There are terms, phrases, and abbreviations that tabletop gamers have adopted. This jargon can be a bit tricky to understand, especially if you are just starting to get engaged with the board-gaming hobby. I'll highlight some of the more common terms and help all of us, as we continue to learn new gaming slang. I know when I first started listening to tabletop gaming podcasts and reading blogs, I was a bit confused when certain terms and phrases were used. Eventually I was able to discern what some of these meant via the context of their use. In other cases, the host(s)/writer(s) would volunteer the meaning for those like myself who hadn't yet learned. I wanted to highlight a number of these terms and supply you with definitions and my understanding of what they mean. NOTE: I will NOT be highlighting terms referring to game mechanics (ex. Auction, Area Control, etc...) as I plan to release a guide to those terms in a future blog post. Below is a glossary of sorts for some common tabletop gaming terms.* 4X - Referring to games utilizing four primary features: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. These games tend to be more complex games that typically take a long time to play. Most 4X games are civilization building and space exploration themes. Abstract - This is a widely contested term. Usually meaning a game that lacks theme or is streamlined to a minimum allowing for focus on strategy. Games like Checkers, Backgammon, & Blokus are considered abstract. Acquisition Disorder - A humorous dig at those who have gotten carried away with purchasing games and accessories almost to the point of obsession. Obviously not confined only to gaming, this refers to an obsessive "need" to have more games or all the components, expansions and extras for a specific game. Alpha Player - Also called "Quarterbacking" or "Dominant Player Syndrome", in a derogatory sense it refers to a player who takes control of a (typically Cooperative) game by dictating to other players what they need to do on their turns. If used positively, it can refer to a true leader who would listen to the group and guide them to consensus, share insights, teach others to see the angles and develop a team mentality (though this is not the prevalent usage). Ameritrash - A catchphrase for "American-style" boardgames. In general, this means games that emphasize a highly developed theme, lots of components (miniatures), player to player conflict, and usually feature an element of luck (lots of dice). Many consider this a derogatory term or a negative way to refer to American-style game design. Often used to differentiate from European-style games (see Euro below). Examples include: Axis & Allies, Dune, Cosmic Encounter, Talisman, and Twilight Imperium. Analysis Paralysis (AP) - When a player takes a long time to make a decision when faced with many options. Sometimes players overanalyze to a point that increases the downtime in a game beyond a desirable level. Bits - Assorted components used to play a game. The dice, cubes, tokens, miniatures and other pieces needed to play a game. Brain Burner - Referring to a game with lots of depth and complex decisions to be made. A mental challenge that will leave you feeling drained. Collectible Card Game (CCG) - Also called a Trading Card Game (TCG). These games center around collecting cards by buying packets of random cards. Then players build decks from these cards to compete usually in 1 v 1 matches. Some examples include, Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon, and Netrunner. Crunchy - Describes a game that has lots of deep decisions or number crunching. There's a lot for your brain to think about. Similar to Brain Burner. Cult of the New - Refers to those having a desire to acquire and play all of the hot new games as they are released. Infers a trap or obsession that can cause players to neglect playing the games they already own. D6 (also D8, D20 etc...) - Common abbreviation for 'six-sided die'. Similarly D8 refers to 'eight-sided die'. D10, d12, and d20 are also common terms. A pair of six-sided dice is sometimes called 2D6. These abbreviations are most common in RPGs and wargames. Dudes on a Map - Refers to a game where the gameboard can be filled with ‘dudes’, miniatures, meeples, tokens or other characters. This is most typical in war-style or territory-control games requiring players to position armies in different locations on the board. Dungeon Crawl - A game where players navigate a labyrinth-like environment or other defined area fighting enemies, finding treasures, completing missions. Most commonly in adventure and role-playing games. Euro/Eurogame - Also called "Euro-style Game" or "German" game. This term emphasizes the more frequent publication of German-style games originating in Europe. Euro's are usually characterized by more complexity and depth via innovative mechanisms. Euro-style games typically avoid player elimination and are often designed to have little luck or randomness. Many (but not all) use Victory Points to determine the winner. The term is used to differentiate American-style games from Euro-style games. Euro games will almost always have a theme, however it’s not as tightly integrated with the game play nor as immersive as in American-style games. Examples include: Catan, Puerto Rico, Carcassonne, El Grande, and Power Grid. Fiddly - A game with lots of pieces or components to move, or a game where pieces feel flimsy or may not fit well together. The term fiddly can also refer to a game being frustrating to play due to the number of components or the pieces being too difficult to use correctly. This term is also used when referring to a lengthy or difficult set-up for a game due to the pieces and parts. Filler - A game with fairly simple rules, easy to learn, and with a short playing-time. This type of game is frequently used between lengthier, more complex games. (See also Light) Game Weight - This is the measure of complexity or difficulty of a game. Generally games will fall into one of two difficulty levels.
Gateway Game - A game with relatively simple rules that is easy to teach to non-gamers in order to introduce them to board gaming as a hobby. A hobby board game that is considered a good entry point for someone new. Kingmaker - A player in a position to take an action that determines the game’s winner. Usually this player has little-to-no chance of winning. It’s generally considered an undesirable trait of a player and/or game. Legacy Game - These games "remember" what happened from one play to the next getting permanently altered while playing it. The game may require players to permanently mark the board or cards, tear up cards, or take other actions that change the game. The board or cards may change based on the outcome of past game plays or the choices players make along the way. The game is often still playable after the legacy campaign, however it may not be possible to completely reset it. Examples include: Pandemic Legacy, Risk Legacy, and Seafall. Living Card Game (LCG) - A term trademarked by Fantasy Flight Games and described as a variant of Collectible Card Games. The contents of ‘booster packs’ in Collectible Card Games are randomized, the contents of Living Card Game packs or boxes are known. Other games use the non-trademarked term Expandable Card Game to represent a similar idea without running afoul of the trademark. Due to the large number of gaming glossary terms, I have split this into two posts. PART 2 will be published in an upcoming post. Please watch for the second half of my Tabletop Gamers Glossary. Game on! * External sources used for some glossary terms and definitions: Board Game Geek, Pub Meeple, Entro Games
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I'm no expert, however, I have taught many different board games and learned a few things over the years. I would like to share some of my tips for teaching others how to play a game. I'll give you the general steps that I like to follow as well as some thoughts and advice for teaching board games. King's Tips for Teaching Games Teaching a game to family, friends and others can be a daunting task. As the one teaching the game, you feel responsible for making sure to properly explain the rules and make it as easy as possible for your trainees to get started. After all, the gaming group is relying upon you to get a new game underway. Ultimately the game teacher feels a sense of responsibility for everyone having fun and enjoying their game experience. That's a lot of pressure to put on ourselves. That's almost an unfair expectation of the game teacher. Unless teaching and performing game demos is part of your job (some have this job or volunteer) then we are all mostly just amateur game teachers. That's the group I'm speaking to. Those of us who have a local tabletop gaming group or just want to teach new games to friends and family. Below is my bullet points for best success.
I enjoy teaching games. One of the most satisfying experiences is to see others enjoy playing a game that I just taught them. It is especially gratifying when they enjoy the game enough to start evangelizing to others. After all, isn't that what its all about? Gathering together to play games should be fun and shared with others. A good teacher can help playing new games a more enjoyable experience.
The tips I have shared are general notes on how I approach teaching games. You may not agree with all of my tips. Feel free to modify and change to match your teaching style. Keep teaching others games, learning how to play and ... Game on! Gaming blogs like mine are a great way to learn more about the tabletop gaming hobby. They are an example of how passionate game hobbyists are. Since I have started sharing about my gaming experiences and opinions on King's GameNight I have also researched what other bloggers are doing. I would like to share a couple of these resources with you, so that you can have access to other information in your tabletop game hobby quest. Feedspot hosts a board gaming blog list. Their list is described as follows: Top 100 Board Game Blogs, Websites & Newsletters To Follow in 2019 The Best Board Game blogs from thousands of top board game blogs in our index using search and social metrics. Data will be refreshed once a week. I have submitted my blog and been notified that King's GameNight blog will be added in a future update of the site. Please check out the Feedspot Top 100 Board Game Blogs to help support those who support board game content creators. Also check out Feedspot's top Board Games Youtube Channels list for top videos on board games. Board Game Geek has a user created Wiki list of board game blogs. This is another great resource to look for board game information and resources from all around the globe. Check out the board game blog list on BGG by clicking here. Thank you for supporting me and King's GameNight. I hope the gaming blog lists above give you options when searching for additional content about tabletop gaming.
Game On! Whenever I play a game that's new to me, I enjoy passing along that experience. Though not a full review, posts like this will provide an overview and initial impression. This past week I played several games that were new to me. I'll discuss a bit about Alien Frontiers and give quick highlights of several others. Alien Frontiers Last week I went to the Dice and Decks monthly game night at the Atheneum in downtown Indianapolis. My neighbor Nikki and I drove down together. One of our new friends, Jamie, brought Alien Frontiers to play. We sat down to try out this area control, worker placement, dice rolling, strategy game with Jamie and our other new friend David. Apparently the version we played was the 4th edition. Board Game Geek indicates there is new 5th edition expansion to be published yet this year. The designer is Tory Niemann and the art is by Mark Maxwell according to the box (some other versions may have additional artists credited). As space corporations, your goal is to place all of your colonies and control different regions on the planet thus earning more victory points than your opponents. Each turn you roll your dice (spaceships). Based on the numbers rolled, players assign their dice (space ships) to different orbital facilities located around the planet to gain necessary resources, ships and alien technology. The two primary resources needed are solar power and ore. These two resources are a essentially the game's currency needed for constructing colonies. Alien Tech cards can give you additional advantages in the game, in some cases assisting with adjusting die rolls or protecting territories and other assets. Having the majority of colonies placed on a territory of the alien planet grants control over that region. Gaining control over a territory also grants the controlling player a special bonus unique to that location. Victory points are gained by building colonies on the planet and controlling territories. Once a player has built his/her final territory on the planet, the game ends. The player with the highest points on the tracker is the victor. Nikki and I enjoyed this game. It had a nice mixture of strategy mixed with the randomness of dice rolls. The theme was consistent throughout the game and components. I felt like actions I took related to the locations in which I placed my dice. We took about an hour and a half to learn and play. Experienced players can probably play in about 60 minutes. Overall, we liked Alien Frontiers. Its straightforward, fairly easy to teach/learn and offers a nice amount of decision making and strategy. Some may have an issue with the randomness of dice rolls, however there are cards and bonuses (relatively few) that can be used to help offset this by changing a die value. As a matter of fact, I had a very interesting experience with "randomness" in dice rolls... During our play of Alien Frontiers, I had an interesting dice rolling occurrence. Nearly every time I rolled, the dice results were "1", "2", & "5". Roll after roll I seemed to always have the same result. Even as I gained a fourth, fifth and sixth die (spaceship) there seemed to always be three dice that read "1", "2", & "5". Eventually I snagged an alien technology card which allowed me to change a die by subtracting one from it. This helped a little. I wonder what the odds are of rolling the same three numbers over and over and over are? It was really kind of strange. We had fun watching my rolls to see if I rolled "1", "2", & "5" again. Nikki ended up winning our game. Pretty good for just our first play! It was lot of fun playing with Jamie and David at the Dice and Decks event. Thanks again to Jamie for bringing the game and inviting us to play. If this game sounds like it may be your cup of tea, check out the link to the Board Game Geek entry here. Be sure to check the multiple versions and expansions to get the full picture. I had the opportunity to play several games last week. I'd like to give a quick overview of some of other games I played while at a friend's game night. We had a large group at Troy's game night and he found four games we could all play. Pick Picknic This quick family game deals players cards of different values with images of chickens, turkeys, geese and other fowl as well as foxes. Food (wooden cubes) of different point values are placed on each of six different colored fields. Players play a card from their hand in an attempt to gain the food on the field of the matching color. In the event more than one player plays a bird card of the same color, they can choose to share all the food on the card OR roll dice adding the value of their card to the roll, with winner taking all. If a fox is played, it eats any fowl played to that field and receives the cards for their point value, but none of the food cubes are taken. After several rounds the game ends and all players count the value of their bird cards and food they were awarded during the game. The one with the most points wins. This is a cute game that plays quickly. Children and adults can play together and both get some enjoyment. To learn more about Pick Picnic click here. Brick Party In this "Lego" building game, players team up each round working together to build a specific brick layout. A dexterity game and test of communications and teamwork, Brick Party is a fun family game. The box says ages 5+, however in order to properly give instructions to a partner may require a child of an older age than five. Probably a bit better starting age is seven plus? Each round new teams of two are selected. During a round one player will be the architect and the other the builder. The architect chooses a pattern card with a specific silhouette pattern of blocks and has to describe to the builder how to construct that pattern. The builder takes blocks from a common pool of plastic bricks in the middle of the table and receives instructions from the architect without ever seeing the pattern card. Each turn a "rule" card is turned over. The rule card has a special requirement that makes building more challenging. Examples of rules are: Builder must use their "off" hand; builder must have eyes closed; or teammates must sit back-to-back so that they can't see what the other is doing. The round ends when one team believes they have completed their pattern and yells, "done". The others then have 30 seconds (egg timer) to complete theirs. Points are awarded only to those completing their pattern correctly with a bonus to the fastest successful completion. I really liked the teamwork and communication aspects of Brick Party. Tricky, yet rewarding once you successfully complete a pattern. To learn more about Brick Party click here. Among Thieves This card game wis a bit more involved than the previous two but still able to play within about an hour. The concept of the game is that each player is a different master thief and you are trying to take down one of three different evil corporations by infiltrating in small teams and performing a heist. Each turn the heist master chooses which of the other players get to participate in the heist. Prior to actually performing the heist players choose if they plan to be Honorable or Dishonorable to the group during the heist. They do this by flipping essentially an "Othello" token to the black or white side. If you choose to be dishonorable, you'll get double any points awarded on the heist while any choosing honorable receive nothing... however you move down and the others up the honor track. If all player on the heist choose honorable, nobody moves on the honor track, however everyone gets their fair share of the heist reward value. During the game there are events that alter outcomes of heists and may reward those whom didn't go on the heist. There are four different end-game triggers of which I'm not certain. When we played, the game ended once one corporation card deck was depleted. We followed the end-game rules to determine a winner. None of us seemed too thrilled with this game. The rules had some inconsistencies. The choosing of heist partners seemed unbalanced. I won the game, yet didn't feel much satisfaction. If you're curious about this one and want to learn more click here. Deadwood 1876 Based on historic old west characters, this semi-cooperative card-based game was my favorite of the four games we played that night. Each character in Deadwood is represented by a card showing famous old west personalities such as Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. There is no difference in character abilities, the different characters are simply for aesthetics. Speaking of aesthetics... this game was nicely done. The components were of high quality, the box looked like an old book. The card illustrations were well done. In my quick overview of the game: Characters are randomly distributed to one of three locations in the center of the table, each represented by a wooden sherif star meeple. Each character is also dealt two safe cards placed face down next to their character card. Initially only you may look to see what is in your safe cards. Players are also each dealt a hand of four cards. Those in the same location are essentially on a team, defending their safes and their contents from enemies. You can use certain cards to move to other locations or duel with another player to swap to their location allowing the players to potentially get to a location/team with better safe contents. Each card has two items listed on it, a weapon and an item with an associated action. When using weapons to battle other players, each rolls the special dice associated with the specified weapon(s) and compare rolls. Actions on the cards may allow players to share weapons with others, move to a new location, view safe cards and other useful maneuvers. This is important, because after the third round whoever is at the location with the most gold in their combined safes wins the first phase of the game. Then the successful group battles it out for sole ownership of the winnings. Those remaining players use the weapons in their hand and in their safes to battle each other. Last man or woman standing wins. Heavy with this card game was a lot of fun. It had a little bit of luck, strategy, and teamwork involved. To read in more details about Deadwood 1876 click here. New Game to Investigate I was recently contacted by the game designer of a new card game. He wanted me to share information about his company and the Kickstarter for a new game, Robinson Crusoe, Escape From Despair Island. Old Novel Games is a new game company specializing in turning classic novels into card games. I didn't really know anything about this company and game until I received this request from the founder/designer. I did look at the Kickstarter campaign. It appears to be getting support and positive reviews from others. I thought I'd pass this along to my readers and let you know about this new company/game and provide a link for you to check out the Kickstarter campaign for yourselves. To learn more about Robinson Crusoe, Escape From Despair Island the card game click here. That wraps up another post to King's GameNight. I hope you're finding tabletop gaming information and content that interests you. Please share your comments to the post. If you would like to send me a message directly, please use the contact form. And as always...
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