Board Game Glossary
If you ever stumble into a hobby, you realize quickly that they all have their own language and board games are no different. Worker Placement. Dexterity. Analysis Paralysis. Alpha Player. Crunchy. It can seem confusing at first, but hopefully not for long! I’ve created this glossary to help you with the most common words and phrases we use and what we mean when we say them here on our blog and on social media. In no time you’ll be dropping all this jargon for the newbies at your next game night!
| 4X | Games that deal with the four elements of eXploring a map, eXpanding your territory, eXploiting the territory to increase your power, and eXterminating other players units. |
| Abstract strategy | A game with no theme or where the theme is irrelevant. Quarto is an example of a game with no theme. Azul is an example of an irrelevant theme. |
| Alpha Player | A player who tends to take over the game — telling other players how to play and insisting either subtly or firmly. Typically an Alpha player is seen as a negative trait, though this position can be thrust upon a player if they are seen as a leader who can help a player or the group during the game. |
| Analysis Paralysis (AP) | Spending too much time analyzing the decisions available and being unable to make a move. |
| Area Control | Games where players work to take control over the most area on the board. Example: Rattus |
| Box fart | The sound the game box makes when you take off or put on the lid. (Impress your friends with this bit of gamer jargon!) |
| Campaign Game | Games where new content or challenges are unlocked over the course of many play sessions typically working through a storyline or series of missions. The rules often change throughout the course of the campaign. Campaign games are similar to legacy games but are replayable after the campaign is complete without permanent damage being done to the game. Example: The Crew |
| Competitive | Games where players are working against each other. These games typically have only one winner. |
| cooperative (co-op) | Games where players are working with each other. You win or lose together. Some cooperative games may have an overall winner — an MVP of the game — these can be called competitive co-ops. |
| cozy | Games that are generally lighter and more relaxed with a welcoming theme. They are meant to be fun and do not deal with too much competition. They are the board game equivalent of a warm hug. Example: Floriferous |
| crunchy | Games that involve a lot of number crunching with players often calculating the values between a multitude of different options to determine which has the best victory point outcome for their game. Whether or not a game is “crunchy” can vary player to player. |
| D6 | Relating to dice. A D6 is a standard six sided die. A D20 is a twenty sided die. |
| Deck Building | Games where players begin with the same starting hand and then over the course of the game will use their cards to purchase new cards with new and stronger powers to add to their hand to use on future turns. At the end of the game, every players hands will be different. Marvel Legendary is a deck building game. |
| Dexterity | Games that require players to use physical actions like building/stacking, balancing, flicking or in other ways manipulating the pieces of the game. Jenga is a dexterity game. |
| Drafting (open drafting, closed drafting) | A game mechanic where you will gain cards, tiles, or other components by selecting them from a group of available options. Open drafting is when a player makes their selection from a face up display visible to the entire group. Closed drafting is when this is done where only the player can see. Azul is an Open drafting game. 7 Wonders is a Closed Drafting Game |
| Dungeon Crawl | Games where players progress through a level, often looking for treasure navigating a labyrinth while fighting lots of little monsters, and generally end by fighting the final big monster. |
| Engine Building | Games where players improve their ability to gain resources, points, or other benefits by purchasing cards that increase their production ability. Splendor is an engine building game. |
| Euro (eurogame) | Games where there is little luck or randomness — generally considered strategy games. Theme often has little to nothing to do with the gameplay and all of the emphasis is placed on the mechanisms of the game. Player interaction and conflict is low — your mostly competing for resources or points. While euros can refer to games of German or European publication, not all euro games are European. Catan and Carcassonne are Euros. |
| Expansion | An addition for a game. They can add new scenarios, tracks, maps, or even allow for additional players. They are often sold separately and cannot be played without the base game. |
| Fiddly | Games that have a lot of components players are required to move around, sometimes unnecessarily and often though not always can cause annoyance. |
| Filler | Short games you can teach and play quickly. Typically they tend to be lighter on strategy, often playing in 30 minutes or less. |
| FLGS | Friendly Local Game Store |
| Flip & Write | Paper and pencil games in the same family as roll & writes but instead of dice you’ll flip over cards and then use the results to make decisions which you’ll write on your player sheet. Silver & Gold is a flip and write. |
| Gateway Game | In reference to games that are great for getting new players hooked on board games. A “gateway” into the hobby. Any game can be a gateway game, but a widely known example is Ticket to Ride. |
| Get it to the table | Said when remarking on how much you want to play a game. “I can’t wait to get this game to the table.” |
| Language Independent | Games that do not require much or any reading. |
| Legacy Game | Games where new content or challenges are unlocked over the course of many play sessions typically working through a storyline. The rules often change and many components or the board itself is altered, most commonly with stickers or pens. Legacy games are similar to campaign games since players work through a campaign storyline, but often the changes made in Legacy games are permanent, with elements of the game or board being destroyed, and the game is often unreplayable after completion. They also tend to have Legacy in the title letting you know that it is a legacy game. Example: Pandemic Legacy |
| Luck Driven | Games where the outcome is largely determined by luck and a player’s strategic choices do not bear as much weight. |
| meaty | A term used when describing heavier games. |
| Mechanism | The different aspects of a game that make up the it’s rule system or structure. A game can have multiple mechanisms and is not limited to one. Worker placement, drafting, set collection etc are all mechanisms. |
| Meeples | The player pawns that resemble people. Carcassonne has meeples for players to use. |
| Miniature (minis, mini figs) | Three dimensional figurines |
| OOS | Out Of Stock |
| Over Powered | When a game’s structure isn’t balanced and strongly favors anything in the game (strategy, faction, action ability) over another. That element is said to be over powered. |
| Party Game | Games that are light and fun, intended for a large group to play. Example: Codenames |
| Player interaction | When a games structure causes players to impact other players. This can be in the form of direct interaction: someone attacks another player, or indirect action: someone takes an action spot removing it as an option for someone else. |
| Point Salad | Games that have a lot of ways to get victory points to the point that it can be confusing and difficult to make decisions. |
| Polyomino | A geometric shape formed by combining equal squares edge to edge. Tetris features polyominos. |
| Push Your Luck | Games where you must risk taking another turn or action that could either result in you increasing your point value or often losing it all. Example: Incan Gold |
| Roll & Write | Paper and pencil games where you roll a single or set of dice and then use the results to make decisions which you’ll write on your player sheet. Example: Qwixx |
| Roll and Move | Games where you roll a die or flip a card and move your player pawn based on the result. Largely devoid of choices for players to make. Candyland is an example of one such game. |
| RPG | Roll Play Game |
| Set collection | Games where you must attempt to collect sets of cards, items, or other elements to generate points. Larger sets or sets of a particular type will gain more points than others. |
| Shelf of Shame (Shelf of Opportunity) | Referring to games you have on your shelf that you have yet to play. |
| Strategy | Games where players must think through a variety of choices throughout the game and luck is limited. |
| Tableau builder | Games where you’ll gain and place cards in front of you where they will stay throughout the game, often giving you a benefit either during or at the games end. Example: Machi Koro. |
| Take That | Games that allow players to directly target or take actions against their opponents such as stealing cards or resources and nullifying abilities. |
| Tile laying | Games where you will lay components onto a playing surface. Example: Carcassonne |
| Trick Taking | A group of card games where players will all place one card from their hand into the center with the group of cards, called the “trick,” being taken (won) by one of the players. Hearts is a trick taking game. |
| Unbalanced | This term is used when a games mechanisms seem to favor an action, player, |
| Variant | Relates to the different ways to play a single game. A competitive game might have a solo variant, or a cooperative variant. |
| VP | Victory Points |
| Weight : Light, Medium, Heavy | This deals with the games difficulty. If someone says a game is a light weight game, you can assume that the game is fairly simple to learn and play, typically is under an hour, and won’t require too much brain power. A heavy weight game is one that is the opposite, typically taking a lot of time, effort, and energy to learn, often exceeding 2 hours to play, and requiring a lot of strategy throughout. A medium weight game is somewhere in the middle. Medium weight games will even get further clarification such as Medium-light or medium-heavy to give you an idea where the game leans. |
| Worker Placement | A type of game where you’ll send your player pieces to different action spaces on the board to take those actions. Your player pieces are your workers and you are sending them out to do a job by placing them on the board. Workers sent typically stay on the board blocking others from taking that action and must eventually be recalled by their player. Example: Viticulture |
