{"id":1473,"date":"2026-10-30T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2026-10-30T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:00:00","slug":"the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am strongly in favour of declaring the first round of a board game a practice round. It gives everyone a chance to discover what the cheerful collection of little wooden objects actually wants from them. Somebody will understand the scoring immediately. Somebody else will have spent five minutes trying to buy a tree.<\/p>\n<p>The useful moment usually arrives when a turn has happened. The explanation suddenly has something to attach itself to: that card goes there, those pieces come back, and the apparently decorative symbol is about to become everyone&#8217;s main concern. A worked example with mildly competitive friends is much easier to follow than a whole rulebook delivered aloud.<\/p>\n<p>There is a lot of fun in those early discoveries. A harmless-looking move turns out to be excellent, a carefully assembled plan achieves almost nothing, and someone asks whether they were supposed to be collecting points. Ideally, everyone gets to enjoy being briefly baffled without feeling that they have already lost the evening.<\/p>\n<p>Once the basics click, you can reset if you want to, or carry on with the understanding that the opening was educational. The aim is to get a table full of people playing. If the first round ends with laughter and a sudden appreciation of the trees, I would count it as a success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am strongly in favour of declaring the first round of a board game a practice round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,14],"tags":[300,301,302],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming","category-random-stuff","tag-board-games","tag-game-night","tag-learning-the-rules"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round - wade.one<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round - wade.one\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am strongly in favour of declaring the first round of a board game a practice round.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"wade.one\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-30T18:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Wade-Logo-cropped.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1518\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wadewomersley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wadewomersley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-30T18:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":230,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3\"},\"keywords\":[\"board-games\",\"game-night\",\"learning-the-rules\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Gaming\",\"Random Stuff\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\\\/\",\"name\":\"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round - wade.one\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-30T18:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/30\\\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"wade.one\",\"description\":\"wade womersley - york based software engineer\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3\",\"name\":\"Wade Womersley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/200px.png\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/200px.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/200px.png\",\"width\":202,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"Wade Womersley\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/200px.png\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round - wade.one","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round - wade.one","og_description":"I am strongly in favour of declaring the first round of a board game a practice round.","og_url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/","og_site_name":"wade.one","article_published_time":"2026-10-30T18:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1518,"height":1506,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Wade-Logo-cropped.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@wadewomersley","twitter_site":"@wadewomersley","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round","datePublished":"2026-10-30T18:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/"},"wordCount":230,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3"},"keywords":["board-games","game-night","learning-the-rules"],"articleSection":["Gaming","Random Stuff"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/","url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/","name":"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round - wade.one","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-10-30T18:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/30\/the-first-round-of-a-board-game-is-a-practice-round\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The First Round of a Board Game Is a Practice Round"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/","name":"wade.one","description":"wade womersley - york based software engineer","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3","name":"Wade Womersley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/200px.png","url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/200px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/200px.png","width":202,"height":200,"caption":"Wade Womersley"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/200px.png"}}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1337,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/06\/05\/dotnet-10-is-about-the-support-window-as-much-as-c-sharp-14\/","url_meta":{"origin":1473,"position":0},"title":".NET 10 Is About the Support Window as Much as C# 14","author":"Wade","date":"June 5, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":".NET 10 matters because it is an LTS release, not only because it brings C# 14 and another round of platform features.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Programming&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Programming","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/programming\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1394,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1473,"position":1},"title":"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed","author":"Wade","date":"August 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"MCP's stateless core removes deployment plumbing that should never have been the interesting part of an agent tool.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Programming&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Programming","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/programming\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1410,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/25\/pick-and-mix-is-mostly-paying-to-make-bad-decisions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1473,"position":2},"title":"Pick and Mix Is Mostly Paying to Make Bad Decisions","author":"","date":"August 25, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Pick and mix is expensive, badly balanced, and still more fun than buying a sensible bag of sweets.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Food","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1448,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/14\/tiny-hotel-breakfast-jams-are-ridiculously-appealing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1473,"position":3},"title":"Tiny Hotel Breakfast Jams Are Ridiculously Appealing","author":"","date":"October 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"There is something disproportionately pleasing about a tiny jar of hotel breakfast jam.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Food","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1445,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/10\/26\/request-ids-are-useful-when-they-survive-the-whole-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":1473,"position":4},"title":"Request IDs Are Useful When They Survive the Whole Journey","author":"","date":"October 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A request ID in one log line is useful.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Programming&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Programming","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/programming\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1158,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/03\/26\/why-senior-engineers-still-matter-more-in-the-ai-era\/","url_meta":{"origin":1473,"position":5},"title":"Why Senior Engineers Still Matter More in the AI Era","author":"","date":"March 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"AI can generate code faster, but that only makes direction, judgment, and accountability more important. Senior engineers still matter because the expensive mistakes are rarely typing mistakes.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AI&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/ai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1487,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions\/1487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}