Tim Mossman
United States
Montgomery County
Maryland
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On average, what's a good frequency to break out a new game in your gaming group? Once every X gaming nights or every Y weeks/months?
Our crew seems to go at least 4 gaming nights, but may go as long as a dozen, between breaking in a new game. Kinda curious how that range compared to other gaming groups.
Thanks.
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Michel T. Georges
United States
Berkeley
California
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Re: Breaking out a new game: How often? - Every week-end!!
Every week-end! We have at least 50 games waiting to see the light of day, so we try to open at least one per week-end, sometimes more.
Of course, my "group" is my family:-) This might be easier...
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Richard Pardoe
United States
San Ramon
California
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We tend to be the opposite - with largish collections at hand, we tend to try the new and unplayed more often. Rare is the game we play two weeks in a row.
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Glenn G
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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At one game club I go to, almost every time a game is released they're playing it that day. The problem is you're not spending your time getting your gaming's worth usually. The other club seems to try new games every other week.
I tend to play what I'm in the mood for, because I'd rather be playing than learning. However, I've been forcing myself to get through a new game every 2-3 weeks.
So many games, so few players, so little time.
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Phillip Heaton
United States
Springfield
Virginia
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I try to play a new game every week. I've been buying them for some time and I'm now starting to catch up. I also like to try new games that I haven't heard much about, to see if I want to buy them.
Try before I buy is how I came to own several good games, but it also kept me from buying several that weren't all that interesting.
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Neil Cook
United Kingdom
Burton on Trent
Staffs
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One of the most frustrating things for me with my group, is the reluctance to try something new. There are a couple of them who are willing to try new games, but on the whole they each have their favourites, and rarely venture outside of that list. Probably the reason it took over 12 months between buying my copy of Caylus, and it actually hitting the table....
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Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
Permanent microbadges: Zendo fan, Columbus Blue Jackets fan, Dominion Fan (one of these days I'll make the background non-white)
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Looking at my game logs, I count 77 new games for me this year. With the year now being 39 weeks old, that's almost exactly 2 new games a week.
My situation is a little bit different than yours, though. My gaming group gets 80 to 100 people per session (usually twice a month, but sometimes three times). And the group has a library of over 300 games, so the cost of entry for a new game is extremely low. Plus, I attend a monthly Games Night for a non-gaming group I belong to (not too many new games, but it occasionally adds party games to the mix). And I attended Origins and a local gaming con this year (I had 16 new games at Origins alone). And I played a few games at two non-gaming cons I attended. So, lots of opportunity for lots of variety.
On the other hand, several people in my non-gaming group play the same game every time they come to Games Night (Double Deck Cancellation Hearts, a Hearts variant). The only time you're likely to see them in another game is if not enough people show up for DDCH (it takes at least six). Even then, sometimes they just play regular Hearts. It all just depends on what you like.
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Matt
New Zealand
Wellington
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Our group has about 20 - 30 unplayed games to go (nearly all belong to Zirak). We usually bring one out every weekend. However, I'm starting to miss some of my old favs quite a bit.
I do find it refreshing to play a new game... I usually have to force myself to want to initially want to play it in the place of something more familiar; but I never regret playing something new; whether I discover if I love it or dislike it. (Zirak, if you're reading this I almost regretted playing Thurn & Taxis  )
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David Fair
United States
Rockville
Maryland
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I am a card-carrying member of the Cult of the New, and I play at least one new game a week, it seems.
BUT, we still seem to play certain games (Tichu and Age of Steam) every week.
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Scott M
United States
Lake Hiawatha
New Jersey
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With our group it seems that our unwritten rule is no more than one new game a session. We tend to just introduce a new game whenever we have one and the owner is ready to teach it. Typically it seems if we place an order and get a few new games they are introduced one a session over a couple weeks. I'd say half of the group just doesn't want to have to sit through explanations more than once a session whereas the other half would be fine playing all new games in a session. We get together often so it's not a big deal either way since it's usually not long before I get to try out the new games and we always have plenty of chances to rotate our old favorites in. While I am in the camp of always wanting to try new games I do see the merit in getting in at few plays of the ones you have before constantly introducing new games to the mix.
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Scott Nicholson
United States
Cambridge
Massachusetts
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IronMoss wrote: On average, what's a good frequency to break out a new game in your gaming group? Once every X gaming nights or every Y weeks/months?
Our crew seems to go at least 4 gaming nights, but may go as long as a dozen, between breaking in a new game. Kinda curious how that range compared to other gaming groups.
Thanks.
The important part is to match the new games with the player interest, teaching interest, and teaching ability. A group that has trouble learning a new game will be less likely to try a new game. There's no formula that will work across groups.
At the Syracuse Boardgamers, we have some people who would be happy playing all new games, and others who want to play a game week after week to get better at it.
So, we instituted the Game of the Month. Each month, there is a game that will hit the table during the each of the weekly sessions. This results in many people knowing the game for future sessions and gives those people who like to study a game a chance to do so. It also helps us see how replayable a game is. Other games played are a mix of old and new.
Usually, there are enough players for several tables, so I bring my bag of new games, and people who want to try those can join me. Others can match up to play old or new stuff.
If someone sits down with a new game and begins to read the rules out loud (where it's clear they've not read them before), I usually ask them to take the game home and prepare it, and bring it back the next week after they understand the game.
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Scott Bolderson
United States
Circleville
Ohio
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I have 1 shelf in my game collection for games our group has not played yet.
So every meeting I try to get one game off that shelf into play.
The problem is that sometimes I go crazy and buy 3-4 games in a week, and end up adding games to that shelf. 
My group used to be very resistant to new games, because they hated sitting through rules explanations. But I've found that if I solo play games beforehand (and getting snide remarks from my family) the rules explanations go a lot faster, and the new games are more enjoyable.
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Chris
United States
Huntington Station
New York
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In every group I participate in, we play at least 1 new game each session, often more. The first game tends to be a new game.
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Chapel
United States
Round Rock
Texas
Only for the love of the game...
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About half the games I played this year have been new games. But recently with one of my gaming groups we have been trying to pull out and play only games that are at least two years and older. In the last month played El Grande(Still a 10) Merchants of Amsterdam, Ursuppe, Java, and Princes of Florence.
I am totally in the Cult of New, but I also like to mix in at least 50% older games.
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Steve Oliver
United States
Alameda
California
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Usually one new game a weeek, sometimes 2 new games.
My group also plays one game as the Game of the Month. That way, we know for sure that at least one game will get enough play that we all learn it well and can try out new strategies. And that's one game we don't have to learn the rules for. Then we have time for a few other games we already know, and just about every week we try one new game.
If it's a game that looks really promising, I try to check out any rules problems in advance here on the Geek, print out a few player aids, watch one of Scott's videos if there is one, etc. to make the initial teaching go a little smoother. Of course I still get at least one rule wrong 
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