TIL that massive game night at Gen Con changed how I pick board games

I was at Gen Con last August wandering the dealer hall when this guy running a demo for Root pulled me aside. He said something that stuck with me: 'Stop reading the rulebook first, play the game blind and see if the fun hits you.' I had always spent an hour studying rules before buying anything. So I sat down and just played a round of this heavy woodland game without reading a single page. It was way more fun even though I lost bad because I had no clue what I was doing. Now I try to play every new game at least once before even looking at the manual. Has anyone else tried this approach at a con or game store and had it work out weirdly well?

2 comments

2 Comments

james67217d ago

Wait wait wait, so you played Root blind? That game is super complex with all the different factions and asymmetry. I'm honestly impressed you even finished a round without the rulebook. I usually spend the whole game checking rules every two minutes, that would drive me crazy.

ellis.charles17d ago

In my experience Root is actually one of those games where the theme does a lot of the heavy lifting once you get past the initial shock. The first game is always a mess no matter what, blind or not, so you might as well just jump in. I'd argue that the rulebook actually makes it harder to learn because it throws all the faction specific exceptions at you before you've even seen a single card. Some of the best games I've had with Root were when everyone just went for it without overthinking the rules first. Your mileage may vary of course, but I've found that the chaos of a blind playthrough is part of the charm.