Unboxed the Board Game Blog

Players play cards out of individual decks, seeking to acquire new cards and to play through their decks iteratively, improving them over time through card acquisition or card elimination.

Players are trying to determine the identity of hidden information based on clues.

Items that are purchased do not enter play right away but arrive on a future turn.

"Dice Rolling" is a game mechanism that can be used for many things, randomness being the most obvious.

The player rolls a number of custom dice to resolve an event or conflict. Results must match specific symbols for success.

Workers can differ in abilities, or can be upgraded and downgraded, or are valid for placement in different areas and buildings.

Games that use beautiful illustrated but surreal art cards too drive their mehcanisms

Players draw a picture and other players guess what the picture is intended to depict.

In Area Enclosure games, players place or move pieces in order to surround areas contiguously with their pieces. The oldest and most famous Area Enclosure game is of course Go, but many newer examples also exist.

Players earn (or lose!) bonus Victory Points (VPs) at the end of the game based on meeting victory conditions.

Players build and construct an engine, where the various parts work together, affecting each other to produce an outcome. Often the engine can be upgraded and improved over the course of play to be more efficient or to increase the players score

Actions occur outside the control of players that cause an immediate effect, change the state of the game, or impact subsequent actions.

When the main game ends, a special mini-game is played to determine the victor.

One player selects an Action. Other players may then perform that Action, or a modified version of it. This is closely related to Action Drafting (ACT-02) and Role Selection (TRN-10), and is often implemented alongside those systems.

A family of mechanisms in which players cover a grid or fill a space using a variety of shapes, such as Components: Polyominoes.

Grid Movement occurs when pawns move on the grid in many directions. The grid may be square (like in Chess) or hexagonal (like in the classic wargames).

Hand management games are games with cards in them that reward players for playing the cards in certain sequences or groups. The optimal sequence/grouping may vary, depending on board position, cards held and cards played by opponents. Managing your hand means gaining the most value out of available cards under given circumstances. Cards often have multiple uses in the game, further obfuscating an "optimal" sequence.

Pieces are placed on a board tessellated with hexagons, which is used for adjacency and/or movement.

Movement occurs that is not visible to all players

In games with hidden roles, one or more players are assigned differing roles that are not publicly revealed.

The number of Victory Points held by each player is private information.

Humor games often have themes and gameplay that provoke laughter and amusement. More specifically, humor games may require players to engage in clowning, comedy, jokes, and/or satire as an objective of the game.

Players gain resources at defined times.

If players do not select certain Actions or Resources, then they increase in value.

This is a meta-mechanic for Turn Order. Players may take an action that interrupts the normal turn flow.

Players purchase an interest in a game entity, in order to generate a monetary or VP benefit, the ultimate value of which is determined over the course of the game.

Components are placed above other components, partially covering the ones below, or overlapping in various ways. Only the topmost visible icons/areas are active.

Games using the line drawing mechanic involve the drawing of lines in one way or another. Lines may be used to connect objects as in Sprouts, to isolate objects, or to create areas as in the classic Dots and Dashes, also known as Square-it.

Units may only see certain areas.

This is a meta-mechanism that can be applied to a variety of turn structures. A player who “Loses a Turn” must skip their next opportunity for a turn, and will go to the next round, or the next time their turn arises.