BCSWowbagger wrote:James's tips for the first game of 1E
These are some very interesting ideas on teaching new players. I don't agree with all of them, but they have obviously been thorougly considered, and most are big improvements for my various efforts.
* Do not give them cards that refer to or rely on things you haven't taught. "Oh that's not important don't worry about that" is both frustrating and intimidating (because the player realizes this is the beginning of the learning process, not the end)
I never thought of it that way, but it may be very true.
* Give them the basics on dilemma resolution ("follow the text; if it has requirements that you fail, everyone is stopped and the dilemma gets reseeded") but don't correct them when they screw up -- not yet.
This is a very interesting point. So far, my way was to present the DRG as part of the "manual" -- "we just look it up here, how it works exactly". For me, that works, because I play Traditional only. But your pointer certainly has more merit!
* Make sure the decks are fun and not sheer solitaire.
What does this mean? Too little interaction? (But I think the potential lack of interaction is hardly noticable in the first few training games, since you're talking and explaining and helping a lot.)
* Tactics aren't as bad as you might think. I've gone both ways on teaching newbies tactics. They are fun, for one, and in many ways they are more straightforward and easier to track than the arbitrary default damage/repair rule. OTOH, their layout is very weird.
This was unexpected.
* Consider just playing Warp Speed.
This.
I've been working within the Warp rules, but outside of their regular card pool. I make silly decks from my redundant (common) cards. The idea is, that if a player is interested, I can let them keep the decks, go forth, and multiply. (Not happened yet...)
But, so, I make decks from cards of all expansion sets / properties. With AQ space lines, thus far. It seems to work. Does anybody else have experience with this? It surprises me that I seem to hear so little about Warp Speed...
You can have some amazing and deep, fun, interactive games of 1E within these constraints, and you stand a good chance at keeping the players, too.
Agreed. Another thing I did in the past, to this end, was: make cropped deck list copies of some of my decks, cutting them down to 60 cards, and play within many of BCSW's constraints (e.g., ony the basic card types, only AQ, etc.).
That way, you can show off nice cards and fun themes, but start easy.