Board Game Design Glossary

Print specs

Bleed

Bleed is the portion of a card design that extends past the cut line, so a small misalignment in the cutting machine doesn't leave a white edge along the border.
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Safe zone

The safe zone is the inner area of a card where text and important artwork are guaranteed to be visible after the printer cuts.
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CMYK

CMYK is the four-ink color model — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black) — that professional printers use to reproduce color on paper.
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DPI

DPI ("dots per inch") is the resolution measurement that determines how sharp a printed card will look.
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RGB

RGB is the three-channel color model — Red, Green, Blue — used by every screen and most digital art tools.
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Vector vs raster

Vector art is built from math — points, lines, and curves — and scales to any size without losing sharpness.
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Crop marks

Crop marks are short lines printed at each corner of a card (just outside the trim line) that show the printer exactly where to cut.
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Dieline

A dieline is the flat outline of a folded component — a tuck box, game box, or insert — showing the printer where to cut, where to fold, and where to apply glue.
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Poker card size

Poker is the most common board game card size: 2.5" × 3.5" (63.5 × 88.9 mm) trimmed.
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Tarot card size

Tarot is the largest standard board game card size: 2.75" × 4.75" (69.85 × 120.65 mm) trimmed.
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Tuck box

A tuck box is a small folded cardboard box with a tucked flap (instead of a glued top) that holds a deck of cards.
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Sleeve

A sleeve is a clear plastic protector slid over a card to prevent wear and tear, hide back markings, and standardize feel across a deck.
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Mini card

A mini card is a small board game card size: 1.75" × 2.5" (44.45 × 63.5 mm) trimmed.
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Bridge card

A bridge card is a standard card size of 2.25" × 3.5" (57.15 × 88.9 mm) trimmed — slightly narrower than poker.
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Hex grid

A hex grid is a board layout made of six-sided cells.
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Standee

A standee is a flat printed character or token that slots into a plastic or cardboard base so it stands upright on the table.
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Deck-builder

A deck-builder is a game where every player starts with a small identical deck and acquires new cards during play to build a stronger, personalized deck over the course of the match.
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Drafting

Drafting is a mechanic where players take turns picking cards from a shared pool — or from a hand that rotates around the table — to build their own set or strategy.
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Set collection

Set collection is a scoring mechanic where players gather matching or complementary cards or items, scoring more for completing or extending a set.
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Worker placement

Worker placement is a mechanic where players take turns placing a limited number of "worker" tokens on action spaces on a shared board.
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Area control

Area control (sometimes called area majority) is a mechanic where players compete to have the most units, tokens, or influence in defined regions of a shared board.
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Action points

Action points (often "AP") is a turn structure where each player gets a fixed budget per turn and spends those points on a menu of actions with different costs.
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Asymmetric

An asymmetric game is one where players start with different abilities, resources, or even different victory conditions, instead of identical opening positions.
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Point salad

Point salad is a game design pattern where many small, overlapping scoring tracks layer over the same actions.
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CCG vs LCG vs TCG

CCG (Collectible Card Game) and TCG (Trading Card Game) are interchangeable terms for games sold in randomized booster packs — what's in each pack is a surprise, and rarity creates a secondary trading market.
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Print and play

Print and play (often abbreviated PnP) is a game distributed as a PDF or image set that players print at home, cut out, and assemble themselves.
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Tabletop Simulator

Tabletop Simulator (often "TTS") is a digital sandbox on Steam that simulates a physical tabletop — players drag cards, roll dice, and flip tokens with full 3D physics.
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TheGameCrafter

TheGameCrafter (often "TGC") is a US-based print-on-demand service that prints and ships board game components — cards, boxes, boards, tokens — in single-unit quantities, with no minimum order.
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Sell sheet

A sell sheet is a one-page summary used to pitch a board game to publishers, retailers, or Kickstarter backers.
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MOQ

MOQ ("minimum order quantity") is the smallest production run a manufacturer will accept.
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