All board game mechanics: Physical/Party Game Elements

The following is a list of all board game mechanics I know in this category, and that aren’t too niche. Card game mechanics are also included. I’m posting this mainly for my own reference.


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

Flicking: A Physical Action needs to be performed by one or more players to determine the outcome of the action.

Ordering: The objective of the game is to rearrange a group of game elements from a disordered to an ordered state.

Paper-and-Pencil: The game is developed using paper and pen/pencil to mark and save responses or attributes that, at the end of the game, are used to score points and determine the winner.

A game that merely keeps track of score on a sheet of paper does not use a paper-and-pencil mechanism.

Physical Removal: Pieces are removed from a structure, and play is affected by things that fall (as in Ker Plunk), or a complete collapse of the structure (as in Jenga).

Speed Matching: A pattern is revealed, typically through a card flip, and players try to be the first to find a match with other game elements on the table, or see if a match exists.

Stacking and balancing: Players must physically stack and balance pieces. Junk Art and Bandu are examples.

Storytelling: In storytelling games, players are provided with conceptual, written, or pictorial stimuli which must be incorporated into a story of the players’ creation. Once Upon a Time uses a selection of words while Rory’s Story Cubes include ambiguous symbols. Some games like Snake Oil and Big Idea prompt players to pitch a product, which frequently takes the form of a brief story or vignette.

Other storytelling games include titles such as Tales of the Arabian Nights and Above and Below, game designs in which players don’t create their own stories, but instead experience a story from the inside as one of the participants. Games along those lines might present players with a particular narrative situation, after which the player will make a choice that affects which end to the narrative is told — with the results of this narrative affecting the player’s standing in the game.

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