I'm convinced this is like math trauma where people expect to fail because of bad explanations in the past.
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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100% also cause they were learning games like Monopoly or Risk which are just not even worth a well-explained teach. Also games nowadays have actual thought and research put into how they lay out their rules.
I had the unfortunate experience recently of someone trying to explain a card game without explaining anything about the overall structure and just starting with "ok so if the last person plays a 4, you have to play a 4 or better... no doubles on singles though". Like. What am I doing here? Are there tricks? Am I trying to run out of cards?
Was the game presidents? That sounds a lot like presidents lol
Yup lmao
The eight-year-old son of friends wanted to explain his favorite game to me. To be honest, I think it was too complicated for his age, but he was absolutely obsessed with it and played it with his friends all the time.
After five minutes it was very obvious he had absolutely no idea how it worked and made everything up on the spot. We did not end playing this game.
As someone who loves board games, I don't really understand why there are so many people that are "afraid" of learning new games. In most situations, it's not that painful to learn a new game! And the process can be totally worth it!
One friend sort of explained it to me. It's anxiety. They were afraid they weren't learning fast enough, or were playing badly, or other people were judging them. Fear shuts down the brain. You're explaining to them, "You can take three actions on your turn" but they're not hearing you - they only hear anxiety-fear-screams
Every time this happens, it's worse the next time. It's one more example of "humiliation" on the stack. Even if no one else thought there was anything amiss.
I prefer to read the rules in my own time. Link me the PDF in advance and we are golden.
I'm mostly the same.
I often think about one time a friend invited me to play "DND". I get there and it's revealed it's not DND, but a different RPG. I was like "ok hold on..." and spent like 20 minutes skimming the book while we all ate pizza and settled down.
By the time we started I knew the rules as well as everyone else, which was admittedly a low bar.
The authors are (typically) trying to write the rules in a way for you to understand. It's not a puzzle.
Of course, being familiar with the genre helps immensely.
Ah but consider... It's a game you know, all your friends are there, and the rules are being explained very, very badly. And you're not allowed to say anything because everyone at the table glares at you if you try to interrupt.
Satan is now six minutes deep into explaining how the corn exchange phase works, but he's not even told anyone what the objective is, the basic actions, the flow of play or anything else. He's also gotten half the rules wrong and keeps contradicting himself. Everyone's eyes are glazing over. The corn exchange phase isn't even used unless a particular faction is in play...
tbh I'd still interrupt the crap out of Satan, ignoring the glares, to ask a bunch of questions until I would feel somewhat confident that I sort of understand the rules. I know, I'd be super annoying. Or I would give up and say "shut up and let's start playing".
Supernatural punishment rules my friend. You can't interrupt, you're here for eternal damnation. Every time you do, the time loop resets, and you have to listen to the whole boring, painful, terrible rules explanation from the start.
And, obviously, it's your favorite game. You know everyone here would love it if you could just teach it properly. But you can't...
I'm the resident rules master in my group, so it's usually on me to teach. It's usually not that bad, but for complicated games I need to prep and make sure I have the rules down pretty well and know how a turn works beforehand, otherwise it can be a disaster.
Woah, great job!
It's just really boring, at least if you have adhd
Fair. In that case, if I were to teach you a board game, I'd just quickly say the game's goal and immediately start a trial run of the game, and only explain rules when I deemed them relevant, or when someone would ask something.
For more complex games, I've also made people play "simplified" versions of the game, and adding rules of the game to the mix whenever I saw that people were getting more comfortable with the game (for example, that's imo that's the best way to teach Mahjong).
I can imagine that could also be annoying to many people, not knowing how to fully play a game while playing it. But I think it's WAY better than something like people listening to every rule of the game for 20 minutes, without them interacting with the game. If I did that, they wouldn't even remember all the rules whenever they would start playing, so I don't think the explanations would be that useful at all... @~@ I also can imagine lots of people who like board games either being unable or not wanting to take the same approaches as I do with teaching board games.
Ever heard of Nightmare? It's a horror-themed board game from the 90s, it comes with a VHS tape featuring a demonic MC who barks orders randomly at players, issues dice roll challenges, and punished insubordination. Literally it's like trying to play a board game with a petty, grumpy Satan. After about 45 minutes the whole table is usually starting to consider collaboratively cheating just to end the game.
I have heard of Nightmare! And watched it played!
I'd never want to play out, but I love watching others deal with the MC(s)!
TIL: I'm Satan.
What's that, Campaign for North Africa?
Nope. High Frontier 4 All, plus all expansions. Muahaha.
Adhd huh?
Robinson Crusoe?
If someone is board game shy, I like to pull out Century. It's a fun game that's pretty short and has plenty of strategy, but best of all the rules are a single page. Quick explanation of the goal, the resources, and what you can do each turn and we're off to the races. If they're ever confused I just hand them the page and they don't have to hunt for anything, all the info is right there. Perfect board game for beginners or when you just don't feel like a 3 hour scythe campaign.