do any of you have advice in terms of 'gateway games' that are good for getting friends deeper into the hobby?
i've begun branching my 'social deduction group' out with carcassonne, which i think has been going over pretty well
in general i just like to just play what people are already interested in, but after a while it's nice to branch out
one of the most important factors for this is player count and attention span, i think? ticket to ride and catan are two of the canonical answers here, though as a rabid avalon player, my favorite games early on were blood bound (social deduction, but less "pure" and more into symbols/player powers) and forbidden island/desert (co-ops)
if they like carcassonne, a less cutthroat step up from that could be isle of skye