When it comes to teaching some games, I have an issue that I will often miss a detail or two in my explanation, but then remember them during gameplay when I can take advantage of it. It is not something I do intentionally, just some games have a lot of minutiea so it is easy to overlook something in the teach and only remember when it becomes an option during a game.
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I think that’s pretty common, and anyone who has ever taught a game should understand it. There’s sometimes someone who doesn’t though, and when they make a big deal of it, things can get awkward.
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Yep, I’ve done that on numerous occasions, to my frustration. I’ll generally try to not profit from it in the moment, and make sure that everyone is aware of the rule moving forwards. Often the rest of the table has said “go ahead, do the thing, that’s fine”, but otherwise I’ll do something different if possible.
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I have the opposite where I specifically teach a rule. Pause and look for confirmation because I know it’s going to trip someone up. Then halfway through the game it comes up and my wife (it’s always her) glares at me and says “You’re changing the rules again!”
I used to think I’d honestly missed things but it comes up so much that I make sure to check certain boxes when I have to teach. Yeah, it makes teaching stressful.
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I know that experience!
There was one time I was teaching my husband and another person how to play a game. There was one minor rule I knew my husband would assume worked differently. I explained it. I repeated it. I said it a third time. Not sure if I said it again or not but the third person finally asked why I kept repeating it and I said it was important. We start playing, reach the point where that rule matters, and my husband started to do it wrong and got bent out of shape and said I never explained it. I said I did multiple times and the other person backed me up. I was so glad I’d made a point of repeating it so much that the other person noticed.
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As a game demonstrator for other people, I know the thing I cannot say is “no, I did tell you that”. I mean, I won’t agree that I didn’t…
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Oh absoultely this! This is one of the reasons I dislike teaching.
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It’s really nice when another player remembers you mentioning the rule. If nothing else, for your own sanity.
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I understand how stressful it can be to teach a game sometimes, so if I can assist somebody else this way, I always do.
On the other hand, being on the other end, where somebody may have mentioned an important rule very briefly, I tend not o make a fuss if I didn’t grok it. I say, well, it’s my first game, it’s not like I was likely going to win it, is it? And move on.
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I think the solution is fairly simple. Explain all games in this way:
“I win. There are a number of ways in which that won’t happen, but we’ll cover them as we get there.”
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I hardly ever win when I teach a game. Somehow, policing it and making sure people get the rules and I don’t miss anything, strategy goes out the window, as I cannot focus on it between turns.
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Hence the exceptions! By the time you finish explaining them all, like a good teacher, you’ll have lost!
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