Explaining how to play TTR over the phone to non-gamers

Sag, I play the game damn near every day on my iPad, and it's one of my all-time favorite boardgames in any format. I find it to be just about the perfect American(ish) hobby game--it can be learned in 15 minutes, is more or less infinitely replayable, and can generally appeal to just about any demographic. So, please, knock it the fuck off with the "I'm the Everyman Gamer and you're all fucking Snobs" bullshit. It's as tiresome as it is inaccurate at every level. With all due respect. And a merry fucking Christmas, And a Happy Fucking Holiday Season, too. ( )

jeb wrote: No ugly stick here! I like TICKET TO RIDE well enough, and am a strong advocate for the SWITZERLAND board. The thing I like least about TTR are the folks that like to play it. My experiences playing this game outside my circle have always been weird passive-aggressive games where blocking was verboten and TTRashtalking not allowed.

And, it is like rummy. Collect melds, play them to score points. I am not trying to confuse anyone, that's how you score most of your points! I explain that part, and then I explain the routes thing for the end. You think I'd have more luck telling them it's like CAREERS? We need a common language, and rummy is it, no?

That's the thing. It's a common frame of reference. Sag's certainly spot-on that it's about laying track, not "placing trains" (or anything else, for that matter), but that's just about it for basic TTR. But the vibe is absolutely Rummy, to me anyway. Particularly when it comes to style of play as the "Gin"-type players (a trap into which I can certainly fall), who hold completed routes until as late as possible (or just go for nothing but long routes and thus end up with huge hands), can get completely screwed by that behavior (unless you're surrounded by the Jeb's Nightmare group of folks think blocking some sort of unwritten, but still Venal, sin, but they're playin' it wrong as far as I can tell). I guess this is a case of the people whom I've taught being novice boardgamers but lifetime card players (Pinochle is an ugly bloodsport in my family going back at least 4 generations), thus "gamers" by most standards. Dunno, but it's worked for me and I'm clearly not alone in that.

Sorry for the elitist anti-elitist slap down. I just don't see Rummy in this game one bit. Short of making sets, which is in like a thousand games, I don't get the connection. Rummy's sets are significantly more complex which doesn't strike me as an aid to learning. When I hear people compare the two it sounds like somebody insulting the game.

I tend to be very spatially oriented in my choice of games so the two seem like night and day to me. If someone had described Ticket to Ride as just like Rummy in my introduction to the game I think it would have made things harder. I usually start by telling people the goal is to make strings of connections across the board, then mention that you pick up points as you do so. But the primary goal is to connect one place to another with a line of tracks. Once users get that the rest seems to fall into place around it.

Pinochle is one hell of a game by the way. Double-deck with teams . . . short of D&D it's likely my single heaviest played game lifetime. I've had two decks in the glove box of my car since 1984 as a kind of totem.

S.

I've never played Rummy. Expect a big For Trade/Sale post soon as I clear out my collection.