Game Categories
How the hobby groups titles into families: abstracts, Eurogames, thematic games, party games, cooperative designs, and tabletop role-playing.
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Tabletop Reference
Board games, read closely
Oak Paper House documents how board games and tabletop hobbies are categorised, how their rules fit together, and how play groups meet across Canadian cities and towns.
What this site covers
Three reference areas
Each article is written as a standalone overview with practical detail rather than a buyer's list.
Rules Overviews
The shared vocabulary of rulebooks: turn structure, actions, resources, victory conditions, and how to read a rules reference quickly.
Open articleLocal Play Groups
How Canadian groups organise: public libraries, board game cafés, club nights, and conventions in cities such as Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
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How a turn reads
A common turn structure
Most modern board games describe a turn as a short sequence of phases. The pills below show a typical pattern used to explain a single player's turn in a rulebook overview.
Upkeep
Draw
Main action
Resolve
Cleanup
Reading the phases in order is usually enough to play a first round, even before every exception is memorised.
Setup
place board
shuffle decks
deal starting hands
Round
for each player:
take 1 action
resolve effects
check end condition
End
score victory points
highest total wins
Contact
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