I introduce people to boardgames with some frequency, and while some of these games are reliable winners (like Settlers and Blokus), you have to be careful with Bang! and Carcassonne. Bang! may work well with younger gamers, but in my experience it usually crashes and burns - hard. It’s arbitrary and very unbalanced, which turns a lot of people off. I’m not talking about people just not liking it, I’m saying players actively hated it. It has lots of fans, but also lots of people for whom it does nothing. So it can be dicey as a starter game.

Of the 5 games you mention only one (Settlers) in my opinion provides both a good theme and a great game, and I find theme is often a key to getting people hooked - that small element of roleplaying that gets a player immersed in the game. A game like Modern Art is absolutely terrific in that respect, simple yet immersive and with subtle gameplay, while Lord of the Rings is great for fans of the books or for the less competitive.

But it really depends on who you’re playing with. There are no sure-fire, guaranteed answers, as the breadth of the field indicates. The key to getting people hooked is not to try to find the silver bullet game(s), but to pick the right game for the people you want to hook.

Yeah, I strongly agree with Chris regarding Bang.  We played with 7 people and the game dragged on for more than 90 minutes.  Plus one person was eliminated early in the game.  What fun is that?

I disagree with Settlers. Just because it is the prototypical Euro-style game does not make it accessible. I had to work up to Settlers get get my non-gamer friends to play it. Most of all because it is a long game.

Are you introducing these games to folks that might have already been inclined to play boardgames? Folks like yourself but just not introduced yet? I’ll admit one of my non-gamer friends is like that but the other too are not.

I think these are the criteria for truly non-gamers.
- It can’t be boring
- It can’t be nerdy
- It can’t be long or can’t be long between players doing something active. (In settlers I gotta wait forever for the newbies to decide what to do).
- It should look nice (saying “don’t judge a book by the cover” doesn’t mean it won’t be and the US Settlers cover makes the game look like a yawner).

The game that worked the best for *my* non-gamer friends was Vegas Showdown. In general, I don’t think this game gets enough credit. It’s fast moving, everybody is involved in each turn, there are lot’s of decisions to make, and a new player can (and usually does for some reason) win the game. It’s not nerdy, it looks nice. The theme, however, is supposedly not for everybody.

Carcassonne is good as an intro game as long as you play “cooperatively” and not terribly competitively. If everybody is helping each other figure out where a piece can be placed, it makes the game more social and fast moving. If everybody is out to win and win only, it will be a quiet intense game.

I’ll just make one other point: don’t underestimate people. They may only “hate” games--or be a non-gamer--out of ignorance. My Mom thinks Coloretto is hard. One time she asked me to bring any game I wanted. I told her she wouldn’t understand Taj Mahal (my favorite game) because it’s “about 50 times more complicated than Coloretto.” She argued that she could learn anything, so I brought it over, along with something much easier just in case. Admittedly, she was confused and playing quite randomly for the first half of the game, but she got it in the end. She hasn’t asked to play it again since, but I now know I can safely try “heavier” games with her.

I’ve never understood how Settlers keeps making these introductory lists.  Yes, it might easy to learn, and may evoke sniggers when someone eventually says they “have wood for sheep.” But if the new player (or even some experienced players) get some bad initial placements, or the rolls just don’t work in his favor, he can easily get blocked in where he has no room for growth and no possible way to win the game, yet he must still continue to “play” the game up to the very end as punishment.  If you want to make a case for player elimination, here you go…

I think these comments show that, as Chris says, there’s no such thing as the “ultimate” gateway game and that it’s highly dependent on the group.  In my own experience, Ticket to Ride works about best, although I usually have to keep reminding people about the basic rules and it takes at least half a game for it to click.  Carcassonne with small numbers is also a good one to try.  The one time I tried Get the Goods it was an outstanding success, but I don’t know how consistently that would happen.  And I’ve never tried Blokus with non-gamers, but I expect it would work very well.

I agree with Chris’ comments on Bang--you really need the right crowd and be VERY careful playing it with 7.  Not one I’d choose unless it was a young crowd or a group who I suspect would like “take that” games.  Similarly, I haven’t had much success with Settlers.  It’s just too involved a game, with reasonably long rules and the players facing a critical decision right off the bat.  Lord of the Rings is also problematic.  Sure, the cooperative play is great, but the game also has tons of fiddly rules and is at its heart an abstract design, which can be a huge disappointment to someone expecting a simulation of the book.

I’d never try Modern Art with newbies.  Very gamey, with lots of different rules for the different auctions (I can just see a beginning player say, “why?").  The theme is funny but mechanically, it’s very non-immersive.  Finally, you’re requiring the players to make value judgements, one of the hardest things for even experienced gamers to do.  And we all know how a game of MA can be swayed by just one bad judgement call.

The other question is what do you do for your second game (after you’ve played the first one lots of times--inexperienced gamers want to take plenty of time to get the hang of their first discovery).  My favorite follow-up to Ticket is Oasis--for some reason, it extends the ideas well and new players like the card drawing mechanic.  I think Settlers is better as a third game; Vegas Showdown would probably also work well in that slot (the theme would be a plus IMO, particularly with American audiences).

As other have already said (and, no doubt, will say later), tailoring the right game to the right group is the key. Ticket to Ride and Diamant have been the titles that I have had the best luck with. I have also had good luck with Bohnanza.

Over the years, I have found that some dexterity games tend to go over in a big way with new players. In particular, PitchCar, Crokinole, and Hamsterrolle all have an appeal and tend to also attract non-gaming spectators.

Carcassonne, as others have noted, is a bit problematic for new players. With some modifications (giving each player a hand of tiles to consider during the turns of other players and adding the farmers in after a few plays without them), it will work for a game to introduce them to later, but not as the initial plunge.

Settlers, which many of us remember as the “euro-gateway”, is a bit harder to explain. If we’re honest about it, most of came to Settlers after we had a lot of other gaming experience. We had cut our gaming teeth on the 3M/Avalon Hill games, Talisman, Nuclear War, Junta, and others. When Settlers arrived on the scene, we were ready for some of the more advanced play it offered. I’ve tried it on the completely new player and it has bombed many more times that it has worked. Having a wife who still says that Settlers is too hard has convinced me that it is not a game for the uninitiated.

For those who like party games, especially trivia games like Trivial Pursuit, Wits and Wagers has been a good starter game.

I would certainly steer clear of Bang or other games that rely on a “take that” mechanic. In the right group (people who have played role playing games before), it would work, but generally it is not going to work.

As fun as Modern Art is, I would not try it on new players. Every player I have tried it on (including a lot of veteran gamers) couldn’t get past the terrible artwork to give it an honest try. In my books, this is a game that really needs a face-lift (and Mike Doyle’s Brazilian version is not it). Even if you did have a group that got past the appearance issues, they would then be sinking in a pretty deep game.

As for Blokus and similar light abstracts (GemBlo, Ingenious), I suspect that they would work well. Qwirkle is a new game that I think has a lot of potential for use with new players.

A note to those who have knocked BANG! I suggest you check out Posse BANG! rules that are over at BoardGameGeek in the files section.  I have had better success using those slightly modified rules to teach people BANG! and they do not kill people off as fast.

Also I have found the Settlers of Canaan, which is a historical scenario version of Catan, easier to teach.  It also has a more statistically probable board which increases play speed.

Funny, I would think the artwork in Modern Art would be the most compelling part of the game to newbies.  I mean, the game pokes gentle fun at the artistic genre and I think does it quite well.  Most of my friends don’t understand modern art (I don’t have much appreciation for most of it either) and they like the fact that the game lampoons the ultra-serious art collector.  The art is easy; it’s the gameplay that I would worry about.

Qwirkle is another fine suggestion.  I haven’t played it yet, but it may prove to be another star in the gateway game firmament.

Bang! is great in the young high school male segment.  Pretty much every time I introduce it to a new group in that niche, one or more of them go out to try to buy it.  I, however, agree that is is a capricious game and can go long with some players going out early.  I only like to play it if I know people will play fast and/or we have 5 or so players.

Bohnanza is a great first game as there aren’t too many fiddly bits to complicate things and it is fun to talk about the artwork.  Plus, I find it VERY adaptable to different game lengths.  We just go through the deck twice instead of three times and/or adjust which beans are present.

Settlers also have some fickleness and newbies are most likely to mess themselves up by poor initial placement (I do my best to try to advise them out of any I see...)

I’ve had luck with gamer-ish card games like For Sale and No Thanks, as they aren’t as intimidating as a whole boardgame.

I think “cool bits” are sometimes underrated.  I can get nearly anyone to play Shear Panic just because of the insanely cute sheep.  The game is a bit deep/abstract with all the different moves, but everyone still has a pretty good time.

Hmm… I certainly agree with those who say you have to know your audience.  That’s also true when testing prototypes as well as published games.

The game I’ve had the best experience teaching to non-gamers is Take it Easy ("bingo on steroids").

You have an easy teaching hook (bingo); the game is puzzle-like and not too competitive, which works well for certain groups; it has quick, simultaneous play; and there’s usually lots of laughs and groans as people’s “perfect plans” fall apart in the end.  Plus, you can always blame a poor performance on not getting the right tiles at the end, so no one ever feels too bad…

Typically, players often ask to play it again immediately and then, after the second game, ask “What else do I have?”

Blokus, Jenga, Can’t Stop, and 6-Nimmt! have also worked well.  I find it interesting that these games don’t have themes, so my experience runs counter to Chris’s.

For themed games, TransAmerica, Mystery Rummy #1: Jack the Ripper (with a decent rules explanation), Great Dalmuti, and Bohnanza have worked well.  Of these, I would say TransAmerica works the best, again due to its short game length.

For younger gamers, That’s Life and Frank’s Zoo work well (play Frank’s Zoo without partnerships to 19 points, with no hedgehog or lion scoring on the first hand so everyone can get a feel for how the game works).

For just two, Lost Cities.

For groups more heavily into puzzles, Ricochet Robots and Set often go over well.

I’ve had surprisingly good luck with Quebec 1759 (the old version with the nice mounted board and painted blocks) as a first wargame for non-gamers (letting them play the British).

The blocks, dice, guessing game simultaneous moves, and limited number of initial moves (4) all combine to make it seem like not a wargame to many players, especially some women who wouldn’t ever dream of playing a wargame (ugh).  (My apologies to anyone put off by the stereotyping, I’m just reporting my own personal experiences, here.)

Of my own games, I’ve had good success with Fast Food Franchise and To Court the King, partly because they have easy learning hooks (as many non-gamers have played Monopoly and Yahtzee).

But, I would tend to use them, as well as Ticket to Ride, Ark, Carcassonne, Alhambra, and Settlers, as good third to fourth games after the non-gamers have played two shorter games and now want to try something a bit longer.

Games that I will use as a second game include For Sale, No Thanks, TransAmerica, and—playing only one, not four hands—Coloretto.

My typical non-gamer setting is at a longish party, where there’s lots of breaks and other things to do (jigsaws, swimming, eating, talking, wooden puzzles, etc.), so those who aren’t enjoying gaming can easily drop out and those who are can gradually try longer and more involved games.

In this sort of setting, quick games allow players to decide how much of an investment they want to make.  Some players will enjoy playing the opening game or two but then drop out.  But, at the next party, due to the good time they had before, they’ll often join in and enjoy a longer game.

So, I tend to find quick, easy to teach, not too competitive games work best for non-gamers.

Even in Germany, Settlers is not the best introductory game (although plenty of people who don’t play games normally are familiar with it’s popularity).

Card games No Thanks and For Sale have actually been good introductory games for me, in addition to King’s Breakfast (and Bohnanza, almost as well-known here as Settlers).  6 Nimmt is also learned easily and can accomodate up to 10 players.

With board games, I usually start out with Zug um Zug/Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne (the game that hooked me), and Adel Verpflichtet (By Hook and Crook?)--the latter having a funny theme (snobby English nobels buying and stealing antiques to show off) with repetitive mechanics that are helpful for newbies. 

Pickomino/Heck Meck im Bratwurmeck also has been a hit due to the cute theme (roasting brat-worms!) and lots of dice action--very unde as a gateway game.

I also use Coyote/Pow Wow and Die Mauer, and older classic, often as a gateway game, due to the high player interaction and interresting components.

Dear All,

Thanks much for your feedback and suggestions!

The games I selected (and will continue to select in future weekly articles) are really based on two major factors:

1. They have been the most popular games over the last 2 years among people playing designer games for the first time. These comprise about 60% males and 40% females, and have played either traditional family games (eg. Monopoly, etc), or computer/console games previously.

2. They are among the best selling games in the country, and continue to be.

Of course, there are at least a 100 other games out there that could have made the list, so the most objective way I could think of is to go by popularity and sales.

Blokus far outsells everything in Malaysia, and 99% (if not 100%) of people who have tried it get addicted to it. Then its Settlers. Then its the other three. Also, everytime they are sold out, people are still asking for them.

By the same measure, while there are those who feel Modern Art, Lord of the Rings, Vegas Showdown, Coloretto, Diamant, Bohnanza and all the other games kindly mentioned above, make great gateway games, the fact remains that they aren’t played by half as many, nor do they sell a fraction of the top 5.

Like it or not, just as Monopoly outsells every designer game in the country, Settlers outsells all the other designer games. And guess what? This happens in almost every country!

The thing is, many of those who started with the top 5 have now moved on to other designer games. And having a ball!

Wow. What a wonderful group of comments. Like Edwin, I’m trying to nurse some non-gamers into being sorta-gamers or more.

I agree with the notion that there is no definitive gateway game, but pretty clearly there is a shopping list of good gateway games. From that list you’re bound to find some that will work when you try to introduce people to designer games. The keys are to know your audience and to know yourself.

At my house Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and For Sale have probably been the best introductions. That fact says something about the people I’ve played with, and it says something about me, too.

Keep up the good work, Edwin, in making converts!

Thanks everyone for your comments and compliments!

I’m definitely going to try all the games mentioned here, that I have not had the chance to play yet!