How to Learn a New Board Game in The World of The Future: 2015

The Future is Now, so Why Not Play More Games?

Games. I need lots of games.

My recent trip to Gen Con confirmed one thing: the board game industry is thriving. It continues to expand at a fantastic rate. If you’re like me, you have a (not so) small collection of board games, some of which you have kept in shrink wrap, the ultimate board game sin.

Yes, I know your mint copy of Space Hulk, still in shrink wrap is worth quite a bit (he says, checking eBay…) but the purpose of a board game is to play it. To have fun with it. To cause angry arguments that end friendships! Ahem, okay, we’re talking about games other than Diplomacy here. That's what this column is about.

I was recently talking with my fellow blogger over at the Vorpal Chainsword, and lamenting the games we both have yet haven’t played yet, and we started to discuss the best way of changing this. Since it’s 2015, and we’re technology nerds, we thought there had to be a better way to learn to play, since we’re in the year of Back to the Future II, which is definitely the future. So re-hydrate a Pizza Hut pizza with me, and take your fax machine off the hook for a few minutes, and let’s talk about learning a new game you own.

The Problem

I’m going to start with the problems. The biggest one of these is time. One of the projects I’m working on with the ‘Chainsword is gaming as an older adult. As (shudder) an adult, you don’t have the time you did back in those college days. What’s more, neither do your friends.

If you’re in college, here’s how you learn to play a board game: buy it (and try not to think about how this means you won’t have money for food, and will have trouble making rent) and then invite your friends over to your cramped apartment. You unbox the game, and then go through the rules over the next few hours. You play a couple games and then get to bed at… holy crap! It’s 3 AM and I have an 8 AM Calc lecture tomorrow! Oh well, I think I’ll sleep in and get notes from someone (again).

Does that sound familiar?

As an adult, you don’t have that luxury. There’s spouses, kids, jobs, house projects and the creeping feeling of your own mortality. The last thing you and your friends want to do is spend several hours getting a new game punched out, and gradually learning it from badly written rules.

And that’s actually the second problem. The rules to most board games are horribly written. They’re just plain bad: confusing, poorly organized and sometimes flat out wrong. Not only that, the “first adventure” they have you start with is many times harder and more complicated than other scenarios (Shadowrun: Crossfire, I’m looking at you here).

The Solution

With that prologue, let’s get underway. I present to you the (patent pending) Three Step Vorpal-20 How to Learn a Board Game in the World of the Future That We Live In.

Step One: Check Resources

Okay our first step, even before opening the box, is to check our resources. We’re going to look at the website for the game, check out boardgame geek, and search YouTube for resources. In that order.

First, we look at the company’s website. Don’t know it, well you’re only one bing search away from finding it (note to new readers: bing is the official OnTheDie search engine-- someone has to use it). The important thing is that you can find out if the game has any official errata, any play guides, and new starting scenarios (Firefly the board game, I’m looking at you here).

Second, we look at boardgame geek and see what’s there. Often you’ll find play summaries and links to how-to videos for your game. You’ll also find out if the game is actually horrible and you should keep it sealed up and see if you can get a refund (note to readers: actually do this step before you buy the game and you’ll save yourself a headache). If you find a well regarded game summary (typically one page) print it out and keep it on hand.

Finally, we go to YouTube and do a search on “how to play <your new game>.” Grab some snacks and watch. Protip: many of these videos are in French. I had no idea that the French enjoyed board games so much, but there you have it. Find a few English language ones and settle in.

The first thing you’re going to realize is that these videos are mostly terrible. They go on way too long, and aren’t edited properly at all. It may take you a bit of fast-forwarding to get to the point, and you may even have to go through a couple of videos to find one you can stand.

When you do this, you’ll likely see how to set up the game, so you can open up the box and do just that. Protip: avoid unboxing videos like the plague--they’re a prime example of things that go on way too long and don’t tell you much of anything useful.

When you’ve found a decent video, watch it and see how setup and game play goes. You’re likely going to have to invest some time here, so you might wonder if this doesn’t conflict with problem one?

I’m not going to lie to you, yes, it sort of does. It does, however help you learn the game as fast as possible. It also helps you be a good host for playing the game (which we’ll get to in a moment). Stick with me: watching a few videos on the Internet about your new game, even if some of them are bad, is still faster than learning all but the simplest games from reading the rules.

Learning this way is faster because it’s visual: you see how everything works. You also get to hear some of the pitfalls the video authors found while learning it. And if it’s like any of the ones I watched, they will tell you all about the problems they had. Over and over again. Remember you can fast forward. Use it.

Once you have a video that explains the game (hopefully in about 15 minutes). You can email it to your friends. That’s where you get to be a good host: you email them and say “hey, let’s play this new game I just bought. You can take 15 minutes to learn how to play it.” This lets your friends learn something about the game, and also lets them decide if the game will be something they’re interested in.

Step Two: Set the Stage

Now you’re ready to actually play the game. You’ve blocked off an evening’s time. You’ve invited them over. What’s left, aside from ordering pizza? A couple of very important things that make you a good host.

• First, you want to set up the game. This part of the advice is one that Sith don’t always follow (something that my Wednesday players can attest to), but it’s important. Set up the game so that it’s as ready to go as you can make it before everyone gets there. That makes everyone able to get into the game faster, and it may even let you play a (gasp!) second game in the evening.
• Second, don’t count on anyone actually watching the how-to video you sent them. What you can do is to set up your PC or laptop (or TV if you have an internet capable TV) and load up your video. While everyone is getting snacks and drinks together, you can have them watch the video, so that everyone is on the same page.

The Manual: The One Thing I Haven’t Mentioned

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that I’ve never said “read the rules they give you for the game.” That’s right: I don’t necessarily recommend doing that. What I do recommend is checking to see if the game has a special reference or glossary of terms. You want to make sure to look at that and keep it handy.

Step Three: Profit!

Now it’s time to actually play the game. There’s not too much to say here, other than make sure you have that play reference sheet available for everyone to use.

Actually there’s one more thing that you can do in many games. If there’s a game that allows you to determine play order, you can arrange to go first yourself, and then order the turn so that people who know the game the best go after you, and the person who knows the game the least goes last.

One thing I’ve also discovered is that it can be a good idea to play one practice round: keep everyone’s cards in the open and go over everything in the turn order. When you get to the end of the first round you can reset the game or if everyone agrees, simply go from there.

What if There’s a Rules Question?

It’s going to happen.  Sometime during the game something is going to happen that you don’t know about. A lot of games these days have simple basic rules, but also have a “specific beats general” aspect to them. If you’ve played Magic, you know what that means: the text on a card means you follow it instead of the general rules. Sometimes (okay, I’m lying, often) you’ll find that this specific rule isn’t spelled out very well.

When that happens, the game, and everyone’s good time, comes to a halt. Here’s what I recommend. Have a time period, maybe three minutes, maybe even less, where one designated person checks your reference material or the game rules for a solution. In any group, there's one person who has the ability to jump to the correct part of a set of rules like magic. This person is gold. Make sure to have snacks and beverages that they like on hand.

If you haven’t found the rule reference in the time you've allotted, make a decision, by one of these three processes:

1. Make a choice that makes sense within the framework of the game’s rules. By this I mean follow the most logical conclusion for what you’ve already been doing.
2. Do the thing that’s the hardest if you’re playing a cooperative game. That’s probably the right rule (Pandemic, I’m looking at you).
3. Make an arbitrary decision. Roll a die. I’m not kidding. Just come to a decision and go forward.

After the Game

After the game is over and everyone has gone home, sit down and take a look for those rule issues you had. Check the rules reference, game summary, or boardgame geek for the answer. You may need to (gasp!) read the rules here.

When you’re finished with that, there’s one follow-up you can do, which I especially recommend if you really enjoyed playing it.

Go over to boardgame geek and post about your session. Talk about what you did, what you liked, and any questions you have.

What you’ll likely find is that you did something wrong. Boardgame geek is on the Internet, and like everything on the Internet it’s full of people who like to tell other people that they did something wrong. This may sting your pride, but get over that! You’ll be playing the game completely correct in a few play sessions. You’ll also likely get some fun badges for your account on the geek, which everyone likes.

After all of that, it’s time to pick another game out of the closet and repeat the process.

That’s all for this time. Until next time, remember to Make Mine 20.