It is infuriating to me how often people start explaining the rules without explaining what the actual goals are first. Like, what are we even doing here, start with that, m’kay?

I've had bad experiences with not doing victory conditions upfront since they're sort of back-of-mind considerations I'll forget about them until I start shifting my build/position/strategy to pursue one. Making sure everyone knows the long term goals is important before decisions are made or else folks will feel disempowered in the flow of the game.

It’s tough, cuz usually I sell people on the game by focusing on the fun mechanics of it, so it’s easy to go straight from mechanics to setup to first round, and have that awkward moment of “Wait, how do you win?”