Tried two ways to teach my non-gamer friends Catan and one worked way better

Last weekend I had two different groups over, and I tried two ways to teach Settlers of Catan. With the first group, I just set up the board and started explaining all the rules at once, like how to trade, build roads, and get victory points. They looked totally lost after about five minutes. For the second group, I did something different. I set up a simple three-player board with basic numbers and just said 'the goal is to get to 5 points first, let's just play a few turns and I'll explain as we go.' We played a short game to 5 points, and they picked it up so much faster because they could see how the pieces moved and the dice worked. The difference was huge. The first group never really got into it, but the second group asked to play a full game right after. Has anyone else found that a short practice round is the best way to teach a new game?

2 comments

2 Comments

nelson.gavin1d ago

You explained all the rules at once?

lucas631d ago

Yeah, I used to dump every rule up front too. It just made people tune out. Now I give them the one rule they need right now, then add more as we go. It actually works way better for keeping everyone on track.