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Overheard a guy at the game store say he never reads the rulebook first...
He just opens the box and pieces things together as he goes, and I had to stop myself from telling him that's a terrible idea after I tried that with Root last month and it took us four hours to finish a two hour game... anyone else have a house rule for when someone skips the rules?
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the_felix13d ago
Wait, did you at least try looking up a rules summary video on YouTube before you started? For Root specifically, I found that watching a 15 minute overview first saved me like an hour of flipping through that tiny rulebook later. When my group skipped the rules for Spirit Island, we ended up missing a key rule about how invaders work and basically played wrong for two whole sessions, but we all agreed to just laugh it off and start fresh with a quick teach next time.
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zarat3713d ago
Honestly, I think the real issue is that nobody ever talks about how the person teaching the game needs to actually want to teach it. Like, if someone is just reading rules out loud while everyone else is zoning out, you're all gonna mess stuff up anyway. Tbh, we had a friend who'd just say "watch the video" and then get annoyed when we had questions, which made the whole thing worse. Maybe the solution isn't a video or the rulebook, it's having one person who's genuinely excited to walk everyone through it step by step without rushing. Ngl, that's the difference between a session that clicks on turn one and one where you're still confused three hours later.
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davidshah13d agoMost Upvoted
But does that excitement really come through if the person has only skimmed the rules themselves? I remember listening to a podcast episode where they talked about how the best teachers are the ones who have messed up the rules themselves and learned from it, which makes them more patient when others get confused. @the_felix I think that's spot on about the 15 minute video prep, but only if the person teaching watches it too and gets hyped about it.
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