How to Teach a Game

07 Jul, 2026

I play a lot of games. I also teach a lot of games to people, in the pursuit of playing more games with more people. As a result I've come to some fairly obvious conclusions that I nevertheless want to write about here. The following is a set of principles and rules for teaching (almost) any game. There are perhaps more rules here than some games have!

Principles for Teaching Rules

• If more than person knows the rules, designate one person to teach the rules. Anyone else can help facilitate the process by setting up the board pieces or whatever.
• Know the rules. Play the game. Read the manual. Rehearse them!
• Know your audience. A group of neophytes will have very different experience levels than veteran gamers.
• Maximize the amount of rules that can be taught during play. People remember by doing!
• Let people play around with the game objects (books, minis, maps, etc.). This gets them more engaged and interested.
• Let players ask questions! Don't make them feel bad or stupid, stupid! Tell them in advance that this is an option, and pause between rules explanations to ask if anyone has a question.
• Consider playing a "dummy round" or similar before jumping into the real game.
• For more complex or crunchy games, perhaps start with a smaller or easier game that employs similar mechanics? Learning to play Mint Works is probably easier than Dune: Imperium, after all.
• The first playthrough, try not to win. Or rather: try to facilitate play as much as possible. If this means you don't do that well, that's OK! People will want to play again, especially if they've already won.
• Use examples. Say people's names to draw them into the learning process.
• Avoid overlong rules exceptions, as players will learn this through play. People will understand.
• Watch others that teach games. This could be friends or employees of game studios (through a video or at a con).
• Do not ask your friends to watch How-To videos.

Rules For Teaching Rules

1. Start with the theme. Say who the players are and what the game setting is. Whether they are building a stain-glass window for the king of Portugal or working together to overthrow the monarchy, players are more engaged when things are less abstract (apologies to Tak, my beloved!).
2. As early as possible, try to explain the game's win conditions. This helps orient new players as to the "point" of play. Answer questions about strategies, but don't focus too much on "how to win". ¹
3. Follow up with how the players might lose. This helps players know what NOT to do as early as possible.
4. Explain why playing this game is FUN. This helps getting players to want to learn how to play.
5. In cooperative games, focus on how players will work together.
6. In competitive games, focus on how players will try to get ahead of one another.
7. Summarize.

Credits

• This video from Quinns in 2020 was very eye-opening to me. I owe that video a lot, and still rely on its advice all the time.
• This reddit post has some decent advice, some advice I don't like, and some advice I really don't like.
• In researching this post I stumbled upon this this post which I think does a great job.