Teaching That's Easy In Person, Hard In Print

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SJ Games Daily Illuminator for April 29, 2026

Teaching That's Easy In Person, Hard In Print

There's a quirk of the game world that I'm not even sure I'm allowed to talk about here. (I guess we'll see if this post gets deleted!) Namely, that a lot of games can be easily described with one weird trick, but game companies don't really like to use the one weird trick because it doesn't feel good.

Let me explain . . .

This past Easter, the larger family gathered to dive into an unopened game acquired at a past Gen Con – part of the unplayed "wall of shame" we've been collectively trying to whittle down. The rules for this new game were particularly impenetrable for us . . . until we muddled through about two rounds and it "clicked."

Namely, the game (which shall go unnamed) can basically be described as "make sets of cards to buy dominoes, which you place to score points."

Even though there are enough specifics in how the game is devised to make it interesting, those 12 words are enough to convey what the heck we're trying to do in a way the first half-dozen pages of rules failed to express. It all seemed very complex because the game didn't want to come out and say, "Hey, you know Gin Rummy? It's kind of like that for the first half, and then you're buying dominoes, which you also know how to play."

I have seen this exact trick of describing a game via other reference points used in person – at the gaming table as someone attempts to entice the other players into trying a new game, or at convention demo tables. Either often leads to a back-and-forth: "Are you familiar with such-and-such game? No? Well, what about this other game? Okay, it's kind of like that, except . . ."

However, this is almost all done by "word of mouth." I've yet to see a game that came out and said, "Hey, if you're familiar with this multi-million-selling game, here's our take on it." There are great reasons for that, including the shared illusion between designers and consumers that their creations are unique and innovative ideas.

This extends across all art! Like, I'd feel a little weird if a network broadcast show started up a promotion that said, "This year's new cop show is really similar to this other show that ran 10 seasons, so why not give it a shot?" . . . even if that's exactly how you'd describe it to friends.

Still, it's odd how many new games we've tried to decipher from the rules where we could've saved a half-hour of head-scratching by just knowing up front: "It's like this other game you already know" or "it's like these two game concepts smashed together." After all, even Star Trek was famously sold as "Wagon Train to the stars" . . .

. . . to studio execs. In private.

-- Steven Marsh