Top 100 Mechanisms in Board Games: 10-1

Can I get a link to the playlist I'm not seeing it and it would be nice to listen to all 100

In golf if you loose your ball you have 3 minutes to find it or incur a penalty, not because the ball is lost but because you’ve exceed the time limits. Players can also incur scoring penalties for playing too slow. The designers preference should always be to mitigate the issues players may face. I think the challenge should not be to avoid but to mitigate the impact of situations.

Love trap mechanics too. Skull stands out to me. I get a similar feeling from Resistance, but Skull is distilled press your luck and traps.

Did you mention bluffing as a mechanism in the 100? It's so much fun, I love the game Spicy.

As for "traps", kinda makes me think of Exploding Kittens, the mechanism that everyone loves is putting the exploding kitten back in the deck, wherever you want. You can bluff and convince others they are safe or let them waste "defense" cards.

Just finished the full series! So interesting. Thanks for the work 😊

Great video! I love watching your stuff. Will try to incorporate some traps into my next game design :)

Inis is a game where “searching the deck” works well: it’s a game where you draft your actions from a deck. There are only 17 cards, and everyone becomes familiar with them very quickly. The presence of the “Druid” action card, which allows you to search the shared action discard, very much defines the game without bogging it down.

GREAT Value, that´s a full course in Game Design. I don´t konw how I can compensate you for giving us such a a wonderfull class. Heaven will recompensate you. Thank you for your existence.

Hi Adam, about the Quarto mechanism you may be interested in the game "Carnac" if you don't know it already.
Your opponent places his stones and you can say if he can continues or if you stop him and let the stone fall over and then its your turn

Thanks for making this list, its been very insightful.

Just came across this video (haven't seen the rest of the list), but now I feel the need to find the others and figure out where flicking/dexterity falls because I was really quite surprised not to have seen it in this video.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🖤

Btw, I love Kompromat! I always bring it when I travel (because it is small and fits easy in my luggage) and always have a great time with it!

ooh my, Poliominoes stresses me out so much! I can't stand polyominoes games. I don't like dice rolling at all. My favorite mechanics is Area Majority. So good! (but not area control which is more associated with dudes on a map). And also love Multi-use cards. So good!

Searching only works in mtg and other tcg's since it's your own deck and you should already know what's in it

I'd be curious to know what your thoughts are on a game like Cubitos: mix of Dice Rolling, Push your Luck, Combos and Racing

So great to hear that you love traps in games! There is something so delicious about pulling off a good trap. I've designed a 2-player asymmetrical game which includes traps and all the mind games that come with them, themed around a shark hunting an octopus. It will be coming from the publisher Wonderbow later in the year, if you want to know more! I'd love to show it to you sometime.

Thanks for all the insightful, entertaining videos!

Wingspan has a search the discard pile in the Oceania expansion, but it's the "Bin Chicken" white Ibis so it's flavour and funny as heck

I definitely appreciate this series! I had an idea for a board game and while it prolly won't ultimately go anywhere, this series gave me a lot to think about in actually trying something, even for just personal use! Not only different mechanics I didn't know about, but also examples of games that I can look at for inspiration. Thank you!

interesting. I didn't realize there were 100+
My top ten would be quite different but each person can choose their own favorites making it an interesting discussion. Thanks!

I don't find a lot of company, but my six favorite board/card game mechanics would be:
1. Subtle/advanced DEDUCTION (you could also call it inference)
2. DECIPHERING (clues, codes, ciphers, riddles, texts, visuals)
3. Deep-level LOGIC (often includes a predictive dimension)
4. DECEPTION (sometimes takes the form of a traitor)
5. HIDDEN MOVEMENT (adds an air of mystery)
6. SUSPENSE (i.e. specific design features or rules that exist intentionally to intensify this feeling)

cool machanics

Tutors, your least favorite mechanic, really only have a place in deckbuilders or constructed deck games(I.E. magic). There they act as a deck thinner, allowing the player to more easily play the combos that they've set up.

Re: playing on multiple boards… that sounds awesome! 🤩

The closest I’ve gotten to that is Dead of Winter’s Warring Colonies expansion, where two teams of players each play with one of the boards from the Expandalones, but compete for the same resources at the Locations. I love team games (did you mention Teams as a mechanic? Did you mentions Player Elimination?).

For me, they combine the “working with people” element of Co-Op games, with the thrill of defeating an opponent. Articulate, Code Names, and Warring Colonies are all some of my most favourite games.

There it is! Combos at #5. I’ve seen it referred to as “Synergies”, but the name I know it by is “Engine Building”. Probably my favourite mechanic (strongly contested by Worker Placement, Resource Management, and Deck Building).

Having you cover one mechanic you don’t like in each vid has made the build up to this vid to be quite exciting. Are my favourite mechanics going to be in your Too Ten? Or will they make an appearance in your most disliked mechanic. 🤔🤩🤓

No sure what was going on with the Audio in these clips, but this clip’s audio was clearer and louder, and thus much easier to listen to. 🙃💙👍

Thanks for making this awesome series!! I really do enjoy the randomness that dice-rolling can bring (if kept within a certain threshold), and I've never thought about it, but I do quite dislike searching deck/discard cards as well! I'm often a very indecisive person and I start to feel the clock ticking and everyone waiting on me when I have one of those. I may have to employ your idea of tucking those cards away 😂 Polyominoes are always a refreshingly fun aspect for me, also. Can't say I've seen many tabletop games with traps, aside from the obvious Mouse Trap.

I’ve just discovered this channel. Great content! Thanks.

So I finally finished watching all the videos in this series and I want to say well done Adam for making such an intriguing and educational list. I especially like the fact you threw in your top 10 WORST mechanics. Hearing your top most hated mechanic is the 'search deck/discard' is in some ways music to my ears. I'm about to start my second set of playtesting but before I do I know I need to change one or two mechanics and also a few card effects. Several cards have a similar effect to what you have mentioned and now I definitely will be looking at changing these - for the exact point you made about player turn time. My average game time is about 75 minutes (2 players) and I want to try and get this closer to 60 minutes and this will definitely help. I'm also glad to see that 2 of the main mechanics in the game I'm creating haven't been mentioned in your top 100 list so I hope these are as unique as I think they are :) Keep up the good work with these videos!

Number three mechanism is really cool the idea of multiple concurrent games (potentially competing between them)

The other meaning of the word "trap" makes the last bit a lot funnier than expected.

In Quarto I try setting up traps for my opponent, but I must be careful not to fall into my own traps when placing my piece or giving a piece to my opponent. New players are always surprised when they learn that they don't own all the pieces of a given colour, and in my experience the "same colour line" is the easiest to see for any player.

Thank you...great channel!

A mechanism that I many times associate with traps is hidden movement. I really like the feeling of pursuing someone and trying to trap them into a corner or something like that.

Play on multiple tables was an wild choice, haha. Once I tried something somewhat similar where a player could simply leave their own player board - representing their city - behind and go "live" in some other player's city.

Thanks for those great videos. :)

Well, that search through the deck or the discard pile really worked in MtG. Traps better than polyomino tilelaying games? Nah.

What a great top 100. I must admit, I wondered a little if you would "pull it off", when I started watching this series. But I must say that you absolutely did! Awesome work! I gave me a lot of insight and enjoyment. Thanks!

Is "Quarto mechanism" related to "I cut, you choose?" Have you covered the latter?

Thanks for the video. I really like “Knizia” scoring. I recently watched a play-through of “Wendake”, which uses a version of that scoring. It’s a good way the designer can ensure each area of the game gets attention.

Great video. I love Stratego precisely because the bluffing and the traps. The best game for me that uses this mechanism is Android: Netrunner. Being a corp and setup a trap just for the runner to fall into it... just the best feeling.

Interpreting Knizia scoring as “score for the most complete sets” is so much easier to explain than “score for the least”. Why did I never think of it like that before?

I really like setting some traps in Neuroshima Hex which was my first 'geek' board game and continues to be one of my favourites up to this day. You can calculate all the damage that could be done or received IF someone starts a battle, then try to prepare for it, block some potential attacks, try to outspeed your opponent... ok, we're safe, time for the opponent's turn, but UH OH! Here comes an instant action tile! and your best unit dies because they sniper shot it! or worse, a massive 7-hex bomb just clears the board of a lot of units becuase you ddn't see it coming and have put way too many units too close to each other... Well, you always can see what (if any) direct damage instant tiles are in your opponent's army, look at their discard pile to see if they can still have any of those left, but maybe, just maaaaybeee they won't draw such a tile soon and you'll be quicker than them... ;)

Boy, what a wild list this last one! So many different interpretations of the term "mechanic." Some stuff that's only in one game, one type of game, one designer, or something in almost every game! I like how they are half things you enjoy and half things you enjoy but specifically want to see more of. I'll take the hint!

Researching and ranking all of these mechanisms is huge.. Amazing job!!!

Gwent - Oneiromancy Hate it. It's the "I've not been paying attentiion to your play style and tricks, and I need a " get-out-of-jail-free" card

"Tuck it under the insert!" Haha!
Didn't expect your Number 1 favourite mechansim at all. The 2-player Kosmos card game Dracula has good opportunities for trap-making.

A 15-player game of FF's "FFF" ?! One of these days I genuinely hope you come to one of my Malvern Board Game weekends (at The Dell Guest house) - my friends would totally be up for this.

Do you still rate Dice Town? I love Las Vegas, and wonder if DT is too similar. Box looks a bit on the large size too.

Thanks for all your hard work creating these hugely entertaining vids - your output and quality is second to none.