Top 5 Mistakes

1. Reading From the Rule Book

Don’t just read the rules. This I think is tied with my #2 as the worst offenders when teaching a game. But it’s not interesting or exciting to hear someone read from the rules. Also, all the rules might not always matter or be taught in the rule book in the best way possible. There are some horrible rule books out there and even the good ones tend to be dry.

The rules are important to get right, but use the rule book as a reference when you need it. Don’t use it for how you teach the game. This will make sense more when you see some of the other things.

2. Not Starting With How To Win

Such as if you use the rule book, how to win or scoring is at the end of the book. Start with that part. That gives the players a framework of what the goal is. It let’s them know what everything else you teach is going to be pointing towards.

Now, you don’t need to go into the details, for example, of where you get your points, but let people know it’s a point based game, or if everyone is still alive when this deck of cards runs out, or if everyone is on this tile. Put the end goal in focus first so that when you teach the actions and specific rules your players know where the game is going and can start to see how they’d bring it together.

3. Teaching Every Detail

This one might seem odd, but you don’t need to teach everything. For example, Biblios comes in two halves. The first half is handing out cards. Teach that when you start. Let people know the second half, auction is coming up and that you want money to bid on stuff. But you don’t need to explain all the auction details. Then, when you hit that second part, teach it.

This works well for some games and less well for others. But even in games where maybe a new action becomes unlocked or when a weird interaction occurs between a card and rules. It’s useful to know that it might happen, but the full details, probably don’t need them until it does happen.

4. Telling Not Showing

Another important thing, and why reading from the rule book is less than ideal is that you are just telling. Telling is fine, it is a part of teaching, but to get something to stick, showing helps a lot. Show people how an action works. Show people cards from decks. Fill in spots on a roll and write sheet. Do these things and it reenforces how all of the things work.

An example of this is that in most roll and write games I keep used sheets. Why, because they are great for teaching. I can pull out a sheet and point to examples on the board as I’m teaching the game. It makes it so much clearer when people can see how it works when you are explaining it.

5. Holding Questions Until The End

And this one, I think that it’s important to not hold questions. Let people ask away because people might forget questions. Often times the players will notice just naturally something that you missed. Or wording that you thought was clear might be more ambiguous than you think.

If people hold questions, they might forget them. Now, if someone asks about another part of the game, just say that you are going to get to it. But if it’s about something you’re talking about already. Take a moment, talk about it. Repeat stuff as need be, clarify what you are saying. And I think it is important as well, but stay it is in a different way.

Final Thoughts on Mistakes in Teaching A Board Game

The most important thing, no matter how you do it is that you teach the board game. And that you are willing to do it. There are a lot of games that don’t get played because people aren’t willing to teach them. Mainly, because it is a lot of work, sometimes, for the teacher. Unless you know a game well, you will need to review the rules.

And if that means you need to read from the rule book, you might need to read from the rule book. But that should be the exception. With a little preparation you can teach without bouncing to the rule book that often. And it’ll make it a better experience.

Also, expect that you’ll be answering questions throughout the whole game. I like to teach as much as I can, but eventually, even with showing, talking about the end goals, and everything too many rules is just boring and people pay less attention. So spend the time teaching but get playing as well.

Do you find yourself making any of these mistakes?

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I have a few companies like that where I generally will pay attention. And for me, that doesn’t mean back or buy everything. But it does mean that I will always check it out in detail. Rarely, if ever, will I just gloss over a game from these companies. So here are my Top 10 companies I’m always interested in

Top 10 Board Game Companies

10. Fantasy Flight Games

Fantasy Flight Games is probably a company that’d have dropped off for a lot of people. They used to come out with a whole lot more games and a whole lot bigger announcements. But I still am interested. When I saw a Twilight Imperium Roll and Write, I was interested, even with a long play time. And Marvel Champions I still buy everything for that.

I wish they would come out with something more. A new version of Star Wars Imperial Assault? I would love to see that. Or something more original from them. Maybe a smaller version of a Descent 3.0 to go along with Descent: Legends of the Dark.

9. Thunderworks Games

Thunderworks is also just on that edge if I check everything out. I will look at any announcement because I am curious about anything set in their Roll Player World of Ulos. However, anything, like Tenpenny Park, those I’ll look at, but generally aren’t what I’m interested in. But I see them because I am curious if it is more stuff for Roll Player, Roll Player Adventures, or Cartographers.

8. CMON

CMON is either on your list or not. There is no in between I feel. Some people wait anticipating what CMON is going to announce next. Other people pledge $1 so that they can complain. That is basically how it goes on everything that CMON does. And I understand some of the complaints, I also don’t care on some of the complaints. They end up being complaining for the sake of complaining. But that isn’t the point of this article.

I wait to see what CMON comes out with next. And there is no company where they can announce a game and I will always back it or buy it. But when CMON announces a Stranger Things Game, see here, I get really excited. On the flip side, I like the idea of a big Dune battling over the planet game, but it is not one that I will back.

7. Chip Theory Games

Chip Theory Games is moving up the list for me. The more I see and mess around with their games, the more interested I am in their games. I enjoy Too Many Bones, and I think the more I dive into it the more I will like it. Then I almost backed Hoplomacus Victorum because it was a solo version of a game that I thought looked cool. And Burncycle, after watching a Brother’s Murph play through, see below, I really want to get it. Their games aren’t cheap though, so I need to pace myself.

6. Horrible Guild

Probably the biggest break or one of them, from the big games on the list is Horrible Guild. Horrible Guild does some campaign or legacy games with King’s Dilemma and then Queen’s Dilemma coming to Kickstarter. But I like their small games. Stuff like Potion Explosion, Railroad Ink, I’m so excited to be getting Tiny Turbo Cars, stuff like that.

They make games with amazing toy factor to them. And I just really enjoy sitting down and playing them. They also make games that are accessible. Railroad Ink is a bit challenging for a roll and write with Railroad Ink Challenge, but it’s not hard to teach. Same with Potion Explosion or Similo. Plus with so much fun in their games, I always want to see what they make.

5. Mythic Games

Getting back to big games, we have Mythic Games. Mythic Games has made such games as Reichbusters and Solomon Kane, but the one of theirs I play the most is Super Fantasy Brawl. I really love that game, but I mainly pay attention to their big games. Now, with that said, I don’t back a ton of their games on crowdfunding. I have backed Super Fantasy Brawl and HEL: The Last Saga, but that is it.

One of the reasons is that their rule books first time around tend to be poor. You need to get, and they do send out, a new rule book. But also because their games are big and epic and tend to have a lot with them. They are like CMON in some ways, I might want to back all of them, but I certainly don’t have room to back and store all of their games. Just between Super Fantasy Brawl and Solomon Kane that takes up a lot of space on top of a Kallax shelf.

4. Roxley Games

Last game on the list that makes that many smaller games. Though, when you get everything for Dice Throne, it certainly isn’t that small. And Dice Throne is the reason Roxley is so high on the list. They have some heavy euro games, I am not interested in those. But I want more Dice Throne. And their lighter games, I am interested in.

I really only own two games from Roxley, Dice Throne and Radlands and I need to play Radlands still. But when Santa vs Krampus came out, I backed immediately. When Marvel Dice Throne was announced, I knew I’d be all in. That is going to be case whenever they come out with anything new.

3. OOMM

OOMM is a very new company to the list. And honestly, I should likely keep them lower on the list, but we’re not talking about backing everything, we’re talking about being interested. I bought Stars of Akarios because of what it looked like after the fact. I backed Mythwind because the game looked so different.

OOMM really does something that I love in creating games that feel unique. Mythwind seems really different than anything else out there. Stars of Akarios is a big space campaign game. Do I need more space campaign games, not really but I want them. And the new legacy game they announced looks very cool as well.

2. Awaken Realms

Awaken Realms maybe could be #1, but it’s at #2 because there is Awaken Realms Lite, technically it’s own company I believe, but a lot of the same people and process. But the last two on the list, I will always look and almost always back whatever they do.

There are two exceptions for Awaken Realms. I didn’t back The Great Wall as it is a massive euro game. It looks cool, I’d love to try it, but I wouldn’t buy it. And I didn’t back Lords of Ragnarok from them. Why, because I already own and love Lords of Hellas. Lords of Ragnarok might be better, but I don’t need to own both.

1. Cephalofair Games

I doubt that this is a shock. I went all in on Frosthaven. And I love Gloomhaven. I never looked at Founders of Gloomhaven once I realized it was a euro. But Cephalofair announces something, I am interested. I hope it is more for Frosthaven, after that has been out for a bit. Or another big box game, but really, anything at this point. Even with my #1 company that I will be intrigued to hear whatever they announce, not every game will be for me.

Still, I can’t wait until Frosthaven gets here. And I even started a campaign of Gloomhaven Digital recently. It is just a fun experience to play that game and it is fun to dive back into it. And I will for sure dive heavily into Frosthaven almost right away when it shows up. I suspect we’ll be done with the final Tainted Grail expansion by then, but we’ll see.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, I’d love to know what companies you are generally interested. Which ones make games that seem fun to checkout or different. I want to know what gets you excited. And as I said, I don’t like every game from all of these companies. In fact, there are some that just miss completely for me, even though I love the company.

And that is very fair to not like everything. I talk about how CMON is polarizing, the people who love CMON don’t like everything from CMON. The people who dislike CMON will never know what they are missing out on. I think it’s more important to remember that some games are going to be for you and some won’t no matter the company. And even if you enjoy all of them, some will be better than others.

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But what gets to me isn’t when the rules aren’t clear, it’s when as a group you either need the rules to be perfectly clear or can’t come to a decision. Why, because it takes away from the fun of the game. I want to be able to sit down and play a game with some friends and have a good time. If we need to know every rule perfectly or cover every situation just write, it bogs down the game and takes away from the fun.

Here’s A Little Secret

I’ll let you in on something, no matter what you do, you probably won’t play the rules for a game with any complexity perfectly. Someone will forget to do something or do it in the wrong order. You’ll forget a step or pay to little or too much for a card. It’s bound to happen no matter what you do because, knowing a games rules perfectly isn’t easy to do, especially if you know a lot.

Let’s talk about Monopoly, these are often missed rules. Money on community chest, that’s not a thing. Don’t want to buy a property, it goes up for auction and gets sold then, even you can bid on it. Monopoly is not a complex game but it has rules that people forget or just don’t know. And that happens with almost every game. I’m fairly confident that I play all of Ohanami’s rules right, but that’s even simpler than Monopoly, beyond that, probably not many games.

But That’s Not A Problem Because Board Games Are Fun

I know this might be a surprise, but board games are supposed to be fun. I talk about this from time to time, but you play to win but winning is not the point of the game. The point of a gam, in my opinion, is to have fun. If I’m miserable the whole time, I won’t want to play again. So be fine with getting a rule wrong or if you can’t find an answer quickly making a decision quickly.

And that’s the big thing, you can maybe find out a rule by diving deep into a thirty page rule book. But that might take 30 minutes or time or more, and that isn’t fun. So what are strategies you can take to your game nights and your game table to keep on playing the games and stop reading rules?

Set A Time Limit

Set a time limit on how long players can look up rules. This can be for each rule look up or for the whole game. Don’t make it too short, thirty seconds is enough time to get a rule book out, probably not look at it. But don’t make it too long either, if it’s more than a couple of minutes, then it’s time to set down the rule book and go onto another method for deciding what the ruling should be.

Majority Rules

Next try and come to a consensus around the table. It can be done by majority or by getting everyone to agree, ideally. You’re all adults at the table so talk about it. Again, don’t take too long talking about it. This is not a chance for arguments and rebuttals. That’s probably already happened anyways. Just talk about it and decide a plan of action quickly, again to keep the fun going. If not decision is forth coming, you have three options that you can decide upon before the game.

Always The Worst Outcome

This rule comes from Kingdom Death Monster, and it’s not really a rule, it’s more something they say. In a game like Kingdom Death Monster, and a name like that, you can assume that bad stuff are going to happen. And lots of bad things are going to happen, so just assume that something bad is going to happen if you don’t know the answer. Does that monster hit you from all the way over there, can’t find that easily, the answer is then yes, it does. This works really well in games with a darker theme.

Always The Best Outcome

It might be also that you are playing a lighter cooperative game. You could be playing with kids, so pick the nicer outcome. If you don’t know what to do there is no harm is making it work out for you. The rules don’t say who gets points in case of a tie on something, you both get the points. Everyone feels better about it in the end, unless you’re playing with someone very cut throat.

Always The Most Interesting/Entertaining/Thematic Outcome

Finally, you can always just pick the most thematic option. I say interesting or entertaining as well. If the results would be hilarious if you pass or if it failed, do that. This comes up a lot in Dungeons and Dragons, don’t let the dice dictate you away from having a memorable time. And often games will help you with their theme. Especially story driven games, those give you the chance to ask the question what your character would do.

In The End Have Fun

There are more opportunities to ruin fun at a game table than you’d think. And if everyone is there with true intentions the goal is to have more fun. And if rules keep people from having fun, you and I need to adjust how we look at rules. Keep in mind that some people might try and use these things to their advantage. Trying to misinterpret the rules in a way to make them win. Don’t game with those people, they aren’t there to have fun.

How do you handle rules questions mid game at your table?

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The Games

10. A Gentle Rain

This game might feel too much just like an activity.

9. Ohanami

The decision space, while matching the aesthetic of the game, might be too simple.

8. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

You can bring the theme to the game but for a game that should have more theme it is very mechanical.

7. Apocrypha

The rule book is horrible.

6. Say Bye to the Villains

The game is too long for the stuff in the box.

5. Galaxy Trucker

Chaos and then destruction.

4. TIME Stories

You go on runs over and over again.

3. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

The game doesn’t let you do everything and you need the internet.

2. Icecool

It’s a flicking game.

1. Betrayal At House On the Hill

The scenarios are hard to understand and if a too strong a character is the traitor they can win easily.

The Beer

Last nights beer was from Bent Brewstillery out of Roseville MN. It is another brewery very close to where I live, though one I haven’t been to in a few years. They make good beer but not always my favorite beers. This one, a hazy fruited sour, O.P.P., is a very solid beer. To me, it would have been a great summer beer because of the very fruity nature. That sweetness balanced out against the tart nature of the sour for a very refreshing drink. I think that it’s getting a bit cold in Minnesota for a beer like that, but still really enjoyable.

What’s Coming Up On Malts and Meeples

Starting tomorrow I am tackling my Top 100 of all time live. The list is ready to go so every Wednesday at 8 PM from September 15th through November 17th I’ll be doing the next 10 on my list. Again that’s at 8 PM Central. Subscribe, click that notification bell and join me live as I talk about my Top 100 games of all time. That’s going to be mainly what I stream coming up here. There might be some Monday night streams, 8:30 PM Central, and those will be chats while playing a small game.

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Pros

• Based on existing game
• Established Company
• Norse theme
• Skirmish Game

Cons

• History of rulebook issues
• Skirmish Game

The Page

Monolith Games know how to create a good looking page and good looking minis. They have done a great job of highlighting it on this page. But I do have some issues with the page that knocks it down. It’s less in the content, more in the order of the content. The stretch goals take a prominent spot on the page, after the introduction. I really dislike it when companies do that. I want to know about the game first, and stretch goals while fun are an added bonus.

They do get into a lot of information on game play, which I appreciate. I’m less hesitant about the rule book and the rule set issues that Monolith is known for because this is based off of an existing game already. Though that is a downside as well, because now I kind of want the original game as well.

The Game

The game itself is interesting to me beyond the Norse theme. I tend to like skirmish games, in fact I just played Super Fantasy Brawl twice last night. But I want them to be somewhat unique. Super Fantasy Brawl keeps it super simple and easy to play. Then others like Krosmaster have a simple look to them and generally simple game play but add in a bit more complexity. This one seems to be a more complex skirmish game.

But there are elements of the skirmish that are really cool. Since you are playing as gods, you can pick up trees and terrain like that and use it as a weapon. This game looks like it should create those epic moments of story that you’ll remember for a long time. That is one of the big things that I really look for in a game, and I mean, who doesn’t want to pick up a tree and swing it around as Thor?

Back or Brick

This is a tough one. Because of the companies history I hesitated a little bit before deciding that right now it’s a Back for me. The main thing that concerns me is all of the add-ons, which I didn’t talk about before, but you want to get Odin, that’s an add-on, this game could end up being very expensive. What you get in the base game is solid for the price, especially with the stretch goals, but if you want everything, that’s $300, before shipping. Now I would just do the base pledge, but I kind of want Odin, so do I add in one add-on? Plus, I know I have an expensive Kickstarter coming up with Marvel United X-Men.

Have you played the original Mythic Battles: Pantheon? Did you like it? Are you backing or is this one a brick?

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Then, it just kind of sticks with you as something that looks interesting, and the Kickstarter starts to deliver and you start to hear about the game. Now, it isn’t without it’s issues, it’s from Mythic Games and they are known for bad rule books, in fact, they are sending backers or have digitally sent backers an updated rule book that will be going out with the game going forward. But even with that, people were still enjoying the game. In particular there are two content creators who have done several videos, 3 playthroughs actually, that made me strongly interested in the game, that is GloryHoundd and DrGloryHogg whom I’m talked about before on the channel. I’ll add their videos of them playing the game at the end of the article.

Even with that, it was a Kickstarter game, there were Kickstarter exclusives, and I wasn’t sure if it was coming to retail or not. Then, during Gen Con Online, Mythic Games announced that they were opening up a webstore and selling some of their games, and that Reichbusters was going to be coming, eventually to retail. But through their web store, you could get the Kickstarter version of the game, because they had gotten extras. So doing a little research, I figured out what was Kickstarter exclusive and ordered some of that content, so I have the base game, a terrain expansion that just adds to the look and feel of the game, and one Kickstarter exclusive expansion.

What drew me to the game, though, besides it being a campaign game? Firstly, the theme, I like the idea of being this team that is going into a bunch of secret Nazi bases, taking out the Nazis but also stopping their experiments, and Nazi zombies and mechs. But what interested me with the theme is that it isn’t just a kick down the door, roll some dice, kick down a door, roll more dice, you have to plan more than that, you are trying to make as little noise as possible, because once they know you’re there, all hell will break loose and it’ll be much harder to win, so you want to push that off as long as possible. I also like that while it is a campaign game, you can also just play in a skirmish mode. So you just want to play a single mission in the campaign, they tell you how to do that, I like it when games do that, and even though Sword & Sorcery isn’t a game I’ve played that way, I appreciate that they do it, and Reichbusters does the game thing. Do I want to play through the campaign, absolutely, but I have a lot of those games, so I like that I don’t have to, and I can pull this out on a smaller game night and play it with people.

So for you, do this game seem interesting? If you are interested in it, check out the videos that are right below, because they do a good job of selling the game and the fun of it.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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