I listen to a lot of board gaming podcasts and watch plenty of YouTube content, but the other day, I came across a term I’d never heard before—4X. The hosts gave a brief explanation, but I still wasn’t quite sure what it meant, so I did some digging. That’s when I realized just how many niche terms exist in the board gaming world—terms that don’t really show up anywhere else. So, I decided to put together a list of board game jargon that might leave newcomers scratching their heads. This isn’t an exhaustive dictionary (that would take forever and probably be a snooze to read), but hopefully, it’ll help decode some of the more obscure and interesting terms in the hobby.
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4X
This refers to a category of games, in which the four major elements are to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate.
A
Analysis Paralysis
Not just a board game term, this refers to someone struggling to make a decision. In board games this will usually be someone going over every option available on their turn, trying to calculate every possibility and being unable to make a choice as to what to do.
B
Bag Building
This refers to a mechanic in a game that involves players drawing items from a bag or other type of container. Players will often start with a particular set of items, and then during the game, players will add to the options they can pull from their bag. This adds an element of randomness to the game as players never know what may be pulled, but also allows for strategy as they can plan and make choices as to what to add to their bag.
E.g. Quacks of Quedlinburg, Warps Edge, Orleans, Wonderlands War
C
Catch-Up Mechanism
A mechanic in a game where the players who are in a losing position, are given more opportunity to catch up to the leader. Usually the players behind the leader are awarded more points for a certain action, are allowed to move further, or can take extra actions on their turn.
D
Downtime
This refers to the time spent between your turns, whilst waiting for other players to finish theirs.
E
Eurogame
These types of games are also referred to as German-style games, as the first games that followed this model were predominantly from Germany. Most of these games will focus on player skill to determine who wins, with little randomness. Many will focus on players gaining victory points to win.
e.g. Carcasonne, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Agricola
F
Filler Game
Not its own genre of game, but refers to a game with a small or easy to learn ruleset, often played between heavier, more complex games. They are a board game palate cleanser.
Flavour Text
The text in a rule book, on a card, or other in game item, that does not refer to the games rules or any mechanics, but adds to the story or theme of the game.
FLGS
This is the abbreviation of Friendly Local Game Stores. This refers to physical brick and mortar stores as opposed to online retailers.
G
Gateway Game
Like ‘Filler Game’, this isn’t a genre. Gateway Games refer to games that are good for introducing people to the board gaming hobby.
GM
This is the abbreviation of Game Master. Often used alongside DM (Dungeon Master), it is used in role playing games. This term is used to refer to the person who is in charge of running the game.
H
Hate Drafting
Taking a card or resource a player has no interest in but that an opposing player wants. The goal is simply to hinder another player.
I
Insert
The plastic or cardboard inside the box that is designed to contain, and usually organise the components of the game.
K
Kingmaker
A player who is in a position to determine who will win the game, through their actions. The player is usually in a losing position.
L
Lose Condition
This refers to the way a game is lost, usually by not reaching a goal or running out of time. It is predominantly used in co-operative games.
M
Mechanics
Essentially the rules of how to play, this is how players interact with the game.
Meeple
Anthropomorphic tokens used to play a game. Carcassonne was the first game to use the term meeple to describe the game's playing pieces.
Metagame
Using knowledge from outside the game to change the strategy used to play.
E.G. Seeing the card in another player’s hand, treating someone more favourably.
Miniatures
Often shortened to ‘Minis’, these are figurines - usually plastic - that represent characters within a game. They will usually be in the game to increase its visual appeal and table presence.
O
OP
This is the abbreviation of overpowered. A common term used in many different hobbies and activities including video gaming. The term refers to a strategy, a character or a player which is significantly better than any other options available.
Opener
This refers to those games which are good to bring out at the beginning of a game night. Usually these are games with a simple ruleset, and tend to be lighter than others.
Orthogonal
This refers to movements of tokens or characters. In an up, down, left or right direction as opposed to diagonal movement.
P
Player Elimination
This refers to removing a player from a game, usually in the form of their character's death.
PnP
This is an abbreviation of Print and Play. These are games that can be printed at home, rather than getting a boxed version. These games are often fairly cheap to buy and many of them are available for free.
Polyomino
These are tiles made up of squares of equal size, combined edge to edge and are often used in tile laying games. Dominos are probably the best known example of a polyomino.
Q
Quarterbacking
This term comes up when one player starts trying to control another player’s actions. Usually the player means no harm by it or doesn’t realise what they’re doing but it can be disruptive to other player’s enjoyment of the game.
R
Resource management
This is a skill used in games to manipulate the resources at a player’s disposal. This could be the units they have to deploy, the items they have to hand or money they have to spend.
RPG
This is the abbreviation of Roleplaying Game. This refers to games in which the players control characters within a story. The most famous of these is Dungeons and Dragons.
T
Tableau/Tableau Building
A tableau refers to the arrangement of items, often cards, which a player will have displayed to all players. Players will often have a limited space in which to create their tableau. Tableau building is a mechanism that will have players expanding out their tableau through purchasing new items as they play.
U
Unbalanced
In an unbalanced game the mechanics used to play can create an unfair advantage to players who use certain characters, items, factions or strategies. These unbalanced features often mean the player with this component will always win.
V
VP
This is the abbreviation of Victory Points. Some games may refer to them by other names, but they all amount to the same thing. These are the points players gather throughout the game that will determine who the winner is at the end.
W
Win Condition
This refers to the way a game is won, usually by being the first to reach a goal, getting the most points or defeating other players.
The board gaming hobby is full of unique terms that can seem confusing at first, but once you get a hang of the lingo, it opens up a whole new world of games and conversations. Hopefully, this list has helped shed some light on a few of those tricky phrases. Whether you're exploring your first gateway game, avoiding analysis paralysis or collecting VPs like a dragon hoard, knowing the language of board games can make your time at the table even more enjoyable. Happy gaming!
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