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Swapped crunching numbers for reading rulebooks last year and it feels weird
I used to just jump into a new board game cold, no prep, no reading ahead. I would show up with my crew, crack open the box, and start flipping through the rulebook on the fly. That worked fine for years until we got into a 2 hour argument about phase order in a complex game last November. My buddy Mike got so frustrated he said, "Dude, you never read this thing before we start." That stung because he was right. Now I spend 30 minutes the night before learning the rules and setup, even watching a how-to video on YouTube. It made game nights way smoother, but I miss the chaos of figuring it out together. Does anyone else feel like pre-gaming takes the fun out of discovering a game on the go?
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kim_johnson511mo ago
Right @adamk95 it's like planning a trip, makes everything smoother but kills the spontaneous fun a bit lol.
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annaw731mo ago
Yeah I hear you on that. I used to be that way too, just show up and figure it out as we go, but after a few nights where nobody could agree on the rules and the game basically fell apart, I changed my mind. Now I skim the rulebook for 10 or 15 minutes before everyone gets here, and it saves a lot of headache. I still leave some room for the group to argue over little things, but knowing the big picture ahead of time keeps the night from turning into a rules debate. It's a tradeoff, but I'd rather have smooth games than that old chaos.
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