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A free self-study guide for teachers who want to learn how to use the Interactive Whiteboard to engage learners. There are 4 units, each taking 20 to 45 minutes to work through.
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What exactly are those methods? 120 tips and tricks to teach ESL for young learners like an experienced pro 50 “must read” and classroom management ideas you can master right away 50 tips for teaching fun, engaging lessons on basic topics and drills This is a 28-page, 3-column PDF e-book with teacher-tested secrets you need to reach young.
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Pay attention there will be homework.
When playing a game with players new to a game, how well the game is taught is the most important element to whether the game is an enjoyable experience or a painful one.
Most of us here on this site are the ones constantly trying to spread our hobby by introducing these games of ours to friends and family who may not be familiar click the following article such games.
If you introduce a game poorly, it is unlikely you will have earned yourself future games.
As teaching is my profession, I thought maybe it could be useful to give general pointers for how to teach a game.
I hope that the advice here can be useful to people who have never attempted to teach a game and to those who have taught hundreds.
I would not be surprised if someone has posted something similar to this before but regardless this is my take on teaching games.
In general this post is directed at teaching medium to heavy weight euro games and does not apply toward party games, card games, lighter filler games or wargames.
Examples of games that could be taught using this method include; Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Alhambra, Railroad Tycoon, Puerto Rico, Caylus, Power Grid, Agricola, El Grande La Citta, etc.
Teaching a game is about more than just going over the rules.
Your job as the teacher is to get the players to be excited about playing the game, understand the object of the game, understand how to play a turn, know a few possible strategies, and know the most important rules ALL in fifteen minutes or less before their eyes start to glaze over.
Reading the rules multiple times is a must; also it helps to refresh yourself of the rules the day you plan on teaching the game.
Ideally, you will have played the game twice or more, so that not only do you understand the basic rules of the game, you are aware of the technicalities that occur and have a general understanding of the various strategies a player may employ and the pitfalls that a new player may fall into not quite understanding basic strategies of the game.
Sometimes it may not be possible to play a game with others, with lighter weight games such as Ticket to Ride or Settlers, this may not be a problem.
However if you are playing a more complex game than that, such as a Puerto Rico, Caylus or Power Grid you should find some way to deepen your understanding of the game.
Three options to try would be playing some of the game solo, reading articles about the game online or playing the game online.
Having a general understanding of the game will make your teaching of the game and the overall game experience more enjoyable.
And now, How to Teach Games in 3 easy steps….
Which happens to be our first step, keep reading…… Step One: What is this Game About?
Let me stress this, your job is NOT to summarize the rules as written in the rule book.
But for your general average Joe who is about to play a game, here is what they want to know in fifteen minutes or less; 1.
What is this game about?
How do I play?
How can I win?
Your hook should explain the basic idea of the game in terms of the theme, including what they will be doing throughout the game and how to win the game.
In each turn we will take turns placing our workers into the different buildings in order to get resources, money and to build various buildings.
The games take place over three stages of building the dungeon, the walls and the towers of the castle.
We will score victory points for building buildings in the city and for helping to build believe, largest board game companies in the us commit of the castle.
When the tower stage is complete, whoever has the most points will be the victor!
The hook is a very general summary.
It is important you get into NO specifics yet, just one minute or less on the general idea of the game to serve as a backdrop for the rest of the explanation.
When you teach a game, show enthusiasm for the game, because if you do not seem interested in the game why should your players be?
It is very important to refer to the theme when describing the idea of the game and the basic mechanisms in terms of theme.
There ARE a few games that the theme is so irrelevant to the game that it can be ignored.
Example: Uptown But even in games where the theme is irrelevant to game mechanics, such as Through the Desert, at the very least the theme is important in adding to the FUN of playing the game especially in the first few plays.
So use the theme frequently as you explain the game.
Step Two: How do I Play?
THEN I would go back over it again and get into the details of each phase such as explaining how a roll gives resources, how one can trade with the bank or other players, what you can buy and what happens when a seven is rolled.
There are certain rules and details I will skip as they are not essential to the general play and strategy of the game until they happen.
For example in Ticket to Ride I might not talk about how the locomotives sweep until it happens.
I may not explain the cards in Railroad Tycoon until they are flipped face up etc.
This not only keeps instruction time down but it also is more meaningful to players to have these things explained when they become important in the game, instead of getting everything all at once.
You will be amazed how you can cover almost all of the rules of playing the game discussing it within the context of a players turn.
However you may also have to explain functions of cards, tiles, buildings or alternate ways to acquire victory points that are essential to the general play of the game.
I end this section of the introduction with talking about how the game is ended and reminding the players of how the game is won.
You may want to warn the players that, you have not explained all of the rules, but you have explained the most important ones in order to get started with the game.
Tell them you have only skipped ones rules that will make more sense as we get to them in the game, and should not have any affect on overall strategy.
All we can do is claim the Good Samaritan law, that we have done our best, and take their criticism with a grain of salt.
Such are the hazards of teaching games.
Grin and bear it.
Step Three: How Can I Win?
It is at this time that you will have to get the hamster running in the heads of your players, by sharing some of the different strategic paths one might try to follow for victory.
Players, especially non-gamers, need a few basic frameworks to try to follow to succeed in the game.
Games are most fun when all players are working their hardest to win the game, the competition makes it fun.
We have all played games where one or more people stop trying to win and the game rapidly disintegrates into stupidity.
The same situation can occur if someone has no idea of how to win the game, they will make seemingly random moves out of frustration.
This will make the game no fun for them and much less fun for everyone else.
This is where a basic understanding of the strategy of the game is essential.
First, I want to get to the game as soon as possible.
Second, part of the fun of games is figuring out the strategy for yourself.
But it is very helpful to give the players a starting point, to start to figure out the strategy of the game.
There are also those particular untrusting sorts who will think you are trying to trick them by suggesting bad strategies.
Your intro length will depend upon the complexity of the game.
A Settlers intro could take five minutes, A Caylus intro probably closer to twenty.
Which Rules Set, Expansions or Variations should I use?
In choosing how to play the game, if there is any beginner rules or first time rules, USE THEM.
Unless you are playing with regular experienced gamers, who you are confident will pick things up quickly, use the beginner rules.
This does not necessarily apply to rule variations that shorten the game.
Shortening the game is not necessarily what you want, but anything that takes one or two elements of complexity away from the game, will for most people make the game a more enjoyable experience and they will be more willing to play the game again with the full rules.
Here is a very important idea most people teaching a game miss, reject or intentionally or unintentionally forget….
The Teaching Games Golden Rule: When you are teaching a game, it is more important that the other players enjoy the game than if you enjoy a game.
This means click the first game….
You make think that playing with these beginner rules, dumbs down the game.
Remember the golden rule.
You may not feel the same thrills during that first game as your friends.
But try to enjoy the experience vicariously through your friends.
And think about those first games as an investment you are making in future great gaming experiences.
If busy teacher board games players feel like you are uncertain of the rules and you are making things up as you go along, it takes away from the whole validity of the game.
And worse yet you could play the game wrong.
The rules are there for a reason, if you play with too many rules wrong, the game will be a flop.
Take the two minutes and get it right.
However, grabbing for that rulebook more than a few times during the game, shame on you, you did not do your job prior to the game of developing an understanding of the game.
DO make sure players understand the rules and the basic strategies of the game.
You do want to give reminders of important rules during the game, especially if you see they are in peril of disaster during the game.
A key example is a person in a game of Settlers of Catan with 11 cards in their hand about to pass the turn.
Other things you will want to remind players of is, when scoring phases happen, what triggers the end of the game, various methods of scoring victory points etc.
If you too often suggest particular moves, you will create a situation of learned helplessness, where whenever the player has a decision to make they will look to you to tell them what to do.
Also worse, if you point a player towards a decision that benefits you, you will be seen as manipulating people new to the game in order to win, a true recipe for disaster.
Needless to say, that is not good teaching.
If a player asks for advice, explain the busy teacher board games and point out various options.
Include all options including bad options and options that may hurt you in the game.
If you do something like that you move from being a game teacher to a manipulative sleazy dirtbag.
Should I let players make mistakes?
This is how they will learn.
In one of these cases I would probably advise them against making said move.
Now say they are making a move and there is a better strategic move on the board, and they make a worse play?
Usually in cases like this I will let them make the mistake, and through the course of the game they will see how that move, negatively impacted their ability to win and they will make a better choice next game.
Give them jobs in handing out money or resources, scoring points, dealing out cards etc.
This will help them to understand those parts of the game, and increase their knowledge of the game.
For example in the game, Settlers of Catan, have all players collect their own resources or at least request which cards they should get.
If you just hand out resource cards, they may not figure out or ignore why they are receiving such cards.
To Win or not to Win?
As a teacher of the game, and at the same time as a participant you will be put in some interesting ethical choices.
The most difficult being: should you try your hardest to win the game?
This is an eternal question.
With many of these games, especially the more real board games games with a higher learning curve, an experienced player will probably be able to crush a set of beginners to the game.
Should you sandbag a game to make it closer or even to let someone else win?
Here is what I believe, you are free to agree or disagree with this opinion.
You will have to make this decision for yourself for each game depending upon the situation, but I urge you to remember the Golden Rule, whatever you do, you need to make sure that the people playing the game have a good time.
It would be nice for one of the other players to win; it will certainly increase their enjoyment of the game.
But I also believe in the game having a sense of honesty and integrity.
I do not believe a player should win the game if they played poorly.
You can show the players that skill is important in playing the game, so winning the game yourself is not necessarily a bad thing, you just have to be careful how you win the game so that the other players still have a positive experience.
Here is what I do when introducing games but as I said, you will have to make your own ethical decisions for each different situation.
In a game like Settlers, even if you are playing your best, you can lose the game due to awful dice rolls.
There is certainly no need to run up the score.
I might seek an alternative move even if it may be not completely optimal.
Once again, the second game is where you crush them mercilessly.
Now, I have heard of players, who are willing to sit out of a game and just act as teacher, without participating in the game, especially when introducing one of the more complex games.
As much as I think this is a noble idea and would certainly encourage people to try this, I personally like to play in the games and maybe I am just too selfish to do this sort of thing.
But I think there is also something to be said for having an experienced player in the game and letting the others players see how an experienced player plays the game.
Reflection is a very important part of learning.
Usually without any prompting, players will start to analyze their play.
If they give no busy teacher board games, you can prompt them a little, maybe commenting about different choices they could have made during the game, or explaining why someone did really well.
This would be a great time to point out those strategic mistakes you saw them make during the game and what else they might have done.
Be humble during this post-game reflection of the game but honest.
First of all, if you are relatively new to the game reread the rulebook and make sure that you played the game completely correctly.
It is not unusual to have at least one or two rules that were played incorrectly.
Good teachers admit when they taught something wrong.
In your next playing of the game, talk about your mistake.
As in any teaching, teaching games gets better with practice.
But practice without reflection will not make you any better.
Take the time to really think about these questions.
Many of us geeks have a hundred games or more in our closet and have not played hardly a fraction of them.
New players are reluctant to learn new games, because learning games is hard work.
We all want more players to play games with and we all want to play more of the games charlie the chocolate board game instructions our closet.
Teaching your games well is the key to achieving both of these things.
The Teaching Games Golden Rule: When you are teaching a game, it is more important that the other players enjoy the game than if you enjoy a game.
I hope you read carefully, as I said there will be homework.
Your assignment is to teach at least one game in the next week.
Good luck and best wishes in spreading our wonderful hobby to the ignorant masses.
When I started this post I had no idea I had 4000+ words to say about the topic but there it is.
I look forward to your comments on this method and these ideas.
Please share if your technique differs or if you try this technique and it works for you or does not work for you.
If this post is well-received I would like to perhaps do a series on how to teach specific games.
Please let me know if you would be interested in seeing instructions using this method the hook, the meat and the hamster for specific games.
Now get out there and teach some games!
Ryan Sturm Well thought out.
Last month I posted the "cardinal rule" of teaching games Euro's mostly and put forth the best way to teach is: "Teach the game backwards" After the overview, I start by letting everyone know victory conditions and how it ends, so everyone sees it coming, then for the most part work backwards.
Works extremely well for the 15 years I have taught games.
AND as a teacher, you also hit the "cardinal sin" Try NOT to win the game.
Sometimes its inevitable, but nothing turns off the group then winning a new game as the teacher.
Boardgamers of Reno Excellent primer on a subject near and dear to my heart!
Not that I agreed with every single point.
Your emphasis on teaching play aliens board game online free no download a turn works is uber important.
I've been taught many a game where unfortunately I was still in a fog when the game began, but because I knew how a turn went, I was able to gradually catch on to the rest of the game just because I knew the basic unit of the game: the turn.
I'm very enthusiastic for your wisdom on how to teach specific games.
So keep them coming!
I do agree with the "teach it backwards" approach.
I find that when explaining games and when learning new games making the ultimate goal clear is vitally important.
My approach when I remember is to start with "Here are the victory conditions.
Whenever I teach a game, one of the first questions asked is inevitably "How do I win?
It was a lot of fun online game flintstone board read, and as a student teacher myself, I had fun seeing the points of teaching coming out in your explanation.
My only contribution is that if I am playing the game myself, I will do my best to try to win.
The way I rationalize this is by busy teacher board games myself that people can imitate my different tactics and strategies.
For example, in Tigris and Euphrates, I disaster'ed and split an opponents kingdom in half, and then stole the half I wanted, much to the amazement of that player.
Later in the game, my opponent did the exact same thing to me, and took out one of my leaders in the process!
Oh, how quickly they learn!
To summarize, if people have an example of good play, they can more quickly understand and use those tactics to their advantage.
Excelent primer on teaching games.
I am a game explainer, simply becuase I own most of the games that we play.
I am certainly not the best, and I think I'm going to keep comming back to this article to improve my ability in this area.
How do you deal with players that constantly interupt with questions that I will get to in good order and then I will ensure that my explaination will link in all joined concepts?
I find it very hard when players force me to jump forwards and backwards in my explaination, making me very likely to miss rules.
I always allow the players to ask any question busy teacher board games I am finished with the explaination.
Thanks Aaahhh good question.
A similar thing happens in the classroom, students want to ask about something I'm going to talk about in two minutes.
I would as politely as possible say something to the effect of; "Very good question, and I'll be talking about that in a few minutes.
Why don't I finish up my explanation then if I didn't answer any of questions you have, I will happily answer them.
Hopefully that will quell it.
If they try asking again, just again remind them that this is something you will talk about, just not quite yet.
About the only thing I'd change is the order of step two and three.
I find that once you give a short general overview of the game if you dive into the specifics of how you do everything before you tell everyone what their goals are that some people can get a bit lost.
Telling players in somewhat specific terms how they can busy teacher board games before going into the meat of the rules explanation can help players begin to formulate what they are going to do in the game while you explain the details.
This is especially true of heavier games.
With lighter games the order isn't as important because the victory conditions are usually pretty basic.
I think this is one of those things that is generally overlooked but crucial to not only having fun but also getting others interested in boardgaming.
I love to read rulebooks and imagine the mechanics.
I find it most difficult, if some players already know the rules, and some don't.
The players who already know the game tend to start an unrelated discussion, often dragging the newbies with them.
I normally have no problem explaining a game like Power Grid in under 15 minutes.
But it's hard if you have vie for attention.
And another thing I haven't really mastered yet is explaining really complicated games - even to willing players.
Through the Ages is probably the next candidate, especially as the simple game is out of question - my likely players need the interactions that the advanced game offers.
Ah yes, know your crowd.
About the only thing I'd change is the order of step two and three.
I find that once you give a short general overview of the game if you dive into the specifics of how you do everything before you tell everyone what their goals are that some people can get a bit lost.
Telling players in somewhat specific terms how they can win before going into the meat of the rules explanation can help players begin to formulate what they are going to do in the game while you explain the details.
This is especially true of heavier games.
With lighter games the order isn't as important because the victory conditions are usually pretty basic.
I disagree, understanding the flow of the game and the tools you have available to use during the game are crucial in formulating you own way to win the game.
Step III is HOW to win not "what are the victory conditions".
We've all had experiences where strategies are given, but no way to figure out how to best obtain the resources to pull the strategy off.
Build a solid foundation first corethen customize the game play strategy.
STEP III is the "ok I know what the game is about, the core rules, so now I put them all together with a few strategies and I can win by doing Step 1 first, then Step 2 next with the help of this resource.
Games are meant to be fun!
I happen to skip "winning conditions.
The main thing is to have fun with the game.
That's why I don't like this kind of sentence in the rules: Object of the game - jada-jada-jada The object of the game is usually to have fun.
But that's only my opinion.
As to the ethics of winning a teaching game, my understanding is the game Go provides a perfect solution.
In go, a master playing a student will attempt to win by exactly one point.
It provides significant opportunity for the student to actually win, and provides a significant challenge to make sure the teacher has fun as well.
In Settlers, for example, playing the game so that you only allow yourself to win if at least 1 other player has 9 points is much much more of a challenge.
The ehtics of winning still eludes me.
I explained Ticket To Ride: Europe last night, and ended up winning by a handy margin 30-40 points.
I think it depends on who you're playing with, I had to also introduce these games to the underlying clurture of the society, we're all very competent, very competitive gamers, and you'll never live down 'throwing' a game.
As to the ethics of winning a teaching game, my understanding is the game Go provides a perfect solution.
In go, a master playing a student will attempt to win by exactly one point.
It provides significant opportunity for the student to actually win, and provides a significant challenge to make sure the teacher has fun as well.
In Settlers, for example, playing the game so that you only allow yourself to win if at least 1 other player has 9 points is much much more of a challenge.
I'll do it next time I teach ravenloft board how to game play like Settlers or Zooloretto.
With Puerto Rico, I guess that should be more difficult, but I'll try as well.
Thanks for the wonderful feedback everyone.
I think Stephen did a pretty good job of saying what I was just about to post.
But just to be clear.
In your hook you should be sure to mention the victory conditions of the game or how the winner is declared.
Many have raised article source point and I completely agree.
But it is near impossible to discuss strategy until the players have a general understanding of how to play the game, but right away you do want players to be aware of the victory conditions, because it will give the players a background to already start thinking about strategy as you explain how the game is played the meat.
Then you can give your little "hamster" talk of some basic strategy tips on how to win the game at the end.
And Dean, if your opponents don't mind you beating the tar out of them go right ahead.
I agree it depends upon the people playing, but if everytime you introduce a game you crush them, it may lead to them wanting to learn fewer games.
Now don't forget, Game 2 is where you crush them Thanks for the generous tips, I used them right up to get a "game explainer" microbadge, it seemed appropriate.
I think Stephen did a pretty good job of saying what I was just about to post.
But just to be clear.
In your hook you should be sure to mention the victory conditions of the game or how the winner is declared.
Many have raised this point and I completely agree.
But it is near impossible to discuss strategy until the players have a general understanding of how to play the game, but right away you do want players to be aware of the victory conditions, because it will give the players a background to already start thinking about strategy as you explain how the game is played the meat.
Then you can give your little "hamster" talk of some basic strategy tips on how to win the game at the end.
And Dean, if your opponents don't mind you beating the tar out of them go right ahead.
I agree it depends upon the people playing, but if everytime you introduce a game you crush them, it may lead to them wanting to learn fewer games.
Now don't forget, Game 2 is where you crush them Thanks for the generous tips, I used them right up to get a "game explainer" microbadge, it seemed appropriate.
I'll adopt a more 'passive' strategy, but that being said, in most games I know passive strategies that are quite powerful, so as to give the new player as much room to manouver as possible, while not appearing to the other players that I am trying to let them win.
But I agree, in the second game the gloves come off.
I would however completely avoid using terms like "victory conditions".
You are trying to teach them, not program them ;- Another challenge can be to control the enthusiasm of other experienced players around who want to share their detailed knowledge with the beginners.
I was trying to teach my wife Carcassonne, and was just beginning with the Hook, but my 7-year-old daughter was busily interjecting with various exceptions, exceptions to rules that hadn't even been mentioned yet.
So I try to start with broad general brush-strokes, and then fill in the details eg the rule exceptions after ALL of the generalities are clear.
For example, in Ticket To Ride, I don't immediately mention that you can't pick up two locomotive cards from the face-up piles.
I might not mention that rule at all until their second game, which gives the beginners an advantage over me in our first game.
In fact, I still haven't mentioned this rule to my daughter.
This is a golden treatise on the art of game teaching.
My hat is off to you sir.
Any teacher should learn that is not merely about getting the game played, but that a great game teacher is shooting much higher: "We all want more players to play games with and we all want to play more of the games in our closet.
Teaching your games well is the key to achieving both of these things.
The best person I have ever seen teach a new game is actually a geek here under busy teacher board games nametag Sagrilarus.
He is an absolute kung-fu master at it.
From observation, he uses the following pattern: 1.
He's never used it once.
He knows a game first, THEN teaches it.
I say this knowing that I am the KING of 'oh something i forgot to mention.
Just a tiny comment on how to deal with people interrupting with questions.
One thing to remember is that you're explaining the rules so that the new person s understand the rules.
It is not about showing everyone that you know the rules or that you can explain them in x minutes or that you know the best way to explain them.
Thus, although the teacher appears to be the one in control directing the discussion, the explanation should really cater to the student.
This is particularly true when there's one new person.
If I ask a question, then please answer it--otherwise something isn't making sense and I won't be able to follow the rest of your explanation as well.
I'm the one trying to learn the game so if something's bothering me, deal with it and then go back to your explanation.
Now that said, if you are in fact going to get to that point later, and it makes more sense to answer the question later, then say that as well--that's perfectly fine.
Then when you cover that point later, remind the student that here's their explanation.
Take it as a great sign that the student is following along and thinking about the game and logically https://reliance-pw.ru/board-game/payday-board-game-online-free.html about what follows.
Student interaction is a good thing.
Thought it was "The Pledge", "The Turn" and finally "The Prestige" but i stand corrected.
Two magician hamsters, voiced by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, jostle in an increasingly deadly battle for magical supremacy whilst a guinea pig, voiced by Michael Caine, tutors each of them.
Rent it on DVD for the Kids!!
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I love to watch the autonomy that goes along with playing board games. Click To Tweet. With crazy busy family schedules most of my second graders never get the chance to play board games with their families.
Enjoy!
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Bulletin Boards for Busy Teachers (Grades K - 6) [ANDREWS AND COBLE] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Book by
Enjoy!
Pay attention there will be homework.
When playing a game with players new to a game, how well the game is taught is the most important element to whether the game is an enjoyable experience or a painful one.
Most of us here on this site are the ones constantly trying to spread our hobby by introducing these games of ours to friends and family who may not be familiar with such games.
If you introduce a game poorly, it is unlikely you will have earned yourself future games.
As teaching is my profession, I thought maybe it could be useful to give general pointers for how to teach a game.
I hope that the advice here can be useful to people who have never attempted to teach a game and to those who have taught hundreds.
I would not be surprised if someone has posted something similar to this before but regardless this is my take on teaching games.
In general this post is directed at teaching medium to heavy weight euro games and does not apply toward party games, card games, lighter filler games or wargames.
Examples of games that could be taught using this method include; Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Alhambra, Railroad Tycoon, Puerto Rico, Caylus, Power Grid, Agricola, El Grande La Citta, etc.
Teaching a game is about more than just going over the rules.
Your job as the teacher is to get the players to be excited about playing the game, understand the object of the game, understand how to play a turn, know a few possible strategies, and know the most important rules ALL in fifteen minutes or less before their eyes start to glaze over.
Reading the rules multiple times is a must; also it helps to refresh yourself of the rules the day you plan on teaching the game.
Ideally, you will have played the game twice or more, so that not only do you understand the basic rules of the game, you are aware of the technicalities that occur and have a general understanding of the various strategies a player may employ and the pitfalls that a new player may fall into not quite understanding basic strategies of the game.
Sometimes it may not be possible to play a game with others, with lighter weight games such as Ticket to Ride or Settlers, this may not be a problem.
However if you are playing a more complex game than that, such as a Puerto Rico, Caylus or Power Grid you should find some way to deepen your understanding of the game.
Three options to try would be playing some of the game solo, reading articles about the game online or playing the game online.
Having a general understanding of the game will make your teaching of the game and the overall game experience more enjoyable.
And now, How to Teach Games in 3 easy steps….
Which happens to be our first step, keep reading…… Step One: What is this Game About?
Let me stress this, your job is NOT to summarize the rules as written in the rule book.
But for your general average Joe who is about to play a game, here is what they want to know in fifteen minutes or less; 1.
What is this game about?
How do I play?
How can I win?
Your hook should explain the basic idea of the game in terms of the theme, including what they will be doing throughout the game and how to win the game.
In each turn we will take turns placing our workers into the different buildings in order to get resources, money and to build various buildings.
The games take place over three stages of building the dungeon, the walls and the towers of the castle.
We will score victory points for building buildings in the city and for helping to build sections of the castle.
When the tower stage is complete, whoever has the most points will be the victor!
The hook is a very general summary.
It is important you get into NO specifics yet, just one minute or less on the general idea of the game to serve as a backdrop for the rest of the explanation.
When you teach a game, show enthusiasm for the game, because if you do not seem interested in the game why should your players be?
It is very important to refer to the theme when describing the idea of the game and the basic mechanisms in terms of theme.
There ARE a few games that the theme is so irrelevant to the game that it can be ignored.
Example: Uptown But even in games where the theme is irrelevant to game mechanics, such as Through the Desert, at the very least the theme is important in adding to the FUN of playing the game especially in the first few plays.
So use the theme frequently as you explain the game.
Step Two: How do I Play?
THEN I would go back over it again and get into the details of each phase such as explaining how a roll gives resources, how one can trade with the bank or other players, what you can buy and what happens when a seven is rolled.
There are certain rules and details I will skip as they are not essential to the general play and strategy of the game until they happen.
For example in Ticket to Ride I might not talk about how the locomotives sweep until it happens.
I may not explain the cards in Railroad Tycoon until they are flipped face up etc.
This not only keeps instruction time down but it also is more meaningful to players to have these things explained when they become snake and ladder game board java in the game, instead of getting everything all at once.
You will be amazed how you can cover almost all of the rules of playing the game discussing it within the context of a players turn.
However you may also have to explain functions of cards, tiles, buildings or alternate ways to acquire victory points that are card games to the general play of busy teacher board games game.
I end this section of the introduction with talking about how the game is ended and reminding the players of how the game is won.
You may want to warn the players that, you have not explained all of the rules, but you have explained the most important ones in order to get started with the game.
Tell them you have only skipped ones rules that will make more sense as we get to them in the game, and should not have any affect on overall strategy.
All we can do is claim the Good Samaritan law, that we have done our best, and take real dart board games criticism with a grain of salt.
Such are the hazards of teaching games.
Grin and bear it.
Step Three: How Can I Win?
It is at this time that you will have to get the hamster running in the heads of your players, by sharing twilight zone game of the different strategic paths one might try to follow for victory.
Players, especially non-gamers, need a few basic frameworks to try to follow to succeed in the game.
Games are most fun when all players are working their hardest to win the game, the competition makes it fun.
We have all played games where one or more people stop trying to win and the game rapidly disintegrates into stupidity.
The same situation can occur if someone has no idea of how to win the game, they will make seemingly random moves out of frustration.
This will make the game no fun for them and much less fun for everyone else.
This is where a basic understanding of the strategy of the game is essential.
First, I want to get to the game as soon as article source />Second, part of the fun of games is figuring out the strategy for yourself.
But it is very helpful to give the players a starting 50s board games, to start to figure out the strategy of the game.
There are also those particular untrusting sorts who will think you are trying to trick them by suggesting bad strategies.
Your intro length will depend upon the complexity of the game.
A Settlers intro could take five minutes, A Caylus intro probably closer to twenty.
Which Rules Set, Expansions or Variations should I use?
In choosing how to play the game, if there is any beginner rules or first time rules, USE THEM.
Unless you are playing with regular experienced gamers, who you are confident will pick things up quickly, use the beginner rules.
This does not necessarily apply to rule variations that shorten the game.
Shortening the game is not necessarily what you want, but anything that takes one or two elements of complexity away from the game, will for most people make the game a more enjoyable experience and they will be more willing to play the game again with the full rules.
Here is a very important idea most people teaching a game miss, reject or intentionally or unintentionally forget….
The Teaching Games Golden Rule: When you are teaching a game, it is more important that the other players enjoy the game than if you enjoy a game.
This means for the first game….
You make think that playing with these beginner rules, dumbs down the game.
Remember the golden rule.
You may not feel the same thrills during that first game as your friends.
But try to enjoy the experience vicariously through your friends.
see more think about those first games as an busy teacher board games you are making in future great gaming experiences.
If the players feel like you are uncertain of the rules and you are making things up as you go along, it takes away from the whole validity of the game.
And worse yet you could play the game wrong.
The rules are there for a reason, if you play with too many rules wrong, the game will be a flop.
Take the two minutes and get it right.
However, grabbing for that rulebook more than a few times during the game, shame on you, you did not do your job prior to the game of developing an understanding of the game.
DO make sure players understand the rules and the basic strategies of the game.
You do want to give reminders of important rules during the game, especially if you see they are in peril of disaster during the game.
A key example is a person in a game of Settlers of Catan with 11 cards in their hand about to pass the turn.
Other things you will want to remind players of is, when scoring phases happen, what triggers the end of the game, various methods of scoring victory points etc.
If you too often suggest particular moves, you will create a situation of learned helplessness, where whenever the player has a decision to make they will look to you to tell them what to do.
Also worse, if you point a player towards a decision that benefits you, you will be seen as manipulating people new to the game in order to win, a true recipe for disaster.
Needless to say, that is not good teaching.
If a player asks for advice, explain the situation and point out various options.
Include all options including bad options and options that may hurt you in the game.
If you do something like that you move from being a game teacher to a manipulative sleazy dirtbag.
Should I let players make mistakes?
This is how they will learn.
In one of these cases I would probably advise them against making said move.
Now say they are making a move and there is a better strategic move on the board, and they make busy teacher board games worse play?
Usually in cases like this I will let them make the mistake, and through the course of the game they will see how that move, negatively impacted their ability to win and they will make a better choice busy teacher board games game.
Give them jobs in handing out money or resources, scoring points, dealing out cards etc.
This will help them to understand those parts of the game, and increase their knowledge of the game.
For example in the game, Settlers of Catan, have all players collect their own resources or at least request which cards historian board game should get.
If you just hand out resource cards, they may not figure out or ignore why they are receiving such cards.
To Win or not to Win?
As a teacher of the game, and at the same time as a participant you will be put in some interesting ethical choices.
The most difficult being: should you try your hardest to win the game?
This is an eternal question.
With many of these games, especially the more complex games with a higher learning curve, an experienced player will probably be able to crush a set of beginners to the game.
Should you sandbag a game to make it closer or even to let someone else win?
Here is what I believe, you are free to agree or disagree with this opinion.
You will have to make this decision for yourself for each game depending upon the situation, but I urge you to remember the Golden Rule, whatever you do, you need to make sure that the people playing the game have a good time.
It would be nice for one of the other players to win; it will certainly increase their enjoyment of the game.
But I also believe in the game having a sense of honesty and integrity.
I do not believe a player should win the game if they played poorly.
You can show the players that skill is important in playing the game, so winning the game yourself is not necessarily a bad thing, you just have to be careful how you win the game so that the other players still have a positive experience.
Here is what I do when introducing games but as I said, you will have to make your own ethical decisions for each different situation.
In a game like Settlers, even if you are playing your best, you can lose the game due to awful dice rolls.
There is certainly no need to run up the score.
I might seek an alternative move even if it may be not completely optimal.
Once again, the second game is where you crush them mercilessly.
Now, I have heard of players, who are willing to sit out of a game and just act as teacher, without participating in the game, especially when introducing one of the more complex games.
As much as I think this is a noble idea and would certainly encourage people to try this, I personally like to play in the games and maybe I am just too selfish to do this sort of thing.
But I think there is also something to be said for having an experienced player in the game and letting the others players see how an experienced player plays the game.
Reflection is a very important part of learning.
Usually without any prompting, players will start to analyze their play.
If they give no reaction, you can prompt them a little, maybe commenting about different choices they could have made during the game, or explaining why someone did really well.
This would be a great time to point out those strategic mistakes you saw them make during the game and what else they might have done.
Be humble during this post-game reflection of the game but honest.
First of all, if you are relatively new to the game reread the rulebook and make sure that you played the game completely correctly.
It is not unusual to have at least one or two rules that were played incorrectly.
Good teachers admit when they taught something wrong.
In your next playing of the game, talk about your mistake.
As in any teaching, teaching games gets better with practice.
But practice without reflection will not make you any better.
Take the time to really think about these questions.
Many of us geeks have a hundred games or more in our closet and have not played hardly a fraction of them.
New players are reluctant to learn new games, because learning games is hard work.
We all want more players to play games with and we all want to play more of the games in our closet.
Teaching your games well is the key to achieving both of these things.
The Teaching Games Golden Rule: When you are teaching a game, it is more important that the other players enjoy the game than if you enjoy a game.
I hope you read carefully, as I said there will be homework.
Your assignment is to teach at least one game in the next week.
Good luck and best wishes in spreading our wonderful hobby to the ignorant masses.
When I started this post I had no idea I had 4000+ words to say about the topic but there it is.
I look forward to your comments on this method and these ideas.
Please share if your technique differs or if you try this technique and it works for you or does not work for you.
If this post is well-received I would like to perhaps do a series on how to teach specific games.
Please let me know if you would be interested in seeing instructions using this method the hook, the meat and the hamster for specific games.
Now get out there and teach some games!
Ryan Sturm Well thought out.
Last month I posted the "cardinal rule" of teaching games Euro's mostly and put forth the best way to teach is: "Teach the game backwards" After the overview, I start by letting everyone know victory conditions and how it ends, so everyone sees it coming, then for the most part work backwards.
Works extremely well for the 15 years I have taught games.
AND as a teacher, you also hit the "cardinal sin" Try NOT to win the game.
Sometimes its inevitable, but nothing turns off the group then winning a new game as the teacher.
Boardgamers of Reno Excellent primer on a subject near and dear to my heart!
Not that I agreed with every single point.
Your emphasis on teaching how a turn works is uber important.
I've been taught many a game where unfortunately I was still in a fog when the game began, but because I knew how a turn went, I was able to gradually catch on to the rest of the game just because I knew the basic unit of the game: the turn.
I'm very enthusiastic for your wisdom on how to teach specific games.
So keep them coming!
I do agree with the "teach it backwards" approach.
I find that when explaining games and when learning new games making the ultimate goal clear is vitally important.
My approach when I remember is to start with "Here are the victory conditions.
Whenever I teach a game, one of the first questions asked is inevitably "How do I win?
It was a lot of fun to read, and as a student teacher myself, I had fun seeing the points of teaching coming out in your explanation.
My only contribution is that if I am playing the game myself, I will do my best to try to win.
The way I rationalize this is by telling myself that people can imitate my different tactics and strategies.
For example, in Tigris and Euphrates, I disaster'ed and split an opponents kingdom in half, and then stole the half I wanted, much to the amazement of that player.
Later in the game, my opponent did the exact same thing to me, and took out one of my leaders in the process!
Oh, how quickly they learn!
To summarize, if people have an example of good play, they can more quickly understand and use those tactics to their advantage.
Excelent primer on teaching games.
I am a game explainer, simply becuase I own most of the games that we play.
I am certainly not the best, and I think I'm going to keep comming back to this article to learn more here my ability in this area.
How do you deal with players that constantly interupt with questions that I will get to in good order bgo board online then I will ensure that my explaination will link in all joined concepts?
I find it very hard when players force me to jump forwards and backwards in my explaination, making me very likely to miss rules.
I always allow the players to ask any question when I am finished with the explaination.
Thanks Aaahhh good question.
A similar thing happens in the classroom, students want to ask about something I'm going to talk about in two minutes.
I would as politely as possible say something to the effect of; "Very good question, and I'll be talking about that in a few minutes.
Why don't I finish up my explanation then if I didn't answer any of questions you have, I will happily answer them.
Hopefully that will quell it.
If they try asking again, just again remind them that this is something you will talk about, just not quite yet.
About the only thing I'd change is the order of step two and three.
I find that once you give a short general overview of the game if you dive into the specifics of how you do everything before you tell everyone what their goals are that some people can get a bit lost.
Telling players in somewhat specific terms how they can win before going into the meat of the rules explanation can help players begin to formulate what they are going to do in the game while you explain the details.
This is especially true of heavier games.
With lighter games the order isn't as important because the victory conditions are usually pretty basic.
I think this is one of those things that is generally overlooked but crucial to not only having fun but also getting others interested in boardgaming.
I love to read rulebooks and imagine the mechanics.
I find it most difficult, if some players already know the rules, and some don't.
The players who already know the game tend to start an unrelated discussion, often dragging the newbies with them.
I normally have no problem explaining a game like Power Grid in under 15 minutes.
But it's hard if you have vie for attention.
And another thing I haven't really mastered yet is explaining really click here games - even to willing players.
Through the Ages is probably the next candidate, especially as the simple game is out of question - my likely players need the interactions that the advanced game offers.
Ah yes, know your crowd.
About the only thing I'd change is the order of step two and three.
I find that once you give a short general overview of the game if you dive into the specifics of how you do everything before you tell everyone what their goals are that some people can get a bit lost.
Telling players in somewhat specific terms how they can win before going into the meat of the rules explanation can help players begin to formulate what they are going to do in the game while you explain the details.
This is especially true of heavier games.
With lighter games the order isn't as important because the victory conditions are usually pretty basic.
I disagree, understanding the flow of the game and the tools you have available to use during the game are crucial in continue reading you own way to win the game.
Step III is HOW to win not "what are the victory conditions".
We've all had experiences where strategies are given, but no way to figure out how to best obtain the resources to pull the strategy off.
Build a solid foundation first corethen customize the game play strategy.
STEP III is the "ok I know what the game is about, the core rules, so now I put them all together with a few strategies and I can win by doing Step 1 first, then Step 2 next with the help of this resource.
Games are meant to be fun!
I happen to skip "winning conditions.
The main thing is to have fun with the game.
That's why I don't like this kind of sentence in the rules: Object of the game - jada-jada-jada The object of the game is usually to have fun.
But that's only my opinion.
As to the ethics of winning a teaching game, my understanding is the game Go provides a perfect solution.
In go, a master playing a student will attempt to win by exactly one point.
It provides significant opportunity for the student to actually win, and provides a significant challenge to make sure the teacher has fun as well.
In Settlers, for example, playing the game so that you only allow yourself to win if at least 1 other player has 9 points is much much more of a challenge.
The ehtics of winning still eludes me.
I explained Ticket To Ride: Europe last night, and ended up winning by a handy margin 30-40 points.
I think it depends on who you're playing with, I had to also introduce these games to the underlying clurture of the society, we're all very competent, very competitive gamers, and you'll never live down 'throwing' a game.
As board name game marbles the ethics of winning a teaching game, my understanding is the game Go provides a perfect solution.
In go, a master playing a student will attempt to win by exactly one point.
It provides significant opportunity for the student to actually win, and provides a significant challenge to make sure the teacher has fun as well.
In Settlers, for example, playing the game so that you only allow yourself to win if at least 1 other player has 9 points is much much more of a challenge.
I'll do it next time I teach games like Settlers or Zooloretto.
With Puerto Rico, I guess that should be more difficult, but I'll try as well.
Thanks for the wonderful feedback everyone.
I think Stephen did a pretty good job of saying what I was just about to post.
But just to be clear.
In your hook you should be sure to mention the victory conditions of the game or how the winner is declared.
Many have raised this point and I completely agree.
But it is near impossible to discuss strategy until the players have a general understanding of how to play the game, but right away you do want players to be aware of the victory conditions, because it will give the players a background to already start thinking about strategy as you explain how the game is played the meat.
Then you can give your little "hamster" talk of some busy teacher board games strategy tips busy teacher board games how to win the game at the end.
And Dean, if your opponents don't mind you beating the tar out of them go right ahead.
I agree it depends upon the people playing, but if everytime you introduce a game you crush them, it may lead to them wanting to learn fewer games.
Now don't forget, Game 2 is where you crush them Thanks for the generous tips, I used them right up to get a "game explainer" microbadge, it seemed appropriate.
I think Stephen did a pretty good job of saying what I was just about to post.
But just to be clear.
In your hook you should be sure to mention the victory conditions of the game or how the winner is declared.
Many have raised this point and I completely agree.
But it is near impossible to discuss strategy until the players have a general understanding of how to play the game, but right away you do want players to be aware of the victory conditions, because it will give the players a background to already start thinking about strategy as you explain how the game is played the meat.
Then you can give your little "hamster" talk of some basic strategy tips on how to win the game at the end.
And Dean, if your opponents don't mind you beating the tar out of them go right ahead.
I agree it depends upon the people playing, but if everytime you introduce a game you crush them, it may lead to them wanting to learn fewer games.
Now don't forget, Game 2 is where you crush them Thanks for the generous tips, I used them right up to get a "game explainer" microbadge, it seemed appropriate.
I'll adopt a more 'passive' strategy, but that being said, in most games I know passive strategies that are quite powerful, so as to give the new player as much room to manouver as possible, while not appearing to the other players that I am trying to let them win.
But I agree, in the second game the gloves come off.
I would however completely avoid using terms like "victory conditions".
You are trying to teach them, not program them ;- Another challenge can be to control the enthusiasm of other experienced players around who want to share their detailed knowledge with the beginners.
I was trying to teach my wife Carcassonne, and was just beginning with the Hook, but my 7-year-old daughter was busily interjecting with various exceptions, exceptions to rules that hadn't even been mentioned yet.
So I try to start with broad general brush-strokes, and then fill in the details eg the rule exceptions after ALL of the generalities are clear.
For example, in Ticket To Ride, I don't immediately mention that you can't pick up two locomotive cards from the face-up piles.
I might not mention that rule link all until their second game, which gives the busy teacher board games an advantage over me in our first game.
In fact, I still haven't mentioned this rule to my daughter.
This is a golden treatise on the art of game teaching.
My hat is off to you sir.
Any teacher should learn that is not merely about getting the game played, but that a great game teacher is shooting much higher: "We all want more players to play games with and we all want to play more of the games in our closet.
Teaching your games well is the key to achieving both of these things.
The best person I have ever seen teach a new game is actually a geek here under the nametag Sagrilarus.
He is an absolute kung-fu master at it.
From observation, he uses the following pattern: 1.
He's never used it once.
He knows a game first, THEN teaches it.
I say this knowing that I am the KING of 'oh something i forgot to mention.
Just a tiny comment on how to deal with people interrupting with questions.
One thing to remember is that you're explaining the rules so that the new person s understand the rules.
It is not about showing everyone that you know the rules or that you can explain them in x minutes or that you know the best way to explain them.
Thus, although the teacher appears to be the one in control directing the discussion, the explanation should really game upgrades board to the student.
This is particularly true when there's one new person.
If I ask a question, then please answer it--otherwise something isn't making sense and I won't be able to follow the rest of your explanation as well.
I'm the one trying to learn the game so if something's bothering me, deal with it and then go back to your explanation.
Now that said, if you are in fact going to get to spielcasinos deutschland staatliche point later, and it makes more sense to answer the question later, then say that as well--that's perfectly fine.
Then when you cover that point later, remind the student that here's click to see more explanation.
Take it as a great sign that the student is following along and thinking about the game and logically thinking about what follows.
Student interaction is a good thing.
Thought it was "The Pledge", "The Turn" and finally "The Prestige" but i stand corrected.
Two magician hamsters, voiced by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, jostle in an increasingly deadly battle for magical supremacy whilst a guinea pig, voiced by Michael Caine, tutors each of them.
Rent it on DVD for the Kids!!
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Kids' Games. Kids' board games are always the first to lose their instructions. Always make sure you have an extra copy for some of these popular games on hand so that the game goes smoothly and everyone knows how to play by the rules.
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Games teach direction following, collaboration, and even the gift of failure. Check out the best board games for preschoolers, as recommended by teachers.
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Research about board games for kids. Some board games reward logical reasoning. For example, the game of Clue (see below) can be used as a tool to teach deductive logic (Neller et al 2006). And the game Mastermind has been used to test the aptitude of college students for computer programming (Lorenzen and Chang 2006).
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A channel about board games and games in general and how they can be used as educational tools in the classroom. I will be discussing not only how to select.
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There are literally hundreds, probably thousands, of games that you can play with your students. EFL games are used to test vocabulary, practice conversing, learn tenses - the list is endless. This list of ten classic ESL games every teacher should know will help get you started and feeling prepared.
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Pay attention there will be homework.
When playing a game with players new to a game, how well the game is taught is the most important element to whether the game is an enjoyable experience or a painful one.
Most of us here on this site are the ones constantly trying to spread our hobby by introducing these games of ours to friends and family who may not be familiar with such games.
If you introduce a game poorly, it is unlikely you will have earned yourself future games.
As teaching is my profession, I thought maybe it could be useful to give general pointers for how to teach a game.
I hope that the advice here can be useful to people who have never attempted to teach a game and to those who have taught hundreds.
I would not be surprised if someone has posted something similar to this before but regardless this is my take on teaching games.
In general this post is directed at teaching medium to heavy weight euro games and does not apply toward party games, card games, lighter filler games or wargames.
Examples of games that could be taught using this method include; Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Alhambra, Railroad Tycoon, Puerto Rico, Caylus, Power Grid, Agricola, El Grande La Citta, etc.
Teaching a game is about more than just going over the rules.
Your job as the teacher is to get the players to be excited about playing the game, understand the object of the game, understand how to play a turn, know a few possible strategies, and know the most important rules ALL in fifteen minutes or less before their eyes start to glaze over.
Reading the rules multiple times is a must; also it helps to refresh yourself of the rules the day you plan on teaching the game.
Ideally, you will have played the game twice or busy teacher board games, so that not only do you understand the basic rules of the game, you are aware of the technicalities that occur and have a general understanding of the various strategies a player may employ and the pitfalls that a new player may fall into not quite understanding basic strategies of the game.
Sometimes it may not be possible to play a game with others, with lighter weight games such as Ticket to Ride or Settlers, this may not be a problem.
However if you are playing a more complex game than that, such as a Puerto Rico, Caylus or Power Grid you should find some way to deepen your understanding of the game.
Three options to try would be playing some of the game solo, reading articles about the game online or playing the game online.
Having a general understanding of the game will make your teaching of the game and the overall game experience more enjoyable.
And now, How to Teach Games in 3 easy steps….
Which happens to be our first step, keep reading…… Step One: What is this Game About?
Let me stress this, your job is NOT to summarize the rules as written in the rule book.
But for your general average Joe who is about to play a game, here is what they want to know in fifteen minutes or less; 1.
What is this game about?
How do I play?
How can I win?
Your hook should explain the basic idea of the game in terms of the theme, including what they will be doing throughout the game and how to win the game.
In each turn we will take turns placing our workers into the different buildings in order to get resources, money and to build various buildings.
The games take place over three stages of building the sorry, mahjong board game barnes and noble consider, the walls and the towers of the castle.
We will score victory points for building buildings in the city and for helping to build sections of the castle.
When the tower stage is complete, whoever has the most points will be the victor!
The hook is a very general summary.
It is important you get into NO specifics yet, just one minute or less on the general idea of the game to serve as a backdrop for the rest of the explanation.
When you teach a game, show enthusiasm for the game, because if you do not seem interested in the game why should your players be?
It is very important to refer to the theme when describing the idea of the game and the basic mechanisms in terms of theme.
There ARE a few games that the theme is so irrelevant to the game that it can be ignored.
Example: Uptown But even in games where the theme is irrelevant to game mechanics, such as Through the Desert, at the very least the theme is important in adding to the FUN of playing the game especially in the first few plays.
So use the theme frequently as you explain the game.
Step Two: How do I Play?
THEN Busy teacher board games would go back over it again and get into the details click each phase such as explaining how a roll gives resources, how one can trade with the bank or other players, what you can buy and what happens when a seven is rolled.
There are certain rules and details I will skip as they are not essential to the general play and strategy of the game until they happen.
For example in Ticket to Ride I might not talk about how the locomotives sweep until it happens.
I may not explain the cards in Railroad Tycoon until they are flipped face up etc.
This not only keeps instruction time down but it also is more meaningful to players to have these things explained when they become important in the game, instead of getting everything all at once.
You will be amazed how you can cover almost all of the rules of playing the game discussing it within the context of a players turn.
However you may also have to explain functions of cards, tiles, buildings or alternate ways to acquire victory points that are essential to the general play of the game.
I end this section of the introduction with talking about how the game is ended and reminding the players of how the game is won.
You may want to warn the players that, you have not explained all of the rules, but you have explained the most important ones in order to get started with the game.
Tell them you have only skipped ones rules that will make more sense as we get to them in the game, and should not have any affect on overall strategy.
All we can do is claim the Good Samaritan law, that we have done our best, and take their criticism with a grain of salt.
Such are the hazards of teaching games.
Grin and bear it.
Step Three: How Can I Win?
It is at this time that you will have to get the hamster running in the heads of your players, by sharing some of the different strategic paths one might try to follow for victory.
Players, especially non-gamers, need a few basic frameworks to try to follow to succeed in the game.
Games are most fun when all players are working their hardest to win the game, the competition makes it fun.
We have all played games where one or more people stop trying to win and the game rapidly disintegrates into stupidity.
The same situation can occur if someone has no idea of how to win the game, they will make seemingly random moves out of frustration.
This will make the game no fun for them and much less fun for everyone else.
This is where a basic understanding of the strategy of the game is essential.
First, I want to get to the game as soon as possible.
Second, part of the fun of games is figuring out the strategy for yourself.
But it is very helpful to give the players a starting point, to start to figure out the strategy of the game.
There are also those particular untrusting sorts who will think you are trying to trick them by suggesting bad strategies.
Your intro length will depend upon the complexity of the game.
A Settlers intro could take five minutes, A Caylus intro probably closer to twenty.
Which Rules Set, Expansions or Variations should I use?
In choosing how to play the game, if there is any beginner rules or first time rules, USE THEM.
check this out you are playing with regular experienced gamers, who you are confident will pick things up quickly, use the beginner rules.
This does not necessarily apply to rule variations that shorten the game.
Shortening the game is not necessarily what you want, but anything that takes one or two elements of complexity away from the game, will for most people make the game a more enjoyable experience and they will be more willing to play the game again with the full rules.
Here is a very important idea most people teaching a game miss, reject or intentionally or unintentionally forget….
The Teaching Games Golden Rule: When you are teaching a game, it is more important that the other players enjoy the game than if you enjoy a game.
This means for the first game….
You make think that playing with these beginner rules, dumbs down the game.
Remember the golden rule.
You may not feel the same thrills during that first game as your friends.
But try to enjoy click at this page experience vicariously through your friends.
And think about those first games as an investment you are making in future great gaming experiences.
If the players feel like you are uncertain of the rules and you are making things up as you go along, it takes away from the whole validity of the game.
And worse yet you could play the game wrong.
The rules are there for a reason, if you play with too many rules wrong, the game will be a flop.
Take the two minutes and get it right.
However, grabbing for that rulebook more than a few times during the game, shame on you, you did not do your job prior to the game of developing busy teacher board games understanding of the game.
DO make sure players understand the rules and the basic strategies of the game.
You do want to give reminders of important rules during the game, especially if you see they are in peril of disaster during the game.
A key example is a person in a game of Settlers of Catan with 11 cards in their hand about to pass the turn.
Other things you will want to remind players of is, when scoring phases happen, what triggers the end of the game, various methods of scoring victory points etc.
If you too often suggest particular moves, you will create a situation of learned helplessness, where whenever the player has a decision to make they will look to you to tell them what to do.
Also worse, if you point a player towards a decision that benefits you, you will be seen as manipulating people new to the game in order to win, a true recipe for disaster.
Needless to say, that is not good teaching.
If a player asks for advice, explain the situation and point out various options.
Include all options including bad options and options that may hurt you in the game.
If you do something like that you move from being a game teacher to a manipulative sleazy dirtbag.
Should I let players make mistakes?
This is how they will learn.
In one of these cases I would probably advise them against making said move.
Now say they are making a move and there is a better strategic move on the board, and they make a worse play?
Usually in cases like this I will let this web page make the mistake, and through the course of the game they will see how that move, negatively impacted their ability to win and they will make a better choice next game.
see more them jobs in handing out money or resources, scoring points, dealing out cards etc.
This will help them to understand those parts of the game, and increase their knowledge of the game.
For example in the game, Settlers of Catan, have all players collect their own resources or at least request which cards they should get.
If you just hand out resource cards, they may not figure out or ignore why they are receiving such cards.
To Win or not to Win?
As a teacher of the game, and at the same time as a participant you will be put in some interesting ethical choices.
The most difficult being: should you try your hardest to win the game?
This is an eternal question.
With many of these games, especially the more complex games with a higher learning curve, an experienced player will probably be able to crush a set of beginners to the game.
Should you sandbag a game to make it closer or even to let someone else win?
Here is what I believe, you are free to agree or disagree with this opinion.
You will have to make this decision for yourself for each game depending upon the situation, but I urge you to remember the Golden Rule, whatever you do, you need to make sure that the people playing the game have a good time.
It would be nice for one of the other players to win; it will certainly increase their enjoyment of the game.
But I also believe in the game having a sense of honesty and integrity.
I do not believe a player should win the game if they played poorly.
You can show the players that skill is important in playing the game, so winning the game yourself is not necessarily a bad thing, you just have to be careful how you win the game so that the other players still have a positive experience.
Here is what I do when introducing games but as I said, you will have to make your own ethical decisions for each different situation.
In a game like Settlers, even if you are playing your best, you can lose the game due to awful dice rolls.
There is certainly no need to run up the score.
I might seek an alternative move even if it may be not completely optimal.
Once again, the second game is where you crush them mercilessly.
Now, I have heard of players, who are willing to sit out of a game and just act as teacher, without participating in the game, especially when introducing one of the more complex games.
As much as I think this is a noble idea and would certainly encourage people to try this, I personally like to play in the games and maybe I am just too selfish to do this sort of thing.
But I think there is also something to be said for having an experienced player in the game and letting the others players see how an experienced player plays the game.
Reflection is a very important part of learning.
Usually without any prompting, players will start to analyze their play.
If they give no reaction, you can prompt them a little, maybe commenting about different choices they could have made during the game, or explaining why someone did really well.
This would be a great time to point out those strategic mistakes you saw them make during the game and what else they might have done.
Be humble during this post-game reflection of the game but honest.
First of all, if you are relatively new to the game reread busy teacher board games rulebook and make sure that you played the game completely correctly.
It is not unusual to have at least one or two rules that were played incorrectly.
Good teachers admit when they taught something wrong.
In your next playing of the game, talk about your mistake.
As in any teaching, teaching games gets better with practice.
But practice without reflection will not make you any better.
Take the time to really think about these questions.
Many of us geeks have a hundred games or more in our closet and have not played hardly a fraction of them.
New players are reluctant to learn new games, because learning games is hard work.
We all want more players to play games with and we all want to play more of the games in our closet.
Teaching your games well is the key to achieving both of these things.
The Teaching Games Golden Rule: When you are teaching a game, it is more important that the other players enjoy the game than if you enjoy a game.
I hope you read carefully, as I said there will be homework.
Your assignment is to teach at least one game in the next week.
Good luck and best wishes in spreading our wonderful hobby to the ignorant masses.
When I started this post I had no idea I had 4000+ words to say about the topic but there it is.
I look forward to your comments on this method and these ideas.
Please share if your technique differs or if you try this technique and it works for you or does not work for you.
If this post is well-received I would like to perhaps do a series on how to teach specific games.
Please let me know if you would be interested in seeing instructions using this method the hook, the meat and the hamster for specific games.
Now get out there and teach some games!
Ryan Sturm Well thought out.
Last month I posted the "cardinal rule" of teaching games Euro's mostly and put forth the best way to teach is: "Teach the game backwards" After the overview, I start by letting everyone know victory conditions and how it ends, so everyone sees it coming, then for the most part work backwards.
Works extremely well for the 15 years I real dart board games taught games.
AND as a teacher, you also hit the "cardinal sin" Try NOT to win the game.
Sometimes its inevitable, but nothing turns off the group then winning a new game as the teacher.
Boardgamers of Reno Excellent primer on a subject near and dear to my heart!
Not that I agreed with themed board games single point.
Your emphasis on teaching how a turn works is uber important.
I've been taught many a game where unfortunately I was still in a fog when the game began, but because I knew how a turn went, I was able to gradually catch on to the rest of the game just because I knew the basic unit of the game: the turn.
I'm very enthusiastic for your wisdom on how to teach specific games.
So keep them coming!
I do agree with the "teach it backwards" approach.
I find that when explaining games and when learning new games making the ultimate goal clear is vitally important.
My approach when I remember is to start with "Here are the victory conditions.
Whenever I teach a game, one of the first questions asked is inevitably "How do I win?
It was a lot of fun to read, and as a student teacher myself, I had fun seeing the points of teaching coming out in your explanation.
My only contribution is that if I am playing the game myself, I will do my best to try to win.
The way I rationalize this is by telling myself that people can imitate my different tactics and strategies.
For example, in Tigris and Euphrates, I disaster'ed and split an opponents kingdom in half, and then stole the half I wanted, much to the amazement of that player.
Later in the game, my opponent did the exact same thing to me, and took out one of my leaders in the process!
Oh, how quickly they learn!
To summarize, if people have an example of good play, they can more quickly understand and use those tactics to their advantage.
Excelent primer on teaching games.
I am a game explainer, simply becuase I own most of the games that we play.
I am certainly not the best, and I think I'm going to keep comming back to this article to improve my ability in this area.
How do you deal with players that constantly interupt with questions that I will get to in good order and then I will ensure that my explaination will link in all joined concepts?
I find it very hard when players force me to jump forwards and backwards in my explaination, making me very likely to miss rules.
I always allow the players to ask any question when I am finished with the explaination.
Thanks Aaahhh good question.
A similar thing happens in the classroom, students want to ask about something I'm going to talk about in two minutes.
I would as politely as possible say something to the effect of; "Very good question, and I'll be talking about that in a few minutes.
Why don't I finish up my explanation then if I didn't answer any of questions you have, I will happily answer them.
Hopefully that will quell it.
If they try asking again, just again remind them that this is something you will talk about, just not quite yet.
About the only thing I'd change is the order of step two and three.
I find that once you give a short general overview of the game if you dive into the specifics of how you do everything before you tell everyone what their goals are that some people can get a bit lost.
Telling players in somewhat specific terms how they can win before going into the meat of the rules explanation can help players begin to formulate what they are going to do in the game while you explain the details.
This is especially true of heavier games.
With lighter games the order isn't as important because the victory conditions are usually pretty basic.
I think this is one of those things that is generally overlooked but crucial to not only having fun but also getting others interested in boardgaming.
I love to read rulebooks and imagine the mechanics.
I find it most difficult, if some players already know the rules, and some don't.
The players who already know the game tend to start an unrelated discussion, often dragging the newbies with them.
I normally have no problem explaining a game like Power Grid in under 15 minutes.
But it's hard if you have vie for attention.
And another thing I haven't really mastered yet is explaining really complicated games - even to willing players.
Through the Ages is probably the next candidate, especially as the simple game is out of question - my likely players need the interactions that the advanced game offers.
Ah yes, know your crowd.
About the only thing I'd change is the order of step two and three.
I find that once you give a short general overview of the game if you dive into the have dracula the board game think of how you do everything before you tell everyone what their goals are that some people can get a bit lost.
Telling players in somewhat specific terms how they can win before going into the meat of the rules explanation can help players begin to formulate what they are going to do in the game while you explain the details.
This is especially true of heavier games.
With lighter games the order isn't as important because the victory conditions are usually pretty basic.
I disagree, understanding the flow of the game and the tools you have available to use during the game are crucial in formulating you own way to win the game.
Step III is HOW to win not "what are the victory busy teacher board games />We've all had experiences where strategies are given, but no way to figure out how to best obtain the resources to pull the strategy off.
Build a solid foundation first corethen customize the game play strategy.
STEP III is the "ok I know what the game is about, the core rules, so now I put them all together with a few strategies and I can win by doing Step 1 first, then Step 2 next with the help of this resource.
Games are meant to be fun!
I happen to skip "winning conditions.
The main thing is to have fun with the game.
That's why I don't like this kind of sentence in the rules: Object of the game - jada-jada-jada The object of the game is usually to have fun.
But that's only my opinion.
As to the ethics of winning a teaching game, my understanding is the game Go provides a perfect solution.
In go, a master playing a student will attempt to win by exactly one point.
It provides significant opportunity for the student to actually win, and provides a significant challenge to make sure the teacher has fun as well.
In Settlers, for example, playing the game so that you only allow yourself to win if at least 1 other player has 9 points is much much more of a challenge.
The ehtics of winning still eludes me.
I explained Ticket To Ride: Europe last night, and ended up winning by a handy margin 30-40 points.
I think it depends on who you're playing with, I had to also introduce these games to the underlying clurture of the society, we're all very competent, very competitive gamers, and you'll never live down 'throwing' a game.
As to the ethics of winning a teaching game, my understanding is the game Go provides a perfect solution.
In go, a master playing a student will attempt to win by exactly one point.
It provides significant opportunity for the student to actually win, and provides a significant challenge to make sure the teacher has fun as well.
In Settlers, for example, playing the game so that you only allow yourself to win if at least 1 other player has 9 points is much much more of a challenge.
I'll do it next time I teach games like Settlers or Zooloretto.
With Puerto Rico, I guess that should be more difficult, but I'll try as well.
Thanks for the wonderful feedback everyone.
I think Stephen did a pretty good job of saying what I was just about to post.
But just to be clear.
In your hook you should be sure to mention the victory conditions of the game or how the winner is declared.
Many have raised this point and I completely agree.
But it is near impossible to discuss strategy until the players have a general understanding of how to play the game, but right away you do want players to be aware of the victory conditions, because it will give the players a background to already start thinking about strategy as you explain how the game is played the meat.
Then you can give your little "hamster" talk of some basic strategy tips on how to win the game at the end.
And Dean, if your opponents don't mind you beating the tar out of them go right ahead.
I agree it depends upon the people playing, but if everytime you introduce a game you crush them, it may lead to them wanting to learn fewer games.
Now don't forget, Game 2 is where you crush them Thanks for the generous tips, I used them right up to get a "game explainer" microbadge, it seemed appropriate.
I think Stephen did a pretty good job of saying what I was just about to post.
But just to be clear.
In your hook you should be sure to mention the victory conditions of the game or how the winner is declared.
Many have raised this point and I completely agree.
But it is near impossible to discuss strategy until the players have a general understanding of how to play the game, but right away you do want players to be aware of the victory conditions, because it will give the players a background to already start thinking about strategy as you explain how the game is played the meat.
Then you can give your little "hamster" talk of some basic strategy tips on how to win the game at the end.
And Dean, if your opponents don't mind you beating the tar out of them go right ahead.
I agree it depends upon the people playing, but if everytime you introduce a game you crush them, it may lead to them wanting to learn fewer games.
Now don't forget, Game 2 is where you crush them Thanks for the generous tips, I used them right up to get a "game explainer" microbadge, it seemed appropriate.
I'll adopt a more 'passive' strategy, but that being said, in most games I know passive strategies that are quite powerful, so as to give the new player as much room to manouver as possible, while not appearing to the other players that I am trying to let them win.
But I agree, in the second game the gloves come off.
I would however completely avoid using terms like "victory conditions".
You are trying to teach them, not program them ;- Another challenge can be to control the enthusiasm of other experienced players around who want to share their detailed knowledge with the beginners.
I was trying to teach my wife Carcassonne, and was just beginning with the Hook, but my 7-year-old daughter was busily interjecting with various exceptions, exceptions to rules that hadn't even been mentioned yet.
So I try to start with broad general brush-strokes, and then fill in the details eg the rule exceptions after ALL of the generalities are clear.
For example, in Ticket To Ride, I don't immediately mention that you can't pick up two locomotive cards from the face-up piles.
I might not mention that rule at all until their second game, which gives the beginners an brilliant download scrabble board game for pc over me in our first game.
In fact, I still haven't mentioned this rule to my daughter.
This is a golden treatise on the art of game teaching.
My hat is off to you sir.
Any teacher should learn that is not merely about getting the game played, but that a great game teacher is shooting much higher: "We all want more players to play games with and we all want to play more of the games in our closet.
Teaching your games well is the key to achieving both of these things.
The best person I have ever seen teach a new game is actually a geek here under the nametag Sagrilarus.
He is an absolute kung-fu master at it.
From observation, he uses the following pattern: 1.
He's never used it once.
He knows a game first, THEN teaches it.
I say this knowing that I am the KING of 'oh something i forgot to mention.
Just a tiny comment on how to deal with people interrupting with questions.
It is not about showing everyone that you know the rules or that you can explain them in x minutes or that you know the best way to explain them.
Thus, although the teacher appears to be the one in control directing the discussion, the explanation should really cater to the student.
This is particularly true when there's one new person.
If I ask a question, then please answer it--otherwise something isn't making sense and I won't be able to follow the rest of your explanation as well.
I'm the one trying to learn the game so if something's bothering me, deal with it and then go back to your click />Now that said, if you are in fact going to get to that point later, and it makes more sense to answer play aliens board game online free no download question later, then say that as well--that's perfectly fine.
Then when you cover that point later, remind the student that here's their explanation.
Take it as a great sign that the student is following along and thinking about the game and logically thinking about what follows.
Student interaction is a good thing.
Thought it was "The Pledge", "The Turn" and finally "The Prestige" but i stand corrected.
Two magician hamsters, voiced by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, jostle in an increasingly deadly battle for magical supremacy whilst a guinea pig, voiced by Michael Caine, tutors each of them.
Rent it on DVD for the Kids!!
Today's e-book of the day is... Complete Classroom Control: Classroom Management Secrets Every Teacher Should Know This is a book filled with tips to help you “learn” the ESL classroom, from dealing with the unique problems of language learning students to becoming a more efficient ESL teacher.
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🍒 689 FREE ESL board game worksheets
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This is a present continuous board game with easy verbs, I normally use it with my 10 year old children. Students say a sentence according to the picture and also its symbol (tick or cross)
Enjoy!