Setting up a game and working through the questions

[Zierra28]

I'm having trouble putting all the rules and inferences clearly in my head so that I may recall them quickly when answering the questions. I always feel like I've made enough inferences, then realize, that I haven't. How much time do you rec I spend making a set-up, vs answering. How do I turn this convoluted mess into organized structure, so that it makes more sense to me??


PS (I'll be in the DC class 8/22, but thought it might help to get some additional clarification).

Thanks!.

[BethRibet]

Hi Zierra,

Thanks for writing. In some respects, this is one of those times when there's no better solution than practice. The process of setting up a game and working through the questions just can feel overwhelming for awhile, even when you're basically doing all the right things.

In terms of how much time on set-up, it really varies somewhat based on the game, though a good general rule is around 2-3 minutes. With some, heavy concentration on set-up can make the questions a real breeze, and with others, over-investment in set-up won't have a strong payoff. You should start to get a better sense of what sort of game you're dealing with as you keep working through them. More set-up time can be really useful with games that have a limited number of templates or scenarios, for instance, such that you can actually map them all out completely in a limited amount of time. On the other hand, games with many potential possible templates may be best to dive into after a basic set-up.

In terms of catching all the inferences -- mostly it helps to think about how each rule interacts with the others, especially if the same variable shows up in 2 or more rules.

Hope this helps!
Beth