Hello. I own many a Fantasy Flight game but Android is the only one in my collection that I have never played. I tried once. I bought it hurried home and invited 2 people over to test it out. However once we opened the box it was one problem after another. The 2 friends I asked to help were just not having a good time with all the different bits that existed. I put that aside saying that It can't possibly use all thsoe at once so "Lets just read the rules and see how it goes".

I proceeded to give the rules a once over while they watched a movie and once I had gave them a quick read I proceeded to try and explain from the beginning with the basics. I began with the "Set up" after about 20 min of trying to figure out where the pieces we needed were and me explaining what they did as we set them up as per the book we KINDA got everything ready. At this point I looked over to my friends and I was met with the blank stares of a deer in headlights. "Whats the matter?" I asked. They stated that they had NO idea what was going on.

I tried again this time going step by step from the rule book but summerizing as to not read word for word and put them to sleep. Still nothing. At this point about 1 hour after we sat down to start this one of the players was starting to get ancy and I got frustrated and put it away.

From when I read the rules it didn't seem THAT complicated but when I was trying to teach it, it just didn't translate well. I'm not sure if it was them being overwhelmed with "Options" or what but it just did not work. The event went so poorly that I can't convince them to even give it another shot and since they attend my "Gaming group" that meets friday they've basically given everyone else the impression that it's impossible to learn and takes too long to try.

I'd really love to play this game as the setting and the rules and most of the concepts interest me. Plus the rules seemed like once going, it would be a fun game.

I'm looking from help from you the players. More specifically those who have taught the game to a less than thrilled audience. Whats a good way to approach this game? Whats a decent way to explain the game and teach it to others specifically those who may not be receptive at first to it's complexities? Are there any tricks or tips you can give me or even resources out there that can assist?

Thank you to all of you in advance for any help you can give.

Trying to introduce a new game, especially a FFG one can be challenging. It's even doubly challenging if you've got reluctant players. Even though your initial introduction didn't go well, you can still probably get some players on board.

Although there is no real way to play this single player, go ahead and set up a three-player game and play through a couple of turns to get the feel for things like movement and time. Practice following leads and placing evidence.

Keep your first game limited to only three players. Find a couple of people in your gaming group that like adventure board games. Do you have any Descent or Arkham Horror fans? These gamers are used to long playing sessions of a single game and also aren't overwhelmed by a lot of bits. Print off the pdf rules and give them a copy. If you think that might be too much, then give them copies of pages that discuss things such as important terms and what a game turn consists of.

It is also important for the players to realize that Android is a competetive game and that one of the mechanics is to play cards that hinder other players actions.

Before your first game, make sure that you give yourself plenty of prep time. Have the game set up, with the various bits at there appropriate spots around the board before the players arrive. Have the bits and cards that are specific to each investigator already sorted out.

I've never done this, but if you want to ensure that the game time will be kept to one a few hours, conclude the game after one week instead of the full two weeks.

This game is not for everyone. There a couple of people in my gaming group who at least tried it, but pass whenever it is offered. However, I found a couple of people who are alwasy willing to play every time it's suggested.

Android is a game I really enjoy and I'm glad I added it to my collection.

Good luck.

The boardgame ANDROID verges into tabletop role-playing aspects in that it is open. There is a clock but you can choose a wide variety of actions and movement, and your choices incite further events. This is like a branching tree that opens way too many possibilities. You might want to check the discussion on Boardgamegeek.com about this game, because fans create player aids for games including listings of order actions to try to summarize and straighten out the rules. Someone may have to act as a "game master" who stays on top of the rules and directs the running of the game, although not writing or improvising the story like in a role-playing game.

A game like this benefits from a top-down summary of the rules, giving the broad strokes for actions and then filling in details, not a page-by-page teaching.

Some familiarity with "cyberpunk" fiction would help (for that matter, did you recognize where names like Olivaw Robotics and Lem Library come from? "Memories of Green" is actually not from a movie but a SOUNDTRACK of the movie. Time to increase your Science Fiction Quotient). The old BLADE RUNNER computer game from the defunct Westwood Studios has a vaguely similar mechanic, as new places open up to go back and forth but events don't happen linearly.

There's also endless old "film noir" movies about detectives wandering around the city gathering clues that cops are too obtuse to notice, sometimes uncovering a greater political conspiracy. Only in this game there are 3 independent detectives and their personal demons. ANDROIDS would make a great episodic/story-arc TV show.

Make sure players understand the basics of the other detectives and their "plots", without necessarily reading the flavor-text of every single card. Detectives don't interact all the time, but a player must wait for crucial moments to screw over another player. Keep observing what is going on with them, and what suspects they seem to be favoring. Also balancing is crucial; you can get points from gathering evidence for your suspect (or framing them, it's all the same) but you must also watch your personal life, and work to uncover broad conspiracies as well. They each give points.

You can also have your friends watch the Android trailer posted in the Support section for the game. It could drum up some interest.

Use layman terms.

First explain that this is a game with 3 primary aspects: murder, conspiracy, and inner-demon. Explains how the three work (placing evidence, puzzle pieces, and bagage). Then explain how twilight deck works (especially the fact that you are required to play dark cards to play light cards and vice versa). Finaly round it up by explaining the loose ends, such as actions. The rest can be better learned with the game going (NPCs for example). Don't worry much about winning and losing for the first game, just bask yourself in the atmosphere.