I was just discussing with my cousin last night how much it sucks to learn a new tabletop game on a game night. It's never effective and goes down 1 of 2 ways...
- Someone reads the rules out loud and everyone gets a vague idea of how to play. The game drags on as no one really understands what to do until the late game when it's too late to change their style of play and an hour has come and gone.
- Everyone does a "Demo round" where not all the rules come into play and the game is frequently stopped from then on to explain the nuances that only the person who suggested the game knew from the beginning.
Neither are effective methods. While YouTube has been my go to for learning how to play games I'm not familiar with, there's this new app called Dized that's trying something a little different. This free to download app promises to hold a catalog of games in which you can learn how to play on the fly. Think of it like you're playing the tutorial of a video game, which is always 100x more helpful than your friend who only played the game once himself prior to teaching you.
Right now they're in the process of reaching out to developers and building their library. The app is currently available on the Google Play store and coming soon to iOS. Go ahead and download it and promptly forget about it until the next time you play a new game and see if it's on there! Assuming they get the support they need I can see this becoming a great asset for tabletop gaming!
