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c/board-game-geeks•kelly.hannahkelly.hannah•2mo ago

I tried playing Catan with my non-gamer friends and it actually went great

Everyone says you need to start with something like Ticket to Ride, but I ran a game of Catan for my book club last week and they loved the trading and arguing. I think the key was I skipped the wheat/sheep talk and just called them 'bread' and 'wool'. Do other geeks think we overcomplicate gateway games?
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4 Comments
sage_green
sage_green2mo ago
Ngl, we forget that arguing is the real gateway drug.
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miles_burns
Arguing just kills the fun for me.
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blair_taylor32
Honestly saw a blog post once that made a good point. It said we get so caught up in finding the perfect "gateway" game that we forget to just teach the game in front of us well. Your bread and wool thing is a perfect example of that. Maybe it's just me but I feel like a lot of rules explanations are needlessly complex for no reason. If people are having fun arguing and trading, you already won. The game did its job.
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bailey.shane
That blog post blair_taylor32 mentioned is right, we overcomplicate teaching.
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