A Guide to Teaching Games
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Teaching games is an artform in itself and can be much improved with practice and by following a structure that helps players internalize the rules as you explain them.

Kushal (he/him) is one of the best teachers we have in the group and the below is his 📘 How To Guide
🙇 PRE-TEACH (Before Game Day) 🙇
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  1. Be Prepared: Do whatever you need to be familiar with the game and its rules. Do not start teaching by reading from the rulebook at the table. That’s the worst thing you can do—honestly, better to not play that game at all.
  2. New-to-You Games: If this is your first teach and your first play, expect things to be a bit more challenging—and less smooth—than future teaches. That’s okay. Try to watch one or two videos in addition to reading the rulebook to get a better sense of flow. While you may not be able to anticipate edge cases without having played the game yourself, you should still have enough understanding to get everyone playing and confidently answer basic questions.
  3. Rulebook + Videos: Everyone learns differently, but reading the rulebook is important. If nothing else, being familiar with it helps you troubleshoot and quickly look things up during play.
  4.     •    For lighter games, I usually just read the rulebook.
  5.     •    For heavier games, I’ll often watch a video first to get context, then read the rulebook.
  6.     •    For trickier games, I may even watch the video again after reading the rulebook to clarify things I missed or didn’t fully understand.
  7. Familiar Games Still Need a Refresh: Even for games I’m familiar with, I find a quick refresh on the day of (even just a How To play rules video on 1.5x speed)—before everyone is at the table—immensely helpful. It’s surprising how many small details you forget without realizing it.
  8. Flow of Talking Points: Once you understand the rules, practice a rough outline of talking points so your teach flows organically. Often, I’ll follow the sequence used in the rulebook—but that depends entirely on how good the rulebook actually is. 

📖 THE TEACH 📖
  1. Context (30–45 seconds): A light touch of theme and the win condition. This helps players understand what they’re trying to do and gives them a mental hook for everything that follows.
  2. Bird’s-Eye View (1–3 minutes): What are you looking at? Give a quick lay of the land—point out major sections of the board, shared areas, player boards, and key components. Try to tie things back to the theme when possible. The goal here is to orient players visually so later rules have a physical place to “land.”
  3. Game Structure: How long does the game last? How many rounds are there, and what defines a round? This sets expectations around pacing and helps players understand where they are in the overall arc of the game.
  4. Larger Stand-Alone Concepts (If Needed): Some games rely on a core concept that everything else builds on; most games don’t need this step. Example: how deduction fundamentally works in Alchemists. Explaining this up front prevents confusion later and keeps the rest of the teach from constantly backtracking.
  5. On Your Turn (The Core Teach): What does a turn look like? Walk through the available actions and options. This is the bulk of the teach. Prioritize clarity and move from simpler actions to more complex ones, especially where actions have dependencies. WIll often include a recap for a section before movin on. If a good player aid is provided, have players follow along—tracking phases and actions as you explain them. The goal here is to give players confidence that they understand their choices and can take a legal turn on their own.
  6. End of Turn / End of Round: Explain what automatically happens at the end of a turn or round—market refreshes, income, cleanup, resets, and similar effects.This helps players avoid missing mandatory steps and understand the rhythm of the game as it progresses. 
  7. Questions? The bulk of the teach is now done. Pause here to address questions if you haven’t already been doing so. This gives players a chance to clarify uncertainties before exceptions and edge cases are introduced.
  8. “But…” Rules (Exceptions & Gotchas): Cover important exceptions, unintuitive interactions, or fiddly rules that players need to know before starting. Smaller exceptions are often better introduced as they come up during play. Elegant designs should have very few of these, if any. The goal is to prevent early mistakes without overwhelming players with edge cases.
  9. End Game & Final Scoring: Confirm the end-game trigger and walk through final scoring. This works as a natural summary of everything that’s been taught and often reveals anything that may have been missed or misunderstood.
  10. Variable / Asymmetric Setup: Once players know everything they need to know, walk through player powers, variable setup, or slight asymmetry so people can make informed setup-related choices. Leaving this until now avoids cognitive overload and gives context to why these differences matter.
  11. Strategy Tips (Usually Skip): I almost never give strategic advice—what you should or shouldn’t focus on—unless it’s a well-established fact (not opinion) or a necessary heads-up about a known design shortcoming. And especially not mid-teach.If I do offer anything, it’s here at the very end.
  12. Last Check / Questions? At this point, invite players to look at the board and components as a whole to see if anything looks strange or unfamiliar—often because it hasn’t been explained yet. This acts as a final safety net before starting and helps catch small omissions early.
  13. We’re Ready to Play! At this point, everyone should have enough information to start confidently, with remaining details best learned through play. 

🎲 THE PLAY 🎲
  1. Talk-Through Turns: I talk through my turns anyway (everyone should), but especially in the first round I’ll also point out other available options—even on other players’ turns—to make sure everyone understands their choices. Example: “This is the point in the turn order you could do x, more as a reference for future turns”
  2. Other Players’ Turns: You may need to pay a bit more attention to other players’ turns early on, especially if they’re feeling unsure—even if it comes at the cost of your own planning. Confirm and acknowledge the legality of their first actions to help them feel confident that they’re playing the game correctly. This builds confidence and keeps early mistakes from snowballing into frustration.
  3. After the First Round: If you intentionally held back any minor rules or details, bring them up now—they’ll be much easier to digest after everyone has completed a full round. By this point, many of these things may already feel obvious.
  4. Final Quarter: Remind players of upcoming end-game triggers, final scoring, the value of leftover resources, and any tie-breakers. This helps players pivot from learning mode to endgame planning and avoids last-minute surprises.
  5. End-Game Scoring: Encourage players to walk through their scoring break-up, one person at a time, instead of simply blurting out totals. This helps catch mistakes and often reinforces how the game’s rules and strategies actually came together.