Shoutout to the guy at the Portland game cafe who called me out

Honestly, I was teaching my group 'Terraforming Mars' for the tenth time and kept complaining it dragged. This dude overheard and just said 'you're explaining every card, man, let them discover.' Tbh, I'd been over-teaching for years. Anyone else have a teaching habit they had to break?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam7318d ago

Letting people bump into the game's edges" reminds me of my friend who used to explain every possible Catan trade.

wright.lisa9d ago

That moment of clarity can be so sharp. It makes you wonder how many games were soured by turning them into a lecture instead of a shared experience. The real skill is giving just enough rules to start playing, then letting the group's questions guide the rest. It turns a chore into a conversation. I had to learn to stop pre-solving problems they hadn't even encountered yet. Letting people bump into the game's edges is where the fun and the real learning happens.

blairtaylor8d ago

Letting people bump into the game's edges" is such a perfect way to put it. I used to be the worst about over-explaining every little rule upfront because I wanted everything to go smooth. Wright.lisa is totally right that it just turns it into a lecture. I finally saw how much more fun it is when someone asks "wait, can I do this?" and we figure it out together. It feels like playing the game instead of just setting it up.