I prefer to read the manual myself. Please send me a pdf 3 days in advance. Thanks!
But you eventually get past learning the rules and then it is often fun
Take a shot every time the YouTuber explaining the rules says “more on that later”.
I do not look forward to learning the board game my husband bought, but I will focus and not also try to bake cookies during the game.
Maybe. I’ll try.
A third person is about to show up and express mild interest, then they will wander off for a drink, but then return and ask to have the rules explanation start over…
“You got all that?”
Uhhh…yeah?The rules explanation is not hell. Hell is being on the same table with someone who has permanent Analysis-Paralysis, one who is only checking their phone and always asks “who’s turn is it”/“what should I do now”, and the worst rules lawyer/salty loser ever.
one who is only checking their phone and always asks “who’s turn is it”/“what should I do now
Aka, the poor soul the others have forced to play a board game that they clearly have no interest in and refused to take hint.
and someone with Alpha Player Syndrome too
You nailed this perfectly.
Hi! Analysis-Paralysis here! I start planning my next move as soon as I complete my current move, but inevitably something changes board status the player before me so I have to recalculate. During recalculation my anxiety creeps up as I’m 100% aware people are waiting on me and I’m faced with 2 choices. 1) attempt to plan an effective move and frustrate others as my anxiety spikes, then once I make the move someone tells me how I could have optimized better. Or 2) say fuck it and just make a playable move to keep things going, ultimately fucking someone else’s game. At least it’s less often that I’m told how if I would just analyze everyone else’s known game state and abilities along with my own that the next move should be obvious to me.
We’ve managed to find games that I enjoy and can process that I’ll participate in, and the others I’ll wish them well and step back.
An angry gloomhaven player has been typing a response to this for the last 2 hours. Only 4 more to go
Soooo, family game night?
We were trying a game. We read through the rules for an hour, played another 2 hours and finished the first (of 4?) rounds, and said “fuck it” and went for drinks. My BGG complexity max is about 3.5/5. I don’t play often enough to keep all of that in my head.
What game?
Covenant or Druids of Edora, can’t remember there were too many that week ;) Saying “a crunchy euro “ doesn’t narrow it down enough. :D
I love learning how to play new board games.
I usually hate it at first but that, you know, passes eventually.
Me too. Wasn’t particularly relatable but reading the comments i kinda get it. Finding other board game people who want the same style and complexity of game is hard, even narrowing down to just people who say they like board games
If there’s one thing that deeply upsets me is when people just say “let’s start playing and learn while doing it”. No! Tell me at least the purpose and overall rules and mechanics, if not this is all useless and I have no purpose for moving things around.
There are some games for which it works, others for which it does not.
God that is my mother. Even worse is that she makes up/ignores rules if she doesn’t think it makes sense, which, spoiler: is all the time. Because she won’t read the rules. Yes, you, a 64 year old woman who can’t operate a remote, know what would make a game more fun better than the PEOPLE WHO MADE THE GAME 🙄
This is why I refuse to play boardgames, even though my partner and our friends really like playing tabletop simulator. I think it’s a fun combination of my ADHD and anxiety. The ADHD struggling to understand instructions, and my anxiety not wanting to embarrass myself by being unable to.
This is exactly me hahaha. Except I do like playing boardgames. I just really hate learning them.
That’s been the opposite of my ADHD experience.
Board game rules are almost always exceptionally clear and unambiguous. For me they are a dream, and I love being the rules guy in my game group.
I wish more instructions in different fields were so clear.
I think my issue isn’t so much understanding them, but remembering them, especially when there’s a lot. My ADHD simply doesn’t let me remember so much information at once, maybe if I spent a good amount of time reading the rules, memorising them, preparing myself, etc.
Hey, same!
But he’s going to explain them and move pieces around while assuming you have some context to the interconnecting actions. Just try to follow along. You know what? Maybe it’s easier if you just watch him play a round.
Of course, each round technically involves every chracter moving, sooo, maybe grab a drink and a notepad?
Eternity of learning the rules and never playing
The part they don’t show you is that the guy on the left has been reading the rules, learning the game, making plans to play it, and then having those plans not work out. For 10,000 years.
When youre the only kid in class who knew how to play with poke on cards
Me, with some of the random and old board games I found in my dad’s closet as a kid. There was some kind of 1950s robot war game that used a hex grid map tiles that you arranged based on dice rolls or something so it was different every time you played.
But none of my friends or siblings wanted to learn how to play it 😟
My strategy is read just enough rules to start and then just fucking start. The first game no one knows what they’re doing anyway so fuck it, hop in and learn by doing.
BattleTech/BattleDroids?
Not nearly as vintage, but I had Omega Virus, the 90s board game where the players wandered around a space station collecting key cards and weapons to shut down a renegade AI. The seeking point was a plastic box in the middle that kind of acted like a DM.
Never once could I get a friend to sit still long enough to finish a game.
