The worst part of game night is when people don't read the rules before they show up

I'm talking about the folks who walk in, grab a beer, and then expect the whole group to wait 45 minutes while they learn the game from scratch. We planned to play Dune: Imperium last Friday, a game that takes a solid 15 minutes just to set up. One guy, let's call him Dave, had never even looked at the rulebook. So instead of diving in, we spent the first hour explaining worker placement, intrigue cards, and the conflict phase while he asked basic questions that were on page two. It kills the momentum for everyone else who did the homework. I know it sounds strict, but if you agree to a complex game night, the bare minimum is skimming the rules. It shows respect for the group's time. How do you guys handle players who consistently show up unprepared?

4 comments

4 Comments

oscar_gonzalez453mo ago

Our group started a ten minute rule for new games. If you haven't read up, you get a quick summary while we set up, then we just start playing. You learn the rest as we go, and it keeps the night from stalling right out of the gate. It sounds harsh but it saved our last game of Ark Nova.

fiona7493mo agoMost Upvoted

That's a smart way to handle complex games, @oscar_gonzalez45. Does your group ever run into problems later when a rule nobody explained comes up and changes someone's whole plan? Feels like that could cause some real frustration mid-game, even if starting is smoother. I'd worry about people feeling cheated if a key point was missed in the quick start. How do you deal with those moments when they happen?

angela72819d ago

Yeah that's a really good point. I've seen this same thing pop up in other parts of life too, like when someone gets a new job and the boss just throws them in without explaining the unwritten rules about who handles what. It's the same kind of thing, you know? The person figures out the basics fast but then hits a wall later when something like "oh yeah, we never told you that you have to use this specific form for that" comes up and screws up their week. Honestly I think the key is just being cool about it when it happens. If the group laughs it off and says "our bad, here's how it actually works" instead of acting like the new person should have just known, then it's no big deal. You learn faster from getting burned once than from a lecture anyway.

sarah_davis3mo ago

Honestly I was the same way, I used to think making everyone watch a full tutorial video was the nice thing to do. But after a game of Scythe where we spent an hour explaining and people still forgot everything by round two, I get it now. @fiona749 has a point about missed rules causing problems later, but starting is the biggest hurdle. Oscar's ten minute rule is smart, you just cover the goal and how to take a turn. We tried it with Wingspan and it worked way better, people picked up the card combos as we played instead of zoning out during a long lecture.