Editing Board game (section)

==Luck, strategy, and diplomacy==
Some games, such as chess, depend completely on player skill, while many children's games such as ''[[Candy Land]]'' (1949) and [[snakes and ladders]] require no decisions by the players and are decided purely by luck.<ref>{{Cite web|date=26 January 2009|title=The case against Candy Land|url=http://boingboing.net/2009/01/26/the-case-against-can.html|website=BoingBoing|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241120044837/https://boingboing.net/2009/01/26/the-case-against-can.html|archive-date=20 November 2024|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref>

[[File:Board game damah at Souq Waqif.jpg|thumb|Two Qataris playing the traditional board game of ''[[Turkish draughts|damah]]'']]
Many games require some level of both skill and luck. A player may be hampered by bad luck in [[backgammon]], ''[[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]]'', or ''[[Risk (game)|Risk]]''; but over many games, a skilled player will win more often.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Luck vs. Skill in Backgammon|url=https://bkgm.com/articles/Simborg/LuckVsSkill/index.html |access-date=19 May 2020 |website=bkgm.com}}</ref> The elements of luck can also make for more excitement at times, and allow for more diverse and multifaceted strategies, as concepts such as [[expected value]] and [[risk management]] must be considered.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sfetcu|first=Nicolae|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J1aAAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22board+game%22+%22expected+value%22+and+%22risk+management%22&pg=PA78|title=Game Preview|date=4 May 2014|publisher=Nicolae Sfetcu|language=en}}</ref>

Luck may be introduced into a game by several methods. The use of [[dice]] of various sorts goes back to the one of the earliest board games, the [[Royal Game of Ur]]. These can decide everything from how many steps a player moves their token, as in ''Monopoly'', to how their forces fare in battle, as in ''Risk'', or which resources a player gains, as in ''[[Catan]]'' (1995). Other games such as ''[[Sorry! (game)|Sorry!]]'' (1934) use a deck of special [[Playing card|cards]] that, when shuffled, create randomness. ''[[Scrabble]]'' (1948) creates a similar effect using randomly picked letters. Other games use spinners, timers of random length, or other sources of randomness. [[German-style board game]]s are notable for often having fewer elements of luck than many North American board games.<ref name="How stuff works">{{Cite web|last=Kirkpatrick|first=Karen|date=27 April 2015|title=What's a German-style board game?|url=https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/german-style-board-game.htm|access-date=20 July 2021|website=HowStuffWorks.com|quote="They feature little or no luck, and economic, not military, themes. In addition, all players stay in the game until it's over."}}</ref> Luck may be reduced in favor of skill by introducing symmetry between players. For example, in a dice game such as ''[[Ludo (game)|Ludo]]'' ({{circa|1896}}), by giving each player the choice of rolling the dice or using the previous player's roll.

Another important aspect of some games is diplomacy, that is, players, making deals with one another. Negotiation generally features only in games with three or more players, [[Cooperative board game|cooperative games]] being the exception. An important facet of ''Catan'', for example, is convincing players to trade with you rather than with opponents. In ''Risk'', two or more players may team up against others. ''Easy'' diplomacy involves convincing other players that someone else is winning and should therefore be teamed up against. ''Advanced'' diplomacy (e.g., in the aptly named game ''[[Diplomacy (game)|Diplomacy]]'' from 1954) consists of making elaborate plans together, with the possibility of betrayal.<ref name="cooperative-games_washington-post_1986">{{Cite web|last=McLellan|first=Joseph|date=2 June 1986|title=Lying and Cheating by the Rules|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com)|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/06/02/lying-and-cheating-by-the-rules/78ab5e73-b64d-4448-875e-aae12ab43476|issn=0190-8286|access-date=2 January 2024|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250102092517/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/06/02/lying-and-cheating-by-the-rules/78ab5e73-b64d-4448-875e-aae12ab43476|archive-date=2 January 2025|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Annie|last=Kearns Kearns|title=16 Easy Pen and Paper Games Your Family Will Love|url=https://www.thelondonmother.net/easy-pen-and-paper-games|website=The London Mother (www.thelondonmother.net)|date=16 March 2020|access-date=31 December 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240430124253/https://www.thelondonmother.net/easy-pen-and-paper-games|archive-date=30 April 2024|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref>

In [[perfect information]] games, such as chess, each player has complete information on the state of the game, but in other games, such as ''[[Tigris and Euphrates]]'' (1997) or ''[[Stratego]]'' (1946), some information is hidden from players.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Glassner|first=Andrew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ksj1EAAAQBAJ&dq=%22board+game%22+hidden+information+estimating+probabilities+by+the+opponents+stratego&pg=PT74|title=Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction|date=2 August 2017|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-040-08312-3|language=en}}</ref> This makes finding the best move more difficult and may involve estimating probabilities by the opponents.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Levine|first=Timothy R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iRJzAwAAQBAJ&dq=finding+the+best+move+more+difficult+and+may+involve+estimating+probabilities+by+the+opponents&pg=PA403|title=Encyclopedia of Deception|date=20 February 2014|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4833-0689-6|language=en}}</ref>