Playing with rules in LGs before questions

0hbergine

JY often "plays" with the rules in a LG before he does the questions. Do you all recommend doing this even on timed tests? If so, do you do so in your mind's eye, or actually on paper?

I usually play with the rules in difficult games when I'm doing BR, but not on the timed tests. I'm thinking about whether I should change this practice.

Matt Sorr

I generally play with the rules in my mind’s eye, sometimes using my fingers to cover up variables or parts of the game board. Occasionally I’ll quickly and lightly sketch something if I feel I need to, but I try to keep it minimal.

To answer the second part of your question, I believe playing with the rules a bit upfront is wise on timed tests. If nothing else, taking a little while to play with the rules helps you to really grasp them and understand the points of tension in the game. Though you won’t always be able to make large inferences or split your board, I find that at least going over the rules a second time and seeing which rules relate to each other to be extremely useful. In my experience, and from the experience of a few LG savants I’ve spoken with, examining and playing with the rules is almost always a good usage of your time. Any time that you spend familiarizing yourself with the rules will almost always pay off in the questions. Additionally, it makes it less likely that you’ll take a long time on a question or totally miss it because your forgot a rule.

Of course, if the rules to a game seem totally distinct, the game seems simple, and your game board is basically open, you may only spend a couple of seconds with the rules before jumping into the questions. More times than not, however, I find taking a little while to “soak in” the game and the rules to be extremely useful. This is just my approach, so you should definitely hear how other people approach games, but I hope this helps a bit!