Push-your-luck

Board games challenge you to take ever-greater risks to reap ever-greater benefits or choose to keep what you have before losing everything. Consider the blackjack game or whether or not to provide an ambiguous response on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Press-your-luck is another name for it.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Port Royal, and Deep Sea Adventure are examples.

Roll-and-move

Board games in which you roll one or more dice and move a certain number of spaces, usually on a looping track of spaces or a path having a beginning and an end. Landing on particular locations will often initiate specific activities or provide the player with unique gaming choices. It’s as simple as that.

Monopoly, The Game of Life, Snakes and Ladders, and Formula D are just a few examples.

Roll-and-write

Roll some dice and select what to do with the results, recording them on a customised scoring sheet. Even in games where everyone plays the same dice, relatively different decisions at the start might lead to very different final results. Some games change the name by substituting the dice with cards for a ‘flip-and-write’ (Welcome To…) or positioning miniatures for a ‘roll-and-build’ (Welcome To..). (Era: Medieval Age).

Eurogame

These are strategy-focused board games that prioritise limited-randomness over theme, and are sometimes reduced to just ‘Euro.’ Usually competitive, with passive competitiveness rather than violent confrontation as the means of interaction between participants. In contrast to the more themed yet chance-driven “American-style” games of the period, many of the early games of this sort were developed in Europe, notably Germany. (Those who despise the aspect of great luck refer to it as ‘Ameritrash.’)

Examples are Agricola and the West Kingdom’s Paladins.