My nephew said he 'beat' a board game by reading the rulebook first

He's 12 and we were setting up a new game last weekend. He said he wanted to 'beat the learning curve' before we even played, so he read the whole book cover to cover. It took him like 45 minutes, but he taught the rest of us after. I always just dive in and figure it out as we go, but his way saved us a ton of time and arguments. It made me think maybe my usual 'learn by doing' method just makes game night harder for everyone. Has anyone else switched up how they learn new games because of something someone said?

3 comments

3 Comments

skyler21715d ago

That kid just turned game night into a boring class. The messy first play is the whole point, like laughing when someone messes up a move. Reading the book first kills the surprise and the fun of figuring it out together. It feels like you're just following a script instead of actually playing a game. You might save time, but you lose the best part, the silly chaos that makes it memorable.

matthew_walker15d ago

Honestly, that kid is onto something. My group used to be all about the chaotic first play, but it just led to the same old fights about edge cases. We wasted a whole night on Scythe once because nobody knew how the encounters worked, and it ruined the mood. Now we make one person read the book first, like your nephew. It feels less like homework and more like getting straight to the fun part.

the_laura15d ago

Wait, is reading the rules really "beating" a game? I feel like half the fun is the messy first play where everyone gets a rule wrong (and then argues about it). Your nephew's way is probably more efficient, but it sounds like skipping to the end of a movie.