How to Introduce Board Games to Adults

We recently provided suggestions about introducing board games to young children, pre-teens, and teenagers. Today we’d like to offer a few suggestions for introducing board games and card games to adults who don’t typically play board games.

As with introducing games to kids, the important thing to remember is that if the new players don’t have fun, they’ll be less likely to play again. So your job as the person introducing a game is to see that they’re having fun. And even though in general everyone loves to win, the new players don’t have to win a game to have fun.

Groups
One of the best ways to introduce board games or card games to adults is to do in as a group. One of the great benefits of playing board games is that the fun comes from the social interaction during the games. When you think about the best times you’ve had playing games, most likely they were great because of the people you were playing with. That’s why playing as a group and focusing on the fun that comes from the social interaction is a great way to introduce games to new players.

Of course, as you know, when you get together with a group of adults, you’re going to come across a number of different personalities. There will be some who are going to be outgoing and some who may just like to hang back. When you pull out a game to play, you’ll want to see that people on both extremes as well as those in the middle have fun. I’ll say that with a caveat because even though you need to set the stage for fun, everyone has ultimate responsibility for their own actions and emotions so don’t beat yourself up if not everyone has the time of their life.

We’ve found that a good way to start introducing games to a group of people is to start with what are commonly referred to as “filler games.” These are typically games that are short and don’t require much instruction. So they are easy to pick up and join in for a quick round of play. They are good ice breakers and can be played while people are still arriving.

Then we’d suggest you pull out a good group game – typically referred to as “party games”. There are a ton of good party games that encourage social interaction. The key to look for are games that can cover the range of the outgoing individuals with the more reserved individuals. So party games that can be played in teams work out well when you have these distinct personalities in the room. These games also don’t put pressure on individuals who don’t want to be in the limelight. Two of the games we highly recommend that fit the bill well are Word on the Street and Apples to Apples.

Another suggestion for introducing a group of adults to board games is to choose a “cooperative game” to play. This works well when you have a smaller group of individuals and you’re interested in introducing more strategic games into the mix. The reason these work well for new players is that you’re all on one team trying to beat the game. This way there’s less pressure on each individual as you’ll all get to discuss options as you play along.

We’ve recently introduced a number of adults to many board games through the processes described above. And I’ll mention one group in particular. This summer I started introducing a few people at work to board games by playing some games on Friday lunch breaks. We started with cooperative games that are easy to introduce and can easily be played on a lunch break – Forbidden Island, Castle Panic, and Pandemic. And now that the group has been warmed up to these cooperative games, we’re now ready to move onto more games that will pit us against each other – and thus allow for some good-natured ribbing around the office.

Good games to introduce to adults in groups: Word on the Street, Wits and Wagers, Catch Phrase, Apples to Apples, Sequence, Tsuro, Pandemic

Individuals
If there are just a few adults that you’d like to introduce board games to, party games won’t be the way to go. Instead you’ll have many more options at your disposal. And we have similar suggestions as we mentioned for teenagers in our entry on introducing board games to teenagers.

The biggest tip is to know what interests they have and what their personalities are. Are there certain game themes that they would be more inclined to try – such as word games, war games, space games, business games, horror/zombie games, etc.? Are they very competitive? Do they like intricate strategies? Do they like abstract games? Knowing their interests will help you select a game that may work well to start with.

We’ve also found that when introducing a single individual or just a couple people (vs. a group) they will be more willing to play a game that lasts longer and may take more time to explain the objectives and rules. They will also typically be more patient throughout the game and will be willing to ask questions and discuss the game throughout play. So you could tend toward games that take more thought and longer turns for each person.

But even if they are willing to be introduced to longer playing games or more strategy games, we still recommend not overwhelming a new game player with a game that has too many options at every turn or too many facets to keep track of at once. Leaves those games for later once you see how well the new player/s react to the first game you introduce. It’s all a gradual warming up process.

You could also take a look at some cooperative games (like mentioned above) since most of the cooperative games can also be played well with just 2 or 3 players. And sometimes the cooperative games play rather quickly with just 2 players, so they may be a good way to get the new player started. They will allow you to talk through strategy together as you try to beat the game. Then you can move on to other strategic games now that they have a primer under their belt.

If the person you are introducing to new games prefers to play abstract games (like chess, checkers) as a battle of minds, there are also a lot of games to choose from. The beauty about a lot of these games is that they may be shorter games and will allow for you to play the game multiple times, each time with new strategies.

Again remember that in all cases, the biggest facet you should be focused on is the experience itself. Most of our memories about great times playing games aren’t necessarily of the game itself, but it’s of the company we were with. It’s the people that make a game enjoyable and memorable. So always keep in mind what we play board games for – the face-to-face, social interaction that builds relationships.

So have a great time building more relationships through games!

Good games to introduce to adults one-on-one or with just a few people: Ticket to Ride, Stone Age, Dominion, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Roll Through the Ages

What do you recommend?
We’d love to hear of ways you’ve had success in exposing others to the fun of playing board games and card games and what games you’d recommend to do so. Leave us a comment or send us an email with your suggestions.