My friend told me my game explanations are way too long and it's killing the vibe

He said I spent 45 minutes explaining the rules to Scythe before we even touched a piece, and everyone was checked out. Now I use a 10-minute timer and jump straight into a practice round. Anyone else get called out for being the over-explainer?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliot_allen652mo ago

My old Dune Imperium teach was a 25 minute lore dump before we even got to the combat phase. I had to start putting sticky notes over my mouth. The timer is a lifesaver, lets you fix mistakes as they come up instead of front loading every possible edge case.

the_barbara2mo ago

Yeah, the "front loading every possible edge case" thing is a real trap. I read a board game teaching guide that called it the "fire hose method" and said it just makes people forget the basic rules. It's better to just start playing a simple round.

ivanb417d agoMost Upvoted

The 10-minute timer is basically a board game intervention at this point. I had a friend who'd do a full history lesson before every game of Twilight Struggle like he was teaching a Cold War seminar. We started timing him and the longest "quick overview" was 47 minutes. Now we just hand him the rulebook and tell him to read aloud while we set up the pieces, he barely gets past page 2 before someone yells "we got it, just roll the dice.