Hello, Dice Tower viewers. Chaz Marler from the Pair Of Dice Paradise board game podcast here welcoming you to part seven of my formerly numbered series on running a gaming group.

Okay, so you’ve started your group, found members and a place to play, set a regular schedule, and you’ve even set up a snack committee. (Keep those little chocolate donuts coming, Stonebreaker.)

So maybe we should discuss how to pick the games you introduce to your board game group. Every game is somebody’s first game, so picking ones that best fit your audience is paramount to kindling their interest in the hobby.

Board game blogger and twitterist @GameritisGuy recently wrote an article describing the system that he devised for selecting games to introduce to his group: he calls it the “Quick”, “Simple”, “Maybe” system. Its goal is to make at least one game from each of these category available at your group, so you have a game available that’s compatible with any skill level. Allow me to plagiarize -- I mean reference his system here.

Quick games may also be known as “fillers”. They’re relatively short, so if they bomb, at least they’re over with quickly. Gameritis guy’s example of this type of game was Escape. Another example would be Zombie Dice.

Simple games may be longer, but they still only introduce one or two mechanisms. Gameritisguy suggested Pandemic, due to its co-op nature. Airlines Europe is my example.

Maybe games are the "long shot" game. The wildcard that may only hit the table in the perfect storm. Formula D was Gameritisguy’s long shot, and he savored the moment when someone picked it out of the pile and said, “this looks interesting, how do you play this?” My maybe game is Nothing Personal, because it requires a very specific group dynamic.

Hopefully the “Quick”, “Simple”, “Maybe” system will help introduce a variety of new games to your group in a way that meshes with their skill level. And this approach, along with those little chocolate donuts, will keep your players coming back for more.