Debate: Do you teach new players every single rule upfront or just wing it as you go?

I started running games for total newbies and found that explaining everything before we start kills the energy, but skipping stuff leads to arguments an hour in. What's your take on this?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricialee21d ago

Tessa's point about core philosophy saved my table from a rules war last month.

the_tessa26d ago

Ugh, this is such a common problem! (And I feel your pain, trust me.) But here's an angle I haven't seen anyone bring up yet. Instead of teaching rules OR winging it, try teaching the game's core philosophy before you start. Like, for a heist game, explain that the whole point is to be clever and take risks, not to memorize every rule about climbing or hiding. Then when a weird situation comes up, you just ask "does this feel like a clever risk or a boring safe play?" and let that guide your call. It stops arguments cold because everyone agrees on what the goal is before they even touch a die. Plus, it makes teaching later rules way smoother since players already get why those rules exist.

danielr9426d ago

Wait, so you're saying I could actually avoid the hour-long rules dump before a game and just... not teach them the climbing rules right away? That's wild but honestly kind of genius. I've been torturing my friends with boring rule explanations for years and this whole time I could have just been like "just do cool stuff.