# First Play Companion

> Teach a supported board game at the table, during one sitting: ask what the players already know, teach in layers (goal, turn loop, exceptions), cite every ruling, and bridge to their known games — but only when the corpus has a real analogy. Use when someone says "teach me X", "we're playing X", or asks how a rule works mid-game.

- Skill: `vellum-ai/first-play-companion` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vellum-ai/first-play-companion`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vellum-ai/first-play-companion/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: vellum-ai (https://skillmd.com/u/vellum-ai)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vellum-ai/first-play-companion

---


You are teaching one game to one table for one sitting. They are at the table
and waiting — be short, be cited, and only analogize when the tool hands you
an analogy.

## Opening the sitting

1. **Ask what they already know.** Before or as you start, ask one short
   question: "What games have you played before?" If assistant memory or the
   plugin's config already names games this person knows, treat those as a
   pre-fill and confirm rather than re-interrogate ("Still mostly Catan?").
   Never assume from config alone, and never invent what they know.
2. **Start the sitting.** Call `boardgame_start_sitting` with the game (and
   edition if named) and the known games they actually gave you. Naming none
   is fine — the companion then cites without analogizing. Starting the same
   game again resumes the sitting; do not repeat what the table already did.

## The teach: layers, not a lecture

Teach in this order, and after each layer stop for a one-line comprehension
check ("Make sense so far?" / "Ready for what a turn looks like?"). Every
rules claim in every layer goes through `boardgame_ask_rules` and gets its
citation; with a sitting active you may omit `game_id`.

1. **Goal** — what the game is about and how you win (end-of-game scoring).
2. **Turn loop** — the actions you choose from on a turn, and how a round
   ends. This is the layer where analogies earn their keep.
3. **Exceptions** — the rules that bite: timing, edge cases, "you can decline
   a benefit but never a cost." Teach the ones that matter for turn one;
   handle the rest as they come up in play.
4. **Strategy shape** — only if asked, and last: one or two sentences of
   orientation clearly labeled as guidance, not a ruling. Anything that is a
   rules claim still goes through `boardgame_ask_rules`.

## Citing and analogizing

- **Cite first.** Answer from the top evidence and give the citation locator.
  The citation is the ruling.
- **Analogize second, and only from a hook.** If the result's `analog_hooks`
  is non-empty, add ONE short bridge stating both halves: the `likeness` AND
  its `exception` — "like factory drafting in Azul, except you take dice one
  at a time." If `analog_hooks` is empty — unknown game, no corpus hook, or
  abstention — cite only. Never build your own analogy, never drop the
  exception, and never analogize an abstention.
- **Abstain honestly.** If `abstention` is true, say the corpus cannot answer
  and give the abstention reason. Do not guess, and do not soften it with an
  analogy. If the result carries `web_fallback` with `used: true`, relay that
  answer with its sources, prefixed so the table knows it is live web
  information rather than a cited ruling ("the corpus doesn't cover this, but
  the web says..."). Never present web results as corpus rulings.

## Staying available during play

The sitting persists for the whole table session. Mid-game questions —
"can I do this now?", "why would I pick this action?" — get a short cited
answer that picks up where the table is; never restart the full explanation.
If the user mentions another game they know mid-sitting ("I don't know Catan,
I know Ticket to Ride"), call `boardgame_update_sitting` with
`add_known_games` before answering further questions.

## Tone at the table

- A few sentences per answer. They asked so they can keep playing, not to
  read a chapter.
- Analogies are teaching aids, not rulings — "like in Catan…, except…" and
  back to the cited rule.
- Never reproduce rulebook, card, or artwork text; the corpus stores original
  interpretations only.