Hey Nelson,
Thanks for the question! The good news here is that pretty much everyone starts out having trouble setting up games, so this is a pretty common problem. I've got a lot of suggestions for working on setups, but the thing that jumped out at me was when you said, "It's like I just can't see the starting point of diagramming." Here's some advice I usually give when that's occurring:
- 1. Read the scenario and all the rules before writing down anything. In other words, fully analyze the game before you begin diagramming. This can often help you see which direction you can take, and since later rules sometimes trigger new lines of thinking, it saves you from doing work that then has to be redone or reconsidered later.
2. As you are reading, you are first attempting to establish the type of game you are looking at. Grouping games get handled differently than Linear games, and so on, so if you can get a general sense of the arena you are about to play in, it helps orient your mind towards how the game will unfold (and allows you to visualize what will occur more easily). And, the more games you study, the more this process helps, because certain types of configurations frequently come up in association with certain types of games.
3. Keep in mind that in some games the rules create a logical starting point, but in others they don't. For example, in Sequencing games there is often one or two rules that, when used as the starting point of diagramming, make the game much easier to diagram. But sometimes that's not the case. There are plenty of Linear games were the rules just add together but it doesn't matter which one you start with as far as diagramming. If you follow Step 1 above, you will be able to see whether there is a clear starting point, or whether there isn't one. If there isn't, don't get frustrated; it doesn't mean the game is harder, just that it won't unspool as logically.
4. It's almost inevitable that there will be moments where nothing jumps out at you. It's natural to feel some panic at the point, but remember that there is a second way look at the game: via the questions. Let's say you work through a Grouping game and diagram out all of the rules. You see a few small things, but nothing else really jumps out at you, and you have that nagging feeling that there's more to the game than what you are seeing. That's when the panic can hit, and there's also a tendency to to just stop and stare at the game in the hopes that you'll have that epiphany moment where it all comes clear. While you should definitely take a moment to add things up and search for connections, don't just stop and stare at the game. Instead, use the questions to help you better understand what's going on. The first question is almost always a List question, and just working through those allows you to see the rules in action, and also gives you a solution for the game that is viable. There are times that the questions reveal other truths, and those additional pieces of information can sometimes trigger you to see other connections and inferences.
The thoughts above are really general (on purpose), but let me know if they help at all. Either way, we can keep talking about it until everything feels more comfortable for you.
Thanks!
