Had to pick between my 12-year-old copy of Catan or a new fancy Kickstarter game for game night

Last Friday I was setting up for game night and realized I only had time for one game. My old Catan set is literally held together with rubber bands and markers on some tiles, but everyone knows the rules. The new game I got was this $80 Kickstarter thing with 50 unique miniatures and a 12 page rulebook. I picked the shiny new one. Three hours and two arguments about confusing rules later, everyone wished we just played Catan. Has anyone else had a total flop trying to introduce a complex new game to a casual group?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah_black15h ago

Man I feel this so hard. I got a super hyped up complex game last year and spent the whole night explaining rules while people just wanted to drink beer and roll dice. It's rough when you want to mix it up but the old standby just works better for everyone.

janahenderson11h ago

Ugh this is so real. Last New Years I tried to get my group into Dead of Winter and we spent like 45 minutes on rules and then my buddy @noah_black fell asleep during the tutorial. We just ended up playing Catan and everyone was happy. It's like you see all these awesome looking games on Kickstarter but your crew just wants to roll some dice and argue over who stole the last sheep. I've got like three of those complex games just sitting on my shelf now looking pretty.