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Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, or tile-based games. [1] [2]
Tabletop games can be classified according to the general form, or equipment utilized: [3]
| Game category | Game examples |
|---|---|
| Board games | Adventure board games, adventure gamebooks, backgammon, chess, German-style board games, go, reversi, Mancala, Shogi, Gomoku, Four-in-a-row (or Yonmoku), Tic-tac-toe (or Sanmoku, Three-in-a-row) |
| Card games | solitaire, collectible card games, hanafuda, tarot card games, poker |
| Dexterity games | Jenga, Crokinole, Klask, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Loopin' Louie, Terror in Meeple City, Don't Break the Ice, Crossbows and Catapults, Knucklebones, PitchCar |
| Dice games | bunco, craps, poker dice, sic bo, yahtzee |
| Paper and pencil games | Battleship, Connect 5, dots and boxes, hangman, sprouts, sudoku |
| Tabletop role-playing games | Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game |
| Strategy games | wargames, government simulation games, miniatures games |
| Tile-based games | 15 puzzle, anagrams, dominoes, mahjong, mahjong solitaire |
| Tabletop sports | See article. |
Games like chess and draughts are examples of games belonging to the board game category. Other games, however, use various attributes and cannot be classified unambiguously (e.g. Monopoly utilises a board as well as dice and cards).
For several of these categories there are sub-categories and even sub-sub-categories or genres. For instance, German-style board games, board wargames, and roll-and-move games are all types of board games that differ markedly in style and general interest.
The various specialized parts, pieces, and tools used for playing tabletop games may include:
A refereed game could also include various aids to play, including scenario packs and computer game aids. Role-playing games can include campaign settings and various supplementary manuals and notes.
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As an alternative to classifying games by equipment, they can also be classified according to the elements of chance involved. In game theory, two fundamentally different elements of chance can play a role:
Examples of the chance classification for some well-known tabletop games are given in the table below.
| Full/perfect information | Partial/imperfect information | |
|---|---|---|
| Deterministic | ||
| Stochastic |
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List of organizations that sponsor events featuring tabletop games:
Numerous independent, local groups run by gamers exist to play tabletop games. Additionally, many colleges have student run organizations pertaining solely to table top gaming. The Collegiate Association of Table Top Gamers is one such organization that has a few chapters at different schools.
Digital tabletops games are digital variations of tabletop games, which include straight reproductions of existing physical tabletop games, video games that use tabletop game principles as part of their gameplay mechanics, and tabletop simulators that provide a virtual tabletop for conducting tabletop games online.
Board games are tabletop games that typically use pieces. These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to study the nature of potential conflicts. Many wargames re-create specific historic battles, and can cover either whole wars, or any campaigns, battles, or lower-level engagements within them. Many simulate land combat, but there are wargames for naval and air combat, as well.
Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which military units are represented by miniature physical models on a model battlefield. The use of physical models to represent military units is in contrast to other tabletop wargames that use abstract pieces such as counters or blocks, or computer wargames which use virtual models. The primary benefit of using models is aesthetics, though in certain wargames the size and shape of the models can have practical consequences on how the match plays out.
In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-shaped move of the knight in chess. A game's mechanics thus effectively specify how the game will work for the people who play it.
Privateer Press is a role-playing game, miniature wargame, acrylic paint, board game and card game production and publishing studio. Privateer Press is based in Bellevue, Washington, United States, where they have their headquarters and American factory/distribution center. They have also licensed a factory in the United Kingdom to increase production capacity for worldwide markets.
A gaming convention is a gathering centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three business days long, and often held at either a university or in a convention center hotel.
Battle Cry is a board wargame based on the American Civil War, designed by Richard Borg and published by Avalon Hill in 2000.
Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game developer based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a division of Asmodee North America.
Don't Give Up the Ship is a set of rules for conducting Napoleonic era naval wargames. The game was published by Guidon Games in 1972 and republished by TSR, Inc. in 1975. The game was developed as a collaboration between Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, and Mike Carr. It was the first collaboration between Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, the co-authors of Dungeons & Dragons. Mike Carr edited the rules and researched the historical single ship actions that are included as game scenarios.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to games and gaming:
A social game or, less commonly, parlour game, may refer to tabletop, other face-to-face indoor or outdoor games, or video games that allow or require social interaction between players as opposed to games played in solitude, games played at tournaments or competitions or games played for money.
A game is a structured type of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work or art.
The history of games dates to the ancient human past. Games are an integral part of all cultures and are one of the oldest forms of human social interaction. Games are formalized expressions of play which allow people to go beyond immediate imagination and direct physical activity. Common features of games include uncertainty of outcome, agreed upon rules, competition, separate place and time, elements of fiction, elements of chance, prescribed goals and personal enjoyment.
Malifaux is a skirmish-level miniatures wargame created by Wyrd Miniatures in 2009 that simulates gang warfare in the ruins of the eponymous city of Malifaux and its surrounding wilderness. The publisher has created several expansions for the game through three editions.
Heroscape is an expandable turn-based miniature wargaming system originally manufactured by Hasbro subsidiaries from 2004 until its discontinuation in November 2010. Geared towards younger players, the game is played using pre-painted miniature figures on a board made from interlocking hexagonal tiles, allowing for the construction of an interchangeable and variable 3D landscape. This system and the relatively high production quality of the game materials have been lauded by fans even years after the game was discontinued, eventually leading to its revival in 2024.
Infinity the game is a tabletop miniature wargame with 28mm scale metal miniatures that simulates combat and special operations in a Science fiction environment created by Gutier Lusquiños Rodríguez, Alberto Abal, Fernando Liste and Carlos Torres of Corvus Belli. The games aesthetics are largely inspired by Manga, particularly the work of Masamune Shirow.
Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems and rules of a game. Games can be created for entertainment, education, exercise or experimental purposes. Additionally, elements and principles of game design can be applied to other interactions, in the form of gamification. Game designer and developer Robert Zubek defines game design by breaking it down into its elements, which he says are the following:
This glossary of board games explains commonly used terms in board games, in alphabetical order. For a list of board games, see List of board games; for terms specific to chess, see Glossary of chess; for terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems.
The tabletop game industry is the economic sector involved in the development, marketing, and monetization of games that fall within the scope of tabletop games, which includes dice and card games. According to Statista, the tabletop game industry had an estimated market of approximately 7.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 and is expected to increase by 4.8 billion U.S. dollars within the next 6 years.
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