board games
gaming
teaching
Teaching Board Games
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| A typical game night at our house. Game pictured: Valeria Card Kingdoms |
My process before bringing a game to teach to a group:
- Read rules myself, punch cardboard and prep game storage as needed
- Watch video tutorials or playthroughs if I need supplemental learning
- Play game by myself or with a close friend or partner to get the flow and better understand the system
- Day-of, decide if showing them a tutorial or teaching it all myself is the best way to approach it.
- Before teaching/showing rules video, give them the "flavor spiel"--aka the story behind the game, our goals/win conditions, and/or anything to convey the feel and concept of the game in a fun way.
- Rules-portion of the evening, either me or video
- Answer questions, maybe demonstrate a practice round if it makes sense to do so.
- If particularly complicated, it may be helpful to play a few learning rounds with everyone taking a turn "open hand"--that is, with any hidden information, goals, cards, etc open to discuss the flow of the turn and the round.
- Set up and play the game.
- Bonus tip: giving people something to do during set-up keeps them engaged and interested, and helps them get to know the components you will be teaching them about. For instance, take the simple game of Azul. I will give the player boards to one person and ask them to pass them around to everyone, colored-side-up, along with a black cube marker. I will have someone else distribute the market "coasters", removing however many we need to for our player count. I will have someone else in charge of the tile bag and setting out the initial tiles. This is an engaging, tactile way to include everyone instead of them sitting there watching you do everything. Gets them excited before they even begin.
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