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German-style board games are a broad class of games that feature simple rules, modest length, and attractive components.[1] They are usually themed rather than abstract, and in general require a degree of thought and planning to play well greater than is the case with party games such as Pictionary or Trivial Pursuit but less than strategy games such as Chess or wargames. These games appeal to a wide range of ages, though generally not young children. The audience includes casual gamers, who play with family and friends, as well as more serious hobby gamers. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1536x1891, 921 KB) Puerto Rico setup for 4 players. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1536x1891, 921 KB) Puerto Rico setup for 4 players. ...
An abstract strategy game is a board game with perfect information, no chance, and (usually) two players. ...
Party games are games which share several features suitable to entertaining a social gathering of moderate size. ...
This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
Trivial Pursuit is a board game where progress is determined by a players ability to answer general knowledge or popular culture questions. ...
Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. ...
Not all German-style board games are German, and not all German-style games are board games. As a result, various other names have been offered for the class. Eurogame is a common, though still imprecise, alternative label. Because most of these games feature the name of the designer prominently on the box they are sometimes known as designer games[2]. Other names include family strategy game and hobby game. Shorter, lighter games in this class are known as gateway games[1] whereas longer, heavier games are known as gamers' games.[1] A board game is any game played with a premarked surface, with counters or pieces that are moved across the board. ...
History
Early examples of German-style board games, such as Acquire, appeared in the 1960s. However, the genre as a more concentrated design movement began in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Germany. Germany publishes more board games than any other country per capita, hence the name. Today the phenomenon has spread to other European countries such as France and The Netherlands. While many games are published and played in other markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, they occupy a niche status there. Acquire is an abstract board game of investing in hotel chains. ...
This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ...
Motto: Je Maintiendrai (Dutch: Ik zal handhaven, English: I Shall Uphold) Anthem: Wilhelmus van Nassouwe Capital Amsterdam1 Largest city Amsterdam Official language(s) Dutch2 Government Parliamentary democracy Constitutional monarchy - Queen Beatrix - Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende Independence Eighty Years War - Declared July 26, 1581 - Recognised January 30, 1648 (by Spain...
Settlers of Catan, first published in 1995, paved the way for the genre in the United States and outside Europe. It was neither the first "German game" nor the first such game to find an audience outside Germany, but it became much more popular than any of its predecessors. It quickly sold millions of copies in Germany, and in the process brought money and attention to the genre as a whole. One of its most famous and successful follow-ups in the genre was Carcassonne. Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game invented by Klaus Teuber, first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. ...
Carcassonne is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and Rio Grande Games in English. ...
Characteristics As far as generalities can be made about such a large and diverse group of games, German games are usually multiplayer and can be learned easily and played in a relatively short time, perhaps multiple times in a single session. A certain amount of socializing and "table talk" might typically be expected during game play, as opposed to the relative silence sometimes expected during some strategy games like chess and go, or restrictions on allowable conversations or actions found in some highly competitive games such as contract bridge. German-style games are generally much simpler than the wargames which flourished in the 1970s and 1980s from publishers such as SPI and Avalon Hill, but nonetheless often have a considerable depth of play, especially in some "gamers' games" such as Tigris and Euphrates. Strategy games are typically board games, video or computer games with the players decision-making skills having a high significance in determining the outcome. ...
Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. ...
Go is a strategic board game for two players. ...
Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game of skill and chance (the relative proportions depend on the variant played). ...
Wargames can refer to: Complex military simulations (in a computer or in the real world). ...
Simulations Publications, Inc. ...
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. ...
Tigris and Euphrates is a German strategy board game designed by Reiner Knizia and first published in 1997 by Hans im Glück in German (as Euphrat und Tigris). ...
Themes German games have themes (i.e., are not abstract, but are about something)—more like Monopoly or Clue, rather than go or backgammon. Themes are often very loose — unlike a simulation game, the theme of a German game is often merely suggestive, and it is not unknown for a game to be designed with one theme and published with another, or for the same game to be given a significantly different theme for a later republication, or for two games on wildly different themes to have very similar mechanics. However, combat themes are uncommon and player conflict is often indirect (for example, competing for a scarce resource). While they often have a simulation-like theme, they are not simulation games per se, as many wargames are. Monopoly is the best-selling commercial board game in the world. ...
Cluedo (Clue in North America) is a murder mystery board game originally published by Waddington Games, UK in 1948. ...
Go is a strategic board game for two players. ...
Backgammon is a board game for two players in which pieces are moved according to the roll of dice and the winner is the first to remove all his pieces from the board. ...
Example themes are:
- Carcassonne - build a medieval landscape complete with walled-cities and monasteries, roads and fields in the area around the French city of Carcassonne.
- Puerto Rico - as a Governor of the island of Puerto Rico build a colony in the New World.
Carcassonne is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and Rio Grande Games in English. ...
Carcassonne (Carcassona in Occitan) is a fortified French town, in the Aude département of which it is the préfecture, in the former province of Languedoc. ...
Games made for everyone While many titles (especially the strategically heavier ones) are enthusiastically played by "gamers" as a hobby, German-style games are, for the most part, well suited to "everyman" social play. In keeping with this social function, various characteristics of the games tend to support that aspect well, and these have become quite common across the genre. For example, generally German games do not have a fixed number of players like chess or bridge; though there is a sizable body of German-style games which are designed for exactly two players, most games can accommodate anywhere from two to six players (with varying degrees of suitability). Six-player games are somewhat rare, or require expansions, such as Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne. Usually each player plays for himself, rather than in a partnership or team. Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game invented by Klaus Teuber, first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. ...
Carcassonne is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and Rio Grande Games in English. ...
In keeping with their social orientation, numbers are usually low in magnitude, often under ten, and any arithmetic in the game is trivial. Arithmetic tables for children, Lausanne, 1835 Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αÏιθμός = number) is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple daily counting to advanced science and business calculations. ...
Playing time varies from a half hour to a couple of hours, with around an hour being typical. In contrast to games such as Risk or Monopoly, in which a close game can extend indefinitely, German-style games usually have a mechanism to stop the game within its stated playing time. For example, Ra has limited tiles to exhaust. Risk is a commercial strategic board game, produced by Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro). ...
RA is a board game for three to five players designed by Reiner Knizia based on ancient Egyptian culture. ...
No player elimination Another prominent characteristic of these games is the lack of player elimination. Eliminating players before the end of the game is seen as counterproductive. Most of these games are designed to keep all players in the game as long as possible, so it is rare to be certain of victory or defeat until relatively late in the game. Some of the mechanics, like hidden scoring or scoring at the end of the game, are also designed around this avoidance of player elimination.
Made for an international audience These games are designed for international audiences, so they are not word games and usually do not contain much text outside of the rules. It is not uncommon for players outside of Germany to buy German editions of these games and download rules translations from BoardGameGeek. English editions are available in specialist shops in the UK and the USA but usually at a premium over the price of the original German edition. A word game or word puzzle can be of several different types: // [edit] Letter arrangement games The goal is to form words out of given letters. ...
Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ...
Game mechanics A wide variety of often innovative mechanics are used, and familiar mechanics like rolling dice and moving, capture, or trick taking are avoided. If a game has a board, the board is usually irregular rather than uniform or symmetric (like Risk rather than chess or Scrabble); the board is often random (like Settlers of Catan) or has random elements (like Tikal). Some boards are merely mnemonic or organizational and contribute only to ease of play, like a cribbage board; examples of this include Puerto Rico and Princes of Florence. Random elements are often present, but do not usually dominate the game. While rules are light to moderate, they allow depth of play, usually requiring thought, planning, and a shift of tactics through the game and often with a chess- or backgammon-like opening game, middle game, and end game. Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. ...
The verb to scrabble also means to scratch, scramble or scrape about: see Wiktionary:scrabble. ...
Tikal is a German-style board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling and published in 1999 by Ravensburger in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
Cribbage, or Crib, is a card game for two, three, four or six players that involves forming combinations of cards to accumulate points over a series of hands. ...
Princes of Florence (German: Die Fürsten von Florenz) is a renaissance-themed German-style board game designed by Richard Ulrich and Wolfgang Kramer, and published in 2000 by Alea in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game (the opening moves). ...
In chess, the middlegame refers to the portion of the game that happens immediately after the opening (usually the first move after the procession of moves that make up a standard opening) and blends somewhat with the endgame. ...
In chess, the endgame (or end game or ending) refers to the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. ...
Design quality Great care is taken with the look and feel of the game—they are made to be attractive games to own and play. They commonly have wooden pieces and good quality artwork.
Game designer as auteur Although not relevant to actual play, the name of the game's designer is often prominently mentioned on the box, or at least in the rule book. Top designers enjoy considerable following among enthusiasts of German games. For this reason, the name "designer games" is often offered as a description of the genre.[2]
Industry
Designers -
- Reiner Knizia is one the most famous and prolific of the German game designers, having designed over 200 published games. Recurring mechanisms in his games include auctions (Ra and Modern Art), tile placement (Tigris and Euphrates) and intricate scoring rules (Samurai). He has also designed many card games such as Lost Cities, Schotten Totten and Blue Moon, and the cooperative board game The Lord of the Rings.
- Klaus Teuber has only published a small number of games, but many of them are extremely popular and won the Spiel des Jahres Award. Titles include Settlers of Catan and Adel Verpflichtet.
- Wolfgang Kramer, unlike Knizia, often works with other game designers. Some of his best-known titles include El Grande, Tikal, Princes of Florence and Torres. His games often have some sort of "action point" system, and include some geometric element.
- Andreas Seyfarth (Manhattan, Puerto Rico, Thurn and Taxis)
Image File history File links Kniziabrunnhofer. ...
The Deutscher Spiele Preis (German for German Game Prize) is an award for German-style games. ...
Spiel is an American English slang word, or Scottish English dialect word, referring to a rant or monologue, perhaps of a dishonest or misleading nature. ...
Essen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ...
This page primarily is meant to list non-video game designers. ...
Reiner Knizia is a prolific German-style board game designer. ...
RA is a board game for three to five players designed by Reiner Knizia based on ancient Egyptian culture. ...
Modern Art is a bidding game designed by Reiner Knizia and published in 1992 by Hans im Glück in German and by Mayfair Games in English. ...
Tigris and Euphrates is a German strategy board game designed by Reiner Knizia and first published in 1997 by Hans im Glück in German (as Euphrat und Tigris). ...
Samurai is a German-style board game invented by Reiner Knizia, distributed by Hans im Glück in Germany and Rio Grande Games in the United States. ...
In the popular imagination lost cities are real, prosperous, well-populated areas of human habitation that have fallen into terminal decline and been lost to history. ...
Blue Moon is Reiner Knizias take on the Collectible Card Game mania, published by Kosmos/Fantasy Flight. ...
A cooperative board game is a board game where players work together in order to achieve a goal, competing against the game system. ...
Lord of the Rings is a family board game designed by Reiner Knizia based on The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. ...
Klaus Teuber Klaus Teuber (born 1952) is a well-known German designer of board games. ...
The Spiel des Jahres (German for Game of the Year) is arguably the most prestigious board game award for German-style board games. ...
Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game invented by Klaus Teuber, first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. ...
Hoity Toity is a multiplayer board game invented by Klaus Teuber. ...
Wolfgang Kramer (born June 29, 1942 in Stuttgart) is a German game designer. ...
El Grande is a German-style board game designed in 1996. ...
Tikal is a German-style board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling and published in 1999 by Ravensburger in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
Princes of Florence (German: Die Fürsten von Florenz) is a renaissance-themed German-style board game designed by Richard Ulrich and Wolfgang Kramer, and published in 2000 by Alea in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
Torres is a German-style board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling and published in 1999 by FX Schmid in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
Received for the #1 game of 1994, Manhattan Andreas Seyfarth (November 6, 1962) is a German-style board game designer, most notably he created Puerto Rico, consistently ranked as the best board game ever [1]. In 2002 the game was awarded first place for the prestigious Deutscher Spiele Preis (German...
Thurn and Taxis is a board game designed by Karen and Andreas Seyfarth and published in 2006 by Hans im Glück in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
Publishers There are many German companies producing board games, such as Hans im Glück and Goldsieber. Often German producers will try to establish a line of similar games, such as Kosmos's two-player card game series or Alea's big box line. Hans im Glück is a German board and card game publisher, named after the Grimm fairy tale Hans in Luck. ...
Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. ...
Ravensburger Spieleverlag GmbH is a German game company. ...
The rights to sell the game in English are often sold to separate companies. Some try to change the game as little as possible, such as Rio Grande Games. Others, including Mayfair Games, substantially change the visual design of the game, and sometimes the rules as well. Fantasy Flight is another publisher. Rio Grande Games is a publisher of German-style board games in English. ...
Mayfair Games is a publisher of board and roleplaying games in the United States and United Kingdom. ...
Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a Roseville, Minnesota-based game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. ...
Awards The most prestigious German board game award is the Spiel des Jahres ("game of the year"). The award is very family-oriented. Shorter, more approachable games such as Ticket to Ride and Elfenland are usually preferred by the committee that gives out the award. In contrast, the Deutscher Spiele Preis ("German game prize") is often awarded to games that are more complex and strategic, such as Puerto Rico. In many years, however, there is one game with broad enough appeal to win both awards. The Spiel des Jahres (German for Game of the Year) is arguably the most prestigious board game award for German-style board games. ...
Ticket to Ride is a railway-themed German-style board game designed by Alan R. Moon and published in 2004 by Days of Wonder. ...
Elfenland is a German-style board game designed by Alan R. Moon and published by Amigo Games in Germany and Rio Grande Games in the United States in 1998. ...
The Deutscher Spiele Preis (German for German Game Prize) is an award for German-style games. ...
Influence The German-style genre of board game has had some influence in Western game design theory though that influence is still developing and exists to a different degree in different markets. In the German market where they are most popular (the market leaders selling hundreds of thousands and occasionally millions of units over their lives) they have some claim to have set in place new, and more stringent, quality requirements to which many players hold games, although it is still the case that old favorites such as Monopoly and Clue still outsell German-style titles. There is some evidence that German-style design sensibilities are gradually appearing in new mass market product from industry giants like Hasbro, especially from subsidiary divisions such as Wizards of the Coast. Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is an American toy and game company. ...
Wizards of the Coast (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is a publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes. ...
Magic: The Gathering, released in the USA by Richard Garfield, was a landmark game that emerged in 1993, shortly before the popularization of German design concepts. Because nothing like Magic had been done before on such a large scale, many of the cards were not well-balanced with one another and the game required adjustment. The German school of design was heavily influential on the evolution of this dynamic game, which evolved into what would later be termed a "resource game". Magic: The Gathering (colloq. ...
Richard Garfield Richard Garfield (born 1966) is the billionaire game designer who created the card games Magic: The Gathering, Netrunner, BattleTech, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (originally known as Jyhad), The Great Dalmuti, Star Wars Trading Card Game, and the board game RoboRally. ...
Many related card games exist, designed with similar goals in mind. However, because card games usually involve luck incidental from shuffling they are often considered lighter in nature, even though many of them involve quite a bit of skill. Among the most famous of the German card games is Bohnanza, a game which relies on trading to introduce a strategic element. A riffle shuffle being performed during a game of poker Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. ...
Bohnanza is a German-style card game of trading and politics, designed by Uwe Rosenberg and released in German and English by Rio Grande Games. ...
List of notable German-style games German-style games include:[citation needed] Carcassonne is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and Rio Grande Games in English. ...
Caylus is a strategy- and building-oriented German-style board game designed by William Attia and independently published in 2005 by in France and England and Rio Grande Games in North America. ...
El Grande is a German-style board game designed in 1996. ...
Transmission towers Transmission lines in Lund, Sweden Electric power transmission, or more accurately Electrical energy transmission, is the second process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. ...
Princes of Florence (German: Die Fürsten von Florenz) is a renaissance-themed German-style board game designed by Richard Ulrich and Wolfgang Kramer, and published in 2000 by Alea in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
RA is a board game for three to five players designed by Reiner Knizia based on ancient Egyptian culture. ...
Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game invented by Klaus Teuber, first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. ...
Taj Mahal is a German-style board game for 3–5 players designed by Reiner Knizia and first published in 2000 by Alea in German. ...
Ticket to Ride is a railway-themed German-style board game designed by Alan R. Moon and published in 2004 by Days of Wonder. ...
Tigris and Euphrates is a German strategy board game designed by Reiner Knizia and first published in 1997 by Hans im Glück in German (as Euphrat und Tigris). ...
Tikal is a German-style board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling and published in 1999 by Ravensburger in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. ...
See also This page primarily is meant to list non-video game designers. ...
The Spiel des Jahres (German for Game of the Year) is arguably the most prestigious board game award for German-style board games. ...
Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ...
The BrettSpielWelt Java Client BrettSpielWelt (often abbreviated BSW) is a large, popular, and entirely free German online gaming portal. ...
Geomorphic mapboards are game boards that can be configured in different ways and reused to create different playing surfaces. ...
A cooperative board game is a board game where players work together in order to achieve a goal, competing against the game system. ...
References Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ...
External links - Brett and Board with information on German-style games (has not been updated in some time)
- Luding.org - boardgame database with over 15,000 English and German reviewed games
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