How to Teach Someone to Play a Board Game
A lot of people find board games intimidating. The idea that board games are difficult to learn to play is something that keeps a lot of people at arm’s length from the hobby. That idea can be hard to dislodge, especially if after finally agreeing to sit down and play a game, that person is left to watch someone rifle through a rulebook, contradict themselves, and repeat over and over “This will all make sense, I promise.” The tragedy is that board games can be very easy to learn, even if they seem intimidating, and board gaming as a hobby can be a deeply enriching and fun way to spend time with friends and family.
So, I’ve written this guide. This guide’s purpose is to help you, the flustered board game lover, explain to your loved ones how to play a game. It anticipates the questions people might ask and can hopefully be applied to any board game. To prove it, I’ll give three examples in each section using three different games. I’ll use Chess, the popular strategy game Scythe, and, to show a little flexibility, the famous Role-Playing Game Dungeons & Dragons, which is not a board game, but can be similarly intimidating.
“What is this game?”: Identifying a Hook
This may also be “Why would I want to play this?” There must be some reason you brought this game to a loved one. Maybe you thought they would be good at it, or maybe it takes place in a setting you know they are interested in. These are all good reasons to bring a game to someone, but you also have to bring them into the game. A game’s premise or status as a cultural object should be able to stand on it’s own two feet. Getting victory points is fine and good, but winning control over a city is the kind of thing that players can invest in.
Hooks can be narrative or cultural. Chess’s hook comes form it’s status as a historically intellectual game. Maybe you are teaching a child to play for the first time. Maybe you are teaching an adult who has always wanted to learn, or one who knows what the pieces do but doesn’t know anything about how to really play the game. You can bank on the cultural value of Chess as a hook. You can do the same with Mahjong for someone who encountered it in the film Crazy Rich Asians or with Mancala for someone who found an old board in a toy chest. Sometimes the game is the hook.
Scythe has a narrative hook. The size of the box and the sheer number of pieces can seem like a lot at first, but introducing the game by saying that it takes place during a land grab after a great war helps place the rules in context and fire a player’s imagination. The mechs and characters become icing on top. It becomes less a game of moving pieces and more one of a sweeping vision. Can I claim Eastern Europa for my faction? The setting also helps explain some rule ambiguities, which can be helpful so things don’t seem arbitrary. Let people can lost in the art, and they’ll take in all kinds of rules.
Dungeons & Dragons is both cultural and narrative. It’s having a cultural moment, and a lot of people are curious about it, which may be enough to get them in. Keep them in through a somewhat confusing character creation process by explaining all the great adventures they can have. They can steal gold from a dragon, turn the tide of a war, or help those in danger (or maybe, be the bad guy). The hook is whatever they want it to be, and that’s the hook you can sell them on.
“How Do I Win?”: Explain the Object of the Game
Games are out to be won. That’s how they end: with a winner. The winner may be one person, the winner may be a whole team, or the winner may be the whole group in the case of a cooperative game, but there are always conditions for winning and conditions for losing. Knowing what it takes to win a game helps put the hook in focus. It shapes strategy for each turn going forward. You could choose to play a game of chinese checkers where you try to spell your name with the marbles. This is allowed and doesn’t violate the rules of the game, but you won’t win that way. Before you can explain what you do, you need to explain where it’s all going. You need ten victory points, or you need to control these four spaces, or you need to eradiacte all diseases. Victory conditions in most games should be straightforward. At any rate, you should figure out how to express them in one sentence.
As a brief side note, I should reveal that I often try to let new players win or come close to winning their first time. There are a few reasons for this. First, it builds confidence and endears them to the game. New players, even if they know you let them win, will be more eager to repeat a victory and people generally like to do things they believe they are good at. Additionally, it allows them to see the game all the way through. Nothing kills enthusiasm for a game like getting eliminated halfway through. Letting them win guarantees that, even if not everyone makes it to the end, they do, and get to see how it all plays out.
Chess has fairly simple goal: capture the king. However, there are so, so many different ways to go about this and that is why Chess is seen as intimidating. Keeping kings in mind helps focus an overwhelmed novice. Before you start thinking about different defenses and gambits, how to open or how to manage the midgame, you only have to remember to keep you king safe, and move against theirs. Simple.
Scythe, like many modern board games, is more complicated. In Scythe, the game ends when the a player places their sixth and final “star” a token they can lay down for accomplishing certain goals. After this, players count their scores up. In my experience, the player with the most stars usually wins, but not always. In this case, it is important to clarify that the game is won by points, and in the first game, encourage the new player to maximize points where possible by raising their popularity level, spreading out, and focusing on laying down stars. It’s a bit more hand-holdy, but that’s ok for something more complicated than “get the king.”
Lastly, Dungeons & Dragons is much more abstract. How do you win? You could say that everyone wins, including the DM, when you complete an adventure. But that takes so long it can feel like you may go months without logging anything as a “win.” My rule is to say that D&D’s victory condition is to tell a satisfying story together. As long as people are having fun, creating a story, and playing with their characters, everyone is winning. The only way to lose is to have a bad time.
“What do these do?” Walk Through Set Up and Pieces
Now that everyone knows what to do in order to win, you have to wrestle with all the components. This is a natural time for people to get intimidated again. Deck after deck of cards, bags of meeples, custom miniatures, and piles of plastic disks wipe away all confidence. “I can’t do this after all!” your loved one says, leaving you to put everything away yourself. Naming a thing is a good way to get a grasp on it. If there’s a board, bust that out first, and let your players try to make sense of it. As you take out each piece, set it up, and explain what it is. You can foreshadow the rules this way. Let players shuffle cards if they can, let them organize pieces into like piles. Tell them what components they are touching, and remember to use the same term each time you refer to a piece.
In Chess, set up is pretty standard, but in setting up your side, have the other player mirror you. As you set up a new kind of piece, explain how it moves. Do pawns first, then work from the outside in, finishing with the king.
Scythe is more involved. A good idea is to set up everything but the player stuff first, and then do a walkthrough of the board. This is a good way to foreshadow rules and contextualize the game. This may take a little while, but if you answer questions and move steadily, it’ll be engaging. It should fire your players’ imaginations even more. Give your players all of their personal components and set up your cards together, explaining what each thing is as they set it up. This way they can get their hands on pieces, ask a few questions, and get oriented before you hop into the rules. Always be ready to lean on the setting. Recruiting agents is a good example. They are people you hire for a job, so they get you an immediate bonus, but then also provide something as part of your organization. Explain that these are representations of people, not just wooden bits.
With D&D, there are not that many components, but the character sheet can seem tricky. First explain each die and how to identify it at a glance. Next, go over the character sheet section by section. If they are already filled out, use one from a player. If they are not, use popular examples from pop culture to explain who would be high and low in each stat. The character sheet helps bring the how of the game into focus, and when broken down, becomes a companion and not a stumbling block.
“How does it work?” and “What happens when- ?”: Start General and then Get Specific
This section is mostly a helpful tip. A rule for most games is that specific cards or other things that come into play can override certain rules. Before players encounter those changes, they should know the basic rules. This time I’ll give a quick example but only from Scythe. In Scythe, you can only play one action from your player mat per turn, and on your next turn, you must choose a different one. You can bounce between two, but you cannot just do one over and over. That is, unless you are playing as the Rusviet Union faction. A good way to introduce that for a new player is to explain the rule, make sure everyone gets it, and then turn to that player in particular and say, “You alone are the exception, because of your faction ability.” Do this any time you know a faction ability comes into play. If no one is playing as the Rusviet Union, don’t mention it.
“How Do I Play?”: Explain How a Turn Works, then a Round
In this case, a turn is one player doing what they can do at one time, and a round is each player taking a turn. Some games track rounds, some don’t. Move through the order of a turn. Explain what players should be looking for and considering as their turn begins, then go through the steps of how a turn works. If the steps of a turn can be done in any order, say that, but provide an optimal order to go through if they get overwhelmed. Often this step is where you explain the most nitty-gritty of the rules, so keep the above advice in mind. For games that have rounds, involve players in the round transitions. In Lords of Waterdeep for example, the end of a round means agents get collected again and gems placed on unbuilt buildings. Allow new players to take custody of placing the gems to give investment in the game. In Civilization: A New Dawn I always let new players roll the barbarian die.
Chess is fairly simple: each player makes one single move on their turn. Explain etiquette rules like removing your hand from a piece means you can’t move it again. Focus here on what players should consider before committing to a move. Chess is more about learning strategy than rules, and that strategy is what Chess really, truly, is.
In Scythe, begin by explaining that players must choose a different part of the player mat to play. Explain what each option does, using a player’s player mat to do so. Explain what kinds of things they might prioritize and when, and for now, ensure that they do the top action, then the bottom action. They can do them in any order, but wait until it would be advantageous to do so before explaining that rule.
For D&D, there are not usually turns outside of combat. As a teaching DM, encourage players to be conscientious, and occasionally ask quieter players directly what their characters are doing. Throw in an early combat encounter to show how combat and initiative work. Throw in a second to show how initiative changes. This helps create a natural rhythm for players. It’s easy for players to get overwhelmed with options. Providing a selection of three choices, choose-your-own-adventure-style is a good way to get players to think about their options, and you can gradually do that less as the game goes on. For more fiddly combat rules, like flanking, set up a situation where a player can flank and then explicitly suggest they do so.
“Why did you do that?”: Go First, and Explain Yourself
After people get the rules down, the next step is to learn how to play well. Games often have dozens of possible actions one can take per turn, and in many cases, there is one truly optimal action that is the best to take in that situation above any others. Reading that optimal situation is the job of an expert, not a newbie, and not even a teacher. Instead, make moves as you normally would, and explain why you chose it, and what you may have chosen to do instead. You have a reason for doing what you do, you just have to put it into words. Learning how to best play a game is the hardest step in learning, but you can remove some of the trial and error right away.
Another good idea is to play the first game or first few rounds “Open Hand,” helping answer the inevitable follow up question “What should I do?” “Open Hand” refers to playing cards where your hand is visible to all players. You can help them because you can see their hand, allowing you to help them pick the best card to play. They can also see yours, meaning you can show why you decided to play one card over another. This works for any game with a secretive element, although it should be avoided in Mafia-style games like Secret Hitler where such revelations would totally spoil the game.
For something like Chess, with no secretive element, you can give suggestions on first moves for the other player, but explain why one would do that. It’s a game where you are thinking several steps ahead, so help them get in that mindset. You might say, “I am moving my pawn so that next turn I can get my Bishop out.” If your player asks if they should do the same, explain why you would want to get your Bishop out, and explain alternative openings. Let them make the final choice, but provide a few clear cut options at first.
In Scythe, the secret element is rather minimal. You can show your combat cards when combat begins, and explain that you are either choosing a high card in the hopes of beating an enemy or a low card in the hopes of getting them to waste resources so you can counter-attack later. Letting newbies see all your options is helpful. Additionally, explain exactly why you are doing everything, and walk them into the first few rounds.
Instead of D&D, which we have mostly dealt with in the above section by providing a suggestion of choose-your-own-adventure prompts, here I will focus on Magic: The Gathering. Collectible Cards Games and their cousins, Deck-Builders and Living Card Games, should absolutely 100% be played completely open hand the first time. Be as meticulous as you would be when explaining Chess. Say what you hope you might draw, what cards in your hand you want to use next, and what your opponent might do with their hand to trip you up. Only focus on cards you know you have on the way or the ones in your hand. Use simple, streamlined decks. Give the new player the better deck.
“I think I get it, can we start over?”: Starting Fresh
Discuss this ahead of time, but consider suggesting that you do a few practice rounds before committing to a full game, with closed hands. You should still go easy on them, and be sure to reset before you’ve gone too far. You don’t want to spend another half hour resetting the game. You should also be open to finishing out the game you’ve started. Starting fresh after a kind of “tutorial” round can be really invigorating, especially for motivated players or people who seem really into the game. No game examples this time. Chess and Scythe are easy to reset. D&D should begin with a very short intro quest. One with limited bearing on the rest of the adventure, but which opens a window into the game. I personally think some of the official early quests in D&D’s published adventures are too long or complex. I like to start with a simple bandit raid in a homebrew campaign. Just enough to get down combat, talking to a bad guy, and exploring the area before and after a fight.
Errata
This method can be applied to virtually any kind of game. The key is to be flexible and patient with players, and avoid jargon. Use connections to games they may have played before. Describing Mysterium as “like Clue, but with ghosts” is a reasonable hook that sets expectations for how they game might work. Describing Scythe as being “like RISK” or “like Monopoly” is more a stretch. Avoid setting unrealistic expectations unless you can explain how it is like those games. Avoid referring to genre with very new board gamers. Lords of Waterdeep is a worker-placement game, but without context that sounds more intimidating than it is. If, however, you want to play Raiders of the North Sea, you can always say “It’s a worker placement game, like Lords of Waterdeep.”
In a game with modules or adventures, like Mansions of Madness, always begin with the lowest difficulty set up. Other games like Civilization: A New Dawn or Fallout have explicit scenarios and map set ups for new players. Always do these, even if you’ve done them a dozen times.
Don’t take it personally if people don’t take to the game like you’d hoped. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad teacher or that it’s a bad game, it just may not gel with everyone. The point of this guide is to make it less likely that players will reject a game because they don’t understand the rules, but they may still reject it. I was very excited to play the Fallout board game. I love Fallout, and I thought my wife and our friends would enjoy the setting. I liked my solo playthrough and understood the rules fairly well. Unfortunately, no one really gravitated to it like I’d hoped. Some rules just didn’t make sense for some players, and others had a hard time keeping track of quest objectives and what was happening in the story. I ended up selling it because it just didn’t work for my group.
That’s all. Happy playing!