Comment by scottdevries | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scottdevries | Hacker News Reader

This is one of those games that looks complicated until you start playing. I was one of the Kickstarter backers, and was a bit unsure of the suitability of the game for casual play.

After 22 plays and counting with many different people, I can safely say that this isn't too hard to grasp. Essentially, your turn boils down to picking 1 of 4 (or 5) different actions, over and over again. Compared to Terra Mystica, this game is much easier to learn.

If you want a succinct rules explanation, Rodney from Watch it Played has a great tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffMLIL5qGQg

I will add that Jamey, the designer, has perfected the Kickstarter process for board gaming. He has a book and tons of free articles on his site - I'm a fan of his book here: http://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter/book/

> This is one of those games that looks complicated until you start playing. I was one of the Kickstarter backers, and was a bit unsure of the suitability of the game for casual play.

I watched the tutorial video and felt completely overwhelmed less than 5 minutes in! Is it really that easy to play? The tutorial almost felt like it was reading out game logic source code at points. It feels like it's at the level of complexity where it should be a computer game with a computer dictating and enforcing the rules but I can understand the appeal of wanting to play around a table.

What board or card games do you currently play?

Very few. When I've played games like poker and Monopoly I've seen new players struggle with the (relatively simple) rules so I was comparing this game to those.

Have you played any modern board games like splendor, ticket to ride, Stone Age, thurns and taxis, castles of burgundy, Agricola, etc?

Monopoly is rather complex for the relatively small dose of fun it provides. Poker is quite simple in its base form, so I'm not sure what to tell you there. Codenames is quite good and is available from Target. Love Letter is a modern classic of tight, simple design. These are two examples of what I would consider gateway games for people who have only ever heard of Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit.

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