I often write about how to teach a board game. And teaching a game is half the battle once you’ve learned it. How you distill that information down to new players is important. And it requires more of a focused plan. But learning a board game yourself can by tricky.

Thankfully, it isn’t something you need to be alone on. And there are a few things that make it easier if you want. The standard way or just reading through a rule book most certainly won’t work for everyone. And some of my favorite games, Lords of Hellas, or games from companies that I like, Mythic Games, consistently come with poor rule books. So how do you get around all of that?

Watch A Video

It might sound odd, but there are a lot of content creators that teach you how to play games. Meeple University, Watch It Played, and more. All of them go through and teach you the game. They might not teach you the solo mode or variant rules, but they will teach you a game. And this might be the best way for you to learn, depending on your learning style.

But beyond those videos, also watch a game play. GloryHoundd always disclaims that they do “Should You Play” videos not “How to Play” because they might get rules wrong. And yes, watching a game play, someone will likely get a rule wrong. But it should give you a general idea of the game, and what is what you want. It should show you general turn structure, and basic actions of the game. Game plays are probably supplemental to reading the rule book versus fully learning, but I recommend always reading the rules.

Play As You Go

As you go through the rule book, set-up the game and play along as you go. Get used to what the actions look like on the board. Even if you don’t fully understand it, start messing with the pieces. I tend to be a fairly hands on learner. That means, for me, that reading a rule book is how I often learn, but if I can mess around with the pieces, it sticks better.

Even if you read through the rules, and even with a competitive game, set-up the game and mess around with it. Get your hands on the pieces and the mechanics of the game. Play out a few hands or turns to see how it works. Once you do that, it’ll likely help your retention as well as give you examples for when you teach the game.

Use Board Game Geek

This one isn’t going to be the most obvious for a lot of people. Board Game Geek might not even be something you’re that familiar with. It is basically IMDb for board games. But the nice thing is what they have a “files” section. This might have better written fan rules that clarify and clean up rough rule books. It might have condensed rules just to get you going. Or it might have player aids to make things easier.

Not all games will have this. But some might, and if a game is too complex or just doesn’t make that much sense, Board Game Geek, might be your best bet. I know there is a solo game Rat Catcher, which I own, and the rules are bad. But there are better rules on Board Game Geek. So this is maybe a spot to go once you know that the rules don’t teach the game well.

Learn More Board Games

Finally, learn more games. One of the best ways to get better at learning games is to learn more games. The more rule books you get your hands on, the more games that you play around with, the more common rules things are easier to pick up on. A worker placement game, you aren’t learning what worker placement is. You just get that naturally and you learn the differences in games.

You also start to learn what matters for teaching a game. What might be an exception to the rules that needs to be taught at the start versus what is an exception that can be taught in the moment. The whole goal is to be able to understand the rules faster. And the more you read rules, the more you start to get through them faster and retain more.

Final Thoughts on Learning A Board Game

This is one of those situations where I wish that there was always a simple way to learn a game. And I love it when games offer a tutorial. Sleeping Gods and Tainted Grail, both give you that away to get your hands onto the components as you learn the game. If you watched my Sleeping Gods play through, you can see that I started with that.

Now, they aren’t perfect ways to learn a game. And a tutorial is generally only meant to teach you the basics of the game. But it is really nice when they are there. Then you really only need to learn the extra things and do the tutorial. Like I said, for me, getting my hands on a game and the pieces helps things stick for me. But that might not be what is best for you. Watch It Played, Meeple University, or Jon Gets Games might be better, but known your learning style and learn more games.

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