active (or active play) See
in play.
bit See
piece.
Black Used often to refer to one of the players in two-player games. Black's pieces are typically a dark color but not necessarily black (e.g. in
English draughts official play they are red). See also
White and
White and Black in chess.
board See
gameboard.
capture A method that removes another player's piece(s) from the board. For example: in checkers, if a player jumps an opponent's piece, that piece is captured. In some games, captured pieces remain in hand and can be reentered into active play (e.g.
shogi,
Bughouse chess). See also Game
mechanic#Capture/eliminate.
card A piece of cardboard often bearing instructions, and usually chosen randomly from a deck by shuffling.
cell See
hex and
space.
checker See
piece.
component A physical item included in the game. E.g. the box itself, the board, the cards, the tokens, zipper-lock bags, inserts, rule books, etc. See also
equipment.
counter See
piece.
currency A scoring mechanic used by some games to determine the winner, e.g. money (
Monopoly) or counters (
Zohn Ahl).
custodian capture (or custodial capture) A capture method whereby an enemy piece is captured by being blocked on adjacent sides by opponent pieces. (Typically laterally by two sides as in Tablut and
Hasami shogi, or laterally by four sides as in Go.)
deck A stack of cards.
die (or dice) Modern cubic dice are used to generate random numbers in many games – e.g. a single die in
Trivial Pursuit, or two dice per player in
backgammon. Role-playing games typically use one or more polyhedral dice. Games such as
Pachisi and chaupur traditionally use cowrie shells. The games
Zohn Ahl and
Hyena chase use dice sticks. The game yut uses yut sticks.
direction of play The order of turns in a multiplayer game, e.g.
clockwise around the board means the player to the left has the next turn.
disc See
piece.
displacement capture A capture method whereby a capturing piece replaces the captured piece on its square, cell, or point on the gameboard.
empty board Many games start with all pieces out of play; for example, Nine Men's Morris,
Conspirateurs,
Entropy, and Go (if a handicap is not employed). Some gameboards feature staging areas for the pieces before any are put into play; for example, Ludo and
Malefiz.
enemy An
enemy piece refers to a piece in the same army or set of pieces controlled by the opponent; or, in a mutiplayer game, a piece controlled by the partner of an opponent.
equipment Refers to physical components required to play a game, e.g. pieces, gameboard, dice.
exchange For games featuring captures, the capture of a piece followed immediately by the opponent's recapture.
friendly A
friendly piece refers to a piece in the same army or set of pieces controlled by a player; or, in a multiplayer game, a piece controlled by a player's partner.
game component See
component.
game equipment See
equipment.
game piece See
piece.
gameboard The (usually
quadrilateral) marked surface on which one plays a board game. The
namesake of the board game, gameboards would seem to be a necessary and sufficient condition of the
genre, though
card games that do not use a standard deck of cards (as well as games that use neither cards nor a gameboard) are often colloquially included. Most games use a standardized and unchanging board (
chess, Go, and
backgammon each have such a board), but some games use a modular board whose component tiles or cards can assume varying layouts from one session to another, or even during gameplay.
gameplay The execution of a game; or specifically its
strategy, tactics, conventions, or mechanics.
gamer A person who plays board game(s). See also
player.
gamespace A gameboard for a three-dimensional game (e.g., the 5×5×5 cubic board for Raumschach).
handicap An advantage given to a weaker side at the start of a game to level the winning chances against a stronger opponent. Go has formal handicap systems (see Go handicaps);
chess has traditional handicap methods not used in rated competitions (see Chess handicap).
hex In hexagon-based board games, this is the common term for a standard space on the board. This is most often used in wargaming, though many abstract strategy games such as
Abalone, Agon,
hexagonal chess,
GIPF Project games, and
connection games use hexagonal layouts.
in hand A piece
in hand is one currently not in play on the gameboard, but may be entered into play on a turn. Examples are captured pieces in
shogi or
Bughouse chess, able to be
dropped into play as a move; or pieces that begin the game in a staging area off the main board, as in Ludo or
Chessence.
in play A piece active on the main board, not in hand or in a staging area.
jump To bypass one or more pieces or spaces on the gameboard. Depending on the context, jumping may also involve capturing or conquering an opponent's piece. See also Game mechanic#Capture/eliminate.
leap See
jump.
man In chess, a piece or a
pawn. In draughts, an uncrowned piece.
meeple A game piece which represents a person in concept, and also shaped as an approximation of a person.
move See
turn.
odds See
handicap.
order of play See
direction of play.
orthogonal A horizontal (straight left or right) or vertical (straight forward or backward) direction a piece moves on a gameboard.
out of play A piece not active on the main board, it might be in hand or in a staging area.
pass The voluntary or involuntary forfeiture of a turn by a player.
pie rule Used in some two-player games to eliminate any advantage of moving first. After the first player's opening move, the second player may optionally swap sides.
piece (or bit, checker, chip, counter, disc, draughtsman, game piece, man, meeple, mover, pawn, player piece, playing piece, singleton, stone, token, unit) A player's representative on the gameboard made of a piece of material made to look like a known object (such as a
scale model of a person, animal, or inanimate object) or otherwise general symbol. Each player may control one or more pieces. Some games involve commanding multiple pieces, such as
chess pieces or
Monopoly houses and hotels, that have unique designations and capabilities within the parameters of the game; in other games, such as Go, all pieces controlled by a player have the same capabilities. In some modern board games, such as
Clue, there are other pieces that are not a player's representative (i.e. weapons). In some games, such as mancala games, pieces may not represent or belong to any particular player.
Mancala pieces are undifferentiated and typically seeds but sometimes beans, coins, cowry shells, ivory balls, or pebbles. See also Counter (board wargames).
playboard See
gameboard.
player (or players) The participant(s) in the game. See also
gamer.
point See
space.
polyhedral dice See also
dice.
replacement capture See
displacement capture.
rule A condition or stipulation by which a game is played.
ruleset The comprehensive set of rules which define and govern a game.
space A physical unit of progress on a gameboard delimited by a distinct border, and not further divisible according to the game's rules. Alternatively, a unique position on the board on which a piece in play may be located. For example, in Go, the pieces are placed on grid line intersections, called
points, and not in the areas bounded by the borders, as in chess. The bounded area geometries can be square (e.g. chess), rectangular (e.g. shogi), hexagonal (e.g. Chinese Checkers), triangular (e.g.
Bizingo), quadrilateral (e.g.
three-player chess), or other shapes (e.g.
Circular chess). See also Game mechanic#Movement.
square See
space.
staging area A space set aside from the main gameboard to contain pieces in hand. In Ludo, the staging areas are called
yards. In shogi, pieces in hand are placed on
komadai.
starting area See
staging area.
stone See
piece.
swap See
exchange.
token See
piece.
trade See
exchange.
turn A player's opportunity to move a piece or make a decision that influences gameplay. Turns to move usually alternate equally between competing players or teams. See also Turn-based game.
White Used often to refer to one of the players in two-player games. White's pieces are typically a light color but not necessarily white (e.g. backgammon sets use various colors for White; shogi sets have no color distinction between sides). White often moves first but not always (e.g. Black moves first in
English draughts, shogi, or Go). See also
Black and
White and Black in chess.
