NAME OF THE GAME
With thousands of board games out there, and more being invented every day, dedicated board-gamers need a glossary to describe the various types and genres. Here's a few of our favorites:
Euro or Eurogame: Also described as German-style, these games eschew direct conflict. Randomness is limited and players aren't eliminated by bankruptcy or annihilation on the battlefield. The Catan games are the best known Euros.
Ameritrash: Emphasizing drama and direct conflict, these often include an element of luck, where
fates can tum on the roll of the dice. Think Risk.
Take that: Games, often card games, that give players an opportunity to target a particular opponent.
Press your luck: A mechanism that tempts the greedy with rewards to take yet another turn even as the odds mount for lose it-all disaster. Seen in TV game shows and Russian roulette.
Co-op or Cooperative: All the players work together to beat the game itself. See Pandemic, in which everyone is trying to defeat global outbreaks of virulent diseases.
Dungeon crawl: You and the other players are stuck in a scary, underground labyrinth, battling monsters and scooping up loot. Gloomhaven, currently the top-rated game on the BoardGameGeek website, is a dungeon crawler.
Filler: A game that's easy to learn and takes 15 to 20 minutes to play. What you pull out to kill time while you're waiting for other players to show up to play a heavier game.
Dexterity: A game that could involve flicking something at a target, balancing blocks in a tower or using chopsticks to snatch sushi pieces floating from midair.
Engine builder: A mechanism where your aim is to build a machine, empire, company or system that becomes more powerful as the game progresses.
Hidden traitor: Players work together to accomplish a common goal, except for one player who is
secretly trying to foil the group.
Asymmetric: A game that assigns players widely varying roles and goals. Imagine Monopoly recast
with one player as a real estate developer, another as a tenants rights activist and a third as the
jail.
