Appreciation post: The guy who spent 20 minutes explaining Catan's expansion rules at our cafe last Saturday

I was at The Game Shelf in Austin last Saturday and this one guy spent a solid 20 minutes breaking down the Cities and Knights expansion to a new player. Some people were rolling their eyes but I thought it was pretty cool how patient he was. But then I got to thinking, is that kind of deep dive welcoming or does it actually scare off new people? I mean, I've been playing for 5 years and even I got lost halfway through. My buddy argued that keeping rules simple is better for growing the hobby. So which side are you on, do you let the experts ramble or keep it short for the newbies?

2 comments

2 Comments

miabennett3d ago

See it a little differently myself. A new player who's willing to sit through twenty minutes of rules is probably hooked already, and having someone lay it all out shows them there's a whole community ready to help them learn. Keeping it too simple sometimes leaves people wondering what all the fuss is about.

jakef663d ago

Nah, 20 minutes of rule dumping is a quick way to make a newbie's eyes glaze over and never come back. I've seen it happen at my local shop where someone just wanted a fun game night, not a lecture on resource management.