My friend in Denver taught me a simple way to get new people into complex games

I always struggled to explain heavy games like 'Twilight Imperium' without scaring folks off. He said to start with just the goal and one turn, not the whole rulebook. We tried it with 4 new players last month and they were asking for more rules by round two. What's your go-to method for teaching a big game without the info dump?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse29020d ago

Honestly that method sounds like a recipe for confusion later on. I always explain the full win condition and how a round flows first, even if it's a lot. If you just do one turn, people make bad choices because they don't know where the game is going. They need the big picture to understand why the small actions matter. I've seen too many games fall apart when new rules keep getting added mid-way. It feels like the goalposts are moving. Give them the full structure, then jump into a practice round.

the_james20d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, "goalposts are moving" is how my crew felt when I changed the shingle specs halfway through a job.