One of the things I love about this hobby is the passion people have to introduce others to the world of non-electronic gaming. At every game conference or Meetup I attend, people are generally happy to welcome new players to the table and teach them a new game. Maybe it’s the fact that non-electronic games need other players (usually opponents, but sometimes cooperators), and so we all recognize the requirement to attract and engage others. In this way we are all ambassadors for the hobby.
In this series of articles I'll be posting over the next 2 weeks, I want to explore the how of teaching games well. If you’ve been playing games for any period of time, I’m sure you have experienced how NOT to teach games. One personal experience that comes to mind for me is when someone tried to teach me a game by reading me the rulebook. Or another when the game teacher launched into an unstructured, meandering description of a game that jumped from components, to actions, to victory conditions, to strategy, and then back to components, with seemingly little rhyme nor reason.
Let me state my opinion on this topic directly: if you are in this hobby, please, please, double-please learn how to teach games! Invest some time in understanding how people learn, use some structure, and invest a little preparation time before attempting to teach. This is always important, but even more so for those of us who may be teaching to people who are new to the hobby. It could be that one “moment of truth” where we engage that new person, or scare them away forever.
In my next installment, I'll delve into some general rules of thumb that I try to abide when teaching games. Until then...
Stay young – keep playing games!
Tim O'Connor
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