Play Testing the Rules
As I unpacked Railroad Tycoon from its massive box and began to play through a turn tonight, I realized how important play testing your games can be. If there is any one thing that perturbs a group from playing a game other than just not liking it, it is having a bad first experience. Having a bad first experience with anything always leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and it is no different with board games. Tonight, I will explore the ins and outs of play testing your games to sure ensure group approval of said games!
First and foremost, playing a game requires that someone read the rules. This can be the single most important deciding factor of whether or not a game hits the table. Usually, people don't like to read rule books that entail any more than, say, eight pages of rules. Now, I have bucked this trend, and rather enjoy games with a lot of meat on their bones, but your mileage may vary. One thing that nobody likes however, is a behemoth. I own a little game called Star Fleet Battles. I only own the basic game, but the rulebook is 224 pages! This is for the basic game alone! The Advanced Missions expansion adds another 160 pages of rules! Who has the time to read through and understand that? Not I. Thus, this game has never hit my table. Not once. I have played it at Dragon*Con a few times under the watchful eye of an experienced player, but never on my own. This alone has basically banished the game to my shelf.
Secondly, playing a game requires that the person that read the rules, understands the rules. If the person that read the rules doesn't understand them, you have quite a problem. This tends to set the players out on a restless rampage, and gives them reason to harass you for not doing your job. "You wanted to play this game and you haven't even read the rules! Get on the ball!" "What's wrong with you!" "Why are you so dumb!" You get the picture. When you don't know the rules, it ruins the experience for everyone else. Hence, you are the reason the group has a bad taste in their mouth later on.
And for the second time now, my group's Europe Engulfed experience makes a cameo! For reference, I use this specific gaming experience because it is a great example of how every party involved can run a fowl. In the weeks leading up to the beginning of this four week extravaganza, Zack was supposed to have read the rules. And Shane and I trusted that he did just that. However, it can never be a good sign when you get to the place of residence and the person who was supposed to have read the rules in the weeks prior to your engagement is sitting on the couch and reading the rules. So, after hounding him for not having the rules read, he assured us that we would be fine. After all, he had play aids! We set the game up in about 45 minutes and we were off. We thought we were anyway. Turns out, all he really knew how to do was move. Therefore, we spent the better part of four hours searching through the rulebook for everything except movement. To be fair, we did get through part of a turn that night. the subsequent evenings went much more smoothly after we ironed out some of our problems with a few questions to some of the savvy folks at BoardGameGeek.
Here is another example of how not knowing the rules can ruin an experience. One year, my uncle brought a game to my house called Fortress America. I thought it was a pretty fun game. Long story short, he ended up leaving it with me and I tried to play it with Zack and Shane. It didn't go so well. You see, I had only played it once and so I didn't really know all the rules by heart yet. I tried to read through them a little and I thought I was ready to teach the game. I had no idea just how wrong I was. We set the game up and decided that I was going to be the USA and that they would be the invaders. The thing to know about this game is that it has these neat lasers and we were probably about 16. Lasers rocked. They still do. Anyway, I digress. Well, I thought I had explained the rules correctly and every turn I was utterly destroying them with my lasers. They didn't even have a chance. We ended up just quitting the game and they never wanted to touch it again. In fact, it still gets brought up every once in a while and gets a few laughs. Turns out I had explained the rules completely wrong, and didn't even know what I was talking about for the most part. It was a day that would live in infamy.
So, as you have read here today, it is very important to know and understand the rules before you start a new game. This is the first step in getting your group to enjoy and want to play your new hot game again and again. And if you don't know the rules, you might as well forget about bringing the game out. You are just going to set yourself up for a world of hurt. It is important to note, however, that you do not need to know every rule by heart. It is ok to play one or two rules wrong as long as the game functions and everyone is having fun. You can fix what you got wrong next time, because there will be a next time. Besides, isn't the important part that you are having fun?
So until next time, be sure to read the rules before you play!
First and foremost, playing a game requires that someone read the rules. This can be the single most important deciding factor of whether or not a game hits the table. Usually, people don't like to read rule books that entail any more than, say, eight pages of rules. Now, I have bucked this trend, and rather enjoy games with a lot of meat on their bones, but your mileage may vary. One thing that nobody likes however, is a behemoth. I own a little game called Star Fleet Battles. I only own the basic game, but the rulebook is 224 pages! This is for the basic game alone! The Advanced Missions expansion adds another 160 pages of rules! Who has the time to read through and understand that? Not I. Thus, this game has never hit my table. Not once. I have played it at Dragon*Con a few times under the watchful eye of an experienced player, but never on my own. This alone has basically banished the game to my shelf.
Secondly, playing a game requires that the person that read the rules, understands the rules. If the person that read the rules doesn't understand them, you have quite a problem. This tends to set the players out on a restless rampage, and gives them reason to harass you for not doing your job. "You wanted to play this game and you haven't even read the rules! Get on the ball!" "What's wrong with you!" "Why are you so dumb!" You get the picture. When you don't know the rules, it ruins the experience for everyone else. Hence, you are the reason the group has a bad taste in their mouth later on.
And for the second time now, my group's Europe Engulfed experience makes a cameo! For reference, I use this specific gaming experience because it is a great example of how every party involved can run a fowl. In the weeks leading up to the beginning of this four week extravaganza, Zack was supposed to have read the rules. And Shane and I trusted that he did just that. However, it can never be a good sign when you get to the place of residence and the person who was supposed to have read the rules in the weeks prior to your engagement is sitting on the couch and reading the rules. So, after hounding him for not having the rules read, he assured us that we would be fine. After all, he had play aids! We set the game up in about 45 minutes and we were off. We thought we were anyway. Turns out, all he really knew how to do was move. Therefore, we spent the better part of four hours searching through the rulebook for everything except movement. To be fair, we did get through part of a turn that night. the subsequent evenings went much more smoothly after we ironed out some of our problems with a few questions to some of the savvy folks at BoardGameGeek.
Here is another example of how not knowing the rules can ruin an experience. One year, my uncle brought a game to my house called Fortress America. I thought it was a pretty fun game. Long story short, he ended up leaving it with me and I tried to play it with Zack and Shane. It didn't go so well. You see, I had only played it once and so I didn't really know all the rules by heart yet. I tried to read through them a little and I thought I was ready to teach the game. I had no idea just how wrong I was. We set the game up and decided that I was going to be the USA and that they would be the invaders. The thing to know about this game is that it has these neat lasers and we were probably about 16. Lasers rocked. They still do. Anyway, I digress. Well, I thought I had explained the rules correctly and every turn I was utterly destroying them with my lasers. They didn't even have a chance. We ended up just quitting the game and they never wanted to touch it again. In fact, it still gets brought up every once in a while and gets a few laughs. Turns out I had explained the rules completely wrong, and didn't even know what I was talking about for the most part. It was a day that would live in infamy.
So, as you have read here today, it is very important to know and understand the rules before you start a new game. This is the first step in getting your group to enjoy and want to play your new hot game again and again. And if you don't know the rules, you might as well forget about bringing the game out. You are just going to set yourself up for a world of hurt. It is important to note, however, that you do not need to know every rule by heart. It is ok to play one or two rules wrong as long as the game functions and everyone is having fun. You can fix what you got wrong next time, because there will be a next time. Besides, isn't the important part that you are having fun?
So until next time, be sure to read the rules before you play!
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