by Groobies
Although the rulebook doesn't make a point of it, the general rules are all diagrammed on each individual player board. If you figure out what those hieroglyphs mean, you've arrived at a decent understanding of the rules. You can also use them to explain the rules to new players, with the added benefit that they'll be able to reference them thereafter.
Well, Carthoris, you beat me to it. When I'm teaching new players, I use all the symbols both on the individual player boards and on the game board. They still will ask 'So, what all options do I have' and as I repeat them I reference the pictographs on their board. Also nice to point out that any arrow pointing downward means the action is from the game board to the player board and any up arrow is from the tile storage to the estate on the individual player board. Eventually you see the light come on (just like it did for me) and they start looking at their board and start asking questions like 'What does this symbol mean?' and then eventually they stop asking all together and just reference their board. I definitely agree with explaining the yellow knowledge tiles as they come up by going over them before the round begins.
