How to introduce people to boardgaming

If you’re reading this, it’s pretty good odds that you think board games are amazing (spoiler alert: they are) and are on a mission to share them with as many people as you can!

In the past I have, while introducing muggles to our wonderful hobby, may have accidentally scared some off. So you don’t repeat my mistakes, here are some tips to making sure your gaming introductions get off to a wonderful start.

Give them a few options. Emphasis on FEW. Throwing a dozen games at them is a bad idea because choice paralysis is a thing that happens to people when presented with too many options and insufficient information to make meaningful ones.

Tell them they can play a co-operative game, a word game, or a science fiction game, and it’s easy for them to choose. That’s why web series like Geek and Sundry’s Tabletop are popular, because they slowly introduce their audience to the game choices available to them.

Speaking of choices:

Limit yourself to gateway games. Unless your friends are already seasoned video gamers or perhaps RPG/miniatures types, stick to simpler introductory games. Do not dump your muggle friends into the deep end of the cardboard pool.

Twilight Imperium. Awesome game. Bad idea.

Right group right game. Certain games are brilliant with the right crowd. Others, not so much. You know your friends, you should be able to have a decent idea of what sorts of things they might enjoy based on their hobbies or social types.

Keep it short. Of course, you might be wrong, which is why you should probably limit your introductory games to titles that won’t run for hours and hours.

Co-operation is low risk. While it might be entertaining to watch your friends lie to each other all evening with a game of The Resistance, this could backfire horribly due to them not being used to what the hobby entails. A better start might be something with teams, or even a fully co-operative game.

How about a nice game of spy vs spy?

Obviously in the end everyone’s friends are different, and some people are ready to get dumped into the heavy stuff. But in the interests of safety, take the above in mind when choosing, and happy boardgaming!