I swear I’m smart and have pretty ok reading comprehension…but when I pick up a new game I have the hardest time understanding the rules and mechanics by just reading the instructions. Watching videos is helpful but I still really only pick it up while playing the game and going through the motions.
So I’m slowly collecting games that I can’t play until I find people who know how to play.
How easily do you pick up new games?
What I do nowadays when I want to introduce a new game, is 1) watch a tutorial video when I’m alone, 2) watch the tutorial video again while still alone, and then 3) watch the tutorial video a third time with the group.
I find that I usually mostly understand the rules at that point. No one else does, since it is still really hard even with the video and they’ve only seen it once, but they at least know basically what the game is and I jump in to help everyone through their first few turns.
(I am a native English speaker with excellent reading comprehension skills, and even so, it’s just a lot to take in all at once)