game and nothing to relate to, I start with what they can see. The board, the cards, the pieces, whatever's important to get that framework standing. When they know what they're looking at, they can understand what they're trying to accomplish. Then you get into how they accomplish that. Also, sometimes teaching the game from start to finish isn't the best way. I prefer teaching Azul "backwards", starting with the point scoring and finishing with taking tiles. It's a game that can be hard for players to grasp if you start with getting tiles, because there's so many steps before they actually understand why you would take specific tiles. Last tip. I usually emphasize two things when I'm teaching. 1. The core mechanism ("This is the thing we'll be doing the most", "This is the phase where we will spend most of our time", "This track is where you'll get the most points"). 2. The one rule you usually get wrong. This one is easier when you're more experienced with the game, but if you know a rule other players repeatedly forgets or misunderstands, point it out. And great video, thanks! :)
Setting everything up as the first thing you do is SUCH a great tip, that I wish I knew sooner. I have had such difficulty learning certain complex games, that suddenly clicked when I set the game up fully.
Last night, we played an expansion map for Ticket to Ride that none of us (all adults) had played before. As typical, people were very impatient with rules and game play. It’s the typical, “let’s just play,” response and then some upset feelings later with a reply, “I didn’t know I could do that….you didn’t tell me that.” I did pre set up of the game (for my learning purpose too) but did engage them with shuffling of cards etc. I’ll keep plugging away to make smoother and better game teaching as I too enjoy learning games and teaching them. Thanks for bringing this awesome guest list together and presenting this video.
I don't mean to sound like I'm plugging stuff here but since you are looking for a series on this topic, I do a series called Teach the Teach on the Dice Tower that does exactly that. Hopefully it can be helpful!
Another couple of tips I would suggest.... 1) Give a super brief (30-60 second) rough overview of the most boiled down core of gameplay. Example: "This is a game where the first person to 10 victory points wins! We will take turns drawing cards, playing them as buildings in this area, and score points for buildings at the end of each round. The twist is that you cannot see your own cards." Or whatever the explanation is... keep it super short/simple in the very beginning. 2) Teach with an outline or player aid. People can learn better when the can visualize the overall structure of information/rules. Teach with a basic outline written out, or use the round/turn summary to guide the teach. People can see how major topics relate to sub-topics and gauge their overall progression in the rules teach. 3) Summarize very briefly at the end of major sections of the teach. Example: "Ok, for the combat phase, we all play cards and then roll for hit points. Then we clear dead units and gain rewards... and that's the combat phase." 4) Always use the actual game pieces / components, moving them as you explain. Remember a visual is worth 1,000 words... people learn better with a visual example. 5) Remind players that EVERY game has a "fog" period in the beginning as you learn the rules and play your first turn or two. This is the tax we pay for having fun with new games. Ensure them that you will guide them through their turn the first several turns/rounds. The first game is a learning game anyways, like Rodney said.
Great video! I love teaching games to people. I would add "don't underestimate the complexity of a game". At a recent game night I brought The Crew which I've never played. I was confident from all that I had heard claiming it was an extremely simple game that's pretty easy to learn. As I started setting the game up, I quickly realized that it was not as simple as I thought, and I needed to do more homework! We ended up packing it away and choosing another game and I learned my lesson for sure!
Someone volunteered to teach me a game recently but they hadn't played the game for over 6 months and they didn't take the time to review the game before trying to teach me. It went horribly... we ended up playing another game (taught by someone else). I went out and purchased the game myself, rewatched multiple how-to and playthrough videos, and familiarized myself with the board, components, and rules. I ended up teaching the game at my next game night (with the help of another person that had watched some videos that same day). Even though none of us had played the game before, it ended up going so well! PREPARATION IS KEY!!!
Excellent video! I'm the rules teacher for my gaming groups for the last 10-15 years, i've been doing it sooo much, that I find myself playing but always looking out to see if other players are having fun and understand the games correctly, so much that I don't think I've won a single game in like 5 years lol!
I usually provide the games and the teaching for our family game nights. Step one, set-up familiarity as Jon explained usually followed by a solo playthrough which alerts me to questions that I can expect. Step two, read the rules again. Did I get everything right? Step three, check BGG forums for any unanswered questions I still have. Step four, when the game is brought out, let everyone know what they will enjoy about the game we're about to play. Step five, have a predetermined order of rules explanation, not necessarily rule book order, that is easy to understand. Start with general of course, but each idea should lead to the next concept to grasp. Step six, while playing I look for opportunities to showcase less obvious plays to demonstrate uncommon situations even if not my best strategy. And if I'm aware of general strategies, give others the same tips. The first game is never about winning, it's about learning.
There are a lot of games and sometimes you get caught off guard when your group selects a game that you haven't played in a while and that can put you on your "back foot" as Jon says. I've gotten into the habit of writing down a simplified 1-pager of the rulebook when I'm learning a game for the first time. This helps me to learn the game because I'm organizing my thoughts as I go through the rulebook, but also, if we play this game in the future, I can quickly run through the 1-pager and recall all the important aspects of the game if I hadn't played it in a while. The 1-pager also gives me a skeleton outline to go by when teaching the game.
Thanks for the tips. Very helpful. I would add what to idea of a general funnel idea. Focus on the main goal of the game. People always ask "So, what are we supposed to do?" When you get to the details your friends might get lost. Tell them where this detail fits in the general picture so they understand why it is important.
wonderful video, great tips from all of you 4! I absolutely agree. In my experience, sometimes houserules that come up naturally during play, can become fun running gags in future rounds and contribute to the fun the group has. So I would recommend not to deny it right away when someone proposes a houserule. :-)
Thanks to all four of you! You all are my top rules teachers. When I get a new game, the first thing I do is watch one of your videos, and to be honest, when the game isn’t covered by one of you, it’s more of a struggle. I am a much better learner either reading the rules myself or watching a video of the rules, so these tips are top notch! Thanks, all! ❤️
Excellent job. You should be so proud of this, and please know it is super helpful to us "designated teachers". One thing I've found that helps is to mention how to win and continue "funneling" down from there (to borrow your term). People seem to want to know what they're shooting for as an anchor for all the rounds and mechanisms and so on.
I definitely agree with teaching from general to specific. I also think that it's helpful, especially for more complex games and ones you're teaching for the first time, to have crib sheets or something you can easily teach from, especially if the rulebook isn't structured to be taught from. This is an extra effort but for me, I'm not a great speaker on the fly, so this helps me have a script of sorts that lets me convey the information and make sure that I don't miss any details
A massively important tip which is missing - show by example! Learning new mechanics can be confusing, but demonstrating with clear examples really helps to accelerate learning. For example, I've seen countless people teach trick-taking card games such as The Crew, Hearts etc. without actually demonstrating what a trick looks like. People go in pretty confused. Instead, deal 2-3 cards to each person, open-hand, and easily demonstrate the key concepts of following suit, off-suit and so on.
When you need to teach a game, you have to have a good grasp of the rules. To that end, I always do at least one dry run of the game on my own, playing against myself, just to immers myself in the mechanisms.
Very helpful video. As a teacher, and supplier of most games my groups plays, I usually look up “how to play” videos for setup and guidance. Then, I usually mock play them (with ghost players) once or twice before teaching them. Obviously there are some games out there I can’t do like auctioning/bidding type games.
This is a wonderful video! You guys are amazing 🤩 From my point of view, it can be intimating to teach a game b/c a lot of people assume that you KNOW everything from A-Z 😆 but there’s always a confusing rule that is hard to understand. My tips: 1 - try to simplify the rules in the best possible way according to your group. Not all people learn the same way. 2 - explaining the objective of the game should be HIGH priority so people have a goal to aim for and not just randomly doing things. 3 - do not explain every single rule of the game, rather explain the main rules and then explain the rest as you they come up 4 - if you already know how to play the game, let others WIN! So they can feel good about it and are willing to play more! 5 - if someone makes a mistake, let them redo the action and guide them to choose a better action! I agree with Jon about getting everyone involved in the setup! Last but not least, I hope one day you guys make a video about “how to get better at Boardgames” 😁♥️
Love these videos, it is so good to pass tips around to make this hobby better, thank you! Me personally, I like to do a player's demo mid-game round for people to kind of see everything I just explained come together
The best teaching video I know of is the one about Exodus Proxima Centauri --- (Exodus Proxima Centauri - How to Play). I wish there were more like that. The best rulebook - Spacecorp by GMT
Nice tips- I always explain the goal of the players and what We (coop)/They(individual winner) are trying to do to win, then go into how to score. After that, I go thru the steps of the game phases, etc and show how those steps get you ways to earn points, etc towards winning the game.
Lovely that I'm also subscribed to these two creators, and of course Monique and Naveen. I'm struggling with this part too given most of the people I tries playing with are also novices in Board Gaming. I always stick to lighter games and properly studying the game before engaging with them. Some of the points like most of Rodney's key points is a plus. Thanks guys!
I love teaching games to people. My main method is that I always play the game by myself first so that I have a clear sense of the game before going into teaching. I think that Monique highlighted the thing I probably do wrong the most and that is jumping into the mechanics too quickly. I should practice more overview/general notes first and then dive into the details of step by step instructions. Wonderful video!
Thank you so much! That's a great method. Setting up a game and going through the motions really hones in what the rules are trying to communicate. Thank you for being a fellow board gaming teacher!
General to specific is such a good tip. I can't count the number of times I've jumped into a specific strategy suggestion or described a specific type of card, only to realize I haven't covered the scope of the game yet! There is nothing worse in the teach than the sinking feeling you have when you realize you need to backtrack to general concepts after plunging into specifics too early. It's combination of both knowing you've probably lost your audience a little and also realizing that you've waisted a perfectly good specific example that would have been really well received if it had come out of your mouth just that little bit later!
Number one tip: use player aids to teach. Whether it's a player board with turn phases or a card with iconography or one printed from BGG, new players benefit from consistency. Since they'll see the reference throughout the game, it makes total sense to explain everything using the same source. In Gugong, for example, referring to the round phases at the top of the board and on each player's board can make the game feel much less disjointed.
General -> Specific. That's the number one rule for me. It just makes the most sense for the majority of people. It's easier to assimilate the information and it provides the most context.
I am really loving your videos and when you pick a topic that is important to me, like rules teaching and you include my favourite teacher (Rodney Smith) this may be one of my favourite videos you have put out. I work in learning and development in my day job, so I am very passionate about giving people positive learning experiences. My top tip would be that for any game you teach, you need to start with with a Who, How and Why. When people get this initially, it helps with the rest of the game. A huge thanks for your Lacerda series. Games like these used to scare me, but you have made them much more accessible. I played my first Lacerda game recently (the Gallerist) and loved it. “On Mars” is my next one to learn. Thank you again for your videos. You can tell how much effort and passion you pour into each one.
This was a great video, thanks for sharing. It’s funny that we all need these tips (and more) yet not many of us thought we needed a video like this one. Great eye opener and good to know we’re all in this together! 😃👍🏼
I'm a frequent teacher in my gaming groups and this video is such a fantastic idea! Great feedbacks and tips from all content creators here. The only little thing I also do before teaching, especially longer and more complex games, is layout HOW I'll be teaching the game so peeps can anticipate the pacing of the teach. I found this helpful with experienced gamers holding off asking advanced questions that breaks the flow sometimes.
I'd like to see a video on explaining the terms found in gaming such as, what you guys mentioned, "worker placement", as well as terms like "engine buliding", "deck building", "push your luck", etc. A video that defines the term as well as examples of actual game play would help a lot and examples of what games those elements are found would clarify thing. I'm new to board gaming and am still not clear on what these terms mean or how they function in practice despite looking at Boardgame Geek's glossary.
Thanks for this video. I’ve somehow become one of my groups board game teachers even though I’m socially anxious at the best of times. I practice with a bullet pointed outline at home but keep a YT video backup if all else fails.
Great video! Glad to see Jon and Rodney on the video as well. “General to specific” is great advice and I like that phrase; I usually call it the onion method, where you drill down into deeper layers as you go. One suggestion I have is to have edge cases and exceptions to rules in your mind to remind players so they don’t have to remember them. For example, in Coimbra if two tokens on a track are stacked on the same position, the person on bottom of the stack at the end of the game is farther ahead, so the first time this happens in game I’ll remind them that the token on bottom is currently ahead. Another suggestion is if you can, walk the players through a sample round by going first or directing a player through the actions. My wife and other visual learners benefit from this technique a lot.
Thank you for doing this video - I've had some bad experiences in teaching some games. I usually create a "teaching guide' for every game. Time consuming, but it also helps me learn the game - and organize myself while teaching. Your video will also help!
What a great idea for a video! One of my players tends to interrupt my teaches to ask about components or mechanics I haven't explained yet. I suspect Jon's suggestion to be interactive with the components from the beginning may help. And it seems so obvious, but Monique's tip about general to specific is something I definitely don't do well!
Most of my friends don't play the hard-core games so we tend to have to start with the simple point scoring games. I'm usually having to learn it several days before so we don't sit sound just staring at the instructions. I tend to find learning the game beforehand even if it's a rough idea makes things much smoother. Great video as this is a huge part of the hobby!
Smooth setup and administration of complex games is key. I agree. I'm so much more likely to play a game that I can quickly prepare and operate. Good advice.
I got into the wonderful hobby of board games because of watching Watch It Played! And ever since, I lovee teaching people games! I have taken upon myself to be the expert and teach as many games as possible to people, and always introduce new games! However, I recently ran into a problem when trying to teach as many people new games all the time... they often forget all of the games I have shown them if they have only played it once! So my advice for trying to get people into the hobby is to have people play a game more than once, and let them dive into more of the strategies and mechanics that they enjoy, and then show them other games! Sometimes people enjoy playing new games constantly, i find more experienced gamers do (like myself) but for newcomers, playing the same game is never a bad thing if they enjoy it and are not overwhelmed! Thanks again Rodney for getting me into the hobby, and a wonderful video from some oftt
Great video with 3 channels that are all great at teaching and showcasing the games. Gotta love this community. I think you guys touched on the most important parts of teaching a game. In my gaming group I'm usually the person teaching the games, personally I'm very much a rules person, that's because I come from years of playing Magic the Gathering where wording, the order of things and niche situations are all very key. So I don't mind reading through huge rulebooks to figure it all out, in fact I quite enjoy it, it's like a puzzle to me. When I teach a game I find you guys' tips most important, the funnel teaching and well knowing your audience, to elaborate on that a bit here's some additional tips: 1) Know your audience's experience, as said you don't want to get lost in lingo people don't understand. I find it helps to ask newcomers what they've played, if you recognize the games they have played you can maybe take similarities between the games and make it relatable. For example, they might not know the term "Worker placement" but they might know a game where the mechanic is used, so you can simply go, this part sort of works like in game X, as an added bonus you can teach them it's called worker placement, so they know for future reference. 2) Know your audience, yes the person, some people want to know all the things, while others just want to play! I know a person who I find hard to teach games to, because this person is all about just getting in there and playing asap! For this person I try to keep things as basic as possible (the funnel comes to mind) so we can start asap and I teach the rest as we go, it's a bit more hectic, but for this person it seems to work like a charm. Another friend of mine is the opposite, they're all about trying to figure out the most clever things, so they're more like what I would want to know if someone teaches me, for them I explain every rule in detail, luckily he picks it up really quickly and if need be we grab the manual mid game, speaking of which.. 3) Don't teach what you'll come across anyway. In a lot of games there are the basics and the core of the game and then there are variations of this core. Take Wingspan for example, there are some core actions the players can take, those need to be explained, then there are the different types of bird cards, these need to be explained. But there's absolutely no reason to show them every single bird card, the players will come across those as we play and if for some reason they're not clear, they can be explained in the moment. So teach the principles of how things work rather than explaining every part over and over again. 4) Make them want to come back for more. This differs per group but I'm often in the situation where 3 out of 4 players know the game and there's one new player. If I'm the one teaching the game to the new player, I will lend a hand during the game as well, unless of course, they don't want it, by stating them which options they have. Very important here is that I don't tell them what to do, but I tell them what they CAN do. Additionally we usually go fairly easy on whoever's first time it is, with some exceptions. In other words, if you teach someone a game and then kick their ass at the same game without really letting them know what's what during the game, it's just a bad experience (for most people), you don't want that.
Monique and Naveen just wanted to say congrats on your constantly growing channel! Recently on BGG with Nikki and Lincoln and now starring Jon and Rodney. You guys are making the rounds!
WOW!!! and all star lineup. what a treat. Great video. Good tips all. I have found that the setup / prep tip from Jon to be critical. its the foundation of the gaming experience and i couldn't agree more. I too can find it hard to be engaging in a rules teach...I hadn't really thought about that, but Rodney's comments cause some introspection. Monique's General to Specific is also really good as i find that an easy way to digest a rule set. Having more general bounding conditions makes the more detailed / specific rules less imposing as they are constrained by previous rules. The rules for some games are setup such that a top down presentation is pretty easy, but others can be really difficult to transform from another (sometime illogical) format. Oh, the "just like writing an essay" made me shiver a bit. Never liked writing essays...with the exception of a few on Mark Twain. but that was 40+ years ago.
This is SUCH a great video! I can't believe I haven't really seen any of the other board game channels cover this most important topic! It's Especially relevant for me because my challenge is to a)get my wife more interested in board games, and 2)nudging and guiding my young kids to getting into board games, adding more complexity over time, etc. Thank you!
1. Start with theme. “We are X trying to accomplish Y.” 2. State the objective. “The object of the game is…” 3. State how the game ends. “The game will end when…” And then teach the game. General pointers: 1. Don’t take it personally when people didn’t listen to/catch something you thought you were clear about. 2. Even with a lot of practice, you will mess up sometimes. Perhaps a lot. That’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up. 3. Take the Scythe approach: what do they absolutely need to know right now and what can they learn while playing the game? Get to the gameplay as quick as possible, even if it’s a mock round just to give people an idea of the stakes involved in the game. Monique and Naveen, crossing my fingers that you’ll invite me to be a guest on your show sometime. No one will know who I am, but why let that stop us!
These are my picks that I would put on my Mt. Rushmore of board games teachers. One thing I do when I teach a game is to make sure everybody knows what the end goal is.
Some very good ideas (along with others shared in the comments for this video). I hope we see some more of these presentations in the future. Thank you!
Great topical video with superb guests! I am almost always the person reading rules and teaching games so I found this video very focused on tips I can put into practice. I agree with all the points mentioned especially keeping your audience engaged and interested in the learning process (this can be difficult with complex games that take some time to teach). Thanks for the great content and I would love to see more videos in this discussion, learning format!
I was surprised to see you guys on GameNight!, I had not seen anything formally announced about a collaboration between you & them! But I enjoyed watching you (Monique in paticular) teach the game Fantasy Realms. I thought you did really well...you were obv a little more nervous at first but I thought you guys did just fine in that setting. And those would be some big shoes to fill as Dave does a really great job teaching board games, imo. Jon (of jongetsgames) is also great, in fact after I watch him play a game, it becomes so much easier to learn, teach & play the game myself so kudos to him!
Using people's names is one of the most powerful ways of retaining engagement. As Rodney said, people love hearing their name. In fact, according to Dale Carnegie, a person's name is their most favourite sound to hear. I wholeheartedly recommend reading 'How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie. It will make you a better boardgame teacher, and more socially-capable person overall. Great video @Beforeyouplay - loved it!
Fair enough.. I do suppose it will have a detrimental effect if abused. I do find it enjoyable when people do it to me, but maybe more so because I have an uncommon name.
My favourite way of adding other person's names is when I'm giving gameplay examples. Like "If John's warrior is attacking my archer with a strength of 5 ..." and so on. Then it feels more natural.
When preparing to teach a game I read the rules, play a mock game with nose in the rule book, and then reevaluate problem areas I come across. These problem areas being easy rules that I missed, and sometimes areas that I can identify as being confusing to the group I am teaching. So when actually teaching I overview goals, structure of turns, and cover generally what players will be doing. I pick a choose what specifics they need to know right now, but I never get into the minutia of every aspect of the game. The reason being is some areas can be covered when the group reaches it. This also helps keep teaching to under 30 mins as I feel teaching a game should not go over that time stamp.
This videos is perfect! I'm the rules teacher in my group and your advices are super helpful. I really liked the tips from Rodney, I usually make my explanation a little theatrical to grab the attention 😂 Thanks for the video! 💕
Great tips! I've been caught so many times with the setup tripping up my explanation of the rules. Great idea to do the setup while reading the rules :D
What are some of your teaching tips when teaching a new game to people?
Draw people into the theme, diving into the story can make the mechanics slightly less daunting.
Definitely agree with Jon about using the correct/specific terminology, and touching the (already set up) components as I'm explaining. Also agree with Rodney about being engaging. Rules are boring, so spicing it up with some corny jokes, etc helps a ton.
Use examples where the new players are able to do something more effectively than experienced players. e.g., if I'm teaching Carcassonne to a new player, I'll explain a scenario where that player was able to sneak two followers into a city to steal all the points from me. Even if it's just an example, that new player is going to be more engaged by a scenario where their color did something good, than if I would have explained that concept the other way around.
Rodney touched on it in his comment below too: context and recaps are CRUCIAL. If a game turn has multiple complex phases, I explain phase 1 fully, then recap 1, then explain phase 2, then recap 1 and 2, then explain phase 3, then recap 1, 2, and 3, etc. This can be applied to other aspects of the game as well. For example, I always spend way too long explaining the various room/tunnel types in Clank!, so as I finish that up, I always do a quick recap of each before moving on to the next section of the rules.
Game rules are very difficult to explain completely linearly. It's so easy to get sidetracked by a certain piece (think about explaining how resource production works in Settlers... oh wait, except for when a 7 rolls). In these cases, it's amazing how much people can focus if you simply say "and we'll talk about that more in a minute". Psychologically, if people have something to say in a conversation, we think about what we're going to say more than listening to the other person, so if players can be assured that you'll address the thing they have a question about, they'll grasp the next section of the rules more effectively. That said, questions will still happen, so let anyone know that any question they have is a "qood question".
Related: people new to the hobby often want to ask a ton of questions right off the bat, and there is a balance between encouraging "good questions" and having gentle confidence that you can guide them through the rules more effectively than if you just allowed a disorganized forum to ask anything they're curious about. "What does this do? Why is that piece laying down? Why is there a symbol here but not there?" is not the way for anyone to learn.
Finally, start with the end. I always start with a one or two sentence explanation of what the end game is, and everything in the rest of the explanation should be treated as context for how we're going to get to that point.
Playing off of "gamespeak", do not compare games as a shortcut to explaining a game. Not everyone has played every game so stating "it's like Pandemic" doesn't really make anything clear. Also, sometimes making a call for a rule that is unclear is better than stopping a game to try to find a clear explanation of the rule. This rule can be found later and be applied to the next game being played.
Link them to Rodney's video
The teach doesn't end when the game begins; narrate your own turns (and suggest that others do the same) so that new players get a feel for the mechanisms in action. It can also be helpful to set a player order such that more experienced players go first and newer players go last, so that the newer players can see a few turns in action before they have to act .
So fun seeing the final video and all the tips together. Such a good tip on not "assuming knowledge", this is such an easy trap for experienced gamers to fall into. We can really help if we drop all the "gamespeak" in a rules teach with new players. And appreciate Monique hitting on the importance of context. You might be teaching a rule perfectly, but if I don't understand the context of how it fits into the bigger picture of the game, it's not going to stick or make as much sense! A pleasure to be a part of this video with you!
Thank you so much, Rodney!
I am so guilty of “assuming knowledge.”
Even some gaming podcasts throw around terms that I don't understand. They've been gaming too long and have developed their own vocabulary.
@@chrishuffman4781 It can get a little tricky with podcasts, because some are aimed more at people already in the hobby. I suppose it would be like tuning into an engineering podcast - I'd expect them to use language I might not already be familiar with unless I was an engineer. That said, I think podcasts can be made more approachable the less gamer language they use, to be sure.
@@chrishuffman4781 We hawt shipizo that greenwitch. Because if we nay, she gonna nipe and then we awful minmax. Also, when supported, you can discard the card to uncard the recarded deck bottom-up. Plus one. Minus each per every greenwitch unpertained.
to add what Jon said re: touching components, also when setting up, get everyone involved. for example, 'Sally, please give out $X money to everyone and you'll be the banker this game. Peter, you'll be in charge of the animal tokens, give everyone 3 pieces' etc. It helps gives people ownership of the game which leads to more engagement.
Rodney is so precious! So charismatic. Great Video!
Love the comment from Jon about "managing" the setup rather than doing it all yourself.
Yeah, it's very sound advice! Jon is awesome.
While I have zero problem setting up an entire game by myself, I find it's important to have everyone involved in that process. It totally helps bring attention to the components of the game, it keeps the focus on the game even if people are chatting amongst themselves, and we're all playing this game so everyone should pitch in to make it happen and just not rely on one person.
I use a top down approach. I start with the general goal of the game, them the win conditions, how the end games, round structure, what we can do in a turn, then the specificities.
The other aspect I pay attention to, and this depends on the game, but knowing which things to leave out at the starting teach, which things to wait until the situation calls for it, or which rules that is essential to explain from the start
Thanks Rodney!!!
Our gaming group has using the golden rule of first game don't count for about 2 years now...but everyone is still dead serious...lol. Thank you all for the wonderful video. Keep up the great work!
One thing I find helpful is using analogies with the instruction or ways for people to recognize that they know what a mechanic actually is. Things like auctions/bidding in Power Grid have real-world counterparts, so those are easy, but things like swaying ministers as the moles in Root may need some twisting: "You basically go up to one of these ministers and say 'Hey, look at all this cool stuff I have. The foxes like us, and we still have some say with them (in our hand), so you can help manage them.'"
That and drawing on past examples. "How do you move? Roll two dice and move the number of spaces shown on the dice. Like Monopoly!" If they have a past experience, it can help embed the mechanic better.
Great tip! I can think of a particular gamer that would love this idea … although she would probably purposely extend the analogy to an absurd degree that it wouldn’t make sense anymore. 🤣
As the perpetual teacher and person that introduces friends to new games this is super helpful! Also recommend SUSD’s video (maybe a year+ old).
I find it the most difficult to explain the rules to a group without having played the game myself. Sometimes doing a ‘fake play through’ can be helpful but nothing beats a full game to learn the ropes.
I like bigger content creators showing up together and helping the rest of the community, showing there is a community. This is very good for the betterment of the hobby, besides the more "entrepreneurship" or business side of RUclips, it's good for everyone involved. I'm sure there must be rivalries and problems as in any other lines of work, but seeing people supporting each other on the way forward is very comforting. Keep encouraging that, that's the right way. Good teaching tips by the way, greetings from Uruguay.
Definitely agree with the general to specific. I always like to start a teach with a 30 second intro of how you win, when the game will end, and the basic gist of how you accomplish that.
I love how Jon and Naveen pointed out that showing the players the components and calling them by their in-game names makes things much easier for new players to follow. I agree. I like Jon’s idea of letting the players touch the components or pass them around.
Similar to what Rodney said, I always invite the players to play a practice round or two first. (Many adults are kinaesthetic learners and like Monique feel like they can’t retain as much audibly as they can through practice.) Sometimes we’ll even reveal hidden information, such as having visible hands of cards, so that we can discuss why a player might make a particular choice.
At the end of the practice rounds, we all discuss whether we should start over or continue our game. Sometimes a player finally gets the game partway through and feels hopeless with how they’ve started, so I want to give them the chance to have a fresh start so they get a good experience from the very beginning.
Another tip, and this is similar to what Monique said, is that new gamers can often get overwhelmed quite easily. Some people in their explanations will go into strategies and exceptions, and if the new players don’t understand one or two things, or if they’re trying to retain the essentials, they’ll feel totally lost.
If you’re teaching a game to novice gamers, I suggest only teaching the critical things-how to win, when the game ends, and the essential mechanics of the game-and let the new players discover the gameplay themselves and ask questions during the practice round. It makes the explanation go quicker so that the game can start faster.
The thing I’m still wondering is how to handle it when multiple people know the game and want to teach it at the same time. In my experience this almost never works, because the teachers talk over each other and add little tidbits or question each other’s interpretations of the rules, and it brings that tense feeling that makes everything uncomfortable. What do you suggest?
Great topic, I have no issue teaching to people I know well, but if I am teaching to people I don’t know my anxiety goes way up. I really like these suggestions, it will definitely help with the anxiety. Maybe an obvious tip, but I always try to teach people directly from the player aid when I can, so they start looking at it.
This is probably my favourite collab, these three channels are my top for rules explanations and videos. Incredibly talented teachers and thoroughly wholesome people. I'm immensely grateful for the service you're all providing to our hobby!
+ Very good tips.
Thank you sooo much! We really appreciate you and are so happy that we could of help in some way. Thanks again for your kind words!
LOVE THIS! All my favorite people on one video. 🤩 Great tips. I am a terrible teacher. So another tip is to just defer to a better teacher (if one is available). Otherwise, refer to all tips above. 😆
Haha Krissy! Thanks so much. It's all a learning process I think. We are also trying to improve in various areas of teaching every time we come to the table.
I just saw my four favorite teachers in one video ! Thanks for all your tips, and sure will use them.
I watched a Shut Up and Sit Down video about "the teach," and one tip is to start every game explanation with three things: what are we doing (thematically), how do we win, and why will this game be fun.
Highly recommend that video after watching this one!
After summarizing the 'story' of the game, we jump directly into describing how to win. This way, when we go back to discussing the mechanics, players have a sense of why/how these things will matter. I totally agree with having visual representation available. One thing that that we found helpful is providing player aids to players. Many games already include this, but that is not the norm. We either copy important pages from rule book, print docs from BGG, or create our own to provide rule summaries, player actions, or other useful information.
My number one rule is connect new info to something they already know. If you're going to teach what actions they can do, they need to know what their turn looks like first. This is like the funneling you guys talked about, but it's important to connect the dots. They need a framework to hang the information on. Like, you don't start by telling them what their special abilities are before they're taught what rules they're breaking. And at the very beginning, when the players have no knowledge of the game and nothing to relate to, I start with what they can see. The board, the cards, the pieces, whatever's important to get that framework standing. When they know what they're looking at, they can understand what they're trying to accomplish. Then you get into how they accomplish that.
Also, sometimes teaching the game from start to finish isn't the best way. I prefer teaching Azul "backwards", starting with the point scoring and finishing with taking tiles. It's a game that can be hard for players to grasp if you start with getting tiles, because there's so many steps before they actually understand why you would take specific tiles.
Last tip. I usually emphasize two things when I'm teaching. 1. The core mechanism ("This is the thing we'll be doing the most", "This is the phase where we will spend most of our time", "This track is where you'll get the most points"). 2. The one rule you usually get wrong. This one is easier when you're more experienced with the game, but if you know a rule other players repeatedly forgets or misunderstands, point it out.
And great video, thanks! :)
Setting everything up as the first thing you do is SUCH a great tip, that I wish I knew sooner. I have had such difficulty learning certain complex games, that suddenly clicked when I set the game up fully.
Last night, we played an expansion map for Ticket to Ride that none of us (all adults) had played before. As typical, people were very impatient with rules and game play. It’s the typical, “let’s just play,” response and then some upset feelings later with a reply, “I didn’t know I could do that….you didn’t tell me that.” I did pre set up of the game (for my learning purpose too) but did engage them with shuffling of cards etc. I’ll keep plugging away to make smoother and better game teaching as I too enjoy learning games and teaching them. Thanks for bringing this awesome guest list together and presenting this video.
I enjoyed these tips, and this subject "teaching board games" as I'm usually the teacher in my group, a series on this subject would be fantastic.
Agreed! I’d love a series in this topic!!
I don't mean to sound like I'm plugging stuff here but since you are looking for a series on this topic, I do a series called Teach the Teach on the Dice Tower that does exactly that. Hopefully it can be helpful!
Another couple of tips I would suggest.... 1) Give a super brief (30-60 second) rough overview of the most boiled down core of gameplay. Example: "This is a game where the first person to 10 victory points wins! We will take turns drawing cards, playing them as buildings in this area, and score points for buildings at the end of each round. The twist is that you cannot see your own cards." Or whatever the explanation is... keep it super short/simple in the very beginning. 2) Teach with an outline or player aid. People can learn better when the can visualize the overall structure of information/rules. Teach with a basic outline written out, or use the round/turn summary to guide the teach. People can see how major topics relate to sub-topics and gauge their overall progression in the rules teach. 3) Summarize very briefly at the end of major sections of the teach. Example: "Ok, for the combat phase, we all play cards and then roll for hit points. Then we clear dead units and gain rewards... and that's the combat phase." 4) Always use the actual game pieces / components, moving them as you explain. Remember a visual is worth 1,000 words... people learn better with a visual example. 5) Remind players that EVERY game has a "fog" period in the beginning as you learn the rules and play your first turn or two. This is the tax we pay for having fun with new games. Ensure them that you will guide them through their turn the first several turns/rounds. The first game is a learning game anyways, like Rodney said.
Great video! I love teaching games to people. I would add "don't underestimate the complexity of a game". At a recent game night I brought The Crew which I've never played. I was confident from all that I had heard claiming it was an extremely simple game that's pretty easy to learn. As I started setting the game up, I quickly realized that it was not as simple as I thought, and I needed to do more homework! We ended up packing it away and choosing another game and I learned my lesson for sure!
I’ve been teaching board games for about 4 years now and this video was still helpful!
Someone volunteered to teach me a game recently but they hadn't played the game for over 6 months and they didn't take the time to review the game before trying to teach me. It went horribly... we ended up playing another game (taught by someone else). I went out and purchased the game myself, rewatched multiple how-to and playthrough videos, and familiarized myself with the board, components, and rules. I ended up teaching the game at my next game night (with the help of another person that had watched some videos that same day). Even though none of us had played the game before, it ended up going so well! PREPARATION IS KEY!!!
Great video, beautiful people! Thanks for making this video!
Excellent video! I'm the rules teacher for my gaming groups for the last 10-15 years, i've been doing it sooo much, that I find myself playing but always looking out to see if other players are having fun and understand the games correctly, so much that I don't think I've won a single game in like 5 years lol!
I usually provide the games and the teaching for our family game nights. Step one, set-up familiarity as Jon explained usually followed by a solo playthrough which alerts me to questions that I can expect. Step two, read the rules again. Did I get everything right? Step three, check BGG forums for any unanswered questions I still have.
Step four, when the game is brought out, let everyone know what they will enjoy about the game we're about to play. Step five, have a predetermined order of rules explanation, not necessarily rule book order, that is easy to understand. Start with general of course, but each idea should lead to the next concept to grasp.
Step six, while playing I look for opportunities to showcase less obvious plays to demonstrate uncommon situations even if not my best strategy. And if I'm aware of general strategies, give others the same tips. The first game is never about winning, it's about learning.
Thank you for this! It was outstanding!
Glad you enjoyed it!
There are a lot of games and sometimes you get caught off guard when your group selects a game that you haven't played in a while and that can put you on your "back foot" as Jon says. I've gotten into the habit of writing down a simplified 1-pager of the rulebook when I'm learning a game for the first time. This helps me to learn the game because I'm organizing my thoughts as I go through the rulebook, but also, if we play this game in the future, I can quickly run through the 1-pager and recall all the important aspects of the game if I hadn't played it in a while. The 1-pager also gives me a skeleton outline to go by when teaching the game.
Thanks for the tips. Very helpful.
I would add what to idea of a general funnel idea.
Focus on the main goal of the game. People always ask "So, what are we supposed to do?" When you get to the details your friends might get lost. Tell them where this detail fits in the general picture so they understand why it is important.
wonderful video, great tips from all of you 4! I absolutely agree. In my experience, sometimes houserules that come up naturally during play, can become fun running gags in future rounds and contribute to the fun the group has. So I would recommend not to deny it right away when someone proposes a houserule. :-)
Thanks to all four of you! You all are my top rules teachers. When I get a new game, the first thing I do is watch one of your videos, and to be honest, when the game isn’t covered by one of you, it’s more of a struggle. I am a much better learner either reading the rules myself or watching a video of the rules, so these tips are top notch! Thanks, all! ❤️
Hi Ashley! Awww that is so wonderful to hear, thank you! So glad we could all be of help to you!
Excellent job. You should be so proud of this, and please know it is super helpful to us "designated teachers". One thing I've found that helps is to mention how to win and continue "funneling" down from there (to borrow your term). People seem to want to know what they're shooting for as an anchor for all the rounds and mechanisms and so on.
I definitely agree with teaching from general to specific. I also think that it's helpful, especially for more complex games and ones you're teaching for the first time, to have crib sheets or something you can easily teach from, especially if the rulebook isn't structured to be taught from. This is an extra effort but for me, I'm not a great speaker on the fly, so this helps me have a script of sorts that lets me convey the information and make sure that I don't miss any details
One of the best rules teaching channels is Knights around the Table. His dry wit and tongue and cheek dialogue is awesome!
I totally agree. Nights Around A Table is a great channel.
I agree with you!!! Terra mystica, terra forming mars , Race for the galaxy and some more difficulty games, his rule explanations helped me a lot !!!
@@simon5666 By far the best Trickerion rules explanation on the internet...
John knows whats hes talking about!! I do the same thing prepare and display all elements and components!!!
A massively important tip which is missing - show by example! Learning new mechanics can be confusing, but demonstrating with clear examples really helps to accelerate learning.
For example, I've seen countless people teach trick-taking card games such as The Crew, Hearts etc. without actually demonstrating what a trick looks like. People go in pretty confused. Instead, deal 2-3 cards to each person, open-hand, and easily demonstrate the key concepts of following suit, off-suit and so on.
When you need to teach a game, you have to have a good grasp of the rules. To that end, I always do at least one dry run of the game on my own, playing against myself, just to immers myself in the mechanisms.
THIS! I often find when doing this that possible questions come up which I then find out and am able to answer during the game!
"Don't be afraid to stand up... unless you're ... unless you're in a video... then... then just stay seated". Comedy gold by Rodney :D
Very helpful video. As a teacher, and supplier of most games my groups plays, I usually look up “how to play” videos for setup and guidance. Then, I usually mock play them (with ghost players) once or twice before teaching them. Obviously there are some games out there I can’t do like auctioning/bidding type games.
The absolute 3 channels I look for to learn a new game! You really are the best, all of you 4! Thanks a lot!
This is a wonderful video!
You guys are amazing 🤩
From my point of view, it can be intimating to teach a game b/c a lot of people assume that you KNOW everything from A-Z 😆 but there’s always a confusing rule that is hard to understand.
My tips:
1 - try to simplify the rules in the best possible way according to your group. Not all people learn the same way.
2 - explaining the objective of the game should be HIGH priority so people have a goal to aim for and not just randomly doing things.
3 - do not explain every single rule of the game, rather explain the main rules and then explain the rest as you they come up
4 - if you already know how to play the game, let others WIN! So they can feel good about it and are willing to play more!
5 - if someone makes a mistake, let them redo the action and guide them to choose a better action!
I agree with Jon about getting everyone involved in the setup!
Last but not least, I hope one day you guys make a video about “how to get better at Boardgames” 😁♥️
Love these videos, it is so good to pass tips around to make this hobby better, thank you! Me personally, I like to do a player's demo mid-game round for people to kind of see everything I just explained come together
The best teaching video I know of is the one about Exodus Proxima Centauri --- (Exodus Proxima Centauri - How to Play). I wish there were more like that.
The best rulebook - Spacecorp by GMT
you guys are all amazing. thank u all soo much. your efforts are enticing
Nice tips- I always explain the goal of the players and what We (coop)/They(individual winner) are trying to do to win, then go into how to score. After that, I go thru the steps of the game phases, etc and show how those steps get you ways to earn points, etc towards winning the game.
Wow, you three (four, Naveen, your nods are my favorites) are the best! Nice to see)
Lovely that I'm also subscribed to these two creators, and of course Monique and Naveen. I'm struggling with this part too given most of the people I tries playing with are also novices in Board Gaming. I always stick to lighter games and properly studying the game before engaging with them. Some of the points like most of Rodney's key points is a plus. Thanks guys!
I love teaching games to people. My main method is that I always play the game by myself first so that I have a clear sense of the game before going into teaching. I think that Monique highlighted the thing I probably do wrong the most and that is jumping into the mechanics too quickly. I should practice more overview/general notes first and then dive into the details of step by step instructions. Wonderful video!
Thank you so much! That's a great method. Setting up a game and going through the motions really hones in what the rules are trying to communicate. Thank you for being a fellow board gaming teacher!
@@BeforeYouPlay and the best part is that I always win!!
General to specific is such a good tip. I can't count the number of times I've jumped into a specific strategy suggestion or described a specific type of card, only to realize I haven't covered the scope of the game yet! There is nothing worse in the teach than the sinking feeling you have when you realize you need to backtrack to general concepts after plunging into specifics too early. It's combination of both knowing you've probably lost your audience a little and also realizing that you've waisted a perfectly good specific example that would have been really well received if it had come out of your mouth just that little bit later!
Number one tip: use player aids to teach. Whether it's a player board with turn phases or a card with iconography or one printed from BGG, new players benefit from consistency. Since they'll see the reference throughout the game, it makes total sense to explain everything using the same source.
In Gugong, for example, referring to the round phases at the top of the board and on each player's board can make the game feel much less disjointed.
Perfect timing for some great tips! I'm about to teach Kemet to our gaming group that's coming together for the first time in a while. Wish me luck!
General -> Specific. That's the number one rule for me. It just makes the most sense for the majority of people. It's easier to assimilate the information and it provides the most context.
These tips are great and I'll implement these on my channel. Thanks so much!
This was awesome thanks. All tips are on point, I actually found Naveen's tip the most useful as that's the one I'm likely most guilty of.
I am really loving your videos and when you pick a topic that is important to me, like rules teaching and you include my favourite teacher (Rodney Smith) this may be one of my favourite videos you have put out. I work in learning and development in my day job, so I am very passionate about giving people positive learning experiences.
My top tip would be that for any game you teach, you need to start with with a Who, How and Why. When people get this initially, it helps with the rest of the game.
A huge thanks for your Lacerda series. Games like these used to scare me, but you have made them much more accessible. I played my first Lacerda game recently (the Gallerist) and loved it. “On Mars” is my next one to learn.
Thank you again for your videos. You can tell how much effort and passion you pour into each one.
Can't express how happy I am to see my 4 favorite board game youtubers get together for a video.
This was a great video, thanks for sharing. It’s funny that we all need these tips (and more) yet not many of us thought we needed a video like this one. Great eye opener and good to know we’re all in this together! 😃👍🏼
I'm a frequent teacher in my gaming groups and this video is such a fantastic idea! Great feedbacks and tips from all content creators here. The only little thing I also do before teaching, especially longer and more complex games, is layout HOW I'll be teaching the game so peeps can anticipate the pacing of the teach. I found this helpful with experienced gamers holding off asking advanced questions that breaks the flow sometimes.
I'd like to see a video on explaining the terms found in gaming such as, what you guys mentioned, "worker placement", as well as terms like "engine buliding", "deck building", "push your luck", etc. A video that defines the term as well as examples of actual game play would help a lot and examples of what games those elements are found would clarify thing. I'm new to board gaming and am still not clear on what these terms mean or how they function in practice despite looking at Boardgame Geek's glossary.
This was absolutely fantastic. Great work everyone!
Thanks for this video. I’ve somehow become one of my groups board game teachers even though I’m socially anxious at the best of times. I practice with a bullet pointed outline at home but keep a YT video backup if all else fails.
Thanks for watching!
Great video! Glad to see Jon and Rodney on the video as well. “General to specific” is great advice and I like that phrase; I usually call it the onion method, where you drill down into deeper layers as you go.
One suggestion I have is to have edge cases and exceptions to rules in your mind to remind players so they don’t have to remember them. For example, in Coimbra if two tokens on a track are stacked on the same position, the person on bottom of the stack at the end of the game is farther ahead, so the first time this happens in game I’ll remind them that the token on bottom is currently ahead.
Another suggestion is if you can, walk the players through a sample round by going first or directing a player through the actions. My wife and other visual learners benefit from this technique a lot.
this collab is like a dream within a dream within a dream
This is awesome! You 3 are my go to for video learning an playthroughs!
Thank you for doing this video - I've had some bad experiences in teaching some games. I usually create a "teaching guide' for every game. Time consuming, but it also helps me learn the game - and organize myself while teaching. Your video will also help!
What a great idea for a video! One of my players tends to interrupt my teaches to ask about components or mechanics I haven't explained yet. I suspect Jon's suggestion to be interactive with the components from the beginning may help. And it seems so obvious, but Monique's tip about general to specific is something I definitely don't do well!
Most of my friends don't play the hard-core games so we tend to have to start with the simple point scoring games. I'm usually having to learn it several days before so we don't sit sound just staring at the instructions. I tend to find learning the game beforehand even if it's a rough idea makes things much smoother. Great video as this is a huge part of the hobby!
What a great video!! Thank you for all these tips! You four are my favorite go to gaming channels as well, so this was exciting!
4 of my favourite people in the board game community :]
Smooth setup and administration of complex games is key. I agree. I'm so much more likely to play a game that I can quickly prepare and operate. Good advice.
I got into the wonderful hobby of board games because of watching Watch It Played! And ever since, I lovee teaching people games! I have taken upon myself to be the expert and teach as many games as possible to people, and always introduce new games! However, I recently ran into a problem when trying to teach as many people new games all the time... they often forget all of the games I have shown them if they have only played it once! So my advice for trying to get people into the hobby is to have people play a game more than once, and let them dive into more of the strategies and mechanics that they enjoy, and then show them other games! Sometimes people enjoy playing new games constantly, i find more experienced gamers do (like myself) but for newcomers, playing the same game is never a bad thing if they enjoy it and are not overwhelmed! Thanks again Rodney for getting me into the hobby, and a wonderful video from some oftt
** a wonderful video from some of the best board game teachers on RUclips!
Great video with 3 channels that are all great at teaching and showcasing the games. Gotta love this community. I think you guys touched on the most important parts of teaching a game.
In my gaming group I'm usually the person teaching the games, personally I'm very much a rules person, that's because I come from years of playing Magic the Gathering where wording, the order of things and niche situations are all very key. So I don't mind reading through huge rulebooks to figure it all out, in fact I quite enjoy it, it's like a puzzle to me.
When I teach a game I find you guys' tips most important, the funnel teaching and well knowing your audience, to elaborate on that a bit here's some additional tips:
1) Know your audience's experience, as said you don't want to get lost in lingo people don't understand. I find it helps to ask newcomers what they've played, if you recognize the games they have played you can maybe take similarities between the games and make it relatable. For example, they might not know the term "Worker placement" but they might know a game where the mechanic is used, so you can simply go, this part sort of works like in game X, as an added bonus you can teach them it's called worker placement, so they know for future reference.
2) Know your audience, yes the person, some people want to know all the things, while others just want to play! I know a person who I find hard to teach games to, because this person is all about just getting in there and playing asap! For this person I try to keep things as basic as possible (the funnel comes to mind) so we can start asap and I teach the rest as we go, it's a bit more hectic, but for this person it seems to work like a charm. Another friend of mine is the opposite, they're all about trying to figure out the most clever things, so they're more like what I would want to know if someone teaches me, for them I explain every rule in detail, luckily he picks it up really quickly and if need be we grab the manual mid game, speaking of which..
3) Don't teach what you'll come across anyway. In a lot of games there are the basics and the core of the game and then there are variations of this core. Take Wingspan for example, there are some core actions the players can take, those need to be explained, then there are the different types of bird cards, these need to be explained. But there's absolutely no reason to show them every single bird card, the players will come across those as we play and if for some reason they're not clear, they can be explained in the moment. So teach the principles of how things work rather than explaining every part over and over again.
4) Make them want to come back for more. This differs per group but I'm often in the situation where 3 out of 4 players know the game and there's one new player. If I'm the one teaching the game to the new player, I will lend a hand during the game as well, unless of course, they don't want it, by stating them which options they have. Very important here is that I don't tell them what to do, but I tell them what they CAN do. Additionally we usually go fairly easy on whoever's first time it is, with some exceptions. In other words, if you teach someone a game and then kick their ass at the same game without really letting them know what's what during the game, it's just a bad experience (for most people), you don't want that.
Monique and Naveen just wanted to say congrats on your constantly growing channel! Recently on BGG with Nikki and Lincoln and now starring Jon and Rodney. You guys are making the rounds!
WOW!!! and all star lineup. what a treat.
Great video. Good tips all. I have found that the setup / prep tip from Jon to be critical. its the foundation of the gaming experience and i couldn't agree more. I too can find it hard to be engaging in a rules teach...I hadn't really thought about that, but Rodney's comments cause some introspection.
Monique's General to Specific is also really good as i find that an easy way to digest a rule set. Having more general bounding conditions makes the more detailed / specific rules less imposing as they are constrained by previous rules. The rules for some games are setup such that a top down presentation is pretty easy, but others can be really difficult to transform from another (sometime illogical) format. Oh, the "just like writing an essay" made me shiver a bit. Never liked writing essays...with the exception of a few on Mark Twain. but that was 40+ years ago.
Great video! I’m the teacher in my gaming groups, it can get pretty stressful and these tips couldn’t be more helpful! Thank you!
all 4 guys appearing in this video are excellent game teachers, keep up the good work guys!
I always teach the general flow with examples and then the details fill up easily
This is SUCH a great video! I can't believe I haven't really seen any of the other board game channels cover this most important topic! It's Especially relevant for me because my challenge is to a)get my wife more interested in board games, and 2)nudging and guiding my young kids to getting into board games, adding more complexity over time, etc. Thank you!
1. Start with theme. “We are X trying to accomplish Y.”
2. State the objective. “The object of the game is…”
3. State how the game ends. “The game will end when…”
And then teach the game. General pointers:
1. Don’t take it personally when people didn’t listen to/catch something you thought you were clear about.
2. Even with a lot of practice, you will mess up sometimes. Perhaps a lot. That’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up.
3. Take the Scythe approach: what do they absolutely need to know right now and what can they learn while playing the game? Get to the gameplay as quick as possible, even if it’s a mock round just to give people an idea of the stakes involved in the game.
Monique and Naveen, crossing my fingers that you’ll invite me to be a guest on your show sometime. No one will know who I am, but why let that stop us!
I believe this is something not many ppl address. Thanks for sharing your insights. Great help.
These are my picks that I would put on my Mt. Rushmore of board games teachers. One thing I do when I teach a game is to make sure everybody knows what the end goal is.
The most important aspect I've found it to tell them the theme first :)
Some very good ideas (along with others shared in the comments for this video). I hope we see some more of these presentations in the future. Thank you!
This was awesome! Great seeing the combined inputs from you all!!
Great tips. Thank you.
great video! thank you!
I always try to teach from general to specific, and even visualize it as a funnel!
Great topical video with superb guests! I am almost always the person reading rules and teaching games so I found this video very focused on tips I can put into practice. I agree with all the points mentioned especially keeping your audience engaged and interested in the learning process (this can be difficult with complex games that take some time to teach). Thanks for the great content and I would love to see more videos in this discussion, learning format!
I was surprised to see you guys on GameNight!, I had not seen anything formally announced about a collaboration between you & them! But I enjoyed watching you (Monique in paticular) teach the game Fantasy Realms. I thought you did really well...you were obv a little more nervous at first but I thought you guys did just fine in that setting. And those would be some big shoes to fill as Dave does a really great job teaching board games, imo. Jon (of jongetsgames) is also great, in fact after I watch him play a game, it becomes so much easier to learn, teach & play the game myself so kudos to him!
Using people's names is one of the most powerful ways of retaining engagement. As Rodney said, people love hearing their name. In fact, according to Dale Carnegie, a person's name is their most favourite sound to hear. I wholeheartedly recommend reading 'How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie. It will make you a better boardgame teacher, and more socially-capable person overall. Great video @Beforeyouplay - loved it!
Fair enough.. I do suppose it will have a detrimental effect if abused. I do find it enjoyable when people do it to me, but maybe more so because I have an uncommon name.
My favourite way of adding other person's names is when I'm giving gameplay examples. Like "If John's warrior is attacking my archer with a strength of 5 ..." and so on. Then it feels more natural.
Great video guys! Bring more of this type, please.
When preparing to teach a game I read the rules, play a mock game with nose in the rule book, and then reevaluate problem areas I come across. These problem areas being easy rules that I missed, and sometimes areas that I can identify as being confusing to the group I am teaching. So when actually teaching I overview goals, structure of turns, and cover generally what players will be doing. I pick a choose what specifics they need to know right now, but I never get into the minutia of every aspect of the game. The reason being is some areas can be covered when the group reaches it. This also helps keep teaching to under 30 mins as I feel teaching a game should not go over that time stamp.
This videos is perfect! I'm the rules teacher in my group and your advices are super helpful. I really liked the tips from Rodney, I usually make my explanation a little theatrical to grab the attention 😂 Thanks for the video! 💕
Such a great video from my favorite game teachers in the hobby! Terrific ideas for me as I get ready to teach several new games over the next 2 weeks!
Pure gold! Thanks for such a valuable episode!
Cool, all of my favorite board game instructors in one video. This is very helpful, thanks!
Great tips! I've been caught so many times with the setup tripping up my explanation of the rules. Great idea to do the setup while reading the rules :D