Board Game Designers Forum

Some common terms are used at times to sum-up what a particular game is about. For example, a game might be described as a "beer and pretzels wargame", or a "tile-laying set-collection game" ... this section is intended to provide definitions and discussions on some of these terms.

Card Games

A card game is any game whose primary components are, and whose gameplay is centered around, cards. Although it's easy to identify a card game, sometimes it's difficult to differentiate between a board game and a card game. Card games can use boards (a la Lost Cities) and board games can obviously use cards. For that reason, The Board Game Designers Forum does not exclude card games from its range of discussion.

Beer and Pretzels

Beer and Pretzels is a category of games that is often characterized by one or more of the following traits:

Humorous theme
High player interaction
Player elimination
Moderate to high level of Luck
Relatively short playing time

The most famous examples of this type of game are Nuclear War, Junta, Cosmic Encounter, and Wizwar. This category of game seems to be predominantly American. Even though games of this nature are highly luck driven, highly skilled players will usually win over newer, less skilled players, so there is usually some layer of strategy, albeit less than a standard strategy game.

Recently this genre has expanded both geographically and categorically with games like Bang! , I'm the Boss, etc.

Party Games

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German games|German-style strategy games

erman-style strategy board games are so-called because they initially became popular in Germany, but synonyms include European-style board games, family strategy games, or designer games.

A broad variety of games could be included under the German games moniker, and while no two people can agree on exactly what constitutes a German game, several characteristics are common to many popular German games:

Emphasis on player decisions
Reduced influence of luck
Simple, accessible rules
Playing times under 90 minutes
High-quality components

Some popular or highly regarded German games include Settlers of Catan?, Puerto Rico? and Ticket to Ride. Others are mentioned at the Game Examples page.

More information is available at the Wikipedia entry, or at this article at the Games Journal.

German-style games are very-much on topic at BGDF, with the majority of the designers here working in this genre.

Wargames|Conflict Simulations/Wargames

Generally speaking, wargames or conflict simulations allow players to simulate a military conflict between two or more parties. Often the game will focus on a historical engagement, and realism is a primary concern of players and designers. The scope of the games can vary considerably, from a detailed treatment of a particular battle to a recreation of an entire war.

Wargames and conflict simulations are not considered on-topic for BGDF. Other sites more devoted to discussion of these types of games include http://www.grognard.com/ and http://www.consimworld.com/

Mass Market Games

"Mass market games" refers to games that are sold at retailers like Wal-Mart or Toys 'R Us. There are a wide variety of such games, but common types include:

Classic titles — Monopoly, Chess, Scrabble, Parchesi
Licensed tie-ins to television programs or movies — Survivor: the Game, The DaVinci Code Board Game, etc
Children's games — intended to be played by kids; often featuring an electronic gadget or gizmo
Party games? — Twister, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit

Mass market games are, for the most part, on topic here at BGDF.

Miniatures|Tabletop Miniatures

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Abstracts|Abstract Strategy

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Role Playing Games|Role Playing Games

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CCGs|Collectible Card Games

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The BoardGameGeek lists published board and card games by type, as follows:

Note that Themes and Game Type can sometimes overlap.