Glossary of board games
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
This glossary of board games explains commonly used terms in board games, in alphabetical order. For a list of board games, see List of board games; for terms specific to chess, see Glossary of chess; for terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems.
A
active
See
in play.
Ameritrash
Definted in contrast to
Eurogames, American-style board games, perjoratively called "Ameritrash", generally feature a prominent theme that is tied to the game's mechanics, encourage direct conflict between players, and have a greater degree of randomness or luck.
B
bear off
To remove game
piece(s) from the
board and
out of play.
Past tense: borne off.
bit
See
piece.
Black
Used often to refer to one of the players in two-player games. Black's pieces are typically a dark color but not necessarily black (e.g. in
English draughts official play they are red). Cf.
White. See also
White and Black in chess.
board
Short for
gameboard.
C
capture
A method that removes another player's piece(s) from the board. For example: in
checkers, if a player
jumps an opponent's piece, that piece is captured. Captured pieces are typically removed from the game. In some games, captured pieces remain
in hand and can be reentered into active play (e.g.
shogi,
Bughouse chess). See also
Game mechanics § Capture/eliminate.
card
A piece of cardboard often bearing instructions, and usually chosen randomly from a deck by shuffling.
cell
See
hex and
space.
checker
See
piece.
checkerboard
A square
gameboard with alternating dark and light-colored squares.
chessboard
The square
gameboard used in
chess, having 64 squares of alternating dark and light-colors.
column
See
file.
component
A physical item included in the game. E.g. the box itself, the board, the cards, the tokens, zipper-lock bags, inserts, rule books, etc. See also
equipment.
counter
See
piece.
currency
A scoring
mechanic used by some games to determine the winner, e.g. money (
Monopoly) or counters (
Zohn Ahl).
custodian capture
A capture method whereby an enemy piece is captured by being blocked on adjacent sides by opponent pieces. (Typically
laterally on two sides as in
Tablut and
Hasami shogi, or laterally on four sides as in
Go. Capture by blocking on two sides diagonally is done in
Stone Warriors, and surrounding on three sides is required in
Bizingo.) Also called escort capture and interception capture.
custodian method
See
custodian capture.
D
deck
A stack of cards.
die
sing. of
dice.
dice
Modern cubic dice are used to generate random numbers in many games – e.g. a single die in
Trivial Pursuit, or two dice per player in
backgammon.
Role-playing games typically use one or more
polyhedral dice. Games such as
Pachisi and
chaupur traditionally use
cowrie shells. The games
Zohn Ahl and
Hyena chase use dice sticks. The game yut uses
yut sticks.
direction of play
The order of
turns in a
multiplayer game, e.g. clockwise around the board means the player to the left has the next turn.
disc
See
piece.
displacement capture
A
capture method whereby a capturing piece replaces the captured piece on its square, cell, or point on the gameboard.
doublet
1. The same number displayed by two
dice.
2. The number displayed by one or more
die is doubled.
3. The union of two game
pieces to move as one.
E
empty board
Many games start with all
pieces out of play; for example,
Nine men's morris,
Conspirateurs,
Entropy, and
Go (if a
handicap is not employed). Some
gameboards feature
staging areas for the pieces before any are put
into play; for example,
Ludo and
Malefiz.
enemy
An enemy piece is a piece in the same army or set of pieces controlled by the opponent; or, in a multiplayer game, a piece controlled by the partner of an opponent.
Engine-building
A board game genre and
gameplay mechanic that involves adding and modifying combinations of abilities or resources to assemble a
virtuous circle of increasingly powerful and productive outcomes.
A successfully built engine can create a
snowball or
domino effect.
Equipment for
Ludo: four Ludo pieces, a die, a dice cup, a Ludo board
equipment
Refers to physical
components required to play a game, e.g. pieces, gameboard, dice.
escort capture
See
custodian capture.
Eurogame
European- or German-style board games generally feature strategic depth with multiple ways to score points, indirect player interaction, relatively minimal themes, and limited randomness or luck.
exchange
For games featuring
captures, the capture of a piece followed immediately by the opponent's recapture.
F
file
A straight line of
spaces running from top to bottom of a
gameboard at right angle to a
rank. Also called column.
friendly
A
piece in the same army or set of pieces controlled by a player; or, in a multiplayer game, a piece controlled by a player's partner.
G
Surakarta gameboard and initial setup
gameboard
Or
game board. The (usually
quadrilateral) marked surface on which one plays a board game. The
namesake of the board game, gameboards would seem to be a
necessary and sufficient condition of the
genre, though
card games that do not use a standard deck of cards (as well as games that use neither cards nor a gameboard) are often colloquially included. Most games use a standardized and unchanging board (
chess,
Go, and
backgammon each have such a board), but some games use a modular board whose component tiles or cards can assume varying layouts from one session to another, or even during gameplay.
game component
See
component.
game equipment
See
equipment.
game piece
See
piece.
gameplay
The execution of a game; or specifically its
strategy, tactics, conventions, or
mechanics.
gamer
A person who plays board game(s). See also
player.
gamespace
A gameboard for a three-dimensional game (e.g., the 5×5×5 cubic board for
Raumschach).
grace
An extra
turn.
H
handicap
An advantage given to a weaker side at the start of a game to level the winning chances against a stronger opponent. Go has formal handicap systems (see
Go handicaps); chess has traditional handicap methods not used in rated competitions (see
Chess handicap).
hex
In hexagon-based board games, this is the common term for a standard space on the board. This is most often used in
wargaming, though many
abstract strategy games such as
Abalone,
Agon,
hexagonal chess,
GIPF project games, and
connection games use hexagonal layouts.
huff
The forfeiture of a
piece as a penalty for infringing a
rule.
I
in hand
A piece in hand is one currently not in play on the gameboard, but may be entered into play on a turn. Examples are captured pieces in
shogi or
Bughouse chess, able to be dropped into play as a move; or pieces that begin the game in a staging area off the main board, as in
Ludo or
Chessence.
in play
A piece active on the main board, not
in hand or in a
staging area. Antonym:
out of play.
interception capture
See
custodian capture.
intervention capture
A capture method the reverse of the
custodian method: a player captures two opponent pieces by moving to occupy the empty space between them.
J
jump
To move a
piece over one or more pieces or
spaces on the gameboard.
Depending on the context, jumping may include
capturing an opponent's piece. See also
Game mechanics § Capture/eliminate.
L
leap
See
jump.
M
man
In
chess, a piece or a pawn. In
draughts, an uncrowned (i.e. not a king) piece.
Wooden
meeples from the board game
Carcassonne
meeple
A game
piece that represents a person in concept, shaped like an approximation of a person.
mill
Three or more
pieces in a line of adjacent
spaces.
move
See
turn.
O
odds
See
handicap.
open board
A
gameboard with no
pieces, or one piece,
in play. Typically for demonstration or instruction.
order of play
See
direction of play.
orthogonal
A horizontal (straight left or right) or vertical (straight forward or backward) direction a piece moves on a gameboard.
out of play
A piece not active on the main board, it might be
in hand or in a
staging area. Antonym:
in play.
over the board
A game played face to face with the opponent, as opposed to playing remotely (
online or other means, for e.g.
correspondence chess).
P
pass
The voluntary or involuntary forfeiture of a
turn by a player.
pie rule
Used in some two-player games to eliminate any advantage of moving first. After the first player's opening move, the second player may optionally swap sides.
Simple wooden
pawn-style playing pieces, often called
Halma pawns
piece
Or bit, checker, chip, counter, disc, draughtsman, game piece, man,
meeple, mover, pawn, player piece, playing piece, singleton, stone, token, unit. A player's representative on the gameboard made of a
piece of material made to look like a known object (such as a
scale model of a person, animal, or inanimate object) or otherwise general symbol. Each player may control one or more pieces. Some games involve commanding multiple pieces, such as
chess pieces or
Monopoly houses and hotels, that have unique designations and capabilities within the parameters of the game; in other games, such as Go, all pieces controlled by a player have the same capabilities. In some modern board games, such as
Clue, there are other pieces that are not a player's representative (i.e. weapons). In some games, such as
mancala games, pieces may not represent or belong to any particular player.
Mancala pieces are undifferentiated and typically seeds but sometimes beans, coins, cowry shells, ivory balls, or pebbles. Note that in chess usage the term piece in some contexts only refers to
some of the pieces, which are also known as chessmen. See also
Counter (board wargames).
playboard
See
gameboard.
player
The participant(s) in the game. See also
gamer.
playing area
The
spaces on a gameboard for use by pieces
in play.
playspace
See
playing area.
point
See
space.
The five
Platonic solid polyhedrals (from the left):
tetrahedron (d4),
cube (d6),
octahedron (d8),
dodecahedron (d12),
icosahedron (d20)
polyhedral dice
Dice that are not cubes, usually some kind of
Platonic solid. Polyhedral dice are generally referred to through the construction "d + number of sides" (ex. d4, d8, d12, d20). See also
dice.
R
rank
A straight line of
spaces running from one side to the other across a
gameboard at right angle to a
file. Also called row.
replacement capture
See
displacement capture.
row
See
rank.
rule
A condition or stipulation by which a game is played.
ruleset
The comprehensive set of rules which define and govern a game.
S
singleton
A game
piece that is isolated and often prone to attack.
space
A
physical unit of progress on a
gameboard delimited by a distinct border, and not further divisible according to the game's rules. Alternatively, a unique position on the board on which a piece in play may be located. For example, in
Go, the pieces are placed on grid line intersections called points, and not in the areas bounded by the borders, as in chess. The bounded area geometries can be square (e.g.
chess), rectangular (e.g.
shogi), hexagonal (e.g.
Chinese Checkers), triangular (e.g.
Bizingo), quadrilateral (e.g.
three-player chess), cubic (e.g.
Raumschach), or other shapes (e.g.
Circular chess). Cf.
gamespace. See also
Game mechanics § Movement.
square
See
space.
staging area
A space set aside from the main gameboard to contain pieces
in hand. In
Ludo, the staging areas are called yards. In
shogi, pieces in hand are placed on komadai.
starting area
See
staging area.
stone
See
piece.
swap
See
exchange.
T
take
See
capture.
token
See
piece.
trade
See
exchange.
triplet
The same number displayed by three
dice.
turn
A player's opportunity to move a piece or make a decision that influences
gameplay. Turns to move usually alternate equally between competing players or teams. See also
Turn-based game.
W
White
Used often to refer to one of the players in two-player games. White's pieces are typically a light color but not necessarily white (e.g.
backgammon sets use various colors for White;
shogi sets have no color distinction between sides). White often moves first but not always (e.g. Black moves first in
English draughts,
shogi, and
Go). Cf.
Black. See also
White and Black in chess.
Worker Placement
A genre of board games in which players take turns selecting an action while optimizing their resources and making meaningful decisions.
Notes
- ^ Davidson, Drew; Costikyan, Greg (2011). Tabletop: Analog Game Design. Lulu.com. p. 183. ISBN 978-1-257-87060-8.
- ^ "Ameritrash" on the BoardGameGeek wiki, BoardGameGeek contributors. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bell, R. C. (1983). "Glossary". The Boardgame Book. Exeter Books. p. 160. ISBN 0-671-06030-9.
- ^ Engelstein, Geoffrey; Shalev, Isaac (2020). Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design. CRC Press. p. 438. ISBN 978-1-138-36549-0.
- ^ Davidson, Drew; Costikyan, Greg (2011). Tabletop: Analog Game Design. Lulu.com. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-257-87060-8.
- ^ "Eurogame" on the BoardGameGeek wiki, BoardGameGeek contributors. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
- ^ "Best Worker Placement Board Games | Ultimate Guide". The Board Gamer. 2023-03-20. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
References
External links