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Sandbox / Tabletop Game Project

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Board Games and Card Games don't have a lot of representation on TV Tropes. This project aims to do something about that. Tabletop RPGs are welcome too.

Started by Maths Angelic Version.

Colours used when participants want to discuss something:

  • Maths Angelic Version: teal
  • ANonagon9 (no longer active): orange
  • DiamondEye: blue
  • mcgrew: purple
  • Tropiarz: green

See also Sandbox.Tabletop Game Cleanup.

    Tropes needing TLPs 
Priority entries — genres relevant to folderization

  • Dice Game: A game largely or entirely revolving around dice. (Sandbox)
  • Roll-and-Write: A form of tabletop game where you mark a specialised sheet of paper based on what results you roll. Should be a sub-trope to dice game (although they don't just need to have dice).
    • Nona: Perhaps this should be an internal subtrope for now?
    • DiamondEye: I'm not sure, some roll and writes don't even have dice.
      • mcgrew: An example would be Look at the Stars which draws cards, and then everyone draws the current card's pattern somewhere on their star maps. BGG calls it a "flip and write" game though, rather than a "roll and write".
  • Social Game (Sandbox)
  • Thematic Game: A game that revolves around its theme/story. Includes Narrative Board Games and Ameritrash Games. (Sandbox)

Priority entries — major mechanics/genres

Other entries with sandboxes

Other entries without sandboxes

  • Abstract Game: A game with little or no theming. (Includes Video Games? Where's the cutoff for "abstract"?)
  • Anti-Quarterbacking Features: A Cooperative Multiplayer game trope. The game makes an effort to prevent one player from dominating the game.
  • Better As A Digital Game (YMMV): When you prefer playing the Digital Tabletop Game Adaptation over the physical game.
    • No need to set up or tear down
    • Keeps track of things for you
    • Speeds up the game
    • Prevents illegal moves
    • Gives a better view of the board
    • Costs less than the physical game
    • Useful if you don't have enough table space for some physical games
    • Can play them online
    • Takes up less shelf space
    • On the flipside, social mechanics are harder to integrate (e.g. bluffing) and Popular Game Variants may be off the table. Dexterity elements are also problematic, as they require special programming if they're even possible to implement on the platform.
  • Bluffing Mechanic: In addition to the obvious bluffing game of Poker, there's Skull, Cockroach Poker, Liar's Dice and Coup among others. And Uno has an often-ignored rule that you can only play a Wild Draw 4 if you don't have any card with a color that matches that of the "active" card — you can bluff, but the penalty for being called out is nasty. Adjacent to Social Deduction Games. There are also more subtle bluffing elements, such as leaving up mana in Magic: The Gathering to pretend you have a counterspell.
  • Card Shedding
  • Color Coded Turn Order: Turn order and piece color are intrinsically linked.
    • The Captain Is Dead does this. Turn order starts with rank 1 (blue), then works down to rank 7 (white).
  • Companion App: An app used while playing a board game. May be an optional assistant or an obligatory part of the game.
  • Crappy Components (YMMV): Game pieces of notably poor quality, to the point of hurting gameplay.
    • Maths: How about Gameplay-Impairing Components? It's less catchy than Crappy Components, but I think making the "hurting gameplay" aspect explicit in the title would help discourage examples that amount to "I find the card art ugly", and make the draft more likely to survive the TLP without getting bombed into oblivion for complaining.
  • Dice Games: To go alongside Board Games and Card Games.
  • Diminishing Returns For Racing (needs a better name): When the value of a goal diminishes as more players accomplish it, encouraging players to race for it. Compare Diminishing Returns for Balance.
  • Drafting Mechanic: For games like 7 Wonders and Sushi Go.
  • End Of Game Condition: Exampleless supertrope?
    • First to X points
    • First to collect a certain number/set of items
    • A set of items (or multiple sets) runs out
    • Deck Out: in a Collectible Card Game you'll probably lose when your deck runs out
    • Time/turn limit
    • Instant-Win Condition (already exists, need to check scope)
    • Logical conclusion of Player Elimination & Battle Royale Game
    • Game stalls out / No legal moves
    • Mercy rule (do we have this?)
    • Player-induced (e.g. The Sun doesn't set in Trails until players choose to land on the designated space enough times)
    • First to reach the goal space. Common in games with Roll-and-Move as their main mechanic.
    • Other/unclassifiable
    • Changing Win Condition (Fluxx is an obvious example)
    • Asymmetric player goals.
  • Engine Building: A bit hard to explain because it can be implemented in different ways.
  • Hidden Trackable Information: When the game chooses to hide information that has been revealed publicly.
  • Hidden Movement: Many games involving hidden movement such as Fury of Dracula, Scotland Yard, and Sniper Elite The Board Game have this element.
  • I Cut, You Choose: Player A divides the resources into two piles. Player B chooses one pile for themself, and player A gets the other. Could also be called Divide And Choose, but the suggested name is clearer. It does have No New Stock Phrases concerns, however.
  • In-Game Auction: Probably common enough to warrant a Sub-Trope of Auction.
  • In-Game Negotiation: Distinct from the Ownership-Exchanging Abilities on Sandbox.Maths Angelic Version in that this gives the opponent a chance to actually negotiate, whereas for Ownership-Exchanging Abilities, the ability's controller unilaterally decides to use it. (Important: Since any game with 3+ players could theoretically involve negotiating deals like "if you don't kill my monster, I won't kill yours", these kinds of deals only count if the manual explicitly mentions that making them is part of the game.)
  • In-Game Shop: Common in video games too. Doesn't have a proper page, surprisingly. There's only the sub-trope Dungeon Shop, which is specifically for those shops that inexplicably appear in the middle of a level.
  • Keyword Ability: A recurring ability gets a keyword as shorthand. Common in Collectible Card Games. Maths:Do we have this?
  • Limited-Communication Co-Op: Co-Op Multiplayer where teammates can't freely communicate with each other. This means they have to infer each other's intentions through plays and what little information they're allowed to give up. Maths: I don't play this genre, so while I can make some contributions, someone else should probably TLP this. Nona:Common in trick taking games, such as Euchre and Spades
    • In a sense, this is the opposite of bluffing games: you need to infer the other players' intentions, but it's for mutual benefit, so they want you to figure out what they're thinking.
    • This has the advantage that no player can take over the game and everyone gets to contribute. However, it also puts pressure on new players, as the communication limits more often than not leave them unable to ask for help.
    • The most famous examples are The Crew and Hanabi. The Mind takes this trope to its logical extreme. Another is Just One.
    • This concept probably also covers team-based games with limited communication, which often adds the risk of the opposing team also inferring what you're doing. Probably an Internal Subtrope.
  • Mint Tin Game: A minimalist game that fits into a small box.
  • Monster Game: A game with a lot going on, or a very long playtime. (May have collision issues with Complete Monster, but this term does see off-site use.)
  • Painted-On Theme (probably YMMV): A theme that's (perceived as) disconnected from the game. Abstract Games that just decorate their playing pieces to give you something nice to look at don't count. This is for when they tried to make the game connnect, and it didn't work.
  • Player Cheat Sheet: A reference sheet, usually a card, so players can check the rules without opening the rulebook.
  • Official Game Variant subtropes:
  • Oversized Box (Trivia?): When the box is much bigger than it needs to be to store the game's components. Sometimes justified with "you can put the Expansion Packs in the base game's box", sometimes not.
  • Randomized Production
  • Real-Time Game
  • Rare Variant: A rare version of a card, collectible, character, or whatever that has a different appearance from normal, but is functionally the same. Actually way more broad than just board games—you see it all the time with toys, in Mons Series, etc.—but it's ubiquitous in collectible card games so that seems like a decent starting point.
  • Repeat Move Prevention:
    • Ban or penalize repeat positions and/or moves that cancel out the previous move
    • End game if no forward progress is made
    • Compare Diminishing Returns for Balance, where you can do the same thing multiple times, but with diminishing returns.
  • Reservation Mechanic: The ability to turn a publicly available goal into one only achievable to you. (Too rare? Can only think of two)
  • Risk And Reward: Likely an exampleless supertrope.
  • Rough Learning Curve: A game that's hard to learn (should probably have a "for its complexity" clause avoid this just becoming a dumping group for complex games in general). Example: Race For The Galaxy for many reasons outlined by its designer here.
  • Rule Ambiguity (possibly YMMV): Wording of rules fail to explain an edge case. A good example is whether or not a 2:1 -> 1:1 trade to offload a card in Catan is legal (had to be clarified by Word of God). Diplomacy also has several examples, due to simultaneous actions screwing up attacking math.
  • Rule Discovery Game: A game that more or less revolves around figuring out hidden rules. Also used in video games like The Witness, Understand and Bilattice. Wikipedia
  • Scoring Track: A track with markers to keep score.
  • Semi-Cooperative Game
    • mcgrew: Would this be games like Dead of Winter where everyone has a secret goal in addition to the cooperative group goals? How about secret traitor games like The Resistance?
  • Simultaneous Play: A specific type of Reduced-Downtime Features. Distinct from Real-Time Game because it's not time sensitive.
    • mcgrew: A good example is Qwixx, a roll-and-write dice game where players can score during their opponents' turns.
  • Single-Loser Game: A game where the primary goal is not to lose. Distinct from Player Elimination, PE may allow eliminated players to win, whereas DL won't necessarily continue after someone loses. May still be too similar though, thoughts?
    • PE but not DL: Werewolf, Among Us
    • DL but not PE: Don't Break the Ice, Jenga, Old Maid, Balloon of Doom from Mario Party 4, Cockroach Poker
    • Nona: Single-Loser Game seems best to me.
    • Yindee: Never played before but would Kings be a SLG?
    • Maths: Another important distinction is that PE's definition includes "someone is eliminated while others get to keep playing", whereas Single-Loser Games stop once you've found the one loser.
  • Speech Rules: Rules that either make you or prohibit you from saying certain phrases.
  • Speed-Based Board Game
  • Symbol Coded For Your Convenience: Often appears alongside Color-Coded for Your Convenience, which helps colorblind players.
  • Tableau Building
  • 'Take That' Mechanic: Maybe an unfortunate name considering that Take That! is already an insult trope, and this is about mechanics that specifically hinder one other player. However, this is the established term, so it's probably better to use it despite its problems. (Literal Wild Card and Wild Card had a similar problem.)
  • Theme-Gameplay Tone Clash (YMMV): When the gameplay clashes with the ambience of the game's theme, e.g. Calico being surprisingly cutthroat for a game themed around making quilts for cute cats. Related to Surprise Difficulty. "Chill Theme, Cutthroat Gameplay" might be a better name because the reverse situation is fairly rare.
  • Tile Placement
    • Polyomino Placement: Possible sub-trope with some sweet alliteration.
    • mcgrew: In games like Burgle Bros., players don't technically place tiles, but they reveal face-down tiles, which has a similar feel as games like Betrayal at House on the Hill where tiles are actually placed. Maybe the Tile Placement trope can be flexible enough to incorporate tile revelation.
  • Use It Or Lose It: A form of Anti-Hoarding where you lose a resource if you hoard it for too long.
    • mcgrew: Does this include limits on how many resources you have, even if there isn't really a limit on how long you hold them? For example, Splendor's limit of 10 tokens, or Catan's robber affecting anyone with more than 7 resources when anyone rolls a 7.
    • Maths: When it comes to that kind of example, I think I would only count it if there's a chance of losing the resources (or at least some of them). So the Catan one counts, but the Splendor one doesn't.
    • mcgrew: I'm confused. In Splendor, you have a 100% chance of discarding back down to only 10 tokens if you draw more than that. In Catan, you have a 1-in-6 chance of the Robber activating each turn, causing you to discard half your resources if you have more than 7. Why would Catan count, but Splendor not count?
    • Nona: If you're sitting at 9 gems in Splendor and draw three, you can simply discard two you just picked up. There's no situation where you're forced to lose a gem you've had going into the turn. In Catan, if you have 8 cards and a 7 rolls, you have to discard four no matter what.
    • mcgrew: Ah, so this trope is strictly about losing resources that you have, and does not include being unable to gain additional resources, or being forced to give up resources in excess of some limit.
  • Victory Points: Accumulate points through play. Highest score wins. Its relationship to Scoring Points needs to be clarified (SP seems to be mostly about single-player games?).
  • Virtual Tabletop Game: While it's strictly speaking a video game trope, it's listed here because it's adjacent to tabletop games. Has a very incomplete write-up on Sandbox.Maths Angelic Version.
  • Player Interaction vs. No Player Interaction
    • e.g. Chess vs. Yahtzee
    • Are both tropeworthy? If not, which one is? Maybe both`are tropeworthy, but Player Interaction is an Omnipresent Trope or an exampleless supertrope?
    • mcgrew: I've heard games like Yahtzee where players don't interact with each other (much) called "Personal Puzzles" or "Multi-Player Solitaire". Yahtzee is a pure example because players cannot affect each others' play. Kismet is another Yacht variant, but it adds a small amount of player interaction where a player can roll a second five-of-a-kind and force all the other players to take a zero, effectively forcing them to lose a turn.
  • Sliding scales are frowned upon nowadays, but these ideas might be strong enough to justify it:
    • Sliding Scale of Player Interaction
    • Sliding Scale of Abstract vs. Themed

  • No name for this, but in a game where cards have effects, a card with no effect but high value (like the swan in Wingspan)
    • Maths: Sounds like a potential subtrope for Vanilla Unit. Should probably have a name that ties into that.
    • Nona: Good point. I don't have a ton of examples, so maybe I should just add a bit in the description.
    • mcgrew: They're considered a type of Vanilla Unit elsewhere. They are not Deck Clogger cards because they have a high point value. They're related to Changing Gameplay Priorities because you need their points later in the game, but earlier in the game, they just get in the way. The Victory cards in Dominion are a classic example.

    Relevant TLPs 
Directly about board games
  • Themed Unit Cycle: Currently stalling in the TLP because the name discussion stalled.
  • Tiebreak Mechanic: Not unique to tabletop games, but associated with them.
  • Hand Limit
  • Themed Playing Piece: Inactive and needs some improvement, but probably worth taking up.
  • White Elephant Unit
  • First Game Configuration
  • Combinatorial Game
  • Word Game
    • Hangman, Scrabble, Boggle, Wheel of Fortune, Countdown, Balderdash, Pictionary, Lingo, Bananagrams, Paperback, Scattergories, Words with Friends, Word Realms, Caesar's Challenge, Poetry For Neanderthals, Password, Bookworm, Wordle
      • Yindee: How far are we extending "word game"? Would we say Typing Game is related? What about Edutainment Games like Carmen Sandiego: Word Detective or Word Rescue?
      • Maths: Does Codenames count?
      • Yindee: Honestly just been spitballing here, so if you don't think it fits, I defer to your judgment. I've played it like...once. When the time comes for a sandbox draft, I'm only going to add the most unambiguous examples myself and leave the finer details to the experts! Hope that's alright with you.
      • Nona: Gave this some thought and Codenames isn't really a word game. The game is built around the meanings of words, and clues based on their structure are verboten.
      • Maths: Based on that logic, shouldn't we disqualify stuff like Password too?
      • Nona: In my opinion, yes. Games revolving around definition ls are pretty different from those revolving around spelling, and the former is hard to draw the line vs. social games. Don't feel particularly strongly, though.
      • mcgrew: How about Dictum, where everyone tries to come up with a word that comes after the keyword alphabetically, but comes as early alphabetically as possible? Should that be in Parlor Games, or here as a word game?

Board game adjacent

    Games and creators that need pages 

Games that need pages(There's also Summary.Tabletop Games, but I think it's easier to put this with the other board game stuff)

Priority

Other

Major designersWe should probably prioritize their games, but pages for these people would be a worthwhile addition to the project.

Indexes for Publishers?

Useful indexes

Relevant forum threads

Other notes

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