Glossary

Complete reference of terms and concepts for abstract strategy board game development.

Game Structure

Active Player: The player whose turn it currently is and who may perform moves.
Board: The spatial game area composed of squares where pieces can be placed. Accessible to both players but only the active player may initiate actions.
First Player: The player designated to take the first turn when a match begins. This designation remains fixed throughout the match.
Game: The complete system consisting of locations (board and hands) and pieces with their attributes.
Hand: A player’s private reserve area for holding pieces not currently on the board. Each player’s hand is exclusively accessible to that player.
Inactive Player: The player who is not currently taking their turn.
Location: Any place where a piece can exist: the board, first player’s hand, or second player’s hand.
Match: A gaming session between two players using the game system.
Second Player: The player designated to take the second turn. This designation remains fixed throughout the match.
Square: An individual position on the board that can contain at most one piece or be empty.
Turn: The period during which the active player may perform their move.

Piece: A game component with four fundamental attributes: type, style, side, and state.
Side: Attribute indicating which player controls the piece (first player or second player).
State: Attribute reflecting the piece’s current status (diminished, normal, or enhanced).
Style: Attribute specifying the rule system and tradition governing the piece’s behavior.
Type: Attribute identifying the piece’s functional class and basic movement patterns.

Action: A single, indivisible transformation during move execution, consisting of source location, destination location, and resulting actor state. Actions represent the smallest meaningful unit of change in the game system and cannot be subdivided further.
Capture: An action resulting in a piece moving from the board to a player’s hand.
Displacement: Moving a piece between locations (board-to-board, board-to-hand, hand-to-board).
Legal Move: A pseudo-legal move that additionally satisfies all game-specific rules and contextual constraints.
Move: What the active player performs during their turn, potentially consisting of multiple atomic actions.
Mutation: Changing one or more piece attributes (type, style, side, or state) without necessarily changing location.
Placement: Moving a piece from a player’s hand to the board.
Protocol-Valid Move: A move that respects the fundamental invariants of the Game Protocol without regard to specific game rules.
Pseudo-Legal Move: A protocol-valid move that additionally respects basic movement rules and piece behavior patterns.

Conservation Principle: The fundamental rule that the total number of pieces across all locations must remain constant throughout the match.
Location Accessibility: The access control system where board locations are publicly accessible to the active player, while hand locations are privately accessible only to their espective owners.
Location Exclusivity: The constraint that each piece occupies exactly one location at any given time.
Square Occupancy: The constraint that each board square contains at most one piece.

Derived Piece: A piece using the opponent’s native style system, typically marked with derivation indicators.
Enhanced State: Piece state with improved capabilities, often from promotion (represented with + prefix).
Foreign Piece: A piece using a style system different from its controlling player’s native style.
Native Piece: A piece using its controlling player’s default style system.
Normal State: Standard piece state without modifications (no prefix modifier).
Diminished State: Piece state with reduced capabilities or special vulnerabilities (represented with - prefix).

Actor: The complete identification of a piece including all four attributes, typically represented in GAN format.
Cross-Style: Scenarios where different players use different game systems or where pieces from different traditions coexist.
Derivation Marker: Notation element (e.g., ' suffix) indicating a piece’s style differs from its controlling player’s native style.
Rule-Agnostic: Independent of specific game mechanics, applicable across different game systems.
State Modifier: Notation element (prefix + or -) indicating enhanced or diminished piece states.