Common terms used in board games

Common terms used in board games

Although many board games have a jargon all their own, there is a generalized terminology to describe concepts applicable to basic game mechanics and attributes common to nearly all board games.

§  Game board (or simply board)—the (usually quadrilateral) 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 which use neither cards nor a game board) are often colloquially included. Most games use a standardized and unchanging board (chess, Go, and backgammon all have such a board), but many games use a modular board whose component tiles or cards can assume varying layouts from one session to another, or even as the game is played.

§  Game piece (or counter or token or bit or mover or pawn)—a player's representative on the game board. Each player may control one or more game pieces. In some games that involve commanding multiple game pieces, such as chess, certain pieces have unique designations and capabilities within the parameters of the game; in others, such as Go, all pieces controlled by a player have the same essential 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, pieces may not represent or belong to a particular player.

§  Jump—to bypass one or more game pieces or spaces. Depending on the context, jumping may also involve capturing or conquering an opponent's game piece. (See also: Game mechanic: capture)

§  Space (or square)—a physical unit of progress on a gameboard delimited by a distinct border. Alternately, a unique, atomic position on the board on which a game piece may be located while in play (in Go, for example, the pieces are placed on intersections of lines on the grid, not in the areas bounded by the grid lines as is seen in chess). (See also: Game mechanic: Movement)

§  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 some abstract strategy games such as Abalone use hexagonal layouts.

§  Card—a piece of cardboard on which instructions are given

§  Deck—a stack of cards

§  Capture—a method in which one removes another players game piece from the board, for example: in checkers if you jump another player's piece, that piece is captured.