Wow! Good gateway game list and this list pretty much blows all others out of the water with the cool idea of the learning curve! Such a great take on introducing games to new gamers!
1. Just One. It is the perfect place to start. Co-operative, low stakes, 1 minute teach, play as long or as short as you like. (Another place you could start is Qwirkle, as it feels like an old school game with the quality of a modern hobby game.) 2. Forbidden Island. The game we started with as a family. Coop, gorgeous, a notch up from Just One but only a notch. 3. Carcassonne. Competitive tile laying. So fun to see the map emerge. Introduces more complex scoring system, but you only have one tile in hand so the decision space is constrained. Also, you can help new players or suggest when to place/not place workers. 4. Splendor. Introduces engine building, but it's linear engine building, so fairly easy to see. (Alternate: Potion Explosion for the fun factor of the marbles, but the special powers of the completed potions makes it a notch above Splendor in complexity.) 5. Raiders of the North Sea. You're fully in the hobby once you check off the boxes for Worker Placement and Vikings. But we're still at a welcoming level of complexity. *I just realized another benefit of the games on my list is they are all on the inexpensive side for hobby boardgaming. I'm also realizing another way to ramp complexity is to find a gateway game someone really likes - Carcassonne is perfect for this - is you can then add on expansions that ramp up the rules. (Ticket To Ride would work there too.) I'm glad you used the term "gateway games" in your title. Dice Tower now prefers "Welcoming games" and 3 Minute Boardgames prefers "Foundation games", I guess because they are reminded of "gateway drugs" when they hear "gateway games". But there's no reason to have that connotation, the term "gateway" is a buzz word my college uses to describe the portal that connects students to interest groups, internships, and careers. And it's especially appropriate for your channel, given that the Gateway Arch in St. Louis represents the portal to the boundless potential of the American pioneer west. (Shame on Joe for missing the opportunity to use the Gateway Arch in the video thumbnail!)
Been enjoying the love you have for SW:TDBG recently, Jamey. I hope you don't mind, but I added Biddy to the cat-based deckbuilder game I'm working on - the card is inspired by your affinity for creating worker placement games. In the game cats are played like ships in SW:TDBG and award hearts if they are in play, but make mess at the end of your turn (cube on top of the cat card). After 4 mess, the cat runs off to the discard pile. Biddy's action is "Move a mess in play to a 5 cost (or less) action card in the market. Play the action this turn and discard the mess - Cost: Opponent's mess (free) or your mess (4)" and it's a 4 cost card that awards 1 heart if played. I feel like I always mention my games in your comments section...I'm not trying to self-promote, I get inspired by things you talk about and am excited to share what I make.
Love this list! My sequence is Azul/Carcassone/ Sushi Go, Cascadia, Splendor, The Quest for El Dorado, Parks, Wingspan, Viticulture, Castles of Burgundy
I'd say 7 Wonders. Different than old traditional board games, encourages both tactical and strategic thinking. As mentioned, it is snappy to play too, which is important for that next level experience. Also, it is very popular, so it doesn't comes across as just an inside gamer culture game. Just wanted to say separately, if you want them to enjoy, be sure to take it easy on them and let them be competitive or even handicap yourself enough that they can win. If you blow them out of the water it won't give them good vibes.
💯 on "Wingspan" and its action-selection mechanism. I've been introducing my parents to modern boardgame designs, and, considering how much Rummy and "Monopoly" I played with them in my youth, I felt the title would be a great introduction to tableaus and engine building. Surprisingly, the novel concept turned out to be the action-selection. Some time afterwards I challenged them with "Ark Nova," and while I was impressed with how quickly they grasped all the moving parts, it was ultimately a little overwhelming for them. "Wingspan" has since been in our game night rotation due to its fun gameplay and very appealing theme. Their clear favorites in addition to "Wingspan" are "Horrified," "Sub-Terra," and "Heat: Pedal to the Metal" 🎲
Great topic! I get the advantage of seeing both your lists before I make mine 😆 5. Just 1 / Ten 4. Dominion / Splendor 3. Catan / Ticket to Ride 2. Cartographers / Calico / Azul 1. Wingspan Thanks for making this video.
Looks like I am a little late for the debut of this video (I usually listen to videos like this while at work, but I had a bunch of out-of-office work recently), but it was an honor to appear on your channel, Jamey! My wife already wants to try out Mysterium Park!
Great lists guys! I also think that Azul and Beez, as well as Dice Forge are great games to move into. All are stunning productions, simple to play and tend to bring a bunch of enjoyment to the new players I bring to my table :)
Good discussion and great topic. My five recommendations: 5. Ohanami 4. Perudo (aka Liar's Poker) 3. Azul (original) 2. Rumble Nation (can proxy with Sequoia components) 1. Ra
Here's an example of something I did with a couple family members and friends who are not super hardcore gamers that is similar but a bit different from what's described in this video. My favorite competitive game is Champions of Midgard. To me, once you've played with the two expansions, it's really not worth playing without them. However, I realize that all of that can be A LOT to take in and absorb for a new gamer. So this is what I did. First, we (my wife and I) invited them over for a 4 player game of just the base, vanilla Champions. This was tough for me, but it was a quaint experience. Then, a week or so later, we did it again, but only with the first expansion, Dark Mountains. This one adds a new type of warrior dice and a new type of enemy to fight, but not too much else. Mostly just more of the same from the base game. The two who are more non-gamers seemed to handle this just fine. Then, another week or so later, we tried it again with everything, Dark Mountains and Valhalla. (And for me, the Valhalla expansion is REALLY when this game shines, mostly since you don't have to feel bad about your warriors dying!) This went fairly well, but I could tell those who were new to it struggled to plan ahead. It's tough to plan a fight with the INTENTION of losing certain dice, but hopefully not all of them. Since I realized that this was still a lot to deal with, we weren't quite done yet. Yet another week or so later, the 4 of us got together one last time to play it again, with all expansions, now that everyone has had experience with everything, so that we can all really compete and strategize and all that fun stuff. Overall, I think it was a decent success. On a separate note, turns out they all loved Castles of Mad King Ludwig way better, which I borrowed from another friend. We're currently waiting for the Royal Collector's Edition to arrive, with the new Renovations rooms, to play that. My inner Viking would rather sail across the sea to fight an Eldjotnar, but putting an observatory next to an arcade room is fun too.
I like to introduce new gamers to Namiji. The path around the board feels very familiar to traditional board games but the player quickly engages with the strategic choices of where to place their ship. The mini game of the fish rack is easy to understand and quite satisfying, and the push your luck grab bag of shrimp and crabs is fun and low stakes. Plus the board art is just so pretty.
Whoa. That's like saying your first experience driving after getting your license at 16 was flying a 747 jet! I love it! Where do you go after GH? Just about any other game would be a step down! Something off the top of my head that might actually be a step up in complexity might be Terraforming Mars with ALL the expansions at once.
I really appreciated both lists and especially resonated with Ray's list. My journey of getting people into the hobby may differ from others. I mostly considered sequential gateway games that had people in my family in mind. I can say that years from when I initially got into the hobby, Bang! became a family favorite as my Italian family played a lot of Mafia. To this day, they still get together to play this Wild West card game Bang! with expansions they've purchased since then. After playing Bang!, I played a few deck builders that may have been too intimidating for my parents and/or other siblings. With that in mind, I taught my brother Dominion (who later taught it to my sister after purchasing it) and then later introduced Star Realms to my mom (who later purchased it and we'd play it with her and my dad). Throughout those many years teaching Star Realms and Dominion, I really wanted to teach Marvel Legendary (which I owned before teaching everyone Dominion and Star Realms) with my family. So, I introduced it to my brother John, who was a comic fanatic, and his love of the game along with my desire to teach sequential gateway games would eventually lead me to today....in which my wife and I get together every other week for a family dinner in which we mostly play Marvel Legendary with my parents. This video brought back many memories. Thanks! So, I guess my list today (despite the age of when some of these games were released) are as follows: 5. Quacks of Quedlinburg (honorable mention: Dice Forge) 4. Dominion 3. Star/Hero Realms (honorable mention: Ascension) 2. Legendary (i.e. Marvel, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, James Bond etc.) 1. Clank!
I recently bought my wife Legendary: Firefly! Since I'm a huge deck building and co-op gaming fan, and she loves the tv series! It was actually hard to get, since it was out of print. Great job bringing up the different "Encounter" versions of the standard Marvel game!
Settlers of Catan suffers from players being able to collude and shut out another player. If your group doesn't do that, great, but... It's super easy to get 2-3 players getting everything they want and a 3rd or 4th player is stuck getting almost nothing (yes there's trading abroad at horrible exchange rates). It's usually a "we're friends" or "we're a couple" situation. It breaks the magic circle in a pretty insidious way. I much prefer Concordia. It's a slight step up from your #3 category but that's the way of it.
Okay, just finished the video. Despite Jamey's bias and obvious investment in Wingspan's success, he has a point. I actually prefer this approach where as a lot of "gateway game" videos will START with Wingspan. Ive heard of it being a hit but it also has a lot going on, limited turns, and your choices HEAVILY dictate the rest of the game. Jamey's approach to building up to Wingspan is what I think most people should do rather than use it for new to board game people. And it is so on brand with Wingspan's reputation! Good video
Definitely, I can't hide my bias for Wingspan. :) But I genuinely would use it near the end of the list when someone is ready. While early choices matter, I think you still have a lot of freedom, and there aren't really bad choices to make in Wingspan, making it very welcoming to newcomers.
Wingspan is not a gateway game. It's a next step game. For experienced gamers it's relatively light. However, throwing someone who doesn't play modern boardgames straight into it is a bit much. Just watch Mandy Patinkin struggle 😂
For new gamers playing Catan, you’ll have to hold their hand through the beginning. The opening decisions are critical. I’ve been bit by trying to relearn Catan during the game. I was non-competitive immediately based on my opening decisions being poor.
My suggestions: Codenames for party game HP Hogwarts Battle for Coop and deck building Barenpark for tile placement and polyomino Stone Age for worker placement Splendor for economic/engine building
I'm surprised I have 11 games in my collection from your lists... counting honorable mentions. I think I'm well equipped to start onboarding more players to our hobby! I've been busting out Cascadia lately- most of my non-gamer friends enjoy it.
25:00 - good pick for Deck Building with Star Wars. Theme might throw some off, another good deck building pick i think is Summer Camp. Excellent entry level. The ceiling is low though (Quest for El Dorado is another option that has a slightly higher entry point, but definitely a higher ceiling).
@JameyStegmaier nice - for teaching deck building, I think Summer Camp is hard to beat because: 1. Theme is really approachable. 2. The "goal" is clear, it's a race to the finish line. 3. Every turn players pretty much "dump their hand", so you can help coach players through their turns. 4. It introduces the idea of multi-purpose cards (can do the cards activity, or each card has a base buy power of 1). 5. It has some variety, in that there are about 8 "activity packs" and you only use 3 each game. 6. Some activities introduce more player interaction, so you can add those in during later plays. I do think the ceiling is pretty low though, so your mileage will vary. I had my 'family game group' moving onto Quest for El Dorado fairly quickly after Summer Camp.
Incan Gold is probably my #1 gateway game. It has NEVER not been a hit with new gamers. When I play with students they invariably say that they all want to buy it for their family at home.
Wow! Good gateway game list and this list pretty much blows all others out of the water with the cool idea of the learning curve! Such a great take on introducing games to new gamers!
1. Just One. It is the perfect place to start. Co-operative, low stakes, 1 minute teach, play as long or as short as you like. (Another place you could start is Qwirkle, as it feels like an old school game with the quality of a modern hobby game.)
2. Forbidden Island. The game we started with as a family. Coop, gorgeous, a notch up from Just One but only a notch.
3. Carcassonne. Competitive tile laying. So fun to see the map emerge. Introduces more complex scoring system, but you only have one tile in hand so the decision space is constrained. Also, you can help new players or suggest when to place/not place workers.
4. Splendor. Introduces engine building, but it's linear engine building, so fairly easy to see. (Alternate: Potion Explosion for the fun factor of the marbles, but the special powers of the completed potions makes it a notch above Splendor in complexity.)
5. Raiders of the North Sea. You're fully in the hobby once you check off the boxes for Worker Placement and Vikings. But we're still at a welcoming level of complexity.
*I just realized another benefit of the games on my list is they are all on the inexpensive side for hobby boardgaming. I'm also realizing another way to ramp complexity is to find a gateway game someone really likes - Carcassonne is perfect for this - is you can then add on expansions that ramp up the rules. (Ticket To Ride would work there too.)
I'm glad you used the term "gateway games" in your title. Dice Tower now prefers "Welcoming games" and 3 Minute Boardgames prefers "Foundation games", I guess because they are reminded of "gateway drugs" when they hear "gateway games". But there's no reason to have that connotation, the term "gateway" is a buzz word my college uses to describe the portal that connects students to interest groups, internships, and careers. And it's especially appropriate for your channel, given that the Gateway Arch in St. Louis represents the portal to the boundless potential of the American pioneer west. (Shame on Joe for missing the opportunity to use the Gateway Arch in the video thumbnail!)
Really nice list!
Excellent list! I really like the progression here.
Totally agree with what you said in #5. I would just replace the game with Champions of Midgard. But Vikings and worker placement is where it's at!
Yes, Wingspan and Cascadia are the games, that brought us into the hobby😊 and we still love them very very much😊
Been enjoying the love you have for SW:TDBG recently, Jamey. I hope you don't mind, but I added Biddy to the cat-based deckbuilder game I'm working on - the card is inspired by your affinity for creating worker placement games. In the game cats are played like ships in SW:TDBG and award hearts if they are in play, but make mess at the end of your turn (cube on top of the cat card). After 4 mess, the cat runs off to the discard pile. Biddy's action is "Move a mess in play to a 5 cost (or less) action card in the market. Play the action this turn and discard the mess - Cost: Opponent's mess (free) or your mess (4)" and it's a 4 cost card that awards 1 heart if played. I feel like I always mention my games in your comments section...I'm not trying to self-promote, I get inspired by things you talk about and am excited to share what I make.
Thanks! I'm loving the game. I'm honored that you incorporated Biddy into your game. :)
Very clever! My wife's journey included Splendor, Azul, Barenpark, and Dominion...she now plays Underwater Cities, Grand Austria Hotel, and Brass
Love this list!
My sequence is Azul/Carcassone/ Sushi Go, Cascadia, Splendor, The Quest for El Dorado, Parks, Wingspan, Viticulture, Castles of Burgundy
Thanks for sharing your list!
I'd say 7 Wonders. Different than old traditional board games, encourages both tactical and strategic thinking. As mentioned, it is snappy to play too, which is important for that next level experience. Also, it is very popular, so it doesn't comes across as just an inside gamer culture game.
Just wanted to say separately, if you want them to enjoy, be sure to take it easy on them and let them be competitive or even handicap yourself enough that they can win. If you blow them out of the water it won't give them good vibes.
I like that philosophy of playing in such a way that you're focused on the fun of those around you.
💯 on "Wingspan" and its action-selection mechanism. I've been introducing my parents to modern boardgame designs, and, considering how much Rummy and "Monopoly" I played with them in my youth, I felt the title would be a great introduction to tableaus and engine building. Surprisingly, the novel concept turned out to be the action-selection. Some time afterwards I challenged them with "Ark Nova," and while I was impressed with how quickly they grasped all the moving parts, it was ultimately a little overwhelming for them. "Wingspan" has since been in our game night rotation due to its fun gameplay and very appealing theme. Their clear favorites in addition to "Wingspan" are "Horrified," "Sub-Terra," and "Heat: Pedal to the Metal" 🎲
That's great! I'm impressed that they leveled up from Wingspan to Ark Nova.
Love this video, this is such a helpful way to think about how to help onboard someone into modern games.
Great topic! I get the advantage of seeing both your lists before I make mine 😆
5. Just 1 / Ten
4. Dominion / Splendor
3. Catan / Ticket to Ride
2. Cartographers / Calico / Azul
1. Wingspan
Thanks for making this video.
I like this list!
Looks like I am a little late for the debut of this video (I usually listen to videos like this while at work, but I had a bunch of out-of-office work recently), but it was an honor to appear on your channel, Jamey! My wife already wants to try out Mysterium Park!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this video! I really appreciate it.
Great lists guys! I also think that Azul and Beez, as well as Dice Forge are great games to move into. All are stunning productions, simple to play and tend to bring a bunch of enjoyment to the new players I bring to my table :)
Good discussion and great topic.
My five recommendations:
5. Ohanami
4. Perudo (aka Liar's Poker)
3. Azul (original)
2. Rumble Nation (can proxy with Sequoia components)
1. Ra
I like that progression! I need to get Rumble Nation back to the table.
Here's an example of something I did with a couple family members and friends who are not super hardcore gamers that is similar but a bit different from what's described in this video. My favorite competitive game is Champions of Midgard. To me, once you've played with the two expansions, it's really not worth playing without them. However, I realize that all of that can be A LOT to take in and absorb for a new gamer. So this is what I did.
First, we (my wife and I) invited them over for a 4 player game of just the base, vanilla Champions. This was tough for me, but it was a quaint experience.
Then, a week or so later, we did it again, but only with the first expansion, Dark Mountains. This one adds a new type of warrior dice and a new type of enemy to fight, but not too much else. Mostly just more of the same from the base game. The two who are more non-gamers seemed to handle this just fine.
Then, another week or so later, we tried it again with everything, Dark Mountains and Valhalla. (And for me, the Valhalla expansion is REALLY when this game shines, mostly since you don't have to feel bad about your warriors dying!) This went fairly well, but I could tell those who were new to it struggled to plan ahead. It's tough to plan a fight with the INTENTION of losing certain dice, but hopefully not all of them. Since I realized that this was still a lot to deal with, we weren't quite done yet.
Yet another week or so later, the 4 of us got together one last time to play it again, with all expansions, now that everyone has had experience with everything, so that we can all really compete and strategize and all that fun stuff.
Overall, I think it was a decent success.
On a separate note, turns out they all loved Castles of Mad King Ludwig way better, which I borrowed from another friend. We're currently waiting for the Royal Collector's Edition to arrive, with the new Renovations rooms, to play that. My inner Viking would rather sail across the sea to fight an Eldjotnar, but putting an observatory next to an arcade room is fun too.
I really like that method of adding expansion layers one at a time!
I like to introduce new gamers to Namiji. The path around the board feels very familiar to traditional board games but the player quickly engages with the strategic choices of where to place their ship. The mini game of the fish rack is easy to understand and quite satisfying, and the push your luck grab bag of shrimp and crabs is fun and low stakes. Plus the board art is just so pretty.
I like that! I could definitely see myself using Namiji in the middle of my list.
Or if you want a more inviting theme than D&D for worker placement, go with Viticulture.
I find it so funny to reflect that my gateway game was gloomhaven
Whoa. That's like saying your first experience driving after getting your license at 16 was flying a 747 jet! I love it!
Where do you go after GH? Just about any other game would be a step down! Something off the top of my head that might actually be a step up in complexity might be Terraforming Mars with ALL the expansions at once.
I really appreciated both lists and especially resonated with Ray's list.
My journey of getting people into the hobby may differ from others. I mostly considered sequential gateway games that had people in my family in mind.
I can say that years from when I initially got into the hobby, Bang! became a family favorite as my Italian family played a lot of Mafia. To this day, they still get together to play this Wild West card game Bang! with expansions they've purchased since then.
After playing Bang!, I played a few deck builders that may have been too intimidating for my parents and/or other siblings. With that in mind, I taught my brother Dominion (who later taught it to my sister after purchasing it) and then later introduced Star Realms to my mom (who later purchased it and we'd play it with her and my dad).
Throughout those many years teaching Star Realms and Dominion, I really wanted to teach Marvel Legendary (which I owned before teaching everyone Dominion and Star Realms) with my family. So, I introduced it to my brother John, who was a comic fanatic, and his love of the game along with my desire to teach sequential gateway games would eventually lead me to today....in which my wife and I get together every other week for a family dinner in which we mostly play Marvel Legendary with my parents.
This video brought back many memories. Thanks! So, I guess my list today (despite the age of when some of these games were released) are as follows:
5. Quacks of Quedlinburg (honorable mention: Dice Forge)
4. Dominion
3. Star/Hero Realms (honorable mention: Ascension)
2. Legendary (i.e. Marvel, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, James Bond etc.)
1. Clank!
Thanks for sharing! I like that you're considering the preferences and themes of those you're playing with--this is a great list.
I recently bought my wife Legendary: Firefly! Since I'm a huge deck building and co-op gaming fan, and she loves the tv series! It was actually hard to get, since it was out of print. Great job bringing up the different "Encounter" versions of the standard Marvel game!
Settlers of Catan suffers from players being able to collude and shut out another player. If your group doesn't do that, great, but... It's super easy to get 2-3 players getting everything they want and a 3rd or 4th player is stuck getting almost nothing (yes there's trading abroad at horrible exchange rates). It's usually a "we're friends" or "we're a couple" situation. It breaks the magic circle in a pretty insidious way. I much prefer Concordia. It's a slight step up from your #3 category but that's the way of it.
Okay, just finished the video. Despite Jamey's bias and obvious investment in Wingspan's success, he has a point. I actually prefer this approach where as a lot of "gateway game" videos will START with Wingspan. Ive heard of it being a hit but it also has a lot going on, limited turns, and your choices HEAVILY dictate the rest of the game. Jamey's approach to building up to Wingspan is what I think most people should do rather than use it for new to board game people. And it is so on brand with Wingspan's reputation! Good video
Definitely, I can't hide my bias for Wingspan. :) But I genuinely would use it near the end of the list when someone is ready. While early choices matter, I think you still have a lot of freedom, and there aren't really bad choices to make in Wingspan, making it very welcoming to newcomers.
Wingspan is not a gateway game. It's a next step game. For experienced gamers it's relatively light. However, throwing someone who doesn't play modern boardgames straight into it is a bit much. Just watch Mandy Patinkin struggle 😂
For new gamers playing Catan, you’ll have to hold their hand through the beginning. The opening decisions are critical. I’ve been bit by trying to relearn Catan during the game. I was non-competitive immediately based on my opening decisions being poor.
I agree--Catan requires a huge decision before the game even begins.
My suggestions:
Codenames for party game
HP Hogwarts Battle for Coop and deck building
Barenpark for tile placement and polyomino
Stone Age for worker placement
Splendor for economic/engine building
Great list!
Entry level or "gateway plus" deck building game, I think of Quest for El Dorado
I'm surprised I have 11 games in my collection from your lists... counting honorable mentions. I think I'm well equipped to start onboarding more players to our hobby! I've been busting out Cascadia lately- most of my non-gamer friends enjoy it.
That's awesome!
For welcoming I'd recommend 7 Wonders Architects over the original
25:00 - good pick for Deck Building with Star Wars. Theme might throw some off, another good deck building pick i think is Summer Camp. Excellent entry level. The ceiling is low though (Quest for El Dorado is another option that has a slightly higher entry point, but definitely a higher ceiling).
I need to try that one!
@JameyStegmaier nice - for teaching deck building, I think Summer Camp is hard to beat because:
1. Theme is really approachable.
2. The "goal" is clear, it's a race to the finish line.
3. Every turn players pretty much "dump their hand", so you can help coach players through their turns.
4. It introduces the idea of multi-purpose cards (can do the cards activity, or each card has a base buy power of 1).
5. It has some variety, in that there are about 8 "activity packs" and you only use 3 each game.
6. Some activities introduce more player interaction, so you can add those in during later plays.
I do think the ceiling is pretty low though, so your mileage will vary. I had my 'family game group' moving onto Quest for El Dorado fairly quickly after Summer Camp.
@@chillionaire7114 Thank you--this sounds amazing! I'm adding it to my Geekway list.
Incan Gold is probably my #1 gateway game. It has NEVER not been a hit with new gamers. When I play with students they invariably say that they all want to buy it for their family at home.
I'm with you--I always have a blast with it.