Board game terminology

[jebob]

Hi folks, I've got a dilemma. After playing the board game Pandemic, (it rocks!) I am trying to find a word to describe the rules that govern the various diseases. 'AI' implies a computer, 'antagonist' implies a character, but 'rules' don't discriminate between rules in general the the disease rules.

Help?

[Jimorian]

Oh man, I know there's a term for this, where a set procedure is carried out without player input for a stage of the game, but I'm drawing a blank. "Mechanical Phase"? "Resolution Phase"? It's something along those lines.

[TheEmerged]

Our group has always just used the term AI, although I've heard the term "decision tree" used in this context before.

[OrcusMcP]

"The Course"? "The Table"? Similar to Golf or Blackjack, maybe? You don't play the other players, you play the course?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I agree with "AI"; it just means "artificial intelligence", that is, "something which creates the illusion of intelligence, but follows preprogrammed rules". Even if it's analog, it's still being programmed.

[erikun]

AI can work, true.

Most games have a specific name for the phase. I'm not familiar with Pandemic's rules, but "Infection Phase" probably works.

In a more general sense, you will generally just hear "the game" when talking about cooperative players vs board games. When you win at a game of Pandemic, Forbidden Desert, or Shadows of Camelot, people generally say that you beat the game - or that the game beat you, if the opposite happened. :smalltongue:

[Wookieetank]

AI can work, true.

Most games have a specific name for the phase. I'm not familiar with Pandemic's rules, but "Infection Phase" probably works.

In a more general sense, you will generally just hear "the game" when talking about cooperative players vs board games. When you win at a game of Pandemic, Forbidden Desert, or Shadows of Camelot, people generally say that you beat the game - or that the game beat you, if the opposite happened. :smalltongue:

Very similarly to this my group uses "the board" for most cooperative games. For Pandemic we call it "the plauge" or "the disease". And our infection phase is usually called, "and now things go to hell" :smallwink: