How to Introduce Board Games to New Players

Recently we’ve been asked a few times about how to introduce board games to people that don’t normally play games. The first question we ask is: “Who are you trying to introduce games to?” Because the answer will depend a lot on who you’re interested in playing games with.

So we’ll outline a few things to keep in mind depending on who you’re going to introduce board games to. In all cases, the important thing to remember is that if they 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, you don’t have to win a game to have fun.

Young Children
If you’re looking to introduce young children to games, the answer is fairly simple. Why? Because kids love to play games and they love to learn new things. So pulling out a game and sitting down with a child to play a board game or card game will usually be met with excitement. And there are so many children games available that finding one won’t be difficult.

The more difficult aspect of introducing board games to younger children is finding a suitable game for their age. What you’ll need to pay attention to in this regard isn’t necessarily their age, but rather what the child can understand. And remember that not everything you choose needs to solely be centered on teaching skills like numbers, letters, colors, or patterns but you can choose games just for fun. There are many other important lessons that children will learn by playing games even when it’s just for fun.

The great thing we love about introducing board games to children when they’re younger is that they’ll tend to like board games and card games as they grow up as well. That is, unless you don’t play for fun. If you’re the competitive type, then you better put it on hold when introducing games – especially with younger children.

Good games to introduce to Younger Children: Blokus, Gulo Gulo, Go Away Monster, LEGO Creator, Hey That’s My Fish

Pre-Teens
As children get older they will naturally be up for more challenges. The pre-teen stage is also where children want to join in more with the older kids and adults – sit at the big kids table, per se. When kids are hitting this stage, they’ll be able to play games with a little more strategy involved. They’re developing deeper reasoning skills and they’ll enjoy experimenting with new strategies during a game.

The best way we’ve found to introduce pre-teens to board games is by finding games that have a good balance of luck and strategy. Games where they can employ some strategy to feel challenged while still having enough luck involved to balance out the chances for winning are good for pre-teens. The games you select can also be of a longer duration since the attention span of kids increases as they get older.

We’ve also found that abstract games and 2-player or head-to-head games work well when introducing board games to pre-teens. In many cases, they see 2-player games as being more of a challenge and they like the anticipation that it can bring. That’s why you’ll see a number of game like Ingenious, Abalone, Quarto …. on the shelves in the 5th and 6th grade classrooms.

Good games to introduce to Pre-Teens: Ingenious, Othello, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Forbidden Island

Teenagers
If you’re looking to introduce board games to teenagers who haven’t been exposed to many board games in the past, you may be met with more reluctance. Typically they won’t be as excited as younger children are to the idea of playing a board game. There are so many things vying for the attention of teenagers to compete with – including video games or social computer games.

The trick to introducing new games to teenagers is playing off of their inclinations for fun. For some teenagers, it may be a matter of selecting a game with a theme that they’re interested in – like fantasy, medieval, commerce, zombies, etc. For others their idea of fun may revolve completely around social interaction in which case some interactive party games may be your best bet.

The best tip we can give is to understand the interests of the teenager or teenagers that you would like to introduce games to. There are so many different personalities out there that we can’t say that there is one magic game for all to play. But there are also so many different game possibilities. With so many different styles of games and game themes, there is sure to be a game that fits the interests of the people you want to play with. So get to know them well.

While the attention span of teenagers may be longer than younger children and pre-teens, our recommendation for introductory games are those that last no more than 45 or 60 minutes. The best introductory games are those that last around 30 minutes.

And also don’t forget to show a lot of energy when introducing games to teenagers. The more excitement you show for a game will go a long way in getting them excited to play as well.

Good games to introduce to Teenagers: Stone Age, Ticket to Ride, For Sale, Apples to Apples, Dominion

What comes next?
Once you’ve had a successful experience introducing a fun game to younger children, pre-teens, or teenagers, they’ll be more likely to trust your opinion when you introduce a second game to them. And after a couple of positive experiences with different games, we hope you’ll find that their minds are now opening to new possibilities and a whole range of different game options will now be accessible.

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.

And keep watching for our future post about introducing adults to the wide world of board and card games.