Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design

This “encyclopedia of mechanisms” is an excellent way to help people develop a common language in discussing tabletop board game design and play.

I don’t always agree with every distinction made, but using these definitions makes for a great starting point!

Being a textbook, I found it difficult to read straight through, and thus it took me long enough to finish that a second edition has since come out. This book is important enough that I will probably seek to acquire that edition as well.