Point salad
Point salad is a game design pattern where many small, overlapping scoring tracks layer over the same actions. Almost everything you do is worth at least a few points, so the game rewards flexibility over committing to a single dominant strategy.
Why it matters
Point salad games tend to feel friendly and forgiving — there's no losing turn — but they can dilute tension. Whether that's a feature or a bug depends on your audience.
Example
In a point-salad game you might score for: longest road, most of each color cube, completing a contract, holding a card type at game end, and adjacent tile bonuses. Eight scoring categories isn't unusual.