Almost unknown
“Man don’t get annoyed”: Almost all of them ignore this basic rule
04/13/2025 – 11:52 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Everyone knows it, everyone is playing it – but hardly anyone adheres to the official guidance of “Human does not annoy yourself”. What most people don’t know.
Whether family celebration or game evening with friends: “Man don’t get annoyed” is at the top of the player in many households. Quickly unpacked, easily explained, always good for a round – across generations. But as trusts the game: Most do not play it according to the rules. Already at the first dice.
It should start in most families: All figures are in the “house”, ie in the four colored fields, and every player can dice three times. The first figure is brought into play with a six. But there is no talk of this in the game instructions. Literally it says:
Each player receives 4 characters of a color. He places 1 of his figures on the field A of its color, the remaining 3 characters are placed on the B fields of the same color. The youngest player begins. The game is played clockwise.
Game instructions
That means: A character is already on the starting field A at the beginning and is immediately in the race. The game can begin without obstacle to cubes – a detail that significantly accelerates the gameplay. Nevertheless, hardly anyone sticks to it. Probably because the variant has long since prevailed with the “Start with six” – orally survived, over generations. And maybe, because it is somehow part of being annoyed at the beginning when the longed -for six just didn’t want to fall.
Two other points always provide discussion material:
Ultimately, every board player has their own special rules – and that is the fun. You should only agree that the same rules apply to everyone at the table to avoid moderate family crises.
The fact that “humans do not annoy you” would be one of the best -known games in Germany, so that the inventor Josef Friedrich Schmidt hardly expected when he drew the first game board on an old hat box around 1907. His three sons needed employment – and Schmidt delivered.
The big breakthrough came in 1914 with the First World War. Schmidt had 3,000 copies delivered to Lazarette, where wounded soldiers met the game and later took home. From there it started its triumphal march in living rooms, children’s rooms and sometimes also classrooms.
To date, the game is considered a classic, although the market produces hundreds of new games every year. But “man does not annoy yourself” remains in demand. For Stefanie Kuschill from the German Game Archive in Nuremberg, the attraction lies in the simplicity: “It can be annoyed quite effortlessly across generations.”
The educator Udo Schmitz also sees an advantage in simplicity: “I have found that people are reluctant to read game instructions.” And that is exactly what you don’t have to annoy with “Human” – the rules are short, clear and easy to remember. Even if there are traditional deviations. Children learn to count, follow rules and deal with frustration.
