What are some of your teaching tips when teaching a new game to people?

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!

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.

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. 😆

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

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.

"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

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 KZfaq, 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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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! :)

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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! ❤️

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!

this collab is like a dream within a dream within a dream

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.

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!

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.

John knows whats hes talking about!! I do the same thing prepare and display all elements and components!!!

I’ve been teaching board games for about 4 years now and this video was still helpful!

Wow, you three (four, Naveen, your nods are my favorites) are the best! Nice to see)

What a great video! Thanks for putting it together.

Pure gold! Thanks for such a valuable episode!

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. :-)

This was absolutely fantastic. Great work everyone!

This was awesome! Great seeing the combined inputs from you all!!

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.

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

Great video, beautiful people! Thanks for making this 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! 😃👍🏼

Such an incredibly helpful and timely reminder! Thanks for this great video, y’all rock!

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!

fantastic video, love your channel!

One of the best rules teaching channels is Knights around the Table. His dry wit and tongue and cheek dialogue is awesome!

These tips are great and I'll implement these on my channel. Thanks so much!

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!

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.

great video! thank you!

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

I'm all for bringing excitement and energy to teaching a game! Thank you for the awesome video with great tips!

The 4 best teachers in one video 😁

Great video guys! Bring more of this type, please.

This was a great idea for a video. Thank you so much!

This is really great for helping others introduce content to new gamers, thank 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.

The absolute 3 channels I look for to learn a new game! You really are the best, all of you 4! Thanks a lot!

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 is awesome! You 3 are my go to for video learning an playthroughs!

Great tips. Thank you.

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 a great video!! Thank you for all these tips! You four are my favorite go to gaming channels as well, so this was exciting!

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.

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.

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!

Cool, all of my favorite board game instructors in one video. This is very helpful, thanks!

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

The most important aspect I've found it to tell them the theme first :)

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 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!

you guys are all amazing. thank u all soo much. your efforts are enticing

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.

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.

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!

Thanks guys!

All y'all are great teachers, so thank you! I've watched many teaches from all of you. Often for me, watching someone teach is the difference between buying the game or not. Having thorough teachers who are engaging and who also have fun, is key. You all demonstrate this, and I for one appreciate it, and I have vastly expanded my game collection because of the teaches I've seen. I absolutely watch a game tutorial and play, before I commit. Watching instruction and actual game play gives you the best insight as to how the games are played, strategies used, and ultimately can give you an idea of how heavy the play is, and the type of games, [mechanisms, cooperative or not...] you actually are attracted to. This is such a great tool to have when considering an investment into what can be an expensive outlay of cash! These tutorials also made me aware of Kickstarter games and I actually have engaged in backing new and exciting games! I also recommend your tutorials to my friends who are now getting into gaming, [because they had absolutely no idea how board gaming has changed and grown] to watch a tutorial before they play. Thanks again and I look forward to more from all of you.

Thank you for this! It was outstanding!

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!

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!

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.

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.

Just last night I was accused of treachery in wingspan not telling my wife you can use two wild resources for one of any resource

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.

Thank you for this video.

Can't express how happy I am to see my 4 favorite board game youtubers get together for a video.

Great video!

What a GREAT video and theme. Thank you! Suscribed! 💜💜💜

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!

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.

Really enjoyed this collaboration!

Loving all the collaborations recently. You re a good games teacher Monique!

all 4 guys appearing in this video are excellent game teachers, keep up the good work guys!

4 of my favourite people in the board game community :]

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 believe this is something not many ppl address. Thanks for sharing your insights. Great help.

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.

I always send them a link of of Rodney's how-to-play video before gamenight ;)

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!