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Finding a Board Game Teacher – Ask The Bellhop

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How do you go about finding someone to teach you to play tabletop games?

This topic is a direct follow up to last week's Ask The Bellhop article where I talked about what to do when you've got a bad rulebook. In it I suggested a variety of ways to learn games other than the rules included in the box. My final suggestion was to find someone to teach you the game. But how exactly do you find this game guru? [ READ MORE ]

Bad Rulebook? No Problem. – Ask The Bellhop

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When most people sit down and try to learn a new tabletop game for the first time they usually start with the included rulebook. But what do you do if that rulebook isn't actually good at teaching the game?

Charles Barouch asks,
Why is it that no one seems to know how to write gaming rules that can be understood clearly? I spend a lot of time on Board Game Geek, or tracking down a gamer who can teach.
While I may not be able to answer Charles' question directly I can make some suggestions on way to learn games other than from the included rules. [ READ MORE ]

Second Semester – Episode 23 – Tabletop Bellhop Podcast

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 This is the 23nd episode of Tabletop Bellhop Live, an edited version of our live show recorded on January 2nd, 2019. Join us as we stream live every week on Wednesday’s at 9:30 Eastern on Twitch. If you like some video with your audio you can also watch/listen to an unedited version of the show over on YouTube.

Ep 23 - Second Semester. Week in review featuring Gloomhaven, Sagrada vs Azul, two Harry Potter games and the Minecraft card game. Then we return to teaching games. This time with a focus on teaching new vs. experienced gamers. [ READ MORE ]

Teaching New Gamers vs. Experienced Gamers – Ask The Bellhop

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Today on Ask The Bellhop I'm answering a question from a fellow Windsor gamer about teaching games to different types of gamers.

This is a direct follow up to a previous question we answered back in August. In How Do You Approach Teaching Board Games I talked about the way people learn, how you can use that to help teach games.
Sean Michael David Hamilton asks,
Teaching gamers a new game vs teaching mundanes a new game. That's always one people have some struggle with. [ READ MORE ]

Back to School – Episode 5 – Tabletop Bellhop Podcast

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Welcome to the fifth episode of Tabletop Bellhop Live. This is an edited version of our live show first recorded on August 23rd, 2018. Remember to join us as we stream live every week on Thursdays at 9:30PM ET on Twitch. If you like some video with your audio you can also watch us over on YouTube.

Today's question: How do you approach teaching board games?
In addition to discussing teaching games, we also look back at the last week and talk quite a bit about Board Game Arena. [ READ MORE ]

How do you approach teaching board games? – Ask The Bellhop

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Andrew D, over on the Misdirected Mark #Slackroom4Life asks,

How do you approach getting heavier games to the table in terms of teaching people how to play? Get them to watch a how to play video before they come, do the first playthrough as a teaching session, do a big info dump at the start, or something else?.
This is a great question Andrew,
Teaching is a skill, one that can be learned and one that has to be practiced. Game teaching is the same thing. It's something that takes practice and that you get better at over time. It's also something you can study and learn. I've had a lot of practice myself due to running public events and through that I've learned a few tricks which I hope I can pass on. I really don't think the skills for teaching a heavier game are all that different than those required for teaching a simple game, you just need to use more of them. [ READ MORE ]