The Teachability Scorecard

Ask a gamer which games are good for beginners and you will usually get the light ones: short rules, small box, simple components. That is a fair first guess, and it misses a lot. Some light games are miserable to learn. Some medium ones teach beautifully. Weight measures how much there is to know. Teachability measures how it feels to learn it.

The Teachability Scorecard asks seven yes-or-no questions. Each one comes from the newcomer’s ledger: it asks whether the game adds to the cost column or keeps it short.

The seven questions

1. One core action a turn? Can you say what you do on a turn in one sentence? “Pick one of three things” passes. “Roll, then collect, then trade, then build, in that order” does not.

2. Few exceptions? Count the rules that begin with “unless” or “except.” A newcomer can carry one or two. Five is a rules dump waiting to happen.

3. Visible progress? Can a newcomer glance at the table and see how they are doing? Pieces on a map and a score track pass. Hidden points that only appear at the end fail, because the newcomer cannot tell if their choices are working.

4. Interaction that is not mean? Players can get in each other’s way. That is fine. The question is whether the game lets one player target another directly: steal, attack, wipe out. A newcomer on the receiving end takes it personally, even when it was the right move.

5. Forgiving decisions? Can a weak early choice be recovered from? Some games decide a lot in the first five minutes, which is exactly when a newcomer knows least.

6. Under 45 minutes? Shorter games end before fatigue sets in, and they leave time for a rematch. A newcomer who asks for a second round on the same night has already won you the Second Game.

7. Good at your player count? Not the count on the box. The count at your table tonight.

Score one point for each yes. Six or seven: ready tonight. Four or five: better a little later, or tonight with a practice round. Three or fewer: not for a first game, so put it later on the ladder.

A worked example: Ticket to Ride against Catan

These are the two most common answers to “what should I play with a beginner?” Here is how they score, at a table of four.

Ticket to Ride.

1. One core action: yes. On your turn you do exactly one of three things: draw train cards, claim a route, or draw tickets.
2. Few exceptions: yes. There are a couple, like the face-up locomotive that counts as your whole draw, but they can wait until they come up.
3. Visible progress: yes. Your trains are on the map, and routes score the moment you claim them.
4. Not mean: yes. You can take a route someone needed, but you never take anything out of their hand.
5. Forgiving: mostly yes. A failed ticket costs its points, so warn about that, but there is no early choice that ruins a game.
6. Under 45 minutes: borderline. The box says 30 to 60. With newcomers, call it a no.
7. Good at four: yes.

Six out of seven. Ready tonight.

Catan.

1. One core action: no. A turn is a roll, then trading and building in any order, and other players act during it.
2. Few exceptions: no. The seven, the discard, the robber, and when you may play a development card all need explaining.
3. Visible progress: mostly yes. Settlements and cities are on the board, though Victory Point cards stay hidden until the end.
4. Not mean: no. The robber lets you steal a card from a chosen player and block their hex.
5. Forgiving: no. Your two starting settlements shape the whole game, and they are placed before a newcomer has seen a single roll.
6. Under 45 minutes: no. A first game with new players runs well past that.
7. Good at four: yes.

Two out of seven, maybe three.

Catan is a wonderful game, and it was many people’s first. But that score is a map of why so many first Catan nights go sideways. The game is not much heavier than Ticket to Ride. It is just much harder to learn comfortably.

Every no is a note for the teach

The scorecard is not a list of games you are allowed to play. It is a list of what will hurt.

If you do play Catan with a newcomer, each failed question tells you what to plan for. Forgiving decisions failed, so use the fixed starting layout printed in the rulebook, which takes the hardest choice off the table. Mean interaction failed, so agree before the game that nobody robs the newcomer in the first few rounds. Exceptions failed, so hold development cards until someone buys one. You have turned a two into something closer to a four.

That is the real use of the scorecard. It turns “this game is too hard for her” into “these three parts are too hard, and here is what I will do about each.”