I swear I’m smart and have pretty ok reading comprehension…but when I pick up a new game I have the hardest time understanding the rules and mechanics by just reading the instructions. Watching videos is helpful but I still really only pick it up while playing the game and going through the motions.
So I’m slowly collecting games that I can’t play until I find people who know how to play.
How easily do you pick up new games?
It really depends on the instructions provided. Sometimes it’s not so well-written. xD
Same for me. Generally I am pretty quick to understand even complex rules. I was a Magic the Gathering tournament player and judge and a D&D DM. So lots of practice with rules questions. But some games simply have poor explanations or bad card wordings. Then it can help to watch a video.
Aeon’s End and Deep Rock Galactic immediately come to mind here. Both are great games, but the instructions are terrible.
AE somehow manages to extend fairly simple rules into very long paragraphs, making it seem way more complicated than it is in practice.
DRG lacks icons for most effects, which decreases readability. It’s also sorted in a way I can never look something up quickly without reading entire pages to find the relevant paragraph, with some explanations being in the scenario book instead to make it worse.
I’ll add Mysterium to the list. Not sure if it’s the translation I have, but almost all pieces have similar names. You read a paragraph and are just like “??” Super simple game.
Understanding how systems work and fit together is pretty much my super power, so I tend to be pretty good understanding the rules on a read through. Of course, I need to play it before I understand some of the complexities and nuances of how those rules work in play, but still, I’m generally the person everyone at the table gives the rule book to
@ada Bingo. I deal in systems professionally and how they are designed and that sort of stuff. It definitely gives me a leg up in the process.
One big thing is that of the modes of learning (visual/tactile/auditory), I prefer to feel pieces and stuff while I’m learning (and sometimes I’ll even go through and do solo rounds multi-handed just to see how things fit together), but I can pick up manuals and just read them now to at least get started. I can’t just sit and listen to someone explain the game though, something about just the listening piece does me in.
My spouse laughs at me, everyone knows when I’m learning a new *big* game because I have all of the pieces setup on the board, a tablet with a PDF I can search through, the rulebook in hardcopy, and a notepad where I have both “ooo, this is probably critical to remember” type things, and a second sheet of paper with what will (after a bunch of drafts) become the lesson plan when I teach others (assuming they don’t read in advance).
Feeling lost and having a hard time is in fact your brain telling you, it is learning.
I think it depends. Some game instructions are easy enough to understand on their own. However, more often than not I need a video breaking it down. My recent pickup of mint imperium sits idle because the rules provided are terrible and the videos online are not any better.
I don’t get a ton of satisfaction or have patience learning rules of complex games anymore. I decided to embrace games that have tough choices but with super simple mechanics instead.
Games like Scout, The Crew, Wingspan…easy to teach and fun to master.
What I do nowadays when I want to introduce a new game, is 1) watch a tutorial video when I’m alone, 2) watch the tutorial video again while still alone, and then 3) watch the tutorial video a third time with the group.
I find that I usually mostly understand the rules at that point. No one else does, since it is still really hard even with the video and they’ve only seen it once, but they at least know basically what the game is and I jump in to help everyone through their first few turns.
(I am a native English speaker with excellent reading comprehension skills, and even so, it’s just a lot to take in all at once)
I’d say fairly easily for me, of course depending on the game. Last few bigger games I’ve picked up I’ve been able to read through the rules once through close to when getting it, then skipping through somewhere in the week before I’m actually going to play it with others. Then I’ll just be the one frantically going through the rules while playing checking edge cases. I’m weird like a lot of us here and enjoy rules systems and seeing how different mechanics fit together, so it comes fairly naturally to me.
Too many new games are overcomplicated with poorly-written instructions.
I’ve always found the best way to learn is to play with someone who already knows the game.
I agree. Alternatively, have your whole group prepare for a new game in advance, at least a how to play video each, so you are not the rules guy and can figure it out together while playing.
If someone reads them out I struggle really bad. If I read it myself I struggle. This is one of the reasons I returned Wingspan, because I’m too stupid for it (it’s not even that complicated).
It depends, I get some games right away, others can be a struggle. It’s such a great feeling when a difficult one finally “clicks” though!
In general I try to take advantage of all available tools:- Rulebooks of course, both printed and PDFs. I have about 15GB of rulebook PDFs at this point. Being able to do a text search in the rulebook can be invaluable so when a PDF is image-only with no searchable text I run it through an OCR tool like ocrmypdf to (hopefully) fix it up.
- How-to-play videos. We had a thread listing some good channels earlier.
- A good digital implementation can be extremely helpful, especially the ones that preserve the “interface” of the game like BGA and Yucata usually do. When available I always try these even if I plan to play mostly in person because it’s a great way to make sure that I got the rules right. With new games I take it slow and make sure that I understand everything that happes. When I want to experiment I sometimes play hotseat with myself.
- That reminds me, playing a game against myself on the table can be very helpful too to make sure that I am solid before I try to teach it.
- Also, this might sound obvious but just unboxing and organizing the game and getting familiar with the components can give a great headstart before getting started with the rules.
- BGG forums for the game, especially the rules sub-forums. The Files section can have helpful extra material too like FAQs, teaching guides or player aids.
- A good podcast episode like the Decision Space deep dives can be helpful too or at least get me excited about learning the game.
- I sometimes make setup and rule summaries. Just writing these down can help to clear things up in my head. Wrote about this in another thread earlier today.
Thanks for the great write up! You have some good suggestions I haven’t tried. I’m encouraged.
I usually find that settin up the board as per the instructions while reading, maybe taking a dummy turn or two against yourself really helps to understand the mechanics.
Literally gave up and sold Scythe because I found the instructions to be convoluted and too difficult to explain to my group
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This is a community about board games ;)
