As a beginner, it becomes a challenge to get into tabletop gaming. Starting from learning about the best board games from board game companies, working out what to purchase first, and finding others interested in playing them with you, understanding the conversation when you meet these peers, you will come across all sorts of potential barriers to even the friendliest of pastimes. To encourage healthy brain development in teens and older kids, Board games are an easy way.

But like everything that a lot of people spend a lot of time on, there is a built-up of whole specialist language around board games, not at least of which the different genres that tabletop games get grouped into. Compared to a deck construction game what’s a deck builder? What makes a living card game different compared to a trading card game, and is it the same with an expandable deck game? What do you do in a worker-placement board game?

You have to keep in mind that maximum board game types aren’t exhaustive or exclusive, and many board games come into more than one of these categories - or might be something else entirely. However, on the tabletop, the following board game terms represent the most common types of games. So, if you’re wondering that something really is a game, or just happens to have a farmer on the cover they’re a good place to start next time.

Types of Board game

Every player begins with an identical deck of cards, but during play, they alter it with more powerful cards being added to the deck and less powerful ones removed. Sometimes deck builders are conflated with deck construction games such as trading card games, with the difference being that in deck builders instead of something that usually happens away from the table between plays the act of creating and customizing your deck is part of the core gameplay experience.

Board games from board game distributors with some form of map or board define a space that players usually compete to dominate through adding their pieces to regions or areas or removing opponents’ pieces. Sometimes rather than taking them yourself the control can come through denying access to areas.

Through individual play, you can define campaign board games which then follow a series of connected scenarios, where the actions and outcome of one scenario will usually affect the next. Legacy board games are generally a specific type of campaign game where permanent (often physical) changes to the game and its components, such as applying stickers to the board or tearing up cards, often providing a one-time experience occurs due to your choices and actions you make.

Board games from board game companies without any kind of theme are so disconnected from the experience of playing that it might not feel like playing them. The purest examples of abstracts are draughts and Go, whereas chess - with its set of named pieces and suggestion of historical warfare - is relatively thematic by the standards of the category.