Player elimination occurs in multiplayer games, three or more, when one player can be eliminated from the game and the play can continue without them. One player could be defeated in Risk and play can continue until one army remains just as a player could go bankrupt in a game of Monopoly and play continues until one tycoon is left standing.
Player elimination doesn’t include two player games where the goal is to defeat your opponent. Chess doesn’t qualify as a player elimination game.
The pick-up and deliver game mechanic requires the players to pick up an item or good at one location and bring it to another location on the game board. The items initial placement can either be predetermined or randomized. The delivery of the good usually gives the player money with which to perform more actions, and in most cases, there’s a game rule or mechanic that dictates where the item needs to go. Pirate’s Cove has players pick up gold and other treasure on one island and then bury the treasure on another island.
Games with partnerships offer players a set of rules for alliances and/or teams. Partners are able to win as a team or penalties may occur for not respecting an alliance.
Fury of Dracula has initial teams that can’t be changed midgame, while Dune has a strict set of rules for creating and breaking alliances.
While some games, like Yahtzee or Craps, use rolling dice as their sole game mechanic, other games use dice for movement (Monopoly), combat (Risk) or even the production of resources (Settlers of Catan).
There are some games that have given dice shiny new purpose. Quarriors treats dice as resources, magical objects and creatures you control for realm domination, and Marvel Dice Masters takes the Quarriors model and gives it a Magic: The Gathering taste of collecting dice like cards. The randomness of dice adds a splash of unpredictability to any game.
Cooperative play encourages or requires players to work together to beat the game. Little to no competition exists between the players. This leads to either the players winning the game collectively by meeting predetermined goals or players mutually losing the game by not reaching their objective(s).
Note: cooperative play can include one or more traitors to the group. Once these traitors are revealed, they play along with the game system and they win or lose with the game. Betrayal at House on the Hill is a popular cooperative play game that uses the traitor twist.
Collectible components games are ones where players purchase the components required to play the game incrementally, rather than all at once. Most of these games have a transitory nature, which breeds a need to collect an entire set before the set disappears. Magic: the Gathering may have pioneered the collectible card game (CCG), but miniatures games predate Magic, and now dice may have found a niche in the collectible component mechanic with Marvel Dice Masters.
The auction/bidding game mechanic involves the players to place a bid, usually monetary, on an item in an auction of goods. Players take turns placing bids on the given item, increasing the amount of the bid, until all but one player concedes and the one player who placed the largest bid emerges the victor. The winner of the bid gains ownership of the item and play continues. Most games require the price of the item being bid to drop if no one plans to bid on the item at its current price.
Monopoly is the most famous board game to use the auction/bidding mechanic. If a player lands on a space that’s not owned by anyone and they choose not to purchase the property on the spot, the property goes up for auction.
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