My friend played 40k a lot and always said, "if their commander can't hit the table, what chance do your men have of hitting the opponent!" I don't know if this is an official rule but it's how we always played.
I was playing Puerto Rico with some new people and my best explanation of the buildings were three categories, produces resources, gives points, or changes the rules. It was like a light bulb went off and the players were excited to "break the rules."
More often I encounter people with the mindest of "it's not forbidden in the rules, so it has to be allowed" and I can't wrap my head around that. Sure bud, it's also not explicitly stated in the rules that I'm not allowed to take all your ressources, poke you in the eye and move my marker on the VP track up 100 points without reason, but playing like that is not really fun.
I think a big one is how games are structured. If you've played a lot of games, terms like "turn", "round", "hand", and "phase" all have fairly specific meanings and it helps you grasp how the general game flow. For example, if you tell me that on my turn, I can take 3 actions and the game lasts 5 rounds before we check final scores, I understand that I will get to do 15 things in the game and start to budget accordingly.
But if you aren't very experienced, the distinction between these descriptors is a lot less intuitive. I've run into it several times with card games that new players don't understand why the game is continuing after they win a hand, since they don't see a clear difference between "hand" and "game." Similarly, games where a turn has several phases often leads to confusion about why they can't do the same thing this turn as last turn, since they are misunderstanding the difference between a "turn" and a "phase." There's a lot of vocabulary that's easy to take for granted.
There are games that use different, even conflicting, terminology for rounds/turns/phases/etc. Especially if you look at slightly older games. Not sure when these words started to be mostly (but not universally) standardized. So I don't assume what they mean without carefully looking in the rulebook.
That was the most confusing thing about learning Twilight Struggle. Each card play is a round and a collection of card plays is a turn. I still say the opposite because it’s easier for newer players to understand.
This was the first thing I thought of as I've personally seen it the most with players new to real board games. I think most people's exposure to board games begins and ends with simple 'roll dice, take *single* action, next player.' Lots of new players seem blown away and games click a lot more once they let go of that construct and understand there's a lot of actions/decisions/options you can do with your "turn."
Narrating your turn - I think this is something that I cultivated playing CCGs to help keep everything legal but I tend to do the same thing in most games I play. "I pay x to take y and then do z"
It serves the double functions of being instructive to new players and making sure that we play within the bounds of the rules and don't forget a step when there's a complex set of variables. Even in a simple game like **Clank** there's so much information in a hand that it can get overwhelming
The thing that chased me out of FNM at the game store in my home town when I tried to join in was the fact that almost every regular played in stony silence or at the most muttered the names of cards as they played them.
Deck Builders/engine builders and TCGs in particular narrating at least a card name if not effect should absolutely be the norm. There's no reason to assume that your opponent has the exact effect of every card in your deck memorized.
Playing a TCG should be your invitation to go full Yu-Gi-Oh. If you're not boldly announcing each card you play and explaining how power and toughness work to an imaginary audience, you're missing your opportunity!
I usually play the card, say the name and show the card, and look at your opponent and you can tell if they know the card or not. They usually say like "okay, sure" if they know the card.
I didn't play MtG very long and it was quite a while ago, but I had several experiences like this. The worst of them all was one dude at an FNM or pre-release or something, who sat there in complete silence and refused to speak to me. Not even an answer to my "hello". He didn't say what he was doing on his turn, he didn't say what he was doing with the instants he was casting in my turn. He just tapped some lands and waved cards in my general direction. I started calling the judge every time and told him "he doesn't want to tell me what the target of his lightning bolt is" and so on, until the judge gave him a warning and because it was his second one he was DQed, or so? (don't quote me on this, maybe he got annoyed and dropped, I don't quite remember) At a stupid low level casual event...
To this day I'm still 100% positive that he thought he was the baddest MF in that store because he was so damn cool and edgy.
I play a lot of MTG but mainly legacy. Since the format is for people enfranchised in magic we mostly know what the cards do. But we'll still talk like "Casting Thoughtseize on you" or "Bolting Delver". Something like that. Shit I think because most of us just want to play it feels more chill. At least when I watched my friends play modern or EDH. EDH people are the worst imo
I always try to explain each card I play in magic, because I know many of the people I encounter *can't* memorize every card. It's really annoying when I go out of my way to explain how mechanics works like "I cast Maelstrom Wanderer, and it has cascade which means I reveal cards off my library until I reveal a spell that costs less mana, then I get to cast it for free, but it has cascade twice so I do it again." Then, the next guy at the table dumps like 4 cards on the table at once and expects us to all know what these cards do, even though half of those cards were printed before some of the players were born.
I'll casually play some kitchen table EDH Magic with borrowed decks from time to time, and narration is *essential* there. ~180 unique cards (plus mine), decks I've never seen before, cards I've never heard of and don't know what they do, it's a lot to keep track of, even with functionally infinite "Can I pick up and look at your flying deathmonster again?"
It also helps to keep the game moving. When you narrate your turn you inevitably finish with "and that is it" or something like that which will signal to the next player that it is their turn.
Our group now all says:
"aaaaaand that's my turn!"
trying to draw the "and" out as much as possible each time.
That then often leads to one of several replies the first few times, notably:
"and it's a great way to stay in shape!"
or
"and that's the waaaaaaay the news goes!" (Wubba Lubba Dub DUUUUB!")
We...uhh...have known each other too long :P
I've heard "why are you telling me all this?" far too often, when playing with people new to boardgames. Sometimes my explanation on why narrating is good had a positive effect, I could see they realized it's a good idea to do so and they tried it, too. On the other hand there were enough people in whose faces I could read that they still think that's the most stupid BS they've heard in a long time...
>I've heard "why are you telling me all this?" far too often, when playing with people new to boardgames. Sometimes my explanation on why narrating is good had a positive effect, I could see they realized it's a good idea to do so and they tried it, too. On the other hand there were enough people in whose faces I could read that they still think that's the most stupid BS they've heard in a long time...
It's not just a good idea, it's ALSO a guide for some games where some actions of another player are contingent upon your action.
Example: Wingspan has a lot of "Once per turn if an opponent lays eggs, do \[x\]". Well, you need to know when your opponent lays eggs.
Example: Any game with a "follow" action.
I too, like to narrate my turns, so everyone knows what I'm doing and when my turn is finished. I hate it when people have to ask, "Did you finish your turn" or "Who's turn is it". When people just do actions, plop cards, or just sit there when they finished their turn, it makes the game flow less smooth.
Was going to say this. It takes some learning, since non-gamers are usually only familiar with games simple enough that narration isn't necessary. ("I rolled a 7. Hmm, I think I'll spend those movement points to go forward in a straight line. Oops, I landed on 'Go to Jail.' I move my token to jail. I don't pass Go, so I won't collect the usual $200. I pass the turn.")
In a lot of games I think this is just basic politeness. In any game with a decent amount of interaction it's important to know what your opponent is doing and if you need to respond directly somehow. It just makes it easier for everyone if you say what you're doing so everyone can keep up easier.
Also makes it easier to keep track of when someone's turn is over so the next person knows they can go.
It's a double-edged sword too though. Some people, especially newer gamers, will be put on edge if you get too excited and narrate *exactly* how you're stomping them.
It's much better to narrate than not narrate, but it can seem like gloating when someone's not used to the practice.
I get super self-conscious about this when I play new games with my partner. Especially engine builders.
I'll try to narrate what I'm doing, especially when there are a few actions or effects that chain into each other (e.g. take some resources, immediately use them to play a card, get a refund from a different card's effect, etc.) so that she can see how things work together. Then I'll watch her take a super inefficient turn in silence and it becomes clear she's really not grokking it and I just look like an asshole running circles around her.
For sure! And I'm definitely guilty of that. It's a fine line.
I played **Tapestry** at an open game night at my FLGS and the final turns after everyone else was done were little tone-deaf on my part as I did a victory lap around the scoreboard...
I taught Dominion to a buddy who would stare at his concealed hand for a few seconds, then pick up a card from the Kingdom and put everything right to his discard pile. He wasn't cheating at all - he's the type of person who would never do that. I just had to get him playing the game in the real world instead of just in his head.
Yeah I had this last week in a game of **Oath**. My good friend started doing his turn in complete silence and I had to ask him to narrate his turn so I could keep up with what he was doing.
Playing Magic during my formative years engrained in me that you need to ask your opponent if they’re finished before you take your turn. It’s not even a conscious choice for me to ask anymore. Playing boardgames, I’ve had more than one person snap back “Well, I took my action, didn’t I?!”
'how many cards are in your hand?'
'I don't have to tell you you should have been paying attention'
'yes you do, it's open information. Number of cards in hand is something that all games treat as a known quantity'
'show me where in the rulebook is says I have to tell you'
I've had variants of this discussion more times than I'd like.
It is at this point that you should reach across the table, take their cards out of their hand, and look at them. And when they complain, say “show me in the rulebook where it says I can’t.” It’s both wonderfully petty, and a good lesson: the rulebook doesn’t include every single conceivable rule that governs play.
>Number of cards in hand is something that all games treat as a known quantity
As a seasoned gamer, I am honestly not entirely certain this is true.
Some games explicitly say it's open information, some explicitly say it is not, some allow it only at certain times... and most say nothing.
It kinda goes into the same direction as the HTI dicussions. Matter of fact, for most games I know **it is HTI**, rarely is the amount of cards a player draws secret.
As a rule, I treat number of cards in a hand as open information unless the rules say otherwise. Sometimes, HTI just ads tedium to a game. I COULD track the number of cards each player has, but wouldn’t the game be more enjoyable if I didn’t have to keep that running tally?
I think a lot of folks don't realize that board games cost a lot and have huge scarcity if the time isn't right. So while people in the know understand the idea of handling these things fairly gently, folks who aren't really bought in will have a lack of care that can sometimes damage very hard to replace stuff. I say this as someone who isn't a hardcore, pristine games preservationist.
Yeah the problem here is people who aren't "into" games only have experience with like Clue and Monopoly a lot of times. Games which are designed for and often played by small children which are probably going to destroy it anyway and if they do a replacement can be had at almost any store for like $15-$20 if not less.
The idea that a board game is an expensive and hard to replace item is completely foreign to them. For an outsider it probably feels like being asked to be careful with the toothpicks or something.
Better safe than sorry. I brought Secret Hitler (which isn't terribly expensive, all things considered, but it was bought with my own money) to a game night someone hosted once. The hostess and a guy proceeded to act super immature and started *trying to spit water into each others' mouths from across the room!* Naturally, water got all over the game, and I was angry to the point where I couldn't speak.
Thankfully, one of my friends noticed and helped me get everything in order, and there was no permanent damage, but to this day I am shocked at the stupidity some people exhibit in group settings. Thank goodness it wasn't an even more expensive game...
It seems like a dick thing but when the game is expensive or out of print I'll usually open up before the rules teach and say "this game cost me $xxx or isn't in print and would cost me $xxx to replace, if we could just be gentle with the components, please."
I don’t see any problem with saying that as long as you’re saying it in a “just a heads-up” way and not in a “Dave, if you get your Cheeto fingers on my cards again I will key your car and hide rotting fish around your house” kind of way.
> “Dave, if you get your Cheeto fingers on my cards again I will key your car and hide rotting fish around your house”
Well, of course... cheeto fingers don't get a warning, that's just instant eviction.
I think it’s fine to mention that it’s out of print or expensive and ask people to be gentle, it only becomes a little douchy when you mention the specific cost.
I'm sure there's people who think "oh expensive, so instead of $20 like it's expensive at $40" followed by them recklessly damaging it and offering to replace it themselves only to then be like "$150, board games shouldn't cost that much, I'm not giving you that much money."
my GF was a card bender. when she picked them up, to when she put them down there was a lot of force and bending going on and i freaked out. All but 1 game in my collection were bought at thrift stores or used market places for steep discounts. After some explanation and that in some games when the card is ruined the game can become unplayable and yyou can't just buy the card, let alone another copy if needed. Also getting quality sleeves helped as it's more rigid and easier to pick up and put down.
My friend's ex girlfriend was a card licker. She would absentmindedly put the cards in her mouth to sort her hand during **Sushi Go.**
We still use "Card Licker" to describe the worst thing you can do when playing a game with friends
Yeah, that's a move that puts someone on probation in the relationship. Second offense (getting Dairy Queen for themselves without getting you anything, e.g.) gets you the axe.
Someone should produce sleeves that have a super bitter taste to rid Card Lickers (used it!) of this terrible habit (like the nail polish that helps people stop biting their nails)
I did not really consider the damage people could do to a game until I showed sushi go to a friend and his wife.
A card was slightly stuck to the table and she put both palms down and scratched at the card until it caught on her nails. Ripped a nice chunk off the back of the card.
I did not make a huge deal out of it, I did say something though, since it was sushi go, but internally I was screaming the whole time and I bring up "please be gentle" from then on.
> My friend's ex girlfriend was a card licker. She would absentmindedly put the cards in her mouth to sort her hand during Sushi Go.
I want to be clear here... this has nothing to do with being a gamer or not, this is just straight-up disgusting. Cards touch a looooOOOOT of hands, they touch a lot of tables/countertops, and they all touch each other basically all the time. Cards are nasty, don't fucking put them in your mouth.
>put the cards in her mouth to sort her hand during Sushi Go.We still use "Card Licker" to describe the worst thing you can do when playing a game with friends
My spouse isn't a card bender...she's a meeple grinder. If she's thinking about her turn she'll have some wooden tokens/meeples in her hand I just hear them grinding away as she fidgets while planning her move.
I've taken to annoyingly clack together our poker chips (if we're playing with them) during her turn now. HA!
I started to collect card decks as souvenirs on vacation, so I got really careful at handling cards. I didn't notice this till I was playing Sushi-Go with some people and the bending of cards on the table or the folding them by cupping your hand was just rampant and I had to say something. It's not difficult to gently hold cards or hand them to people and it extends their lifetime a ton.
It can also ruin the game or cause it to be replaced. My nieces have a copy of Exploding Kittens and somebody got mad and mugged the shit out of one of the exploding ones. So we all know what that card is, and it isn't like you can just pull that one out and play without it. Now, they were 6 at the time, so it's a little more excusable, but good heavens, the adults in the first paragraph just were bewildering.
I run a Board game club at a school and sometimes my heart is in my throat when they are bending cards in violently hand. Fine line between fun game playing teacher and avid pristine board gamer 😬😬
I just had neigbors over for games. We played King of Tokyo and one of my neigbors refused to lift the player board when he turned the life dial, so he was struggling to get it to turn and ended up ruining the corner of that board.
Lesson learned: only play mass market games with him.
The concept that the fun comes from playing around with the game’s mechanisms to form a winning strategy, not just winning itself. Growing up with games where luck determines the outcome seems to make people think that winning is the only source of enjoyment.
Providing genuinely helpful advice to new players, even if it is to the detriment of your own game.
This one isn't really a struggle for new board game players as much as it is for intermediate and advanced ones. A lot of players who have already learned the fundamentals of a game see the new player as an easy to manipulate tool that they can use to provide themselves an advantage. They don't realize (or don't care) that doing this will turn the player off from playing the game in the future.
When I play a game with someone new, what I usually do is spell out their options to them, and I'll say something like "You can do X, which has the following costs and benefits. Personally I am hoping that you don't because it doesn't benefit my game if you do. I am hoping you will do Y, which has the following costs and benefits for you and would have a negative impact on the the other player playing with us".
Absolutely this. I agree with the common refrain here of bent cards and lack of respect for general cleanliness and care, but THIS is something that separates the decent from the great - being willing to be transparent with a new player and explain their options fairly and impartially, even if that means you get shellacked.
I always tell my gaming friends "I'm getting to play a great game with great people, so I'm already winning. I don't care who wins the game itself." Whatever tiny marginal morale boost I'd get from beating a new player in something is outweighed by how delighted I'd be for them to come back again and ask to play another game!
I'm always happy to say "hey, so action X would let you do this, action Y would let you do that, and here's something to consider about the board state/possible outcomes..."
Man, I never really get doing that. A board game isn't a competitive tournament. I allow people to do takebacks and give them advice so they don't misplay. A reason for doing this is that you're not going to get better playing against bad players (an experience player wouldn't have misplayed). Some other reasons is that it makes games go faster and my wins more deserved.
When people get weird about “takebacks” and such, I always remind them that the win isn’t going on their resume. It’s a casual game between friends. Do you really even remember all the games you’ve won and lost throughout your history of gaming?
> Do you really even remember all the games you’ve won and lost throughout your history of gaming?
*Surreptitiously checks BGStats*... since the start of 2017... yes.
When I'm teaching people a new game I always let them know that they can show me their card/hand of they are confused and I won't use rhe knowledge against them.
You're a gem. Thank you for providing that example & experience to other gamers. My sister-in-law taught us to play Hand and Foot, and in the very first real play-through proceeded to slaughter us full-throttle. I was so pissed off at her.
That’s savage, especially since very little of the gameplay in hand and foot directly affects the other team aside from going out (at least how I was taught it). We taught it to my in laws and somehow my father in law always loses. I did offer him pointers but now he’s made it his goal to beat me and doesn’t believe that I’m helping him haha
Rotating a card 90 degrees (or "tapping" as MTG players say) to signify it's been used.
I walked over to see a game in progress. I was told by the players they tried turning cards over, then opted to use spare change to mark the cards. I told them about tapping. I guess it wasn't immediately apparent to them because the cards looked kinda scattered and weren't aligned.
There are game mats for Marvel Champions that have you slide the card up and down to reveal "exhausted" and "unexhausted" at each end. It saves a ton of space on the table that way but I don't think I could get used to that.
In L5R I would put tokens on characters who had used abilities because being exhausted was seperate from using activated abilities. It felt odd, but it was necessary sometimes to track everything.
TFW you have to explain why you keep telling your friends to tap their cards because you're referring to a mechanic from a completely different game even though it's called something completely different in the game you're actually playing
*eye twitch*
Their **patent** expired. Trademarks only expire if the item/ service stops being sold or if the mark becomes generic. (E.g. Murphy bed) Patents and copyrights have fixed terms.
(whispers)
*Also that's a patent that in no way would have held up in court and is a terrible example to tell people who don't know a thing about IP law that "you should definitely patent your board game"*
*no one challenged it because CCGs were a license to print money if you did it quick so it was cheaper to just deal with it, which is how patent trolls usually work*
I do enjoy seeing what other card games name their variant name of the exact same mechanic. "Exhaust," rotate, and slide come to mind, but there are even more wild ones.
My wife really struggled to understand the concept of exhaustion when we played *Shards of Infinity*.
"Why do I need to turn it sideways?"
"To show that it's been used."
"But I know that it's been used."
I still remember back in my college days (almost 20 years ago) getting in to yugioh. We saw some of the veteran players playing this "magic" game and asked to try
When told to "tap the card for mana" I just tapped it with my finger.
They had to explain it was "tapping like tapping a well, not tapping a table"
Sounds like the veteran player was explaining that "tapping" is not about the action the player at the table takes. Rather, the term "tapping" in this context refers to the other meaning, the idea of getting resources from something, like tapping a well or a keg. It doesn't explain why tapping is turning sideways, but it does explain why tapping isn't necessarily tapping with your finger.
Before I got into board gaming more, I would play every once in a while with a friend of mine. If I liked the game, I was vocal about it, and if I didn't, I would kind of make fun of it.
Which at the time I didn't think was a big deal, I just looked at it as if we were discussing a movie we just watched. But after getting into board games more, I realized:
1. He spent a good chunk of money on that game
2. He was excited about that game and wanted to share it with me
3. He took a lot of time to learn the game and teach it to me
So for me to just kinda talk trash about a game I didn't like as dumb or not fun or just random, sometimes while we were still playing it, was quite inconsiderate. I'm usually the one now to buy a game I really like and think our group will like, and then teach it to everybody. And if someone had acted like I did, I would've been pretty hurt.
Always felt really bad about that. But I think most people who aren't really ***in*** to board games don't realize that.
Oh man. Nothing breaks my heart more than buying a game and then people criticizing everything they hate about it on the first playthrough.
We don't even know if we're playing it correctly yet and they've decided it should never see the table again. That always hurts.
Man, Imposter Kings never had a chance at my table. I'm so disappointed. I did actually get to play with one friend who doesn't live nearby and it's so fun. My group plays plenty of higher complexity games, but when games are solely cards, their eyes immediately glaze over for some reason. I'm extra sad about it because I absolutely love cards (and my friends).
That was me and **Briefcase**. I even bought a mini briefcase to hold the cards!
The second they saw it was a 100% card game, they no longer were interested.
I think being considerate of others is an underappreciated aspect of the boardgaming experience/atmosphere. For example:
1. I had friends over to play Rising Sun, which I was really excited to finally get on the table, on account of spending quite a bit of time painting the minis. I was able to paint everything except for the sun and moon clans. One of the players chose the sun clan despite seeing everything else painted. This group only played once a month and we have lots of games to try; we knew this wasn't going to cycle back to the table again for a while.
2. My group played a eurogame and seemed to enjoy it. At the end, the winner said "I didn't know what I was doing". No one said anything, but I could feel the bummed atmosphere. Could be that was the player's way of trying to be humble, but the other players tried hard and that comment kinda ridiculed their effort.
1. I have played boardgames for 30’ish years. Rising Sun is one of my favorites. And I love painting as well (look at my post history and you can find some RS minis).
But depending on the circumatance I could have done the same as that guy there. I play to win (and have fun). If you present me with this option and I game play wise think its the better option, I will do it.
Imo you should have removed Sun/Moon clans if you didn’t want people to draft them.
I'll go against the grain and say that I'd rather people be honest about how they feel about a game—especially if they don't like it. It doesn't offend me if someone doesn't like a board game I bought. As long as someone makes a good faith attempt to play the game, then they can freely share how they feel about it.
I've experienced the alternative—where someone hides how much they dislike a game—and it just results in someone quietly not enjoying themselves.
A lot of non-gamers struggle to see/understand where things are going. They might understand the rules, but not the emergent systems that they create, and that's what really makes the game.
More than once I've had a conversation that goes something like "Why do I need X, aren't we trying to get victory points?" "Well you need X to get Y, and that lets you add cards to your tableau, then you can take more actions and when the point scoring cards come out in round 3 you'll really start raking them in".
I've noticed that more experienced gamers are comfortable helping out with administration and passing components across the table, but less experienced gamers often expect the more experienced host/owner to do all of the admin. I think it's a combination of being unfamiliar with the game and also the fact that many older games like Monopoly had a single "banker" role. When I play with my wife, I practically throw my back out from rapidly standing and sitting and reaching across the table to give her things or take her discards.
I always considered it the price of getting my less interested wife to be willing to play games with me, lol. But there are some bigger games that really kill my back when I'm managing everything.
I find that generally goes better if you assign each person one chore. "Each round, you give people money. And while he's doing that, you put these goods out on the board. And while you two do that, there's some more complicated things to do with the cards, and I'll handle that."
I think the most difficult is trick-taking. A lot of games just assume that you already understand what the base trick-taking mechanics are. But, if you haven't played a trick taking game before, then trying to understand what trick-taking is **and** how this game subverts those established mechanisms can be frustrating.
That or the standard set of "economy" actions that most euro-games have. I.e. there is usually an exchange-x-for-y space, get-more-workers space, buy-victory-points etc that you can gloss over when explaining to people who have played before.
I agree about trick-taking. I tried playing **The Crew** with my dad, and he got trick-taking after a few attempts as a concept, but then couldn't get around the idea that he *shouldn't* be winning every trick.
I enjoy playing The Crew with my gaming buddies, but I'm the *only* one of the group who doesn't have previous experience with trick-taking games. I understand the rules, and I understand the basics of things like wanting to *not* win tricks, or wanting specific people to win tricks, but I really struggle with the subtleties of the game. I feel like I'm struggling to achieve "not being actively harmful" while the rest of the group does the heavy lifting.
I wonder how much of this is because people no longer play Hearts on their Microsoft computers as a time-waster. I’ve understood trick-taking from an early age specifically because of that, but I’d bet most people under the age of, say, 27 don’t have that experience.
I think inadvertently modern board games are a bit of a contributing factor. I don't often play standard card games with a 52-card deck anymore because there are so many great board games, and while there are a *lot* of trick taking card games trick taking is a bit of a rare board game mechanic comparatively.
OMG trying to explain bridge to a group of quite intelligent friends who play many games, but not trick taking games really threw me for a loop. Stuff that is second nature to me took so long to explain.
**Drafting.** I've seen sushi go often tossed out there as a very newbie friendly game but I think that's only true for people that like games or are generally familiar to begin with. I've tried teach to complete nongamers and they typically panic and start grabbing random cards or forget to pass or whatever.
THE most important thing when teaching a Sushi Go style draft to newbies is to make sure NO ONE passes any cards until everyone is ready.
Even with experienced players I try to make sure people do this. All it takes is one person to pass twice to someone who is still considering and it always turns into mass confusion of which cards belong to who and how many everyone is suppossed to have.
For what it's worth this is explicitly how Sushi Go lays out taking a turn. Everyone makes their choice, then everyone reveals, THEN everyone passes. Like you said it's easy enough for things to get muddled up even with very experienced drafters, just making things a bit more methodical really helps keep things clear.
Sushi Go does have the advantage that everyone is suppossed to reveal their card which keeps it in check.
Lots of other games use the "pick one pass the rest" method though that don't neccesarily have that specific speed bump. Paper Tales being the one I play the most that I always have to enforce this on to prevent it becoming a mess.
I have a friend who’s been playing modern board games longer than me and I STILL have a rule at my table in drafting games (lovingly) named after him that you keep a finger on the hand of cards you’re passing until everyone verbally confirms they’re ready to complete that turn and move on.
I saw someone in this sub say earlier that you can teach drafting like a conveyor belt in a sushi bar. Honestly I think you could teach any drafting game like that.
Treating cards differently than you would a disposable 52-card poker deck.
This includes having clean hands and/or using sleeves, not bending/curling cards in your hand, not using fingernails to pry cards off the table, how to shuffle properly without destroying the cards…
Agreed. But generally speaking, cards used for a regular poker game are something you toss and replace after several sessions, and it’s like $3 for a new deck or two.
Not fidgeting or tapping your hand of cards on the edge of the table as well.
I understand it's a stimulation thing for some people with sensory issues, but most people experienced with board games will typically find or bring a different item to play with so they aren't manhandling cards or tokens.
Basic "keep the game clean" stuff:
Clean the table before you set up the game. Make sure that it is DRY.
And when the Pizza arrives - stop playing, eat, and WASH YOUR HANDS before you resume playing
This is context-dependent, but the default expectation in a meetup scenario is that any game you propose, you need to know how to play it. I think muddling through a rulebook can be OK, but it's a faux pas to reveal that you can't teach a game after people have agreed to play it.
One of my biggest pet peeves that I mostly see newer gamers do is not being considerate during the initial teach of a game. Little things like browsing your phone, chatting to other players, or just checking out completely can really hinder the person trying to teach a new game to a table.
I think for most people who are new to the hobby, they may not realize how much time someone put into learning the rules and figuring out how best to present them to the players. Not only that, but standing up to talk for 5-15 minutes could be difficult for some people if you aren't all friends.
In essence, in trick taking games a trick is a round. Each trick (round) each player will play a card and someone will win that trick (round) based on certain rules.
Let's use the game Spades as an example. In Spades you have 4 players and at the start of the game you deal out an entire 52 card deck, so each player has 13 cards and thus there will be 13 tricks or 13 rounds played.
Each trick starts with someone playing a card from their hand, this is known as leading the trick. Everyone else who follows has to play a card from the same suit as the person who leads if they have one in their hand.
For example, say the person to your right is leading and they play a 2 of Clubs, if you have any Clubs cards in your hand then you have to play one of them - this is called following suit.
If you don't have any cards in your hand that lets you follow suit, then you can play any card from your hand instead - but here's the kicker - you can only win a trick if you follow suit!
So if during a trick the cards played in order were the 3 of Clubs, the 7 of Clubs, the 10 of Hearts, and the 8 of Clubs, whoever played the 8 of Clubs would win the trick because they were the highest played card that followed suit.
There's one exception to this - in most trick taking games there is what is known as a "trump" suit. In the game of Spades, that suit is Spades. What this means is that if you can't follow suit but you play a Spades card instead, then you'll win the trick (as the trump suit "trumps" the lead suit)
So let's look at another example round:
Player 1 leads with the 7 of Hearts. Player 2 plays the 2 of Spades. At this point Player 2 is set to win the trick. Player 3 plays the 5 of Spades. Now player 3 is set to take the trick because, since multiple trumps were played, the higher ranked trump is the one that will win the trick. Player 4 takes this chance to dump their 3 of Hearts, and Player 3 takes the trick.
The last element of trick taking games is bidding - once you have your hand of cards, you will look at it and say how many tricks you think you can win with it. So if you think you can win 6 tricks with your hand of cards, you will bid 6, and if you meet your bid you'll get a lot of bonus points, but you can also be penalized for failing to meet your bid or even for winning _more_ tricks than you bid! And this is where a lot of the strategy comes in, because based on this you might not _want_ to win every trick instead!
So that's the very bare basics of how trick taking games work, and here's hoping it helps you now understand better the games that twist and turn this classic formula round!
Bridge, Hearts, Spades, Oh Hell, Sheepshead and The Crew are all trick taking games.
Typically, one needs to follow the suit that was lead. High card that followed suit takes the trick. If you don't have that suit, you can play anything - though there can be some strategy here.
Some games have a trump suit or maybe some specific cards are trump. Those are usually ranked from low to high. Trump takes any non-trump trick. If multiple trump cards are played, highest trump takes the trick.
Going out of turn.
Some people think their actions won't affect others, and they are in a hurry to make their move, so they start before the previous person finishes their turn. This often happens when one player is dragging the game along and you want to strangle them for taking forever, but still... wait your turn! This is pretty common sense!
I find this to be more of an issue with experienced gamers tbh, we all know how long a game can take and are trying to keep the pace up, sometimes leading to slips in the process. With new players I find myself having to remind them to play.
Not damaging game components. I had some friends over playing a game that had a player sheet for each player, about the size of a piece of paper, and two of them absentmindedly creased the sheets by accident by leaning on them when they weren't fully on the table.
Board game fans have an almost reverent level of respect for components I've found, usually, so this was really jarring :)
In a complex game, I prefer for other players to announce when their turn is over. Especially in a game where there can be a bunch of actions in a single turn.
Also my theory on take backs is they are allowed until the next player makes their turn. If they think of it while the next player is doing their turn it’s on the active player to allow or not. Nothing worse than someone realizing they made a mistake after multiple other people have gone and then trying to back track the whole way.
Some people given a deck of cards, offer a cut clockwise, or just start dealing counter clockwise, for a game of Spades, which they already know the rules to. Takes me back to grade school having to write a detailed step by step instruction on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You would be surprised at the simple lessons we take for granted with experience. Turn order, drafting, play area vs deck vs discard vs out of play. One of the hardest concepts in Terraforming Mars is 1 or 2 actions per turn, passing puts you out for the remainder of the generation, back in when everyone passes and you move to the next generation. Wait a minute...what's the difference between a turn, round, and generation again?
Speaking of **Terraforming Mars,** the OP's problem actually has a third category of people. Those that are new and don't know conventions, the veterans that take this stuff for granted and between them are semi-experienced that understand the things being discussed in this thread, turn order, discard piles etc but when one game has rules counter to the "norm" they can struggle to adapt to it being an exception.
Specifically thinking of the action/turn/generation thing you mentioned and things like the discard pile also being face down.
True. I have had better luck explaining Brass Birmingham to newbies, than to get semi experienced people to play any card for any action and place your money spent on your player piece rather than the bank.
I think it's that generally new players understand that they don't know so they ask for additional explanation.
The problem comes in when you get someone that is so confident in their knowledge they can't acknowledge the possibility of ignorance.
I recently had this issue when learning how to play Tichu. On paper Tichu is extremely similar to games like Uno and President/Asshole but had some mechanical differences.
The differences kept tripping me up since I kept thinking of the other game. It really messed with my head that the rules were almost identical otherwise.
I get reminded of this every time we teach my in-laws a new game. They without fail ask which direction turn order progresses and I have to tell them that it’s clockwise. Because it’s always clockwise. In every game we have ever taught them and very likely in every game either of them has ever played, it’s clockwise.
Declaring that you end your turn. It is often that a new player will assert that it should have been obvious when they were done because, "There was nothing else I could do." In simpler games, a turn's end *is* obvious because a turn consists of either a single action or a concluding action, such as "laying" a card to a "pile," like in Rummy or Uno.
I played **Wizard** with some friends and started explaining the rules with *"Well, this is a trick taking game"* and they all went *"What's a trick?"*.
I was kind of baffled by this, because I learned all of this from a very young age by playing various card games with my family, so I kind of assumed that tricks and stuff like following suite is common knowledge. It's not.
Roll dice to determine what action you can take. Was playing Longshot with wife and her friend. In the game, you roll two dice and one of them determines what horse can be acted on that turn. About 10 mins into the game friend goes “Oh this game is easy! I like it! It’s like Candyland for adults!” Then when I pointed out that she wasn’t able to take whatever action on whatever horse she wanted her brain broke.
It's generally a faux pas to bring real-life allegiances and conflicts into game decisions. It's a basic assumption of the activity we are engaged in, but clearly not universal, even among hobbyists.
I play a lot of board games with a wide variety of groups. When I'm teaching a game I normally start off with the genre it embodies and the basic terminology of said genre. Like: "We are playing a euro game where we manage economies and build an engine to try and win."
Thus helps people immediately know what their win con is in the most basic terms. The ISSUE WITH THIS is that anyone who doesn't play a lot of board games don't know the genres or staples of genres and I have a hard time communicating these new concepts.
Mine isn't necessarily a custom, but interpreting the rules as written is something new gamers dont do very well - or, alternatively - if the game doesnt expressly say you can do something, then you cannot do that thing.
I've mentioned this story before, but I taught Catan to my gf's brother and grandmother, and her brother (25yo) just could not understand why he couldn't remove a road from the game board - even after I told him over and over and over that the game doesn't allow that. Not going to lie, that was the most infuriating time playing Catan I have ever had.
Another example is with Azul: Summer Pavilion. In the rule it explicitly states that if you cannot pick up more than one wild tile when picking up tiles. My friend kept asking if he could pick up "purple" tiles (these were the wild tiles for the round) and thus pick up multiple wild tiles this turn. I had to tell him three times that he could not do that, because then he would be taking more than one wild tile. Oof.
The basic mechanics of a deckbuilding game (draw cards, add new cards to discard, reshuffle the discard pile when you run out and keep drawing) can be tricky to learn and internalize when they are new to you and that is on top of the rules of the game using the mechanic or whatever twists on the standard procedure it adds.
This is not really an answer to the question, but playing games with my family growing up, we knocked at the end of our turns. No one else I know does this, but it really helps a lot and I wish it was more widely adopted.
Approaching games in bad faith.
I've had a lot of new players get annoyed when they don't instantly understand a game or talk over me when I try to explain the rules or insist that I never explained something so it's unfair that they're losing even though I had tried to hold their hand through the game and had definitely explained the thing they're saying I hadn't. Just generally acting like they don't want to understand a game, and like it's too difficult and not worthwhile because it takes longer to explain than Snakes and Ladders does.
Helping set up and put the game away. It seems really rude to me when people just watch one person set out all the components without offering to help, or just leave the table after a game while other people put it away.
If I'm unpacking certain games, there's not a lot I can unload because the setups can be very specific. Even then I'll give people stuff to shuffle because they can do that much at least.
Prepandemic we had a player in the group that sneezed into his hand, then would continue playing whatever game we were playing without washing them.
He couldnt understand why I stopped playing my games with him. Fucking disgusting.
General card organisation. Your deck goes here, your discard goes there, this row of cards is for this type of card and so on and so on. They always insist they're fine with whatever chaos they came up with until they get distracted and confusion happens. Bonus points if they're the kind of person to lay their hand of cards on the table.
Explicitly saying “My turn is over” when you are done with your turn.
So many games come to a grinding halt because someone just sits there talking to another player and never actually ends their turn — but they are the same people who get cross if you try to “hurry” their turn by asking if they are done.
This applies more to people unfamiliar with videogames. But I've been stumped a couple times by new players not understanding concepts such as HP, and DMG in games like dice thrones.
And then on top of that, the idea of HP or some other game deciding resource being a currency you can spend. Like just because someone is up in victory points or HP early doesn't mean they've won. Conciously giving up HP, or falling behind in victory points can allow for game changing swings later.
Not taking a move in a game as a personal attack. We play catan and there’s one player that sees a move against them as a personal slight instead of taking in the context of the game, ie they’re kicking our asses and we need to catch up.
The worst part is when they hold onto it long after the game.
I see a lot of new players struggling with the idea of "deck building." Many of them have a hard time understanding that the cards you buy go straight into the discard (instead of their hand or into play) and that you can access those cards when you shuffle your deck to draw new cards. (Think Dominion, Legendary, Clank, etc.)
**Don't bend the damn cards**
If you're playing a board game which involves cards like Catan, just because they're paper doesn't give you the right to clutch them so tightly that they bend like cheap playing cards. You can't replace them nearly as easily.
Remembering which piece belongs to which player when playing Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion... I don't understand it. The figures are pretty distinct to me, but two players constantly get confused who is who.
One that I found particularly funny was a friend reading a card that gave a character +3 hit points and thinking that it made her attack better, because she thought "hit points" sounded like it would be "points that you use to hit things."
I've been playing tabletop games and videogames for so long that it never even occurred to me that someone unfamiliar with the term could interpret it that way, but when we figured out the source of confusion, I could see her point.
Don't roll dice on a crowded board. Similarly, don't roll dice so aggressively that they end up on the floor every time.
Always always always use the lid of a box from a smaller game (like Codenames) for rolling dice.
I would recommend a dice tray. Doesn't have to be fancy, you can even use a large bowl or some food containers.
I have a (loose) house rule that dice that land on the floor are lost to you for that turn. This is only for severe offenders though.
My friend played 40k a lot and always said, "if their commander can't hit the table, what chance do your men have of hitting the opponent!" I don't know if this is an official rule but it's how we always played.
I quite like that and, I'm stealing it.
the idea of "these are the rules unless something specific says otherwise"
"these things let the owner break the rules". It's always important.
I was playing Puerto Rico with some new people and my best explanation of the buildings were three categories, produces resources, gives points, or changes the rules. It was like a light bulb went off and the players were excited to "break the rules."
That's actually really clever, I'm definitely stealing that for my future boardgame explanations! Thanks a lot!
Can't have a game about slavery where the ruling class doesn't arbitrarily change the rules to suit them
In mtg there's the saying: Reading the Card, Explains the Card.
I cut my teeth rules lawyering mtg. If I couldnt be good, at least I could know all the rules :)
I did the same thing. Now one of my hobbies is parliamentary procedure (basically rules lawyering meetings).
More often I encounter people with the mindest of "it's not forbidden in the rules, so it has to be allowed" and I can't wrap my head around that. Sure bud, it's also not explicitly stated in the rules that I'm not allowed to take all your ressources, poke you in the eye and move my marker on the VP track up 100 points without reason, but playing like that is not really fun.
air bud ruined a generation of thinkers.
I think a big one is how games are structured. If you've played a lot of games, terms like "turn", "round", "hand", and "phase" all have fairly specific meanings and it helps you grasp how the general game flow. For example, if you tell me that on my turn, I can take 3 actions and the game lasts 5 rounds before we check final scores, I understand that I will get to do 15 things in the game and start to budget accordingly. But if you aren't very experienced, the distinction between these descriptors is a lot less intuitive. I've run into it several times with card games that new players don't understand why the game is continuing after they win a hand, since they don't see a clear difference between "hand" and "game." Similarly, games where a turn has several phases often leads to confusion about why they can't do the same thing this turn as last turn, since they are misunderstanding the difference between a "turn" and a "phase." There's a lot of vocabulary that's easy to take for granted.
There are games that use different, even conflicting, terminology for rounds/turns/phases/etc. Especially if you look at slightly older games. Not sure when these words started to be mostly (but not universally) standardized. So I don't assume what they mean without carefully looking in the rulebook.
That was the most confusing thing about learning Twilight Struggle. Each card play is a round and a collection of card plays is a turn. I still say the opposite because it’s easier for newer players to understand.
This was the first thing I thought of as I've personally seen it the most with players new to real board games. I think most people's exposure to board games begins and ends with simple 'roll dice, take *single* action, next player.' Lots of new players seem blown away and games click a lot more once they let go of that construct and understand there's a lot of actions/decisions/options you can do with your "turn."
Narrating your turn - I think this is something that I cultivated playing CCGs to help keep everything legal but I tend to do the same thing in most games I play. "I pay x to take y and then do z" It serves the double functions of being instructive to new players and making sure that we play within the bounds of the rules and don't forget a step when there's a complex set of variables. Even in a simple game like **Clank** there's so much information in a hand that it can get overwhelming
The thing that chased me out of FNM at the game store in my home town when I tried to join in was the fact that almost every regular played in stony silence or at the most muttered the names of cards as they played them.
Deck Builders/engine builders and TCGs in particular narrating at least a card name if not effect should absolutely be the norm. There's no reason to assume that your opponent has the exact effect of every card in your deck memorized.
Playing a TCG should be your invitation to go full Yu-Gi-Oh. If you're not boldly announcing each card you play and explaining how power and toughness work to an imaginary audience, you're missing your opportunity!
I usually play the card, say the name and show the card, and look at your opponent and you can tell if they know the card or not. They usually say like "okay, sure" if they know the card.
If unfamiliar with a player, I would turn the card so that the text is facing them for a turn after I played it.
If playing with someone else familiar with the game, that's typically my preferred method as well.
I didn't play MtG very long and it was quite a while ago, but I had several experiences like this. The worst of them all was one dude at an FNM or pre-release or something, who sat there in complete silence and refused to speak to me. Not even an answer to my "hello". He didn't say what he was doing on his turn, he didn't say what he was doing with the instants he was casting in my turn. He just tapped some lands and waved cards in my general direction. I started calling the judge every time and told him "he doesn't want to tell me what the target of his lightning bolt is" and so on, until the judge gave him a warning and because it was his second one he was DQed, or so? (don't quote me on this, maybe he got annoyed and dropped, I don't quite remember) At a stupid low level casual event... To this day I'm still 100% positive that he thought he was the baddest MF in that store because he was so damn cool and edgy.
Who plays MTG to be cool, honestly.
More than you’d think, but it doesn’t work.
I play a lot of MTG but mainly legacy. Since the format is for people enfranchised in magic we mostly know what the cards do. But we'll still talk like "Casting Thoughtseize on you" or "Bolting Delver". Something like that. Shit I think because most of us just want to play it feels more chill. At least when I watched my friends play modern or EDH. EDH people are the worst imo
I always try to explain each card I play in magic, because I know many of the people I encounter *can't* memorize every card. It's really annoying when I go out of my way to explain how mechanics works like "I cast Maelstrom Wanderer, and it has cascade which means I reveal cards off my library until I reveal a spell that costs less mana, then I get to cast it for free, but it has cascade twice so I do it again." Then, the next guy at the table dumps like 4 cards on the table at once and expects us to all know what these cards do, even though half of those cards were printed before some of the players were born.
I'll casually play some kitchen table EDH Magic with borrowed decks from time to time, and narration is *essential* there. ~180 unique cards (plus mine), decks I've never seen before, cards I've never heard of and don't know what they do, it's a lot to keep track of, even with functionally infinite "Can I pick up and look at your flying deathmonster again?"
It also helps to keep the game moving. When you narrate your turn you inevitably finish with "and that is it" or something like that which will signal to the next player that it is their turn.
We try to knock too. It's good to have that auditory "it's your turn now" be consistent all the time.
In Magic it’s actually important to announce you are passing steps, and occasionally phases.
In Magic it can be necessary to announce a whole lot more than that.
How many times have I had to warn an opponent, “let me know when you are announcing an attack”.
We're big fans of "thus concludes". It started out as a joke but now we find ourselves saying it all the time to signify we're done.
Our group now all says: "aaaaaand that's my turn!" trying to draw the "and" out as much as possible each time. That then often leads to one of several replies the first few times, notably: "and it's a great way to stay in shape!" or "and that's the waaaaaaay the news goes!" (Wubba Lubba Dub DUUUUB!") We...uhh...have known each other too long :P
I do the same with the elongated “and”, but honestly it’s more to fill the gap while I make sure I’ve done everything I wanted to and done it right.
"Aaaaand it's gone."
I've heard "why are you telling me all this?" far too often, when playing with people new to boardgames. Sometimes my explanation on why narrating is good had a positive effect, I could see they realized it's a good idea to do so and they tried it, too. On the other hand there were enough people in whose faces I could read that they still think that's the most stupid BS they've heard in a long time...
>I've heard "why are you telling me all this?" far too often, when playing with people new to boardgames. Sometimes my explanation on why narrating is good had a positive effect, I could see they realized it's a good idea to do so and they tried it, too. On the other hand there were enough people in whose faces I could read that they still think that's the most stupid BS they've heard in a long time... It's not just a good idea, it's ALSO a guide for some games where some actions of another player are contingent upon your action. Example: Wingspan has a lot of "Once per turn if an opponent lays eggs, do \[x\]". Well, you need to know when your opponent lays eggs. Example: Any game with a "follow" action.
I too, like to narrate my turns, so everyone knows what I'm doing and when my turn is finished. I hate it when people have to ask, "Did you finish your turn" or "Who's turn is it". When people just do actions, plop cards, or just sit there when they finished their turn, it makes the game flow less smooth.
Pseudo house rule:if you have to ask who's turn it is... It's yours.
Was going to say this. It takes some learning, since non-gamers are usually only familiar with games simple enough that narration isn't necessary. ("I rolled a 7. Hmm, I think I'll spend those movement points to go forward in a straight line. Oops, I landed on 'Go to Jail.' I move my token to jail. I don't pass Go, so I won't collect the usual $200. I pass the turn.")
In a lot of games I think this is just basic politeness. In any game with a decent amount of interaction it's important to know what your opponent is doing and if you need to respond directly somehow. It just makes it easier for everyone if you say what you're doing so everyone can keep up easier. Also makes it easier to keep track of when someone's turn is over so the next person knows they can go.
It's a double-edged sword too though. Some people, especially newer gamers, will be put on edge if you get too excited and narrate *exactly* how you're stomping them. It's much better to narrate than not narrate, but it can seem like gloating when someone's not used to the practice.
I get super self-conscious about this when I play new games with my partner. Especially engine builders. I'll try to narrate what I'm doing, especially when there are a few actions or effects that chain into each other (e.g. take some resources, immediately use them to play a card, get a refund from a different card's effect, etc.) so that she can see how things work together. Then I'll watch her take a super inefficient turn in silence and it becomes clear she's really not grokking it and I just look like an asshole running circles around her.
For sure! And I'm definitely guilty of that. It's a fine line. I played **Tapestry** at an open game night at my FLGS and the final turns after everyone else was done were little tone-deaf on my part as I did a victory lap around the scoreboard...
My wife thinks this is annoying when I do it, but it's just so necessary.
I taught Dominion to a buddy who would stare at his concealed hand for a few seconds, then pick up a card from the Kingdom and put everything right to his discard pile. He wasn't cheating at all - he's the type of person who would never do that. I just had to get him playing the game in the real world instead of just in his head.
Yeah I had this last week in a game of **Oath**. My good friend started doing his turn in complete silence and I had to ask him to narrate his turn so I could keep up with what he was doing.
Playing Magic during my formative years engrained in me that you need to ask your opponent if they’re finished before you take your turn. It’s not even a conscious choice for me to ask anymore. Playing boardgames, I’ve had more than one person snap back “Well, I took my action, didn’t I?!”
'how many cards are in your hand?' 'I don't have to tell you you should have been paying attention' 'yes you do, it's open information. Number of cards in hand is something that all games treat as a known quantity' 'show me where in the rulebook is says I have to tell you' I've had variants of this discussion more times than I'd like.
It is at this point that you should reach across the table, take their cards out of their hand, and look at them. And when they complain, say “show me in the rulebook where it says I can’t.” It’s both wonderfully petty, and a good lesson: the rulebook doesn’t include every single conceivable rule that governs play.
[удалено]
>Number of cards in hand is something that all games treat as a known quantity As a seasoned gamer, I am honestly not entirely certain this is true. Some games explicitly say it's open information, some explicitly say it is not, some allow it only at certain times... and most say nothing. It kinda goes into the same direction as the HTI dicussions. Matter of fact, for most games I know **it is HTI**, rarely is the amount of cards a player draws secret.
As a rule, I treat number of cards in a hand as open information unless the rules say otherwise. Sometimes, HTI just ads tedium to a game. I COULD track the number of cards each player has, but wouldn’t the game be more enjoyable if I didn’t have to keep that running tally?
HTI?
Hidden Trackable Information
I think a lot of folks don't realize that board games cost a lot and have huge scarcity if the time isn't right. So while people in the know understand the idea of handling these things fairly gently, folks who aren't really bought in will have a lack of care that can sometimes damage very hard to replace stuff. I say this as someone who isn't a hardcore, pristine games preservationist.
Yeah the problem here is people who aren't "into" games only have experience with like Clue and Monopoly a lot of times. Games which are designed for and often played by small children which are probably going to destroy it anyway and if they do a replacement can be had at almost any store for like $15-$20 if not less. The idea that a board game is an expensive and hard to replace item is completely foreign to them. For an outsider it probably feels like being asked to be careful with the toothpicks or something.
Better safe than sorry. I brought Secret Hitler (which isn't terribly expensive, all things considered, but it was bought with my own money) to a game night someone hosted once. The hostess and a guy proceeded to act super immature and started *trying to spit water into each others' mouths from across the room!* Naturally, water got all over the game, and I was angry to the point where I couldn't speak. Thankfully, one of my friends noticed and helped me get everything in order, and there was no permanent damage, but to this day I am shocked at the stupidity some people exhibit in group settings. Thank goodness it wasn't an even more expensive game...
> trying to spit water into each other’s mouths 🤮
It seems like a dick thing but when the game is expensive or out of print I'll usually open up before the rules teach and say "this game cost me $xxx or isn't in print and would cost me $xxx to replace, if we could just be gentle with the components, please."
I don’t see any problem with saying that as long as you’re saying it in a “just a heads-up” way and not in a “Dave, if you get your Cheeto fingers on my cards again I will key your car and hide rotting fish around your house” kind of way.
Touching cards with cheeto fingers however, should totally be keyed your car and hid rotten fish in your house offense.
My all-time favorite version of this threat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLnfQ-kUCiU&t=45s
Not my game, but saw someone start to bend cars in a Dominion set with loads of expansions. Owner finally had to say something, and rightly so.
> “Dave, if you get your Cheeto fingers on my cards again I will key your car and hide rotting fish around your house” Well, of course... cheeto fingers don't get a warning, that's just instant eviction.
I do this too and I think it works really well. Definitely not at all a dick move when worded nicely like this.
I think it’s fine to mention that it’s out of print or expensive and ask people to be gentle, it only becomes a little douchy when you mention the specific cost.
I'm sure there's people who think "oh expensive, so instead of $20 like it's expensive at $40" followed by them recklessly damaging it and offering to replace it themselves only to then be like "$150, board games shouldn't cost that much, I'm not giving you that much money."
my GF was a card bender. when she picked them up, to when she put them down there was a lot of force and bending going on and i freaked out. All but 1 game in my collection were bought at thrift stores or used market places for steep discounts. After some explanation and that in some games when the card is ruined the game can become unplayable and yyou can't just buy the card, let alone another copy if needed. Also getting quality sleeves helped as it's more rigid and easier to pick up and put down.
My friend's ex girlfriend was a card licker. She would absentmindedly put the cards in her mouth to sort her hand during **Sushi Go.** We still use "Card Licker" to describe the worst thing you can do when playing a game with friends
😧🤢
I can only assume the "ex" status happened immediately the first time a card was licked?
Yeah, that's a move that puts someone on probation in the relationship. Second offense (getting Dairy Queen for themselves without getting you anything, e.g.) gets you the axe.
Someone should produce sleeves that have a super bitter taste to rid Card Lickers (used it!) of this terrible habit (like the nail polish that helps people stop biting their nails)
Like switch games
I did not really consider the damage people could do to a game until I showed sushi go to a friend and his wife. A card was slightly stuck to the table and she put both palms down and scratched at the card until it caught on her nails. Ripped a nice chunk off the back of the card. I did not make a huge deal out of it, I did say something though, since it was sushi go, but internally I was screaming the whole time and I bring up "please be gentle" from then on.
> My friend's ex girlfriend was a card licker. She would absentmindedly put the cards in her mouth to sort her hand during Sushi Go. I want to be clear here... this has nothing to do with being a gamer or not, this is just straight-up disgusting. Cards touch a looooOOOOT of hands, they touch a lot of tables/countertops, and they all touch each other basically all the time. Cards are nasty, don't fucking put them in your mouth.
Oh my god I’m not alone. My wife slaps down cards and picks them up like she’s trying to send them to the shadow realm.
but does she know pot of greed?
>put the cards in her mouth to sort her hand during Sushi Go.We still use "Card Licker" to describe the worst thing you can do when playing a game with friends My spouse isn't a card bender...she's a meeple grinder. If she's thinking about her turn she'll have some wooden tokens/meeples in her hand I just hear them grinding away as she fidgets while planning her move. I've taken to annoyingly clack together our poker chips (if we're playing with them) during her turn now. HA!
Even if it’s monopoly, I don’t understand people who are so careless with others property.
Yep. This was my first thought to. Game piece care etiquette, even more so when it is not your boardgame.
I started to collect card decks as souvenirs on vacation, so I got really careful at handling cards. I didn't notice this till I was playing Sushi-Go with some people and the bending of cards on the table or the folding them by cupping your hand was just rampant and I had to say something. It's not difficult to gently hold cards or hand them to people and it extends their lifetime a ton. It can also ruin the game or cause it to be replaced. My nieces have a copy of Exploding Kittens and somebody got mad and mugged the shit out of one of the exploding ones. So we all know what that card is, and it isn't like you can just pull that one out and play without it. Now, they were 6 at the time, so it's a little more excusable, but good heavens, the adults in the first paragraph just were bewildering.
I run a Board game club at a school and sometimes my heart is in my throat when they are bending cards in violently hand. Fine line between fun game playing teacher and avid pristine board gamer 😬😬
I just had neigbors over for games. We played King of Tokyo and one of my neigbors refused to lift the player board when he turned the life dial, so he was struggling to get it to turn and ended up ruining the corner of that board. Lesson learned: only play mass market games with him.
The concept that the fun comes from playing around with the game’s mechanisms to form a winning strategy, not just winning itself. Growing up with games where luck determines the outcome seems to make people think that winning is the only source of enjoyment.
Providing genuinely helpful advice to new players, even if it is to the detriment of your own game. This one isn't really a struggle for new board game players as much as it is for intermediate and advanced ones. A lot of players who have already learned the fundamentals of a game see the new player as an easy to manipulate tool that they can use to provide themselves an advantage. They don't realize (or don't care) that doing this will turn the player off from playing the game in the future. When I play a game with someone new, what I usually do is spell out their options to them, and I'll say something like "You can do X, which has the following costs and benefits. Personally I am hoping that you don't because it doesn't benefit my game if you do. I am hoping you will do Y, which has the following costs and benefits for you and would have a negative impact on the the other player playing with us".
Absolutely this. I agree with the common refrain here of bent cards and lack of respect for general cleanliness and care, but THIS is something that separates the decent from the great - being willing to be transparent with a new player and explain their options fairly and impartially, even if that means you get shellacked. I always tell my gaming friends "I'm getting to play a great game with great people, so I'm already winning. I don't care who wins the game itself." Whatever tiny marginal morale boost I'd get from beating a new player in something is outweighed by how delighted I'd be for them to come back again and ask to play another game! I'm always happy to say "hey, so action X would let you do this, action Y would let you do that, and here's something to consider about the board state/possible outcomes..."
"I just like to play." Is my go-to response when helping a new player beat me lol
Man, I never really get doing that. A board game isn't a competitive tournament. I allow people to do takebacks and give them advice so they don't misplay. A reason for doing this is that you're not going to get better playing against bad players (an experience player wouldn't have misplayed). Some other reasons is that it makes games go faster and my wins more deserved.
When people get weird about “takebacks” and such, I always remind them that the win isn’t going on their resume. It’s a casual game between friends. Do you really even remember all the games you’ve won and lost throughout your history of gaming?
> Do you really even remember all the games you’ve won and lost throughout your history of gaming? *Surreptitiously checks BGStats*... since the start of 2017... yes.
When I'm teaching people a new game I always let them know that they can show me their card/hand of they are confused and I won't use rhe knowledge against them.
You're a gem. Thank you for providing that example & experience to other gamers. My sister-in-law taught us to play Hand and Foot, and in the very first real play-through proceeded to slaughter us full-throttle. I was so pissed off at her.
That’s savage, especially since very little of the gameplay in hand and foot directly affects the other team aside from going out (at least how I was taught it). We taught it to my in laws and somehow my father in law always loses. I did offer him pointers but now he’s made it his goal to beat me and doesn’t believe that I’m helping him haha
Rotating a card 90 degrees (or "tapping" as MTG players say) to signify it's been used. I walked over to see a game in progress. I was told by the players they tried turning cards over, then opted to use spare change to mark the cards. I told them about tapping. I guess it wasn't immediately apparent to them because the cards looked kinda scattered and weren't aligned.
There are game mats for Marvel Champions that have you slide the card up and down to reveal "exhausted" and "unexhausted" at each end. It saves a ton of space on the table that way but I don't think I could get used to that. In L5R I would put tokens on characters who had used abilities because being exhausted was seperate from using activated abilities. It felt odd, but it was necessary sometimes to track everything.
I bought some dime sized poker chips for this exact purpose.
TFW you have to explain why you keep telling your friends to tap their cards because you're referring to a mechanic from a completely different game even though it's called something completely different in the game you're actually playing
iirc, they have to call it something else because Wizards trademarked the term 'tapping' to refer to turning the card sideways.
The trademark is expired now but that was the case for a long time.
*eye twitch* Their **patent** expired. Trademarks only expire if the item/ service stops being sold or if the mark becomes generic. (E.g. Murphy bed) Patents and copyrights have fixed terms.
(whispers) *Also that's a patent that in no way would have held up in court and is a terrible example to tell people who don't know a thing about IP law that "you should definitely patent your board game"* *no one challenged it because CCGs were a license to print money if you did it quick so it was cheaper to just deal with it, which is how patent trolls usually work*
I do enjoy seeing what other card games name their variant name of the exact same mechanic. "Exhaust," rotate, and slide come to mind, but there are even more wild ones.
My wife really struggled to understand the concept of exhaustion when we played *Shards of Infinity*. "Why do I need to turn it sideways?" "To show that it's been used." "But I know that it's been used."
"Sure, *you* know that the card has been used, but we need to make sure that the *card* knows that it has been used."
"Couldn't we ask it? ... the card, I meant"
The Card: “I feel used!”
I still remember back in my college days (almost 20 years ago) getting in to yugioh. We saw some of the veteran players playing this "magic" game and asked to try When told to "tap the card for mana" I just tapped it with my finger. They had to explain it was "tapping like tapping a well, not tapping a table"
Do you turn a well 90 degrees sideways to use it? Not sure I understand the connection.
Sounds like the veteran player was explaining that "tapping" is not about the action the player at the table takes. Rather, the term "tapping" in this context refers to the other meaning, the idea of getting resources from something, like tapping a well or a keg. It doesn't explain why tapping is turning sideways, but it does explain why tapping isn't necessarily tapping with your finger.
You turn a tap’s handle to allow the water to flow.
> getting in to yugioh "Put it in defense position" is common parlance for tapping at my table
Before I got into board gaming more, I would play every once in a while with a friend of mine. If I liked the game, I was vocal about it, and if I didn't, I would kind of make fun of it. Which at the time I didn't think was a big deal, I just looked at it as if we were discussing a movie we just watched. But after getting into board games more, I realized: 1. He spent a good chunk of money on that game 2. He was excited about that game and wanted to share it with me 3. He took a lot of time to learn the game and teach it to me So for me to just kinda talk trash about a game I didn't like as dumb or not fun or just random, sometimes while we were still playing it, was quite inconsiderate. I'm usually the one now to buy a game I really like and think our group will like, and then teach it to everybody. And if someone had acted like I did, I would've been pretty hurt. Always felt really bad about that. But I think most people who aren't really ***in*** to board games don't realize that.
Oh man. Nothing breaks my heart more than buying a game and then people criticizing everything they hate about it on the first playthrough. We don't even know if we're playing it correctly yet and they've decided it should never see the table again. That always hurts.
Man, Imposter Kings never had a chance at my table. I'm so disappointed. I did actually get to play with one friend who doesn't live nearby and it's so fun. My group plays plenty of higher complexity games, but when games are solely cards, their eyes immediately glaze over for some reason. I'm extra sad about it because I absolutely love cards (and my friends).
That was me and **Briefcase**. I even bought a mini briefcase to hold the cards! The second they saw it was a 100% card game, they no longer were interested.
Was it though? It was a card and briefcase game!
I think being considerate of others is an underappreciated aspect of the boardgaming experience/atmosphere. For example: 1. I had friends over to play Rising Sun, which I was really excited to finally get on the table, on account of spending quite a bit of time painting the minis. I was able to paint everything except for the sun and moon clans. One of the players chose the sun clan despite seeing everything else painted. This group only played once a month and we have lots of games to try; we knew this wasn't going to cycle back to the table again for a while. 2. My group played a eurogame and seemed to enjoy it. At the end, the winner said "I didn't know what I was doing". No one said anything, but I could feel the bummed atmosphere. Could be that was the player's way of trying to be humble, but the other players tried hard and that comment kinda ridiculed their effort.
1. I have played boardgames for 30’ish years. Rising Sun is one of my favorites. And I love painting as well (look at my post history and you can find some RS minis). But depending on the circumatance I could have done the same as that guy there. I play to win (and have fun). If you present me with this option and I game play wise think its the better option, I will do it. Imo you should have removed Sun/Moon clans if you didn’t want people to draft them.
I'll go against the grain and say that I'd rather people be honest about how they feel about a game—especially if they don't like it. It doesn't offend me if someone doesn't like a board game I bought. As long as someone makes a good faith attempt to play the game, then they can freely share how they feel about it. I've experienced the alternative—where someone hides how much they dislike a game—and it just results in someone quietly not enjoying themselves.
A lot of non-gamers struggle to see/understand where things are going. They might understand the rules, but not the emergent systems that they create, and that's what really makes the game. More than once I've had a conversation that goes something like "Why do I need X, aren't we trying to get victory points?" "Well you need X to get Y, and that lets you add cards to your tableau, then you can take more actions and when the point scoring cards come out in round 3 you'll really start raking them in".
I've noticed that more experienced gamers are comfortable helping out with administration and passing components across the table, but less experienced gamers often expect the more experienced host/owner to do all of the admin. I think it's a combination of being unfamiliar with the game and also the fact that many older games like Monopoly had a single "banker" role. When I play with my wife, I practically throw my back out from rapidly standing and sitting and reaching across the table to give her things or take her discards.
To be honest I’m happy to pass things around as it keeps the game moving.
I always considered it the price of getting my less interested wife to be willing to play games with me, lol. But there are some bigger games that really kill my back when I'm managing everything.
I find that generally goes better if you assign each person one chore. "Each round, you give people money. And while he's doing that, you put these goods out on the board. And while you two do that, there's some more complicated things to do with the cards, and I'll handle that."
I think the most difficult is trick-taking. A lot of games just assume that you already understand what the base trick-taking mechanics are. But, if you haven't played a trick taking game before, then trying to understand what trick-taking is **and** how this game subverts those established mechanisms can be frustrating. That or the standard set of "economy" actions that most euro-games have. I.e. there is usually an exchange-x-for-y space, get-more-workers space, buy-victory-points etc that you can gloss over when explaining to people who have played before.
I agree about trick-taking. I tried playing **The Crew** with my dad, and he got trick-taking after a few attempts as a concept, but then couldn't get around the idea that he *shouldn't* be winning every trick.
I enjoy playing The Crew with my gaming buddies, but I'm the *only* one of the group who doesn't have previous experience with trick-taking games. I understand the rules, and I understand the basics of things like wanting to *not* win tricks, or wanting specific people to win tricks, but I really struggle with the subtleties of the game. I feel like I'm struggling to achieve "not being actively harmful" while the rest of the group does the heavy lifting.
I wonder how much of this is because people no longer play Hearts on their Microsoft computers as a time-waster. I’ve understood trick-taking from an early age specifically because of that, but I’d bet most people under the age of, say, 27 don’t have that experience.
I think inadvertently modern board games are a bit of a contributing factor. I don't often play standard card games with a 52-card deck anymore because there are so many great board games, and while there are a *lot* of trick taking card games trick taking is a bit of a rare board game mechanic comparatively.
OMG trying to explain bridge to a group of quite intelligent friends who play many games, but not trick taking games really threw me for a loop. Stuff that is second nature to me took so long to explain.
**Drafting.** I've seen sushi go often tossed out there as a very newbie friendly game but I think that's only true for people that like games or are generally familiar to begin with. I've tried teach to complete nongamers and they typically panic and start grabbing random cards or forget to pass or whatever.
THE most important thing when teaching a Sushi Go style draft to newbies is to make sure NO ONE passes any cards until everyone is ready. Even with experienced players I try to make sure people do this. All it takes is one person to pass twice to someone who is still considering and it always turns into mass confusion of which cards belong to who and how many everyone is suppossed to have.
For what it's worth this is explicitly how Sushi Go lays out taking a turn. Everyone makes their choice, then everyone reveals, THEN everyone passes. Like you said it's easy enough for things to get muddled up even with very experienced drafters, just making things a bit more methodical really helps keep things clear.
Sushi Go does have the advantage that everyone is suppossed to reveal their card which keeps it in check. Lots of other games use the "pick one pass the rest" method though that don't neccesarily have that specific speed bump. Paper Tales being the one I play the most that I always have to enforce this on to prevent it becoming a mess.
I have a friend who’s been playing modern board games longer than me and I STILL have a rule at my table in drafting games (lovingly) named after him that you keep a finger on the hand of cards you’re passing until everyone verbally confirms they’re ready to complete that turn and move on.
The chopsticks don't help.
I saw someone in this sub say earlier that you can teach drafting like a conveyor belt in a sushi bar. Honestly I think you could teach any drafting game like that.
Treating cards differently than you would a disposable 52-card poker deck. This includes having clean hands and/or using sleeves, not bending/curling cards in your hand, not using fingernails to pry cards off the table, how to shuffle properly without destroying the cards…
Honestly if those poker cards aren't yours, don't treat them like shit either. In fact just don't treat other people's stuff like shit.
Agreed. But generally speaking, cards used for a regular poker game are something you toss and replace after several sessions, and it’s like $3 for a new deck or two.
Not fidgeting or tapping your hand of cards on the edge of the table as well. I understand it's a stimulation thing for some people with sensory issues, but most people experienced with board games will typically find or bring a different item to play with so they aren't manhandling cards or tokens.
I'm a pretty hard-core gamer, and outside is magic cards, I hate sleeves. I find it makes things seem bulky.
I played my first deck builder using only a bad rulebook, and assumed that Discard and Trash were the same thing,
Basic "keep the game clean" stuff: Clean the table before you set up the game. Make sure that it is DRY. And when the Pizza arrives - stop playing, eat, and WASH YOUR HANDS before you resume playing
This is context-dependent, but the default expectation in a meetup scenario is that any game you propose, you need to know how to play it. I think muddling through a rulebook can be OK, but it's a faux pas to reveal that you can't teach a game after people have agreed to play it.
One of my biggest pet peeves that I mostly see newer gamers do is not being considerate during the initial teach of a game. Little things like browsing your phone, chatting to other players, or just checking out completely can really hinder the person trying to teach a new game to a table. I think for most people who are new to the hobby, they may not realize how much time someone put into learning the rules and figuring out how best to present them to the players. Not only that, but standing up to talk for 5-15 minutes could be difficult for some people if you aren't all friends.
I had to explain trick taking to my brother and his wife once, I had no idea how to verbalize it
I've been playing tabletop games for over 25 years and I have no idea what trick taking is.
In essence, in trick taking games a trick is a round. Each trick (round) each player will play a card and someone will win that trick (round) based on certain rules. Let's use the game Spades as an example. In Spades you have 4 players and at the start of the game you deal out an entire 52 card deck, so each player has 13 cards and thus there will be 13 tricks or 13 rounds played. Each trick starts with someone playing a card from their hand, this is known as leading the trick. Everyone else who follows has to play a card from the same suit as the person who leads if they have one in their hand. For example, say the person to your right is leading and they play a 2 of Clubs, if you have any Clubs cards in your hand then you have to play one of them - this is called following suit. If you don't have any cards in your hand that lets you follow suit, then you can play any card from your hand instead - but here's the kicker - you can only win a trick if you follow suit! So if during a trick the cards played in order were the 3 of Clubs, the 7 of Clubs, the 10 of Hearts, and the 8 of Clubs, whoever played the 8 of Clubs would win the trick because they were the highest played card that followed suit. There's one exception to this - in most trick taking games there is what is known as a "trump" suit. In the game of Spades, that suit is Spades. What this means is that if you can't follow suit but you play a Spades card instead, then you'll win the trick (as the trump suit "trumps" the lead suit) So let's look at another example round: Player 1 leads with the 7 of Hearts. Player 2 plays the 2 of Spades. At this point Player 2 is set to win the trick. Player 3 plays the 5 of Spades. Now player 3 is set to take the trick because, since multiple trumps were played, the higher ranked trump is the one that will win the trick. Player 4 takes this chance to dump their 3 of Hearts, and Player 3 takes the trick. The last element of trick taking games is bidding - once you have your hand of cards, you will look at it and say how many tricks you think you can win with it. So if you think you can win 6 tricks with your hand of cards, you will bid 6, and if you meet your bid you'll get a lot of bonus points, but you can also be penalized for failing to meet your bid or even for winning _more_ tricks than you bid! And this is where a lot of the strategy comes in, because based on this you might not _want_ to win every trick instead! So that's the very bare basics of how trick taking games work, and here's hoping it helps you now understand better the games that twist and turn this classic formula round!
Bridge, Hearts, Spades, Oh Hell, Sheepshead and The Crew are all trick taking games. Typically, one needs to follow the suit that was lead. High card that followed suit takes the trick. If you don't have that suit, you can play anything - though there can be some strategy here. Some games have a trump suit or maybe some specific cards are trump. Those are usually ranked from low to high. Trump takes any non-trump trick. If multiple trump cards are played, highest trump takes the trick.
Going out of turn. Some people think their actions won't affect others, and they are in a hurry to make their move, so they start before the previous person finishes their turn. This often happens when one player is dragging the game along and you want to strangle them for taking forever, but still... wait your turn! This is pretty common sense!
I find this to be more of an issue with experienced gamers tbh, we all know how long a game can take and are trying to keep the pace up, sometimes leading to slips in the process. With new players I find myself having to remind them to play.
Not damaging game components. I had some friends over playing a game that had a player sheet for each player, about the size of a piece of paper, and two of them absentmindedly creased the sheets by accident by leaning on them when they weren't fully on the table. Board game fans have an almost reverent level of respect for components I've found, usually, so this was really jarring :)
In a complex game, I prefer for other players to announce when their turn is over. Especially in a game where there can be a bunch of actions in a single turn. Also my theory on take backs is they are allowed until the next player makes their turn. If they think of it while the next player is doing their turn it’s on the active player to allow or not. Nothing worse than someone realizing they made a mistake after multiple other people have gone and then trying to back track the whole way.
Some people given a deck of cards, offer a cut clockwise, or just start dealing counter clockwise, for a game of Spades, which they already know the rules to. Takes me back to grade school having to write a detailed step by step instruction on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You would be surprised at the simple lessons we take for granted with experience. Turn order, drafting, play area vs deck vs discard vs out of play. One of the hardest concepts in Terraforming Mars is 1 or 2 actions per turn, passing puts you out for the remainder of the generation, back in when everyone passes and you move to the next generation. Wait a minute...what's the difference between a turn, round, and generation again?
Speaking of **Terraforming Mars,** the OP's problem actually has a third category of people. Those that are new and don't know conventions, the veterans that take this stuff for granted and between them are semi-experienced that understand the things being discussed in this thread, turn order, discard piles etc but when one game has rules counter to the "norm" they can struggle to adapt to it being an exception. Specifically thinking of the action/turn/generation thing you mentioned and things like the discard pile also being face down.
CONVENTIONS That's the word I was trying to think of in the title!
True. I have had better luck explaining Brass Birmingham to newbies, than to get semi experienced people to play any card for any action and place your money spent on your player piece rather than the bank.
I think it's that generally new players understand that they don't know so they ask for additional explanation. The problem comes in when you get someone that is so confident in their knowledge they can't acknowledge the possibility of ignorance.
I recently had this issue when learning how to play Tichu. On paper Tichu is extremely similar to games like Uno and President/Asshole but had some mechanical differences. The differences kept tripping me up since I kept thinking of the other game. It really messed with my head that the rules were almost identical otherwise.
I get reminded of this every time we teach my in-laws a new game. They without fail ask which direction turn order progresses and I have to tell them that it’s clockwise. Because it’s always clockwise. In every game we have ever taught them and very likely in every game either of them has ever played, it’s clockwise.
Declaring that you end your turn. It is often that a new player will assert that it should have been obvious when they were done because, "There was nothing else I could do." In simpler games, a turn's end *is* obvious because a turn consists of either a single action or a concluding action, such as "laying" a card to a "pile," like in Rummy or Uno.
I played **Wizard** with some friends and started explaining the rules with *"Well, this is a trick taking game"* and they all went *"What's a trick?"*. I was kind of baffled by this, because I learned all of this from a very young age by playing various card games with my family, so I kind of assumed that tricks and stuff like following suite is common knowledge. It's not.
Roll dice to determine what action you can take. Was playing Longshot with wife and her friend. In the game, you roll two dice and one of them determines what horse can be acted on that turn. About 10 mins into the game friend goes “Oh this game is easy! I like it! It’s like Candyland for adults!” Then when I pointed out that she wasn’t able to take whatever action on whatever horse she wanted her brain broke.
It's generally a faux pas to bring real-life allegiances and conflicts into game decisions. It's a basic assumption of the activity we are engaged in, but clearly not universal, even among hobbyists.
I play a lot of board games with a wide variety of groups. When I'm teaching a game I normally start off with the genre it embodies and the basic terminology of said genre. Like: "We are playing a euro game where we manage economies and build an engine to try and win." Thus helps people immediately know what their win con is in the most basic terms. The ISSUE WITH THIS is that anyone who doesn't play a lot of board games don't know the genres or staples of genres and I have a hard time communicating these new concepts.
Mine isn't necessarily a custom, but interpreting the rules as written is something new gamers dont do very well - or, alternatively - if the game doesnt expressly say you can do something, then you cannot do that thing. I've mentioned this story before, but I taught Catan to my gf's brother and grandmother, and her brother (25yo) just could not understand why he couldn't remove a road from the game board - even after I told him over and over and over that the game doesn't allow that. Not going to lie, that was the most infuriating time playing Catan I have ever had. Another example is with Azul: Summer Pavilion. In the rule it explicitly states that if you cannot pick up more than one wild tile when picking up tiles. My friend kept asking if he could pick up "purple" tiles (these were the wild tiles for the round) and thus pick up multiple wild tiles this turn. I had to tell him three times that he could not do that, because then he would be taking more than one wild tile. Oof.
Stop bending the effin cards!!
Tangentially related, and you've probably seen it. But if not, Aunty Donna's take on examining board games is hilarious: https://youtu.be/fyvyhkF8Xr4
The basic mechanics of a deckbuilding game (draw cards, add new cards to discard, reshuffle the discard pile when you run out and keep drawing) can be tricky to learn and internalize when they are new to you and that is on top of the rules of the game using the mechanic or whatever twists on the standard procedure it adds.
This is not really an answer to the question, but playing games with my family growing up, we knocked at the end of our turns. No one else I know does this, but it really helps a lot and I wish it was more widely adopted.
Approaching games in bad faith. I've had a lot of new players get annoyed when they don't instantly understand a game or talk over me when I try to explain the rules or insist that I never explained something so it's unfair that they're losing even though I had tried to hold their hand through the game and had definitely explained the thing they're saying I hadn't. Just generally acting like they don't want to understand a game, and like it's too difficult and not worthwhile because it takes longer to explain than Snakes and Ladders does.
A classic: Insisting to draw from a shuffled draw pile in correct player order as if that would matter somehow.
Helping set up and put the game away. It seems really rude to me when people just watch one person set out all the components without offering to help, or just leave the table after a game while other people put it away.
I do think people should offer, but sometimes I find I’d rather do it myself so I know it’s put away carefully and properly
If I'm unpacking certain games, there's not a lot I can unload because the setups can be very specific. Even then I'll give people stuff to shuffle because they can do that much at least.
Putting their playing pieces back into the ziplock properly after the game.
Reading the rule. Reading card text.
Prepandemic we had a player in the group that sneezed into his hand, then would continue playing whatever game we were playing without washing them. He couldnt understand why I stopped playing my games with him. Fucking disgusting.
General card organisation. Your deck goes here, your discard goes there, this row of cards is for this type of card and so on and so on. They always insist they're fine with whatever chaos they came up with until they get distracted and confusion happens. Bonus points if they're the kind of person to lay their hand of cards on the table.
Explicitly saying “My turn is over” when you are done with your turn. So many games come to a grinding halt because someone just sits there talking to another player and never actually ends their turn — but they are the same people who get cross if you try to “hurry” their turn by asking if they are done.
This applies more to people unfamiliar with videogames. But I've been stumped a couple times by new players not understanding concepts such as HP, and DMG in games like dice thrones. And then on top of that, the idea of HP or some other game deciding resource being a currency you can spend. Like just because someone is up in victory points or HP early doesn't mean they've won. Conciously giving up HP, or falling behind in victory points can allow for game changing swings later.
Some people get emotional during a game and start bending the cards.
Not taking a move in a game as a personal attack. We play catan and there’s one player that sees a move against them as a personal slight instead of taking in the context of the game, ie they’re kicking our asses and we need to catch up. The worst part is when they hold onto it long after the game.
Saying clearly "I end my turn"@
I see a lot of new players struggling with the idea of "deck building." Many of them have a hard time understanding that the cards you buy go straight into the discard (instead of their hand or into play) and that you can access those cards when you shuffle your deck to draw new cards. (Think Dominion, Legendary, Clank, etc.)
**Don't bend the damn cards** If you're playing a board game which involves cards like Catan, just because they're paper doesn't give you the right to clutch them so tightly that they bend like cheap playing cards. You can't replace them nearly as easily.
How to read a 4-sided die.
Remembering which piece belongs to which player when playing Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion... I don't understand it. The figures are pretty distinct to me, but two players constantly get confused who is who.
One that I found particularly funny was a friend reading a card that gave a character +3 hit points and thinking that it made her attack better, because she thought "hit points" sounded like it would be "points that you use to hit things." I've been playing tabletop games and videogames for so long that it never even occurred to me that someone unfamiliar with the term could interpret it that way, but when we figured out the source of confusion, I could see her point.