Dude! Take Your Turn!

We’ve come a long way in this hobby (especially wargames, since that’s what I used to play in my youth) since the days where there were very few games coming out each year so everybody who was interested in gaming actually was playing those same few games.

In those days, most players had the game, scanned through the rulebook, and just made do. I actually don’t recall how I learned to play things like Squad Leader, War & Peace, or the like.

I know I played with my brother, but I don’t remember how I learned them.

I was a kid. That was 40+ years ago. The memory fades.

Nowadays, though, there are plenty of ways to learn a game, and it varies by the player!

This came to mind today when I sat down at lunch at my office and read through the rulebook for Skies Above Britain from GMT. I’ve been doing that for a few lunches now, going through the introductory scenarios as suggested in the rulebook, learning the dogfight mechanic, the attacking bombers mechanic, and today was the Intercept Phase.

I like this programmed instruction method, though the game is still boggling my mind a bit.

But back then, we didn’t have that!

Somebody usually has to read the rulebook, though not always.

This is where the quality of the rulebook can be an issue. Hopefully the rulebook is good enough that it can help.

I actually taught Wayfarers of the South Tigris after having read the rulebook twice and nothing else.

I didn’t even get the game out and look at it on the table at all.

When I taught the game, I used the same teaching order as the rulebook is, doing the concepts and then how a turn goes, etc.

That’s how I learned the game, and it seemed to work pretty well.

In the future, I may modify it slightly, telling people how a turn works before backtracking and detailing what those various actions mean.

But it was just the rulebook.

Nothing else.