Board Game Teaching Tips (w/ Special Guests Jon Cox and Rodney Smith)

hi everyone my name is modi and i'm naveen from before we play and today we have a special video for you we do in honor of people started to gather again to join game groups we thought this would be a perfect time to kind of discuss a few teaching tips on how to teach board games yes it's probably been a little over a year maybe since you got together with your gaming group and how do you teach a board game without getting frustrated and so today we are joined by a couple of special guests these are two people who are our favorite all-time favorite board game instructors and uh honestly people who we really look up to in the industry and they are none other than john of john getz games as well as rodney smith have watched it played and so john take it away hey there my name is jonathan cox and i run the youtube channel john gets games today i want to talk about an aspect to learning and teaching games that i think is oftentimes overlooked and that involves the actual setup of the game on the table now i'm going to start with the learning aspect because obviously you have to know the game in order to teach it to other people now whenever i sit down to play a game the first thing i do is i obviously take the manual out and then i take all of the components out i take them all out of the wrappers put them into little piles and then i work through the setup instructions in the rulebook before i go anywhere else now i think this is really important as a rules teacher because it is going to give you some muscle memory as far as where different components go it will also help teach you the names of these components which might seem silly but i really do think that component names are important especially in medium to heavyweight games and euros where a specific name of a component is talked about on various cards in the game and it's just really good to know that those aren't just like people cards they're leader cards or something like that now i have definitely found that when i do that full setup before i read the rest of the rules i understand the game much better and when i'm actually reading through the rest of the rules i actually physically touch the pieces as i reach those different sections and look to the board and say okay we're talking about this area we're talking about that area and you can really only do that if you set the game up beforehand now um let's move on to the actual teaching of the game and i think uh the biggest factor in teaching a game well is confidence or at least not having a lack of confidence and in the past uh whenever i have not confidently set a game up i found that that has led me to a very rough overall teach many games that i like to play have extensive setups uh with you know 20 to 30 different steps to them and i have found that when i familiarize myself with the setup steps beforehand especially like the night before i play it with somebody else or even an hour before i sit down to play with other people i'm able to launch into that teach way better because you start off just putting everything around there have been many circumstances in the past where i haven't not been confident with the setup where i've been you know tripping over different things and like oh wait that needs to go over here and oh no you can't deal those cards out yet we have to pull different things out and how many cards we have to pull out uh give me a second and you're digging through the rules and i found that in those moments that really puts me on the back foot and then once the game is set up in that situation i stay on the back of it for the entire teach so i think uh setting the game up well getting your friends around the table to help you set the game up and being more of a setup manager instead of setting the game up yourself is also an important part of it if you are familiar with the setup then you can get into the teach faster because you are asking this person to shuffle these cards up and put three uh equal size stacks over there and that person over there can split all of these components and put them into bowls instead of you doing all that stuff furiously looking at the rule book while your opponents are talking amongst themselves and looking at their phones now obviously your friends talking to each other is a good thing but i feel like it's good to get everybody invested in the gaming experience as quickly as possible and the rules teach can essentially start in the setup as well uh if you are confident and you know the various components you know when you ask that person to split those cards up you're not just saying the cards you're saying um those are the legend cards or something like that and uh those components over there those are the money and they're the wood and they're you know maybe they're the prestige tokens and you're saying these words and you're pointing to the tokens and your friends are touching these tokens and setting them up and so they are now essentially getting a similar experience to what you got when you sat down to learn the game earlier and you went through each of those steps in the setup so yeah it might seem a little bit silly to focus on the setup when um you know the majority of the game's rules comes into play with the actual mechanisms but i really feel like you have to build the house before you can enter it and the setting up of a game is effectively like building a house with these components and you don't want to start your teach in this metaphor with a leaky roof or maybe missing a few rooms so yeah paying close attention to that setup feeling very comfortable with it just like you feel comfortable with the rest of the rules is just as important and um i know in the past i have overlooked that and i really try to focus on that uh these days and i think that that could definitely help other people out with them going into rules teaches with more confidence and just getting the setup done quicker which means everybody can be starting the game faster which is always a good thing i love learning new games i love teaching games so i'm excited to share a couple of tips that have served me well and i hope that can help you too now john picked a great one focusing on the importance of preparing but let's say you listen to john and you're well prepared what else can help a teach go smoothly my first suggestion be engaging a rules teach is not always fun to listen to oftentimes people want to teach over so they can get to playing the game but you can't play a game if you don't know the rules and people tend to have more patience for a teach if you're visibly excited about the game you're going to play rules are in and of themselves pretty boring but if you appear engaged by what you're talking about it makes it easier for others to stay attentive don't be afraid to raise the volume of your voice slightly be expressive smile use changes in intonation call out people by name people love hearing their name sally can you pass me that deck of cards we're going to talk about that next or fray can you hold that piece for everyone to see this is a key component in the game and don't be afraid to stand up it can really help draw attention to what you're saying unless you're unless you're in a video then just stay seated the point is a dry slow monotone teach although it might be totally accurate won't hold people's attention and important rules can then get missed so keep their attention here's my other tip be patient be super patient yes you might have answered a particular question multiple times but losing your cool or being dismissive it won't make the session go better people can feel tension at a table if someone's just not getting the game it may not be for them and that's okay they likely won't ask to play it the next time around but for now your job is to be a good person and help them through this session and look this isn't always easy but remember as the teacher you're not really there for you you're meant to be there for them and if a player really can't get the hang of it but they're still very interested in learning the game just confess the limitations of your teaching powers and let them know they might have more success with a different method maybe direct them to a rules video or let them borrow your rule books to read for themselves before the next session okay so i was asked for just one or two tips but this is one of my favorite topics so i'm going to sneak in one more i've noticed that many people get anxious in their first game because they're afraid of playing poorly and then people judging them for it and so while they're learning they're already starting to think what's my first turn going to be how am i going to win this game try to deflate that anxiety by reminding people that you often need to see a game all the way through to really understand how to play well encourage them not to worry about winning right away or even worrying about making good turns tell them look we can all get really cutthroat in the next session i like to start a lot of my game sessions with my favorite phrase the first game doesn't count sometimes just saying that out loud gives people an allowance to relax they can stop thinking about what their first turn is going to be or how to use the cards they're holding in their hand and they can just focus on okay how does this game work again well look i hope something in here was helpful good luck fellow rules teachers you're doing important work thanks guys what fantastic tips yes rodney i definitely have to work on the monotone teaching i definitely definitely do that and i need to find a way not to do that uh it is just my nature but i'm gonna try to work on that as much as i can and of course john with the setup i could not agree more very very good tips uh for me i am not the designated teacher monique is clearly the designated teacher but sometimes i do find myself in that situation yeah and a tip that i would recommend is do not assume knowledge or information that uh your audience may or may not know let's say a game is a worker placement game and you just start saying okay this is a work replacement game we're going to be doing some drafting we're going to be doing x y and z uh that assumes a lot of knowledge on your audience that they know exactly what you're talking about now this might be very quick lingo for an experienced gamer or somebody that you definitely know their kind of pedigree of what games they've played but for some people that you don't know or maybe newer gamers that can kind of be a little bit of a kind of a difficult thing for them they don't even know how to ask a question as to like wait what exactly are you talking about and so it can kind of set some people back so my big tip is do not assume knowledge define things at first and then kind of move from there and for me this is something that i kind of like to practice all the time when i personally teach games and it's just something that really helps me i recommend going from general to specific yeah you know when i go into a game learning experience and somebody else is trying to teach me the game i'm a very i'm a pretty terrible student i have a hard time learning games audibly yes and so if somebody kind of just dives into the mechanics right off the bat i get very lost very quickly so for me going from theme to what are you doing in the game to how many rounds if there are rounds and turn structure just just kind of that funnel yeah kind of like writing an essay right you always want to go from general to specific sure and that kind of also goes in line with uh with teach with exactly what you said we're not not uh assuming knowledge or assuming an understanding of uh of other people's knowledge and always kind of defining terms right yes yeah we've definitely been in game groups where sometimes somebody's so excited about a mechanism they want to talk about that mechanism first but we don't have any of that surrounding kind of information as to what exactly that is and that gets our brain thinking like we're trying to figure it out and then we kind of find ourselves behind uh yeah yeah it's tough yeah and so this is actually the strategy that i employ when even teaching really heavy you know really really big involved like lacerda strategy games and of course this is not always the case sure but you may have reasons why you want to jump into a certain mechanism first especially if that mechanism is particularly confusing or very specific to that game just in general this is what we love to start with yep so those are our cumulative teaching tips thank you so much to john of john gets games as well as rodney from watch it played for your wonderful contributions you know we really really look up to the both of them and we're so honored that they agreed to be a part of this video but we sincerely hope this video has been helpful and maybe help try to ease some of the anxiety of uh of going into a game night we know that this is a lot of information to take in so you can you know feel free to kind of pick and choose or return to the video at any point in your teaching experience and of course if you have any tips that you want to share please leave them down in the comments below so we can have a running list people can check it out maybe they can use those as well yes this is a community after all where we are learning together so thank you all so much for watching and if you enjoy content like this and would like to see more please consider subscribing thanks bye [Music] you

Channel: Before You Play

Views: 16,920

Keywords: board games, watch it played, jongetsgames, how to play board games, board game review, new board games, top board games, board game overview, board game teaching tips, rodney smith, jonathan cox, before you play, learning board games, board game reviews, best board games, top 10 board games, top ten board games, board game thoughts, board games for kids, family board games, euro games, games

Id: u9VdjKCxqf0

Length: 11min 54sec (714 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 16 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/wordofgreen]

I love Monique and Naveen and I’m so glad to see them popping up everywhere

[u/Bannukutuku]

I think Rodney is the current gold standard for how to play videos. He's so well-paced, clear, and concise. Not to mention excellent production quality. If there's not a video by him for a game I'm trying to learn to teach, I'm pretty disappointed.

[u/FlashyCow1]

Have patience with the one you're teaching. For me I have to read it, hear it and do it to get it. Most just want to do one and get it over with. That's not fun for me since chances are I didn't understand what you tried to convey.

[u/7en7en]

First, and I find this to be very important: when possible, have only one teacher. Multiple people trying to teach together becomes confusing. Even if you know how to play, try to restrain yourself to only the most essential comments if you aren’t the person teaching this game. Sometimes, the teacher just hasn’t gotten to that concept yet. If you feel you must, ask the teacher, “may I make a point?” and be brief.

Second: follow the rule book. Don’t read from it, but use it as an outline. The rules are written to help you learn to play, and the writers organized them to do that as easily as possible.

Last, for the people learning (and this works well with my second point): consider downloading the rules and following along on a tablet. Personally, I find it difficult sometimes to follow teaches, especially if the teacher is just reading the rules out loud. Reading the rules guarantees greater retention for me, and I can continue to refer to them during the game.

Just my two cents.

[u/Pyro911help]

I'm the designated teacher in my group and am usually pretty patient but I get triggered when someone says "You never told me that" when I clearly have. I don't know why but when I hear that it completely throws me off

[u/GrandElemental]

I'm always willing to become a better rules teacher, so these kinds of videos are goldmines!

[u/Yalarii]

I always find that people understand the game best after a few turns. So I will always prompt them with what their best move is for the first 2-4 turns. That way they can start naturally getting into the swing of it as they go along.

This is why I will always adore Wingspan. It has a section in the rules for first timers that says ‘set the board up like this and everybody make these moves’. That was the most simple game to learn and teach.

[u/BigConfuzzuled]

Sometimes you just have to learn by playing. Hands on works for me best

[u/SasquatchDroppings]

One tricky part of teaching a new game is when only one person in the group is new to a game, and the other players are veterans.

With Root, for example, I’ll have many veteran players involved, and occasionally we’ll have 1 or 2 new players. In cases like this, as to not bog down the rest of the players, I give just a basic rules overview while the veterans set up the game. When it comes time to begin, I help the new player with their first few actions so they can learn as they play. It’s important to remember to not use them to your advantage, but honestly think what you would do if you were them.

In games like Space Base, I often find it’s easiest to teach by taking my first turn for everyone to see, and then give everyone else a shot in turn order. And as we go along, I introduce new rules to the mix, like charge cubes, colony cards, etc so they’re not overwhelmed at the start. This is especially effective with players who hate sitting through rules explanations.