50 Etiquette Rules for Board Games

we've all played a board game with someone that drives you crazy because of how they act during a game how they treat other players or disrespect your components so today I'm going to establish a list of board game etiquette 50 rules that I try to abide by and hope the people I play with follow as well but rule zero is etiquette isn't to be policed I would never tell someone off for not behaving I'm not their parents I just might avoid playing with them in the future etiquette is about self-improvement set a good example treat others as you would like to be treated but the great thing about this video is that you can send it to someone who breaks one of these rules and pretend you're sending it to them because it's entertaining but really you're trying to secretly tell them to stop bending your cards allow drinks at the table there's more to life than protecting your board games from accidental damage such as water the one substance we all need to survive let your guests drink I've played over 4 000 games and have only had a drink ruin a game once it's not worth spoiling the comfort of your game night and dehydrating your friends to protect some bits of cardboard friends first game second if you really can't bring yourself to allow it one of my Discord members serves drinks in sippy cups now I wouldn't want to be treated like a child every Thursday but maybe your friends are down with it allow snacks at the table this is the most divisive etiquette issue of them all but I'm taken aside to me it's not a proper game night without some snacks don't take more care over your game than your guests we play for hours we need to eat you can be strategic with mass free snacks like grapes carrot sticks or M M's but personally Life's too short to let my games dictate my diet nuts crisps nachos are all welcome at my table I'd rather risk losing again to guacamole than losing a friend because of my pathetic snaction but don't get food on the game treat someone else's game like you would their baby don't wipe your greasy fingers on it use a napkin or your clothes you can wash your jeans I can't wash my games although one guy did try once with his pint of beer if you spill a drink on a game you should offer to buy them a new copy but that means you get to keep the damage copy so only spill drinks over games you like don't riffle Shuffle someone else's cards there's no question that doing this is the only time that board gamers look cool it feels like you're about to Bluff a French diplomat out of a million euros instead of picking the cutest Sushi card and it's proven to be the best method to randomize a deck but it's terrible for the card so don't inflict it on someone else's deck without their permission I riffle shuffle all my cards and I guess that makes me cool Shuffle fast Die Young I say look you can smoke cigarettes all you want just don't blow it in your friends faces it's not their fault they're not as cool as you when you win a game your response should be measured this is how a polite person reacts to winning a game and the winner with 140 points is Chris you're allowed to be happier but by an infinitesimal amount imagine you've just found a jigsaw piece that you didn't know was missing huh it's a surprise you can't act like this is a regular recurrence even if you do win every game it's like you've just been told there's going to be another Marvel movie It's News to you but it doesn't Advance your heart rate huh you're pleased it would be rude to the losers not to be pleased but you're not pleased that would be Unbecoming and gauche you should react like a teenage goth who has just been told that their dad has come out of his coma it's as much to preserve your dignity as theirs what would it say about you that you care about winning a game and the winner is Chris with 140 points yes you react like that and the world sees a petty individual who straps every win to their broken self-esteem like a splint you could be the richest person in the world who've won the Nobel Prize but your gang group would think you're pathetic but if you win as a team you can go nuts like if your side wins in a hidden traitor game you can shout high-five each other pour your drink over the game then immediately pay them for it you get a free pass because it's not about your ego it's about friends coming together to destroy other friends and if you win against a co-op game you can go even louder you have defeated an actual AI it's humans one robots nil take your algorithms and stick them up your ass because your lot just got beat by a bunch of Mortals don't cheat there is nothing more disrespectful than cheating I'd rather use smeared mayonnaise over the board and it's pointless you can't win a game by breaking its rules that's all a game is the most of the game night picks the games if you'll come into my house for dinner you don't get to tell me what food I'm serving the same goes for games I've organized the night I've tidied my living room to a level that's better than usual but not as good as if I was hosting a dinner party so I picked the games if I've cooked lasagna and you rock up with a curry and you're trying to convince my other guests to eat that instead not cool that's not to say you can't bring a side dish to contribute but expect it to go uneaten bring snacks not games but with great power comes great responsibility you have to cater the games to your guests you don't serve steak to vegetarians and you shouldn't make people play games they wouldn't like I know it's been on your shelf for ages I know you're really excited to play it but we're all here to have a good time not just you friends first game second if you know Ben doesn't like aggressive games and Anna doesn't like Cooperative games and Tom won't play bluffing games a good host will find something they can all enjoy and vow to never invite such a picky Bunch ever again if it's your game you teach the rules and if it's longer than a few pages you should have read them before you came listen to the rules please I'm begging you pay attention when you're being taught the rules it's like everyone reverts to being back at school and I have to play teacher Wilcox stop looking out the window Broomfield no phones Mr Hazelhurst would you kindly stop flirting with Mr Butler this is for your benefit I can wait all day but sir this is boring what's the point if you all just focus and learn this bit then we can get to the fun stuff ugh fine I don't mind people asking questions at least that shows they're trying to learn but when you interrupt to make a joke I swear it takes a year off my life we're all waiting to get on this Fun roller coaster and you keep walking us back to the front of the queue never say let's just start and we'll pick it up as we go this is like asking to get out on the road before I teach you how to drive all that's gonna happen is you stop in the middle of the street to ask me questions because you don't know what you're doing if you aren't available for six months the Legacy game can carry on without you we all start a legacy campaign with the intention of getting to the end but life gets in the way people move house have kids go go to prison you can't expect them to wait for you forever you're not Ryan Gosling and this isn't the notebook it's heartbreaking to let it go but if you love your group set them free they haven't forgotten you your name is still written on their board haunting your replacement like Rebecca De winter but Legacy games have to end because they already bought the sequel don't take ages on your turn if you're taking twice as long as everyone else every turn it's a problem a game is something that we share and you're taking more of it than us I haven't got the fastest brain and sometimes I get locked up trying to take the perfect turn but it's not worth it I'd rather make a weak move than bore everyone else friends first game second but don't rush players it's annoying and it just makes it worse because you break their train of thought meaning they'll now take even longer you're the guy in traffic who keeps speeding up then breaking suddenly which creates more traffic than just driving normally and the apps really worst is when someone rushes everyone else then takes ages themselves classic main character syndrome if someone's taken your color of pieces get over it we don't care if yellow is the color of your cat or the banana that saved your life it's been taken you may be surprised to learn that of the seven colors of the rainbow other people in the world have the same favorite as you yes it will be harder for you to remember which your pieces are but so would it for them if you were yellow instead unless you can Trump them by being colorblind you've lost if you're late to game night they can start without you I can't hate late people because my therapist tells me to love myself but if we've got any hope of getting through my ambitious stack of games we can't wait for you to start but I'm nice so we'll play a filler until you arrive get off your phone every time you look at your phone you're telling the room that what's happening on that device is more important to you than them and sometimes it is if you need to reply AI to a message from your family that's fine but when I see people scrolling Twitter during a game why are you here I can look at my phone any hour of the day but game night is precious time take it from someone who knows these friends won't be around forever and no not because they're gonna die but worse they're gonna move away and then you'll only be able to play against them on your phone so make the most of your active game group while you still have it think of a funny caption for your Instagram post tomorrow when you're at work don't tell people what to do on their turns no one likes a games planer The crucial Joy of board games is that I'm the one making the decisions I don't want your advice no matter how good you are at this game you should go to Madrid unless you want an outbreak oh well if we're giving each other advice you should lower your expectations on dating apps or you'll never meet anyone and especially in co-op games where your teammates not puppets to do your bidding if you like your strategy that much you should go play with yourself no way let's sing that because if you like your strategy that much oh buddy you should go play with yourself and if you think that I should have quarantined Kolkata you should keep it to yourself [Music] [Music] don't complain that you're losing someone has to lose why shouldn't it be you and if you go on to win the game after complaining about losing your win shouldn't count you should allow take backs occasionally go easy on each other if nothing important has changed then let someone fix a mistake they made especially if it's their first game it's miserable being militant about it this isn't tournament play but don't take the piss you can't keep taking back your turn whenever it suits you if the teacher misses a rule cut them some slack yes it's annoying that you've been playing the game wrong but we all make mistakes they didn't mean to do it oh here we go classic John you make up rules whenever it suits you well I based my whole strategy around that so thanks you teach the games then I forgot one rule one how many rules did you teacher Stuart you can't even teach yourself to comb your hair and you ate all the cashew nuts you should always play to win a game only works if we're all trying to win and if you ignore that and self-sabotage just to sow chaos it breaks the game for everyone else but to quote the great Reiner canitzia the goal is to win but it's the goal that's important not the winning winning doesn't matter what matters is having fun and if you care too much about winning no one will have fun don't lose sight of what matters I've played with too many people that are friendly and lovely outside of a game then once we're playing lose sight of normal social behavior don't lose your temper don't start arguments over rules don't accuse people of cheating don't treat your friends like enemies this video is not sponsored but I do want to thank my patrons who allow me to make unusual videos like this one and who help me come up with some of the rules in this list if you've enjoyed my recent videos please consider becoming a patron it would be impolite not to if everyone's hating it stop playing the game Life's too short cool and game night's even shorter get a divorce while you're young and you'll still have time to fall in love with another better game if someone is talking about a game they love don't immediately say that you hate it we played pandemic yesterday it was so much fun we were one turn away from winning and then had our last outbreak I I hate pandemic it is such a bad game okay when a game is mentioned I see people bubbling up inside desperate to release their opinion before it gives them a hernia the world doesn't need to know that you hate a game especially if it means yucking someone's young are you eating Marmite that is disgusting it's hard to recover a conversation after dropping a bomb of negativity like that I'm not gonna be enthusiastic about another game in front of you because you just made me feel stupid for liking that one instead of focusing on our differences find some common ground tell me about other co-op games you like don't throw a tantrum in a hidden trait again social deduction games like werewolf and Avalon can get heated but don't take your emotions Beyond what's acceptable in a social setting because that's still where you are if you start screaming and swearing because someone won't believe you you're taking it too personally and you shouldn't play those games and if you fake that level of emotion to try and guilt someone into trusting you you're taking advantage of someone's decent see to try and win a game don't be snobby about games you don't like liking certain games does not make you better than someone else if the games you play are more complicated with deeper strategy or less luck that doesn't make you a better person than someone who only plays exploding kittens or sushi go they aren't less intelligent they don't have less fun they aren't any less of a gamer than you it can be hard to understand why people enjoy certain games when you hate them so much I can't understand why people eat oysters but I don't think I'm better than them because of it the people that eat them I am better than oysters the type of games you play will never make you better than anyone else but not being a condescending snob will if you're gonna be late be honest about how late because we need to know how long we got to wait this isn't your job you don't need to pretend you're gonna arrive in 10 minutes when you clearly just left and you live half an hour away because that's long enough to play a proper card game if we believe that you'll be here in 10 minutes we'll just chat and wait and then 30 minutes later be annoyed that we could have played something it's okay to make fun of people who sleeve cards call them card condoms take one of the cards out and pretend to eat it they can protect their cards but not their dignity don't whine about being attacked in a game why are you attacking me because we're playing risk that's the point of the game and especially don't do it to try and change their mind why me why can't you attack Stuart why because he won't whine at me don't rate a game on Board Game Geek that you haven't played War and Peace is all over the place it's like make your mind up which is it war or peace you can't have both they're opposite one out of ten is a review I will never post on the internet because I haven't played that video game Board Game Geek is a really useful resource if you're in a shop and you see a game you've never heard of you can quickly check the rating as a rough barometer of whether it's worth considering but it only works if the hive mind takes it seriously if 20 people have given it a one because the kickstarter shipping was too pricey it throws off the score and don't give it a 10 because you're excited about it either you don't know what a game is like until you play it you're not Nostra Gamers the teacher should remind you of the rules throughout the game we're not being tested on our memory so make sure everyone still knows how the game works or it isn't a Level Playing Field if someone wins every game it's okay to hate them a little you're not made of stone losing every game to a t-shirt wearing polymath is enough to make anyone a little bit angry keep it inside let it fuel you eat the last chocolate covered pretzel it's all you can do within the confines of common decency no that there are hundreds of us like you out there and if you got to play against one of them you'd probably win don't say a game is broken after playing it once you can think a game is terrible never want to play it again but the idea that you found a fatal flaw is the height of arrogance someone spent months working on this game designers developers play testers and you think in playing it for an hour you found something that they all missed and it's always said with the smugness of someone who thinks they discovered penicillin it's like believing in conspiracy theories you get to convince yourself that you're better than someone else without any work or intelligence required thematic soundtracks are only fun for a bit after three hours of listening to the Game of Thrones soundtrack on repeat it gets a bit much and we'd rather be backstabbing each other to some Taylor Swift warn others about difficult Gamers if you've had a miserable time playing with someone warn other people about them you can save a friend from having the same experience don't brag about your partner being good at board games I said partner because I want to be inclusive but it's only men that do this about their wives or girlfriends I've had this said to me by a popular game designer my wife beats me at games all the time even my own games even really heavy games why are you bragging about your wife like she's a medal that you won if she's winning games that's not your Accolade you don't own her but really the only reason you're mentioning it is because you think it's unusual that typically women don't win games but your wife is different my wife isn't like other wives she plays board games and wins them you're othering your wife and all women by talking about them in a way that you never would about a male friend Ben is actually really good at board games he can even do well against me in games with lots of rules I'm not saying you can't talk about your partner beating you in games people say that sort of thing all the time just don't turn it into a weird sexist brag if you're new game arrives with a dent live with it most board game Publishers are small companies and if you ask for a replacement box they have to send you a whole new game so they make no money on your sale if you return it to Amazon it will probably end up in a landfill the game inside is what you paid for the box is a receptacle not a work of art to preserve and if you do want to guarantee your game is in a pristine condition then buy it in person from a local game store don't look up strategy tips on the sly I agreed to play against you not some random person on Board Game Geek we're all learning and exploring this game together so why should you have a secret Advantage yes you should try to win but on your merits not by taking performance enhancing drugs be realistic about a game's length if someone asks you how long it will take be honest don't lie just to get the game played it's like using someone else's photo on a dating app they're gonna find out eventually and it's not gonna be a good look for you or them and don't lie to yourself you can't get a game of Twilight Imperium finished in one evening a problem known as the Twilight Struggle confusingly don't read all the story bits yourself you're not a voice actor if you're playing a narrative game don't hog the storybook let everyone take turns reading from it and please don't put on voices for the characters unless you're a professional this isn't bedtime and I'm not your child if I was I'd ask for audio books I would never punish My Friends by doing voices it's how I punish my YouTube viewers it's polite to narrate what you're doing on your turn it keeps everyone invested and helps them follow what's happening and make it clear when your turn is over so we don't waste three minutes sitting around until someone says whose turn is it you don't have to paint your Miniatures go for a hike teach yourself to knit read The Works of Shakespeare because you don't need to spend your time painting minis this isn't Warhammer we won't think any less of you but if you do like painting please please offer to paint mine don't introduce house rules 99 of the time you don't know better than the designer I don't want to play your version of the game just like I wouldn't want to get in an airplane that you've taken bits out of if you borrow a game you've got three months to play it and if you haven't played it by then tough it's time to give it back yes when it goes back on my shelf I might not play it for another year but it left a gap in my kalax and messed up my color scheme I haven't been able to post a shelfie to Instagram in three months and there was one game night where it was on a short list of 20 games we could have played but we couldn't because you had it don't brag about your kids playing difficult games if your six-year-old is playing games meant for adults that's exciting for you when you start telling other people it sounds like bragging that your kid is smarter than others oh your kid is still playing Rhino hero ours just finished a solo campaign of gloomhaven don't be a king maker so you've realized you can't win but you can control who does win that doesn't mean you should your goal hasn't changed you should make the best move for yourself if you ignore that just to sabotage someone else's Victory you've killed the game and it makes you look like you've thrown your toys out the pram because you can't win those are my top 50 etiquette rules for board gamers but what rules would you add to the list let me know in the comments and if you like this video please subscribe to the channel to see more like it I'm John Perkins thanks for watching [Music] thank you

Channel: Actualol

Views: 122,102

Keywords: Board Games, Modern Board Games, New Board Games 2023, board games, card games, actualol, Game, gaming, best board games, family games, new board games, family board games, top games, popular board games, best games, 50 Etiquette Rules, Board Game Etiquette, Gamer Etiquette, 50 Rules for Board Gamers, Etiquette Lessons, Top 50 Board Games, Gamer Rules, Gaming Rules, Rules for Gaming, Tips for Board Gamers, Board Game Guide, Guide for Board Gamers

Id: 0jfbGJV4Tsk

Length: 23min 3sec (1383 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023