Introduced a New Player to the Game

[Frewfrux]

So, I just had a "game" with my neighbour who has had no experience with Traveller, never played any role playing games in general, and is only just starting to explore the whole board game world. He is what I would consider to be a complete novice in every sense.

After explaining a bit about the game to him we did the first round with both our hands face-up. That took an hour and a half, after which he made sure I would keep coming back each week until he "got it." He either enjoyed himself, or he sees the potential for enjoying himself. I think it was a bit of both.

He did seem to mention that he found the cards hard to read with all the iconography that they use, but he also realized that this would become more obvious once he learned "the language" of the game. There is definitely a steep learning curve here. It seems, though, to be apparent that there's also value to getting over the initial hill.

[Frewfrux]

He did say, a few times, that he was quite impressed with the quality of the production of the game. Good job!

[Horizon Jeff]

He did seem to mention that he found the cards hard to read with all the iconography that they use, but he also realized that this would become more obvious once he learned "the language" of the game. There is definitely a steep learning curve here. It seems, though, to be apparent that there's also value to getting over the initial hill.

I'd certainly think it would be fair to say that the icons make the game somewhat harder to learn than other CCGs like Game of Thrones or Magic: The Gathering. However, I think the underlying mechanics are actually more middle-of-the-road in terms of card game complexity. So while the icons add to learning the game, the actual game itself isn't as difficult as some other titles.

We were pretty strongly influenced by the way board games are going more and more towards visual queues, but it is easy to overdo...

Thanks for spreading the game! Just as long as he doesn't become an evil !

[Frewfrux]

However, I think the underlying mechanics are actually more middle-of-the-road in terms of card game complexity. So while the icons add to learning the game, the actual game itself isn't as difficult as some other titles.

Oh, I agree. One thing I am going to do is to print out a card that summarizes round phases, similar to the one in Pandemic. Basically it will be a significantly reduced version of the Sequence of Play sheet that you get in the packs such that it fits onto a playing card.

Between that, and letting him use the mat (that has all the icons on it) I think we should be good to go.