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Just realized the guy at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park was right about the teach in Catan
I was at a board game night at Third Place Books up in Lake Forest Park a few weeks back and this older guy named Ray watched me teach Catan to two new people. I did the usual thing, pointing at the little diagram, saying "roads here, settlements there," and he pulled me aside after and said I was explaining the pieces before the why. He told me to start with the goal instead, like "get to 10 points, and here's how points happen," then go back to the pieces. I kind of shrugged it off at the time. Tried it at the next game night with a couple who had never played anything heavier than Uno, and they were rolling dice and trading within maybe 4 minutes. Usually a first teach eats up 20 minutes and I lose half the table to their phones. Ray also said to never say "it's easy" because that makes people feel dumb when they get stuck, and I caught myself doing that exact thing twice before. So now I'm wondering what other little teach tricks I've been missing. Does anyone have a go-to opening line when you sit down with total newbies?
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evaallen25d ago
Ray's point about explaining the why before the pieces shows up everywhere, not just board games. I had a boss once who handed me a giant binder of steps on my first day and it meant nothing to me because I didn't know what the job was actually for. Same deal with cooking. Nobody learns to cook from a list of ingredients, they learn because they want to make dinner that tastes good. Give people the win first, then show them the tools. The "it's easy" thing is real too, because it flips the blame onto the learner the second they get confused. My opening line with new folks is usually something like "the whole game is just racing to 10 points, everything else is how you get there." Then I shut up and let them ask questions.
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