When explaining the rules to new players, stick closely to the rules explanation sheet https://wiki.bloodontheclocktower.com/Rules_Explanation 

The rules explanation sheet takes no more than 5 minutes to read, and it is intentionally structured as a three-step process:

1) The Theme
2) The Goal
3) The Rules

The Theme

I have found that the best way to learn the rules of a board game is to start with the theme of the game. This gets players interested in what is about to come, sets the tone, and puts everything that you are about to say into perspective. If players are on board with playing a secretive backstabbing vampire game, they need to know in the first minute what they are getting into and why it is going to be fun. Similarly, if players are not wanting to play a stock-trading game set in the 1800s where we are each competing to own the most attractive investment portfolio, then they will get interested or disinterested at that point. First of all, players want to know “What on earth is this about?” and “Why is this going to be fun?”. Explaining the game’s theme also sets the stage for who are likely to be the good guys, the bad guys, and the rough expectations of the game’s ‘plot’.

The Goal

After players know what a game is roughly about, the next best thing to explain is the goal. Before any rules are mentioned, in any game I run, I explain the goal of each player. In Clocktower, this is pretty simple. It lets each player know where they are trying to get to, which is necessary if they are to judge whether action A or action B will get them there. When a player knows what the game’s theme is, then understands their goal in playing, they are primed to listen to the rules with heightened interest. Knowing the theme and goal before knowing the rules means the rules matter to each player.

The Rules

Explaining the rules can be done in two ways for most games: either all at once, or just enough to get you playing, and you can learn the rest as you go. Clocktower is designed to explain the rules to players piecemeal. They learn the rules about the basic structure of the game just before they get their character tokens. They learn the rules about voting just before their first vote. They learn the rules about how the characters work by talking amongst themselves during the game itself, and by asking the storyteller questions. Some players will want all the rules (and I mean ALL the rules) explained at the beginning of the game. I do not recommend doing this. If you explain the rules all at once, you satisfy the players that can learn a game’s rules all at once, but you put all the players who learn ‘as they go’ at a severe disadvantage due to information overload. If you explain the rules ‘as they go’, then you satisfy the players who learn as they go, and the ‘all-at-once’ players can still ask you all their questions as they come up.

The Summary

Clocktower has a rules summary after these three steps have been completed, which lets the players know the most important things. Normally, when explaining a game, I use the summary period to repeat the most important things that each person needs to know to begin - the theme, their goal, and the most important things that they can do or decide. Board games are fundamentally about making interesting decisions, and players will think about and retain knowledge that merges with the strategic plans they are beginning to form. 

In Clocktower, this summary period is used to let the players know that they can:

1. Talk at any time
2. NOT peek in the Grimoire
3. Ask the storyteller questions
4. Be kind to each other

These four rules aren’t really rules at all - they are communications from the storyteller. Their intent is to put the players at ease, to remove any anxiety, to instil confidence, and to let them know that they can be themselves and say what comes naturally.

The Three-Step Process & Strategy Advice

This three step process has proved invaluable in all sorts of games that I’ve run. It allows players to decide if they really want to be playing, just in case they get turned off by the theme. It gets players interested in learning the rules of a particular game. And it gets players playing quickly. For particularly long and complicated games, I might add a practice round, so that players learn by doing but in a safe environment where making mistakes is encouraged. I’ve never found this is needed in Clocktower, though.

I don’t need everyone to literally read the rules explanation sheet word-for-word every time. I never do (which is why there were so many typos on the prototype version!). But I very much recommend that you follow the rules explanation sheet closely when explaining the rules in your own words. The rules explanation sheet explains the theme, goals, day phase, night phase, drunkenness and poisoning, very basic strategy, and things-to-know, all very succinctly. I find that if I stray too far from the sheet, I always end up either over-explaining some rule or forgetting something.

For Clocktower, this process should take about 5 minutes. At conventions, where my games go for an hour, I reserve 5 minutes for rules explanation, 5 minutes for setup, 45 minutes for the game, and 5 minutes for the players to chat afterwards.

Apart from the absolute basics, I also keep strategy advice to the absolute minimum. I advise good players to share who they are and what they know, at some point during the game when they feel it is right. I advise evil players to pick a good character to pretend to be, and to learn how that good character ability works so that they know what to say. That’s it. What new players think they want is helpful strategy advice. I’ve found that what they really want is to learn the rules of the game and to relieve the anxiety around saying the wrong thing, which comes with a fear of letting their team down. Too much strategy advice for a new player either overwhelms them, increasing their anxiety, or they feel like they are being told the ‘right way to play’ and that they would be stupid to do anything different than what the ST advised them to do. Neither is helpful. Instead, the plan should be to get the new players to learn the rules (which they will do during their first game) and to gain confidence (which should happen naturally if the group is supportive and not telling them what they ‘should’ do). Once a new player has a feel for the basic rules and has some confidence, that is when discussions of strategy become useful.

Illuminative Counter-Examples

The best way to see why this rules explanation process works is by noticing examples of the opposite, i.e. a poor rules explanation. New players get confused, disengage or get bogged down in unimportant details at the expense of fun.

• “Hi everybody. I will be explaining the rules. Ok. So, Clocktower is a voting game. Each player can vote as many times as they want per day, but can only nominate once. Dead players lose their ability, but die if they get the most votes. Also, the dead can only vote once, but can’t nominate. Voting goes in a clockwise circle, starting with the player that was nominated. A hand up is a vote. Evil players tend to vote more than good players, so you may want to not vote as much if you are evil, so that you look like a good player. Some players want to die, like the Ravenkeeper, but that can only happen at night. Sometimes, the Recluse will want to be executed, so don’t assume that any player who nominates themselves is being silly. Some other players may want to be executed, but most don’t. If you are the Demon, you definitely don’t want to be executed, unless there is a Scarlet Woman in play. Now, this is how the night phase works…” In this example, rules are explained before theme and goal. Players don’t know what on earth an execution is, or what a vote is, or what a Demon is. None of these terms make sense, so a player phases out and gives in to confusion. Also, giving players strategy advice before they know the rules isn’t helping.
• A rules explanation that goes for 45 minutes, due to a few veteran players interrupting with “useful advice” and “interesting character interactions” or “rules exceptions for characters that are not on this script”, etc. The veteran players felt important and were keen to play, but the new players felt that they shouldn’t say anything without checking in with the veteran players first or just let the veteran players lead. While some veteran players enjoyed this, other veteran players were bored. The new players were overwhelmed.
• Forgetting to explain the theme of the game, or explaining the theme after the rules and goals. This makes a game feel boring, and a lack of interest in the game means a lack of retention of the rules.
• Forgetting to explain the goal of the game, or explaining the goal after the theme and rules. Without a goal to aim for, players don’t know which rules are important and which are not.
• Going into lengthy detail on what you are not allowed to do during the rules explanation, such as talking about your character before the first night is over, breaking rule 4, photographing or texting, talking about what you are doing at night during your action, etc. This makes some new players afraid to say anything at all and new players wouldn’t normally do these things anyway, so explaining it to them is a waste of time.
• Taking an hour to explain one-by-one what each character ability is and how it works. Players not only get distracted, but they can end up feeling anxious about asking the storyteller any follow-up questions. Due to the characters having already been explained to them, it’s easy for new players to feel like they were supposed to know how everything worked already.

Each Storyteller can make the game their own by adding their own theme and flair. But in terms of new players, by far the best method I’ve found to ease them into a game (any game), whether they are with veterans or other beginners, is the theme > goal > rules process. With the added bonuses of focusing on just the important rules ‘as they need them’ and having someone being available to answer any questions they have as they go, players quickly gain knowledge and confidence. It might take a minute or two, but it almost never takes more than a game or two.

 - Steven