How to teach a board game quickly: goal first, turns, practice round

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The fastest way to lose a table's interest is to open the rulebook and read it aloud from page one. Teaching a game well is a skill, and a few habits make it much faster and more fun for everyone. A good teach gets people playing within ten minutes, even for a medium-weight game.

Before anyone arrives

Learn the game yourself first, ideally by playing a few solo turns or watching a teaching video.
Set it up before people sit down, so the teach starts at the board rather than with shuffling.
Mark tricky rules: note the two or three rules you know people will forget.
Keep the rulebook nearby, but plan to teach without reading from it.

The order that works

The theme in one sentence: "We are rival merchants trading goods in a market."
How you win: explain the goal and when the game ends before anything else. Every later rule makes sense once people know what they are trying to do.
What a turn looks like: "On your turn, you do one of these three things." Point at the components as you go.
How you score: what earns points, and roughly how much.
The one or two things that catch people out: the rule that ends the game, the action people forget.
Start playing: leave the rest for when it comes up.

Explaining the goal first is the single biggest improvement most people can make. It gives every rule that follows a reason to exist.

Avoid the rules dump

Leave out edge cases until they happen: "There is a special rule if two people tie; I will explain it if it comes up."
Do not list every card: explain the types and let people read the cards as they play.
Skip strategy lectures: you can mention one useful tip, but let people discover the rest.
Watch faces: if eyes glaze over, stop explaining and start playing.

Play a practice round

For many games, a practice round or two open-hand turns teach far more than any explanation.

Play the first round with cards face up, talking through choices out loud.
Make it clear that the practice round does not count, or that you will restart if people want.
For a longer game, play the first few turns together and then reset.

Teaching during the game

Help without playing for people: offer options, then let them choose. "You could buy this or take that; both are fine."
Do not hide rules that help others: if a rule you forgot hurts a new player, let them redo the move.
As the teacher, play generously: in a first game, beating new players by a huge margin rarely makes them want a rematch.

Choosing what to teach

For a new group, start with games that have short turns and a teach under ten minutes.
Keep a mix of light, medium and heavy games, and save the heavy ones for people who ask.
Teaching the same game several times makes you faster at it.

A ready-made template

"In this game, we are [theme]. You win by [goal], and the game ends when [trigger]. On your turn, you do [actions]. You score by [scoring]. Watch out for [the tricky rule]. Let us play a practice round with open hands." How do you teach games to friends or family? Share your tips, or the game you find hardest to explain, in the comments below.