A game night in Chicago made me stop explaining rules for the first hour

I was at a meetup at Dice Dojo last month with a group of six. The host just set up Root and said, 'Play for 60 minutes, then we'll talk.' We fumbled through, made huge mistakes, but actually learned by doing. After that hour, the rules explanation took 10 minutes because we all had context. Now I do this with any heavy game over a 3.0 weight. It cuts setup frustration in half. Anyone else try a 'play first, explain later' method with new groups?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_elizabeth8d ago

That Catan story from @blair_torres70 is exactly why this method needs the right game. Root is perfect for it because the factions are so different, you almost have to see them in action. Throwing people into a simpler game like Catan with no rules just makes a mess, but a complex game where everyone starts lost together works. It turns the first hour from a boring lecture into a shared puzzle. You all figure it out as a team.

kelly_rivera9d ago

You just threw six people into Root with zero rules? That sounds like a recipe for chaos. I can't imagine the mess that first hour must have been. It's a cool idea but I'd be so stressed.

blair_torres709d ago

We tried a no-rules Catan game with eight people once. My friend Dave started building roads in a circle, claiming he was making a roundabout. It took twenty minutes just to figure out the turn order. Honestly @kelly_rivera, your chaos hour probably had more structure. We gave up and ordered pizza instead.

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