Board game terms: a glossary for players and designers
Board game jargon falls into three groups: pieces (meeple, tokens, standees), mechanics (worker placement, deck-building, drafting, push your luck, hidden roles), and publishing terms (playtest, MSRP, MOQ, pledge manager, fulfillment). This glossary defines the terms you'll meet most often in rulebooks, reviews and crowdfunding campaigns.
Pieces and components
Meeple. A small wooden person-shaped piece. From “my people”.
Token / counter. A small piece tracking money, damage, resources or status.
Standee. A cardboard figure that stands in a plastic base, used in place of a miniature.
Tuck box. A thin card box with a tuck-in flap, like a deck of playing cards. Cheap, and common for small card games.
Sleeves. Plastic covers that protect cards. See our card size and sleeve guide.
Polyhedral dice. Dice with different numbers of sides, such as d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20, as used in tabletop RPGs. “d20” means a 20-sided die. Dice sets usually include all of them.
Mechanics
Area control (area majority). Players compete to have the most presence in regions of the board.
Deck-building. Each player starts with a small deck and improves it during the game by buying or gaining cards.
Drafting. Players pick cards from a shared set one at a time, often passing the rest to the next player.
Engine building. Building combinations that produce more and more resources or points each turn.
Hand management. Getting the most from a limited hand of cards: when to play, hold or discard.
Hidden roles. Players have secret identities or teams. See social deduction games.
Push your luck. Keep taking risks for more reward until you stop or bust. See push-your-luck games.
Set collection. Scoring for gathering matching or related items.
Simultaneous action selection. Everyone chooses secretly and reveals at once, as in Martial Art.
Split and choose. One player divides, another picks. See split and choose.
Take that. Cards or actions that directly attack or set back another player.
Trick-taking. Each player plays a card and the highest, by the rules, wins the “trick”, as in Hearts or Spades.
Worker placement. Players place pieces on spaces to take actions; a space taken is usually blocked for others.
Game types
Euro (Eurogame). A strategy game with indirect interaction, little luck and points scoring, often with a historical or economic theme.
Thematic (“Ameritrash”). Games built around story and theme, often with more luck, direct conflict and miniatures.
Cooperative. All players win or lose together against the game. Semi-cooperative games add secret goals or a traitor.
Filler. A short game, usually under 30 minutes.
Legacy. A game that changes permanently as you play a campaign: cards torn up, stickers added, rules unlocked.
Players and play
AP (analysis paralysis). A player taking a very long time over a decision.
Alpha player. In co-op games, one player who tells everyone else what to do.
Kingmaking. A player who can’t win deciding which other player does.
Downtime. Time spent waiting for other players’ turns.
Player elimination. Players knocked out before the game ends.
Designing and publishing
Playtest / blind playtest. Testing a prototype; a blind test uses only the rulebook. See our playtesting guide.
Print and play (PnP). A game you print and assemble yourself.
POD (print on demand). Services that print single copies to order.
MOQ (minimum order quantity). The smallest print run a manufacturer will accept.
Landed cost. Cost per copy once printed, shipped to your country, through customs and in the warehouse.
MSRP. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price. See manufacturing costs.
Stretch goal. An upgrade unlocked if a crowdfunding campaign passes set funding levels.
Pledge manager. Software used after a campaign to collect addresses, add-ons and shipping fees.
Fulfillment. Packing and shipping games to backers or customers.
FLGS. Friendly local game store, like We Geek Together in Sandy and Provo, Utah.
BGG. BoardGameGeek, the largest board game database and forum.
Questions people ask
What is a meeple?
A small wooden playing piece shaped like a simple person. The word combines "my" and "people" and became widespread after Carcassonne.
What does FLGS mean?
Friendly local game store: an independent shop that sells games and usually hosts game nights and tournaments.
What is a filler game?
A short game, usually under 30 minutes, played between longer games or while waiting for people to arrive.