Episode 265 - Do We Need to Read?
July 9, 2026
Ambie and Crystal discuss a game they both played recently, Playthings. Then we talk about different ways you can learn rules in board games and which are our favorite ways to learn. Remember to check out our new merch!
Intro: 0:00
Announcements: 0:40
Recent Games: 3:05
Ways of Learning: 15:04
Outro: 31:15
Bloopers: 32:19
Games mentioned this episode:
Playthings: 3:05 (Buy)
18xx: 19:20
Trajan: 20:41
18AL: 21:35
Vast: The Crystal Caverns: 22:09
Codenames: 23:19
Legends of Andor: 24:38
Cozy Stickerville: 24:47
Android: Netrunner: 25:14
Cuba Libre: 25:49
Heat: Pedal to the Metal: 26:49
Bomb Busters: 27:12
Star Trek: Ascendancy: 29:38
Battlestar Galactica: 30:00
Twilight Imperium: 30:14
Channels mentioned:
This episode was sponsored by Grey Fox Games. Use the code "BLITZ2026" to get 10% off your entire cart.
Board Game Blitz's theme song was composed by Andrew Morrow.
Transcript
[00:00:06:21 - 00:00:42:06]
Crystal: Hello and welcome to episode 265 of Board Game Blitz, a podcast about all things board games that you can listen to in less time than it takes to cool off after coming inside during a heatwave. Board Game Blitz is sponsored by Grey Fox Games. This week, we're talking about the best ways to learn a new board game. First, we discuss a game we both got to play recently, Playthings. Then, we talk about the variety of ways you and your friends can utilize to learn new games along with some of our favorite methods. And now, here are your hosts...
Ambie: Ambie
Crystal: and Crystal.
[00:00:42:06 - 00:00:54:22]
Ambie: All right, first, a couple of announcements. We have some more new merch. We keep making new merch.
Crystal: Hooray!
Ambie: Yeah, now that we have Procreate and an Apple Pencil and stuff, I've been, like, drawing a lot. So I made a new board game hourglass t-shirt, which I had, like, an idea for a while ago of an hourglass, with
[00:00:54:22 - 00:00:58:24]
Crystal: Yeah, we have been, like, which workshopped that idea forever ago.
[00:00:58:24 -00:01:39:22]
Ambie: Yeah, but it has, like, little board game components in the top, and then it's, like, goes down in the bottom. It has, like, the themes come to life, kind of like, like, some of the actual things. Like, I have a castle and a sheep instead of, like, little meeples at the top. I drew it, so, like, it didn't end up as good as, like, in my mind, but I'm happy with how it came out. And then my kid made a steampunk meeple. Just one day, he's like, "If I make something, can you put it on a shirt?" And I'm like, "Yeah." So he drew also on Procreate a steampunk meeple, because he likes steampunk stuff. But I haven't, like, bought the shirt for him yet, and so he's like, "Why didn't you get it for me yet?" And I'm like, I just made an order before he did that, and then I want to, like, do multiple things for shipping, so...
[00:01:40:23 - 00:01:46:14]
Crystal: Yeah.
Ambie: But anyways, you can get that merch at merch.boardgameblitz.com any time.
Crystal: Hooray!
[00:01:46:14 - 00:02:36:29]
Crystal: And then our other announcement, in case you haven't been following along, or in case we didn't actually tell you the number, which is more likely, we are heading toward the end of the podcast officially, and this is the antepenultimate episode, which we had to look up. I was like, "I know what penultimate means, but what's the one before that? The two from the end, and it is antepenultimate." And there's other... If you look up the four from the end and five from the end, they just keep tacking more things onto the word, and it's quite funny. But yes, after this episode, there will be two more episodes. So there will be one more kind of standard episode, and then our final episode, which will come out in the beginning of August, is going to be our very special finale that we are recording together in person, which we don't get to do very often, so yeah.
[00:02:36:29 - 00:02:41:02]
Ambie: We've had, like, one or two other episodes that we've recorded together, I think.
[00:02:41:02 - 00:02:59:15]
Crystal: Yeah, in 10 years. Like, we've barely ever recorded in the same place. So it'll be fun. I will probably cry. But yeah, you guys have two more after this to look forward to, and then you can listen to the backlog of 264 others prior to today, at least, and other podcasts, or whatever.
[00:02:59:15 - 00:03:00:28]
Ambie: And our YouTube.
[00:03:00:28 - 00:03:02:11]
Crystal: Yeah!
[00:03:04:22 - 00:03:24:13]
Ambie: Recently, we both got a review copy of Playthings from DVC Games. Playthings is a 2026 published game, published by DVC Games, designed by Jasper Beatrix, Jerry Bright Jr., Joey Palluconi, and Nick Tofani is on here. Oh, that's the artist, okay. That was looking at the box and comparing it with BGG. So yeah, all those names are on the box here.
[00:03:24:13 - 00:03:37:23]
Crystal: And this one releases July 20th, officially. So when you all hear this, this game is not fully released yet, but it's close. It's almost here.
Ambie: I didn't actually realize when it released, but yes. So we got a review copy before it released, clearly.
[00:03:37:23 - 00:04:09:17]
Crystal: We love the folks at DVC Games.
Ambie: Yeah.
Crystal: Like, this is not, like, it's not a bias thing, but like, we've kind of been in communication with them since they ran their prior company.
Ambie: Since they were a different, yeah.
Crystal: Yeah, they were Story Machine Games for a while, and then they kind of took a break for a while, and then they came back as DVC Games, and they're just lovely humans, and we happen to end up liking a lot of their games. But not all of them, like, there was a game of theirs that I wasn't keen on, so like, just know that like, we tell the truth, but we do really enjoy the people who make these games.
[00:04:09:17 - 00:06:02:15]
Ambie: Yeah, so Playthings is a game for three to five players, 20 to 30 minutes, ages 13 plus, the theme is there's a night terror that's like stealing the toys, or like, hiding the toys. What is it? Takes the toys and hides them around, at night when you're sleeping. And so in the game, you kind of take turns being a one versus many game, so there's one person that takes turns being the night terror, and then everyone else is the, are the--
Crystal: The guests, I think is what they call them.
Ambie: Guests. Yeah. But there's a mat, a lot of DVC Games come in this sort of format, this magnetic closure box, and like a mat for the board of cloth mat, and then cards and items and stuff. But the mat has like a room layout, a top view room layout, so it's kind of like--
Crystal: A blueprint style.
Ambie: Which is like, blueprint with, yeah, some picture. It's all black and white, so it's like kind of a spooky atmosphere. And then there's these wooden blocks that are these toy chests, and on the bottom it says the name of the toy. So the night terror at night is gonna be placing these out onto the board, it has to be like one per room, and then while everyone else has their eyes closed, or not closed, which I'll get to later. But like each person, each guest is gonna have a card that says what their toy is, and they're trying to guess where that toy is during the day phase when they all open their eyes, after all of them have been placed out. So the night terror is gonna say like, "Oh, I'm placing the sword," and then they do it, whatever, they can make other noises and stuff, and then eventually they place the sword, and then they say, "Oh, okay, I'm placing the doll." So they have to say what they're placing, and then place it, and then say the next thing. And then the players are listening, and then they also have these traps.
Crystal: There are a lot of traps.
Ambie: Yeah, there's a bunch of cards, they're gonna get like three traps that they get to do, and there's lots of different types, they have icons and they describe it in the book, but there's these different, like there's these strings and these bells, and like...
Crystal: jingle jingle jingle!
Ambie: some of the traps are like, you put your finger under there, the mat to try to listen to it, or try to feel it.
Crystal: Or like feel things, yeah, getting placed.
Ambie: Haha, listen with your finger.
[00:06:03:20 - 00:06:07:13]
Ambie: But yeah, there's a lot of different traps. Some are more powerful than others.
[00:06:07:13 - 00:06:31:13]
Crystal: And some of them you're like, you're stretching a string across either above or under the mat, or you can use the box on top of, or under the mat as well. And so you're both physically manipulating the play space in a way that will make it harder for the night terror, and also kind of just hindering their ability to get to the play space in some instances as well.
[00:06:31:13 - 00:07:27:22]
Ambie: Yeah, so they set all their traps, so you like put your hands there, and whatever, put things in the way, and then close their eyes, and the night terror places their things at night. But you can peek, so as a guest, you can open your eyes during the night to see where they're putting the toys. And if you ever peek, that counts as peeking. In the night terror, you don't actually care if the guests guess their toys. The guests get points for guessing their toys, and for like the number of toys that have been guessed. But then the night terror gets points for guessing correctly if a person has peeked or not. So you don't care that much, like whether people actually get their toys. But you care more about like, whether they peeked or not, and if you can guess that correctly. And you kind of guess like a Codenames style where you're guessing the most obvious one first, because once you guess wrong, then your turn's over for the night terror. So like you guess, oh, I peeked, or you peeked, yes, or you didn't peek, yes. Either way, you get two points. But if the person peeked and you guessed correctly, then you get to take the two points from them. You don't have to, but you can.
[00:07:28:25 - 00:07:50:06]
Ambie: So yeah, it's gonna like, everyone's gonna take turns being the night terror, and then like the players get points for their own toy, guessing that, and also for the total number of toys that have been guessed. If you don't guess your own toy on the first try, then there's like another card that gets flipped over that gives an extra clue.
Crystal: The play cards.
Ambie: Yeah, there's a play card. So one example is, choose a player who has not guessed correctly yet, they get an additional guess.
[00:07:50:06 - 00:08:04:06]
Ambie: Another one is like--
Crystal: Another one was, there's an invisible dog leash. There's a bracelet that you tie a string onto during setup.
Ambie: Oh yeah.
Ambie: And you can toss that onto the board. And if you can hook a toy and pull it off the mat, you get to flip it face up.
[00:08:04:06 - 00:08:23:20]
Ambie: Yeah, yeah, some things like, let you flip up toys or something. So that helps give you some more information and you get another guess. And so you get like two points if you got on the first guess, one point if you get on the second guess, and then one point per toy that was guessed correctly. So you're getting kind of your individual points, but kind of also working together to try to get more points by having other people guess their things too.
[00:08:23:20 - 00:08:32:20]
Crystal: Yeah, we generally like worked fully as a group. We played four players, and the three people that were not the night terror always were helping each other, like the whole time.
[00:08:32:20 - 00:08:48:16]
Ambie: We only played like one time and we played like two rounds. And so yeah, we were helping each other, but I could see it being like, you kind of want them to guess on the second guess and not the first one. So I could see you like trying to lead them a little bit off maybe if you have some information.
[00:08:49:22 - 00:09:26:26]
Crystal: We all were messing with each other's minds and physical sensations as much as possible. And it was great. I was singing while I was placing my, like I'd say the name of the thing, and then I started singing while I was placing it. And we also like, when we had, like people would say, okay, I'm placing it. And then they wouldn't place it when they said they were placing it. Cause you don't have to say when you're placing the thing. You just have to say the name of the item between when you pick it up and when you put it down. And so like people be like, okay, I placed it, but then they'll like move their hand more and put it somewhere else. But if somebody's peeking, they would obviously see that.
[00:09:26:26 - 00:09:59:04]
Ambie: Yeah, so yeah, that was Playthings. My group, it wasn't really for my group.
Crystal: Oh no.
Ambie: Yeah, so yeah, as I said, we played a few rounds and then we were like, okay. Cause our group, no one peaked, which made it kind of weird. And then so I was the night terror once. And then one of my friends was the night terror. When I was the night terror, the traps weren't that great. And so like, it was harder for them to figure things out. And then when my friend was the night terror, the trap like let us cover half of the board and like have our hands on the other half so like we could feel everything happening. So we like, no one needed to peek if it figure out exactly what was going on.
[00:09:59:04 - 00:10:29:14]
Ambie: And so-
Crystal: Okay, so, can you help me out? Cause we struggled with, first off my group actually really enjoyed this. We were laughing, we had a lot of fun, but we struggled with understanding how the traps get distributed and selected because the way the book described it, if I am remembering correctly, which maybe not because we really didn't understand what we were supposed to do. It said to deal three trap cards face up to each player. Oh, did they need one?
[00:10:29:14 - 00:10:31:22]
Ambie: I think it was three traps total.
[00:10:31:22 - 00:10:34:23]
Crystal: So that's where, cause we definitely did that wrong.
[00:10:36:12 - 00:10:41:04]
Crystal: So it's one face up to each player. I swear it said three face up to each player.
[00:10:41:04 - 00:11:13:24]
Ambie: I think it's three face up for all to see. It's just three of the friend cards, which are the traps. And that's for everyone. But like a lot of them have multiple icons on them. So like one of them had five of the same icon on it. Like so we could do the same thing five times. And so we could have like five fingers under the board. Yeah, but then that's distributed amongst the people however you want, I think. But yeah, no one peeked. So that was kind of, I think like maybe if there were more peeking, it might be more interesting. I don't know. But then like we just, it wasn't that exciting for our group. So we didn't play that long.
[00:11:15:06 - 00:12:21:05]
Ambie: But yeah, you liked it.
Crystal: I will admit it's not worded super clearly because it says the guest players draw three random friend cards face up for all to see. And that's all it says. So that to me implied that each player draw.
Ambie: That would be so many.
Crystal: Well, that's the thing. We realized very quickly that that didn't make sense. And so then what we did is we were like, okay, well, we have all nine cards out every time. What do we do? So we just picked like three traps each time. So we were kind of still playing correctly but we were choosing our traps, which is definitely a more advantageous for the- and it was so funny. We had bells, we attached bells to some of the strings and then put them across. And like Greg was deliberately hitting the bells like in the places where he wasn't putting things. And then in one of the rounds we had players holding up two of the corners of the mat. And so I would like take the item and like push on the mat a little bit. So they are like, they would pull on their handle tiny bit and then I'd go put it somewhere else. And so they'd be like, oh, well for the train I felt her put something over here. And he'd be like, wait, I felt them too.
[00:12:22:16 - 00:13:06:16]
Crystal: It was funny. It was neat though, because even when you weren't sure it's still kind of ways to figure things out. And yeah, I really liked this. This is not a game that I'm gonna be breaking out every single week. Like it's definitely kind of more of a like party style game or I think it would be a really good convention game honestly, even though hearing is kind of a part of it depending on which traps.
Ambie: Yeah, you'd need a quiet room, I think.
Crystal: Yeah, but like, this is one of those games like if somebody's gonna walk by at a convention and see you with your hands holding the mat and like this is a perfect, I think convention game if you can find a space where you can hear things. It's not super essential to hear well but it's definitely helpful.
Ambie: That's true, yeah.
Crystal: So yeah, this one is a winner for me and I am excited.
Ambie: It's definitely unique.
[00:13:06:16 - 00:13:15:16]
Crystal: Oh yeah.
Ambie: Playthings is, like all DVC games I think is unique, very different. Theme works well, I think with the experience. Yeah, it's different.
[00:13:15:16 - 00:13:37:07]
Crystal: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Like I said, it's coming out later this month. I believe you can order or pre-order them directly from DVC Games' website. We will try and link that in the show notes. But yeah, if you enjoy kind of games with sensory elements to them that are a little, maybe a little silly but not super silly, like this is kind of right in that wheelhouse.
[00:13:37:07 - 00:13:58:10]
Ambie: Yeah, and also like you mentioned like the rule book not being super clear and I think similar with like the traps, it's like, it's not gonna be like where you know the rules for certain or like are abiding by like strict rules. It's like, it tells you like, oh, you just say it before you can do anything, you can sing, you can do whatever. Like when you're placing the things, it's creative.
[00:13:58:10 - 00:14:14:19]
Crystal: Yes, and it does say that like the rules should be interpreted like within the spirit of the game basically. Like there are some things that you could interpret in different ways and I think as long as the group kind of comes to a consensus, I think some of that ambiguity is fine. The cover is super creepy.
[00:14:15:26 - 00:14:16:07]
Ambie: Yes.
[00:14:16:07 - 00:14:16:27]
Crystal: I like it.
[00:14:16:27 - 00:14:26:03]
Ambie: Yeah, the art style and fits with a theme too. Like all the black and white and dark.
Crystal: The eyes.
Ambie: Yeah, I always find it hard to put these back in the box.
[00:14:26:03 - 00:14:43:16]
Crystal: I know, I love their box style. I love the magnetic closure. I love that they're small but not too small. But yes, they do pack a lot of components into their boxes and this is one of those ones that you're like, oh, I need to play Jenga like hardcore.
Ambie: Like how do I put it back?
Crystal: Yeah.
[00:14:44:25 - 00:14:55:12]
Crystal: Like I know I took them all out of here but how do I get them back in? So, and technically I'd have one less silica packet than was originally in there to do. That did not give me enough space.
[00:14:56:23 - 00:15:00:23]
Ambie: So anyways, that's Playthings.
Crystal: From DVC Games.
Ambie: Yeah.
[00:15:04:25 - 00:15:14:15]
Crystal: Back in episode 113, which was released in 2020. So six years ago, how was 2020 six years ago?
[00:15:15:17 - 00:15:48:08]
Crystal: Like right? How does that, whatever. We did an episode on teaching games, specifically like tips for how to teach board games. And so we, A, figured it's been long enough that that topic is something that we could revisit but we're kind of gonna do it slightly differently. Instead of just talking about teaching, we're gonna talk about the whole overall experience of learning a board game and all of the like different ways that can happen. Some of the ways we prefer and some of the ways that are a little ridiculous but possible.
[00:15:50:06 - 00:15:54:28]
Ambie: I think we've probably mentioned like ways that we've preferred before like in passing.
[00:15:54:28 - 00:16:05:27]
Crystal: Yeah, I imagine that that is the case, but in case we haven't or people don't remember, do you have a favorite way to learn a board game in like particular?
[00:16:05:27 - 00:16:29:21]
Ambie: So I think I usually like reading the rule book myself but also having the components out so I can like move them around and look, like as I'm reading the rule book, see like it talks about this component and then I look at the component like, oh, okay, I get it. So I can like make my own examples kind of in case the rule book doesn't have great examples. But if I mean, if the rule book has like pictures for everything in examples, then I don't need the components as much, but it is still nice to hold them.
[00:16:29:21 - 00:17:32:28]
Crystal: Yeah, I generally prefer to have games taught to me than for me to be the teacher, mostly because I just like, if I'm teaching games, I'm always worried that I'm not doing it well, even if I am, like I just get paranoid. And it's interesting because in the past, I have really not been a super good verbal learner, but I think with board games, because there is stuff to look at, like we'll generally set the game up first and then go through things. I think that helps because then I can look at everything while it's being explained and that works for me. I also, in the past have also enjoyed watching a tutorial video beforehand. Like it'll give you a lot, but you won't necessarily digest all of it. So then coming to the game session with that knowledge and then having somebody else teach it, and you're like, oh yeah, that I remember that. Okay, what's that again? And that has proved successful for me. I don't like reading rule books. The number of games in my collection that I've probably never actually fully read the rule books for is likely a very high percentage.
[00:17:34:04 - 00:17:59:11]
Ambie: I said I prefer reading rule books, but I think that's like, just so I know for sure, like what the rules are, but in practice I don't do it as much. Cause like if someone else already knows it, then I'll let them teach. And then I'm fine with like them verbally teaching me. And then like, yeah, you look at the stuff and I can usually learn pretty well from that too. But yeah, like reading the rule books takes extra time than I don't have all the time. But sometimes I do like looking at it.
[00:17:59:11 - 00:18:31:15]
Crystal: Yeah, and the context sometimes is just missing. Like even if the rule book is super clear, well-organized, really well-written, when you don't have the context of how the game actually works in your head already, sometimes the rules just like, you can't conceptualize them completely. Like, okay, when the red fleebleflobbles move to the palace of wonder, you know, roll the legacy dice. And it's like, I don't know what any of those things are. To be clear, I made all of that up. That's not a real thing.
[00:18:31:15 - 00:18:40:11]
Ambie: Yeah, that's why I like having the components. Cause then it's like the red fleebleflobbles. And I looked through the components and I'm like, oh, here's a red thing. I'm like, that looks like it could be a fleebleflobble.
[00:18:41:08 - 00:18:44:10]
Crystal: That seems like a fleebleflobbles. Yeah, I don't know.
[00:18:44:10 - 00:18:49:15]
Ambie: Or like, look at the components. There's like 23 fleebleflobbles. I'm like, okay, there's 23 of these things. So this is...
[00:18:50:25 - 00:19:14:14]
Crystal: I think-
Ambie: We're gonna make up a game here.
Crystal: I just invented my new favorite component that does not exist. I want fleebleflobbles. Someone give me fleebleflobbles. So yeah, I think for me, that's like, I don't mind reading. I like to read, but reading rule books, my brain starts to glaze over because it's just like, I don't understand. I can't piece this together in my head. But yeah, once the components are out, that does help for me as well.
[00:19:14:14 - 00:19:44:16]
Ambie: And then for like watching a video before, I don't usually like watching rule videos, but for when we learned 18xx the first time, we watched a few videos and I think also read a rule book beforehand and then my friend taught it. So for like more complicated stuff, I think that makes sense. And sometimes for more complicated games, I think I'll read the rule book first and then look at a tutorial. So like that order, I don't like looking at a tutorial first, I think usually. Like I won't just learn from watching a video usually.
[00:19:45:18 - 00:19:54:09]
Ambie: Like I have to read the rule book and then like look at the video for some help or like I look at the video for some stuff, like fast forward through the video and then read the rule book.
[00:19:54:09 - 00:20:30:29]
Crystal: Yeah, and the complexity of the game, kind of as you have mentioned there, really does play a role here. Cause there are some games that are really easy to learn from a video and others that very difficult when you're not manipulating the components yourself or really looking at things in a more detailed way. But thankfully there are a lot of content creators that make rule videos. Our friend Rodney Smith from Watch It Played is I would say probably the most famous. He's gotta be up there. I imagine he's probably the most famous.
Ambie: Probably.
Crystal: And he's a lovely human. So his videos tend to be ones that I gravitate toward if he has one available for a particular game.
[00:20:30:29 - 00:20:33:21]
Ambie: I have videos too. I don't watch them.
[00:20:33:21 - 00:20:36:22]
Crystal: Yeah, you make awesome videos when you make them.
[00:20:36:22 - 00:20:53:01]
Ambie: I haven't made instructional one in a while. But I think I did actually watch, I watched my Trajan one, like cause I hadn't played Trajan, I played Trajan again like within the last year recently, but I hadn't played it in a long time before that. So I think I watched it to like remember how to play and that worked.
[00:20:53:01 - 00:21:10:24]
Crystal: I love that you taught yourself the game and like that's adorable. Have you ever had a game session where you knew a game that was going to be played in advance and everyone was told to read the rule book on their own? Have you ever had a situation where that has been the case?
[00:21:10:24 - 00:21:49:08]
Ambie: I'm not sure. Well, I think the only thing was like 18XX, like the first time we played, I think we, my friend sent us the rule book and two videos. And this was before like there were video, many videos on, well, cause I made a lot of the videos on 18XX, but yeah, there was a Scott Nicholson video on like the concept I think. And so we watched some of that. I think he pointed us to like a specific part of it. And then maybe it was just that one video. And then we read the rules and it was 18AL, which is what we played. Yeah, I remember I did read the rules and like, there's no pictures in those rules, but I watched the video and then read the rules. And yeah, I think we all read it in advance, but that's the only one I think.
[00:21:49:08 - 00:22:58:29]
Crystal: Yeah, this hasn't happened a lot for me. I think there have been a couple instances where that was kind of the goal, but it's often like at least one or two people forget or don't have a chance to do it or whatever. I believe, and I'm sure Greg will correct me on this the next time I see him if I'm wrong, but the first time we played Vast: the Crystal Caverns, I think we had like planned that. We knew we were going to play it. And so I think some of us, myself included, like we didn't necessarily read through the entire rule book, but we read through, yeah, like we read through our character, like our abilities, and then like skimmed through the other people's too, because you kind of do need to know what the other players are doing. But like if we had all come to the table with zero knowledge in advance, the teach for that game is a beast. Cause you really, like everybody has to be taught individually essentially. It's such a fun game. I really like it, but it's hard to get to the table because you need people who are either already familiar with it or willing to kind of take that extra step in helping get the learning level up. And not everybody likes doing that.
[00:22:58:29 - 00:23:30:03]
Ambie: I think it's more common for people to send out a video for everyone to watch beforehand than like telling them all to read the rules beforehand.
Crystal: Yeah, that's true.
Ambie: But even with that, like people don't all watch the video beforehand.
Crystal: No, they do not.
Ambie: Like I remember, I think we had a work event. This was a long time ago, back when I was still at a job, but we played Codenames, I think. And so they sent out a video in the meeting invite like, oh, everyone can watch this video to learn how to play Codenames. And then a lot of people didn't. And so then they just played the video before when people were there too.
[00:23:31:06 - 00:23:34:16]
Ambie: But I mean, that's like a relatively simple game to learn.
[00:23:34:16 - 00:23:50:09]
Crystal: I mean, I've definitely pulled out a video for a group before for yeah, for games kind of like that. Where like the explanation isn't teeny, but it's also not long. And you're like, this video really sums it up great here. Just watch this rather than listen to me ramble.
[00:23:51:09 - 00:24:34:04]
Crystal: There are some games that kind of build the learning of the game into the game itself. I know I've played a couple examples of this over the years, but like you literally can get out the box. And like it says the top of the deck is like, okay, flip this over and go. And we'll teach you the game as you're playing. And I think in my experience for those types of games, at least the ones that I've played, that it's a really fun experience in the moment, but it doesn't stick as well in my mind, like the actual rules. Because like by the time later comes around, I'm like, I don't remember how to do that one thing. Cause we just kind of did it and blew past it, right? Like I feel like I wasn't committing things to memory as well in a situation like that.
[00:24:34:04 - 00:24:49:25]
Ambie: That's kind of like a video game tutorial.
Crystal: Yeah, it is actually.
Ambie: I remember Legends of Andor was like that. And that was like an early one, but then with legacy games, it does that kind of, and I think a lot of children's games also, children's legacy games and.. or like Cozy Stickerville which I've played a lot. That one, I mean it has-
[00:24:49:25 - 00:24:56:00]
Crystal: We're gonna go ahead and we're trying to hit the world record for most mentions of Cozy Sstickerville, 2026.
[00:24:56:00 - 00:25:26:23]
Ambie: That one, like it has rules, but then it's like not many rules and then you start and then a lot of the rules are in the cards. I think, yeah, there's a lot of card games have rules mostly in the cards. And so like the rules themselves are more simple, but then it's like, oh, as you play, you're gonna have all this errata. Like, oh, with like living card games too, or like Netrunner and stuff, they would have the glossary of all the stuff. I mean, the rules themselves were also hard, but like there's a whole glossary of card terms and stuff. So it's like, there's more rules as you get more into it.
[00:25:26:23 - 00:25:42:00]
Crystal: I think that's why those games tend to, it feels overwhelming in a way, even though some of those games are obviously amazing and lots of people love them. I think I've always just kind of been like, I don't wanna get in deep and if I like the thing, that's what I'll want to do. So I just don't do it at all.
[00:25:42:00 - 00:26:16:07]
Ambie: But then there are also games that have like a tutorial game.
Crystal: Oh yeah, like a special setup for the first game.
Ambie: Yeah, so like in Cuba Libre, which is a COIN game from GMT, they have like the rule book and then like a player's handbook, I think. And then the player's handbook has like a starting game that tells you like the first two turns or something of a game and then it's like, okay, now you know how to play and you can finish it. Did I end up doing that? I think I might've done that, but I also read the, like I read the rule book and then did the player's handbook, but I think like it says you can just do the player's handbook, which I think was true, but I like reading the rule book too.
[00:26:17:27 - 00:27:11:28]
Crystal: Yeah, I know I've played, and this actually, sometimes this becomes a tough decision for me, like when you're reading through the rule book and it's like, if this is your first time playing, you know, use these components and leave these ones out. There have been times where I'm trying to figure out whether as a hobby gamer who is very familiar with games, if I should just go ahead and throw everything in because in some games, the intro game is actually kind of boring and doesn't really give, like Heat. Dude, when you don't have all the special cards in Heat: Pedal to the Metal, that's why I didn't like it at first. Cause we didn't, like it was the bare bones version of it with like nothing added in and I was bored. I didn't like it. And then I played Heat with all the cards and I was like, oh, this is awesome. This is what everyone else was talking about. But I thought I'm like, I don't want to make it too complicated for people, you know, unnecessarily.
[00:27:11:28 - 00:27:44:11]
Ambie: Yeah, and then with Bomb Busters, the first four or the first three missions, I think, are like tutorial kind of. And so like I read the rules and then I was looking at the setup for the first mission and it didn't have any bombs in it. Like, it didn't have any of the red ones. Like it goes only the blue wires and then the second mission introduces yellow wires and then the third mission introduces the red one and then the fourth one has like all the rules. And so like I had read all the rules and then I was like doing the setup for the first mission. I'm like, wait, why doesn't it, like what? And so I looked through, I'm like, oh, okay. So we just started on mission four because I was like, I've read the rules, I know.
[00:27:44:11 - 00:28:09:16]
Crystal: I think when I joined you all and when I first played it, I think you guys were like, oh yeah, we're just gonna do mission 11 or something.
Ambie: I think it was like eight, I think.
Crystal: Eight, okay. Yeah, because they were, I mean, it's one of those things where first off, I wanna say, I very much appreciate games that do provide kind of that easier barrier to entry for the people who need it. But also sometimes I'm like, yeah, no, that's boring. I don't wanna do that. Let's get to the fun stuff.
[00:28:09:16 - 00:28:51:02]
Ambie: But yeah, I think that's like on your note of games introducing things one at a time where it's kind of like a middle ground. It's not having no rules at the beginning where you just flip a card, but it had like some rules and then it's kind of like introducing the rules through the missions. And I guess a lot of mission campaign games do that. Like I think the Fellowship of the Ring trick taking game, which I've only played some of it, but I think like the first missions were pretty easy. And like, people say like as more chapters, that it gets like the interesting stuff happens later, but it's like takes a while for people who are already familiar with tricktakers. So I guess that's a double-edged sword. It's like good for people who are beginners, but then it gets boring for people who are not.
[00:28:51:02 - 00:30:04:15]
Crystal: Yeah, and then of course, there's the classic person at the table who just doesn't want to listen to you talk at them. And they're like, can we just start playing? Can we just start? Can we just go? Well, can we learn as we go? And inevitably then one turn in, they will have four questions and it's like, this is why we wanted to go over the rules. Like you don't have any idea what you're supposed to be doing right now. Like, yes, learning rules can be a little bit boring, but if you want to play games and you care about playing them somewhat accurately, you gotta do it. And yes, I think trying to optimize those teachers as best you can is good, but there are times when you're just gonna have to sit there and listen to somebody talk at you for 20 or 30 minutes, depending on how complex the game is. I mean, shoot for Star Trek Ascendancy, for brand new players, like for lots of brand new players, it has taken me an hour to teach that game, like fully. Just because there's so much and it's one of those games where you need to be aware of everything before you start, because if you start poorly, it will get bad fast. And so it's tough. Battlestar Galactica is the same way. You have to know everything going in.
[00:30:04:15 - 00:30:21:00]
Ambie: Yeah, but I guess with those, it's like, that type of game is where you would try to send out the rules ahead of time if you know you're gonna be playing. Like, I don't know what we did for, when we played Twilight Imperium, I don't actually remember like the first time we played how the rules were learned, I don't know.
[00:30:21:00 - 00:31:15:16]
Crystal: I don't actually remember how I learned the first time I played Twilight Imperium either. I'm probably never playing it again, so it really doesn't matter to me. I've played it what, three times? That's enough, I'm good.
Well, we would love to hear from you all. What are your favorite games to teach? Or what games were easy to learn? Or do you have any tips and tricks for teaching or learning games that might benefit the board game community that we didn't mention? If so, please post on social media and tag us, or comment in the Blitz Discord and tell us there, we've got a channel specifically dedicated to talking about the podcast. So you can come talk about the podcast there. We'd love to see you in the Discord. That community is going to stay alive after the podcast ends, and we do lots of funny things in there. We have game nights twice a week, lots of discussions and cool stuff happening in the Discord all the time. So come join if you're not a part of it already.
[00:31:16:24 - 00:32:10:00]
Ambie: And that’s it for this week’s Board Game Blitz. Visit our website, boardgameblitz.com for more content and links.
This episode was sponsored by Grey Fox Games. Do you hear the call of the gods? The new Gods & Prophets expansion for Reavers of Midgard is still available for late pledges, so head to Kickstarter now to get your copy. And if you want to buy games at greyfoxgames.com, you can get 10% off everything in your order with the code BLITZ2026 at checkout!
Join the blitzketeer community on discord for game nights, discussions and more by following the link in the show notes.
Support the show by leaving us a rating and review on your podcast provider or by getting some official Blitz swag at merch.boardgameblitz.com
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Our theme song was composed by Andrew Morrow.
Until next time,
We don’t need no board game rulebooks
We don’t need no tutorial
Bye everyone!
Crystal: Bye!
[00:32:19:11 - 00:32:38:14]
Ambie: The new gods and prophets expansions for Reavers of... expansions. It's expansion.
Crystal: Did I type an S?
Ambie: No, no, no, I just said it because.
Crystal: Oh, okay.
Ambie: Because I was thinking in plural, like there's gods and prophets and expansions and Reavers.
Crystal: Everything is plural.
Ambie: Yeah, okay.
Crystal: (singing) Everything is plural!
Ambie: All right.
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