Board games have never been so popular.
Board games have never been so popular. This countless closure is the perfect opportunity to start testing modern games. However, with the modernization of board games, a completely new vocabulary has appeared: meeple, deck, eraser, etc. Do you have difficulty orienting yourself? L’Internaute has selected and deciphered the basics of the genre for you.
The French market for board games is one of the largest in Europe. Since 2015, the craze has continued to grow, fueled by game bars and TV shows like The Big Bang Theory. With the lockdown imposed during lockdown, you’d think the coals were in danger of drying up. On the contrary, the market has experienced an incredible and continuous expansion in the last year. For Gautier Althaus, head of public relations and game buyers at Philibert -a specialized online store-, “the game categories that sold the most during the restrictions on our site, as well as in the click
Generic terms:
Meeple – This is a word for “expert gamers” representing the little ones. The form is very precise and coded. Often made of wood, this little guy is the player’s avatar.
Board: The base on which we will place pawns, tokens and other objects found in the game box.
Cards: An element that carries its own comprehension keys and can contain its own rules.
Combo, combo: Effects that trigger on consecutive conditions. For example, playing two cards together.
Pawns: Also called “chips”, this word denotes all the elements that we will find in the game box to later place and move around the board.
Tile: A thick piece of cardboard that can be placed according to the game. A board can sometimes be made up of tiles. Some tiles may have special rules, in which case they are written on them.
Action: The number of possible actions is usually limited per turn in the game. The player must choose which action to take, eg move, roll a die, draw or play a card, etc.
Turn: The word turn can refer to all possible actions for a player. Then we talk about a “player turn”, or the set of actions of all the players, then we talk about a “game turn”.
Replayability: The ability to replay without getting bored from game to game. In a way, this is the “profitability” of the game.
Main types of games:
Yann Merlin, animation director at Iello publishing house, explains the most popular types of games today.
Co-op: Abbreviation for cooperation. Refers to games in which players play and win or lose together. It is the opposite of competitive. Reference: Andor, Iello publishing house.
Dueling: A game that pits one player against another player. Paragon of the genre: 7 wonders, published by Repos production.
Campaign: It has its origin in a role-playing game. Its use is relatively new in board games. The campaign consists of a narrative accompaniment to the game that allows it to evolve throughout the games (and improve its replayability). Genre-rich: Gloomhaven, published by Cephalofair Games, with over 90 campaigns.
Bluff: Named for the idea of staying as neutral as possible to surprise your opponents. Bluff games can use any mechanic, from poker to craps. Terribly Addictive: Skull, published by Space Cowboys.
Auction: The act of betting or bidding on players to recover, simultaneously or alternately, one or more items. Reference: Perudo, editor of Asmodée.
Solo: Any game that you can play alone. For example, puzzles are very popular single player games.
Card games:
The definition of the game was given by Thomas Bidaux, the founder of ICO Partner, a communication agency specializing in entertainment that, among other things, manages the licenses for Magic l’assembly and Dungeons and Dragon for the American company Hasbro.
TCG: Collectible Card Game.
Deck: A deck of cards belonging to the player that will be drawn from it.
Draw Stack: A stack of cards, face down. It can be common to all players or specific to each player. The action of drawing a card is taking the top card and adding it to your hand.
Hand: Set of cards that a player has and that only he knows. Very often limited to a maximum number. Its content is secret.
Place a card: an action to earn points during or at the end of the game. It is up to the player to place the cards in different places in an optimal way and in accordance with each other.
Play Card: The action of using a card. Some games require certain conditions to be met to play certain cards (for example, mana points in Magic). If this action occurs outside of a player’s turn, it is called an interrupt.
Discard: The action of dropping an item from your hand. This is usually a card, but also tokens or other game items.
Graveyard: The name that defines the discard pile in many games. In some cases, the cemetery may be available.
Effect: Ability associated with the card, depending on the universe and game. It is possible for the same card to have several effects or to unlock one from another card, this is called “combo”.
Inclusion: When a card or object has a limited use per turn in the game, commit to saying that it has been used. In the case of the card, it is rotated 90° to indicate its power-on status.
Turn: Generally the most difficult element to define in the game rules. Two terms need to be distinguished: player turn and table turn (after each player has finished their turn). In general, a player is in a turn in which he can perform his main actions (draw, throw, play cards).
Mulligan: Second chance on the first draw. It often involves consideration, such as switching hands down one card, like in Magic. A word inherited from golf.
Shuffle – A common action at the start of the game to shuffle the game. It may also happen that you need to change your game after the effect.
Target: Choice of target offered by certain card effects. It can be an opponent’s card, in his hand or in play, from the player’s own, or even from his graveyard.
Deck Building: A game where you build your deck little by little. All players start with the same cards. Their successive actions will allow them to acquire others, sometimes to get rid of them. You choose which cards to use next from a pool of cards thanks to a set of rules and restrictions specific to each game. For the casual player, there are many strategies to build and optimize your deck, for example in The Valley of Merchants, where the goal is to become the best merchant by creating the best market stall. Or Saint Seiya, a deck building game from Japan’s leading animation license.
Sketch: The action of exchanging cards between players: each one in turn chooses a card from those he keeps to enrich his deck, before passing the remaining cards to his neighbor, and so on until all the cards are chosen. Magnum Opus of the Bragelonne edition is a very popular and complex drawing game. Draftosaurus from Ankama edition is a very accessible drawing game that the little ones will love thanks to its universe of dinosaurs.
Role playing games:
Role-playing games (RPGs) are a hobby that offer players the opportunity to play fictional characters in imagined situations narrated by a storyteller. It is an interactive improvisation game that mixes descriptions and interpretations. A variety of rules allow actions taken by players to be arbitrated, resolved, or monitored. Sébastien Moricard, founder of the Elder-Craft studio, specialized in narrative games and interactive literature, gives his definitions:
LARP – Short for “Larp” is a form of role-playing game in which players physically embody and perform the actions of their characters. Participants are then invited to dress up and the game takes place in settings (indoor or outdoor), adding to the sense of immersion.
Campaign: A set of interconnected scenarios that form a continuous story and are experienced by the PCs (see below).
Critical: A very good or very bad result resulting from a dice roll. We often talk about critical success or critical failure.
d6: A six-sided die, corresponding to a die commonly used in board games. There are also four-, eight-, ten-, twelve-, and twenty-sided dice called d4, d8, d10, d12, and d20.
d100 – A type of array that is used primarily to mimic a percentage. To do this, the player rolls two ten-sided dice, one representing tens and the other representing ones. The result of a 6 on the tens die and a 1 on the ones die is 61. 00 is read 100.
GM: Short for “gamemaster.” Referee and director, he responds to player requests to move the story forward.
PC: Short for “player character.” Together, the PCs interact with the game master, role-playing his character, and attempting to progress the story.
NPC: Short for “Non-Player Character.” The NPCs are usually played by the game master, acting and reacting with the characters.
Character Sheet: A sheet that describes the embodied character, including their physical characteristics and mentality. These cards are used in all games in which players embody a character that will move around the board. As a rule, this is represented by a pawn or meeple.
Game Screen – A screen-like device that allows the GM to hide their notes and dice rolls to ensure surprise when resolving actions.
Characteristics: natural potential of a character that allows one of its characteristics to be measured thanks to its value.
Skills: Knowledge and know-how of the character and his life path. Skills are very often related to characteristics. For example, practicing gymnastics is a skill related to agility, the latter being a characteristic.
Health Points: The level of health of the character at a certain moment in the game. During dangerous situations involving risk or during combat, the character may be injured. His hit points then drop as many points as the game shows. When a character runs out of hit points, they die… (Editor’s note: this basically comes from a mistranslation of ‘hit point’ which means “stamina point”, in which case the character loses consciousness instead of dying when it drops to zero).
Check: Option offered when a character finds himself in a situation whose outcome is uncertain: The GM may offer the player to perform an ability or ability test, as the case may be. The result of this allows to determine the success or failure of the action, as well as its possible consequences for the story.
Initiative: Determines the order in which the protagonists will act during combat.
dice games:
Dice Crafting – The ability to change the faces of the dice during play according to game-specific restrictions. Pretty close to building the deck. Genre Basics: Says Forge, published by Libellud.
Roll
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: newstars.edu.vn