So any time I see a rant/comic like this (which is functionally a rant), all I can think is “a lot of your problems would be solved if you just communicated with your friends.“ I see this a lot with D&D and TTRPG’s in general.
If they are your friends, then they will understand that things feel hostile and playing board games is not fun with them as a result. If they don’t, then maybe you need to consider your taste in friends because most people can handle “hey I can’t keep up can we slow down,” and it would be pretty wild for someone to get upset at that request. I imagine that is not how it happens for most folks but I could be wrong and just have exceptional friends and unrealistic expectations of social interaction lol
Also: you don’t need to have a full grasp of the game to start playing. Most games you can understand like half of it then just jump in and play a round or two to get your sea legs where people are just talking through the best moves and options because that is a great way to learn how the game plays, and then once everyone is comfortable then you go for “a real one.”
What if they are not your friends and you were just dragged along with another friend? That’s usually how I go to game night, just randomly asked to join.
I would say, most of the time, if the game-have is not a jerk, they will be fine with you saying, “Can you slow down?” or asking a question. But like the main comment on this thread said, maybe I just have great game-having friends and acquaintances.
Coincidentally, I saw a similar comment where the the new player was the antagonist, saying things like, “That’s too complicated!” to a simple rule. I tried to find it, but I had no luck.
