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Rant: game explanations should be the host's job, not the table's. Am I wrong?
Last month I ran a 4 player game of Spirit Island for the first time. I spent like 20 minutes going through rules, answering questions, and then right when we started this guy, Mike, starts flipping tokens and reading cards out loud to himself, basically teaching himself as we go. Two turns in he goes 'oh wait, I think this actually works differently' and corrected me on a rule I had already explained. I felt dumb for a second, but then I realized every other group I play with does this same thing. People always jump in with their own interpretations mid-game, even when the host knows the rules cold.
It got me thinking, is there an unspoken code that everyone at the table should stay quiet unless they know the rule for sure? Or should the person who owns the game just own the explanation too? I have a buddy who flat out refuses to teach anything, he just says 'read the manual, I'll answer questions.' That seems worse. But also, when 3 people all chime in with slightly different takes on one rule, it slows everything down.
So what side are you on: does a good table wait for the host to clarify, or is it fair game to interrupt with corrections? And if you've ever been the guy who was wrong while trying to correct someone, how did you recover without looking like a clown?
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