explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3235: Types of Board Game

2026-04-21T10:17:27Z

Redmess: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3235
| date = April 20, 2026
| title = Types of Board Game
| image = types_of_board_game_2x.png
| imagesize = 501x1161px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I can't believe Candles of Vienna caved to commercial pressure and added the Goku expansion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a member of the Congress of Vienna in 1814. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

There are a lot of different types of board games in the world. Some are very simple, some are very complicated. This comic illustrates various types, with rather extreme examples.

{| class="wikitable"
| Boring || This is a very simplistic and boring board game style, where the players simply move around the board at the dictates of chance. While a number of family games (like {{w|Pachisi}} variants and {{w|Monopoly (game)|Monopoly}}) fall into this structure and still have something resembling skill and gameplay, the simplest examples (such as {{w|Snakes and Ladders}}, {{w|Mouse Trap (board game)|Mouse Trap}}, and {{w|Candy Land}}) involve no player choices at all, and are thus viewed as boring, at least for adults. While Monopoly strategy exists, it can also be described this way and is widely hated (as well as popular), so it's possible [[Randall]] is referring to it here. It is unclear whether the described game has no end condition at all or whether it is so dull that the group involved are unable to complete it without getting bored and giving up. The clearest example of this kind of game is Ludo, which simply involves moving all the pawns around the board once, which can take a long time and can get frustrating when dice rolls don't want to line up late in the game.
|-
| Abstract || This board game has more abstract tones, involving the arrangement of geometric shapes for reasons that may not be immediately clear. Some people may find this kind of game, without a relatable framing they can use as a starting point for understanding it, hard to get to grips with.
|-
| Hyperspecific Theme || This board game has a weirdly specific back-story, being centred around a very specific historical event, and a specific task within that. Lengthy back-stories that have to be explained before you get to the actual gameplay can feel contrived and be off-putting to some players. The {{w|Congress of Vienna}} was a gathering of diplomats from many different countries at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. There exists an [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296578/congress-of-vienna actual board game] about the Congress of Vienna, but it has nothing to do with lighting candles.
|-
| Overcomplicated || {{w|Twilight Imperium}} is widely regarded as being an extremely complex board game (despite "only" having a weight rating of 3.75 on [http://boardgamegeek.com Board Game Geek]). Cones of Dunshire is a joke board game (first shown on the TV show ''{{w|Parks and Recreation}}''), but was eventually turned into a real game where its extreme complexity is key to the joke. Combining them would likely be far more complex than either. {{w|Category theory}} is a branch of mathematics famous for its layers of abstractions, and is notoriously difficult to understand. {{w|Monads}} is one concept from category theory, with the famous definition of "A monad is simply a monoid in the category of endofunctors".
|-
| Cooperative || Cooperative board games center around players attempting to reach a common goal, winning or losing together. Many feature impediments to communication that make this more difficult; for instance, players may be restricted from saying certain words, or have secret cards they are unable to reveal before playing. The game in this panel appears to forbid all communication between players except for hand gestures. The punchline likens it to a very mundane activity, sorting a junk drawer, made artificially more difficult due to silence, and suggests the game is just as boring. It also raises suspicions that [[Megan]] has organised or hijacked this games night to trick her friends into doing chores she can't be bothered with.
|-
| Branded || Some board games are published and marketed as tie-ins to other forms of media, using settings, characters, or events from the source to appeal to its fans. The theming often has little to nothing to do with the gameplay, as the many branded variants on Monopoly can attest. The game in this panel is themed after the sitcom {{w|Friends}}, with the unlikely addition of Son Goku from {{w|Dragon Ball}}.
|-
| Party || It can be hard to determine what makes a party game, other than it generally doesn't have the kinds of gameplay and strategy in other kinds of board games. Such games (like {{w|Pictionary}} or {{w|30 Seconds (game)|30 Seconds}}) are often aimed at creating humorous or mildly embarrassing situations. However, party games marketed as "for adults" (such as the well known {{w|Cards Against Humanity}}) do tend to have one thing in common — swearing or references to sex.
|-
| Social Deduction || {{w|Social_deduction_game|Social deduction games}} revolve around the players attempting to deduce the roles or allegiances of other players, based on both special abilities provided by the game and the players' native abilities to tell which of their fellow players are being dishonest. Commonly, they involve an 'uninformed majority,' who do not know the allegiances of other players, attempting to discover the 'informed minority,' who know the members of their team. The minority is often framed as 'evil,' with the ability to 'kill' other players and remove them from the game; their victory condition often revolves around killing most or all of the 'good' players. The game in this panel revolves around finding a 'secret murderer,' but evidently has required clarification that discovering a ''real'' murderer does not count, implying that one or more of the participants has actually killed someone in real life (this would particularly make sense if [[Black Hat]] was at the table). This might be a reference to the case of Tiernan Darnton who admitted killing his step-grandmother during a game of Truth or Dare (though this was later revealed to be untrue).
|-
| Title text || "Candles of Vienna" is presumably the game described under "Hyperspecific Theme". An expansion pack is an additional set of playing equipment that can be combined with an existing game to add new gameplay possibilities. It appears that the rights holders for Goku have decided on a strategy of getting the character included in multiple board games. The character would arguably be even more out of place in Napoleonic Vienna than lounging on the sofas at Central Perk.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[There are 8 cells, each with a different type of board game.]

Boring

Megan: Each turn, roll a die and move your token. Turns proceed clockwise around the table until we get bored and go home.

Abstract

Cueball: Each turn, you can place any number of red triangles or blue squares on a hexagon, or move any hexagon to a...

Hyperspecific Theme

Ponytail: It's October 2, 1814. The Congress of Vienna convenes. You are each in charge of distributing and lighting candles for the opening ball, which was held at these three locations...

Overcomplicated

Whitehat: It's a cross between Twilight Imperium and Cones of Dunshire, but implemented entirely in category theory. Every cone is a monad, and...

Cooperative

Megan: We're working together to sort these decks of cards using only hand gestures. After that, we'll silently organize my junk drawer.

Branded

Cueball: You can play as Phoebe, Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Joey, or, due to an ill-advised tie-in, Goku.

Party

Ponytail: Each of the cards in your hand has a bad word on it. On the count of three, yell the...

Social Deduction

Megan: Remember, per our ''Find the Secret Murderer'' house rules from last week, discovering that a player had committed a real-life murder does ''not'' count.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3235: Types of Board Game

2026-04-21T10:02:10Z

Redmess: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3235
| date = April 20, 2026
| title = Types of Board Game
| image = types_of_board_game_2x.png
| imagesize = 501x1161px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I can't believe Candles of Vienna caved to commercial pressure and added the Goku expansion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a member of the Congress of Vienna in 1814. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

There are a lot of different types of board games in the world. Some are very simple, some are very complicated. This comic illustrates various types, with rather extreme examples.

{| class="wikitable"
| Boring || This is a very simplistic and boring board game style, where the players simply move around the board at the dictates of chance. While a number of family games (like {{w|Pachisi}} variants and {{w|Monopoly (game)|Monopoly}}) fall into this structure and still have something resembling skill and gameplay, the simplest examples (such as {{w|Snakes and Ladders}}, {{w|Mouse Trap (board game)|Mouse Trap}}, and {{w|Candy Land}}) involve no player choices at all, and are thus viewed as boring, at least for adults. While Monopoly strategy exists, it can also be described this way and is widely hated (as well as popular), so it's possible [[Randall]] is referring to it here. It is unclear whether the described game has no end condition at all or whether it is so dull that the group involved are unable to complete it without getting bored and giving up. The clearest example of this kind of game is Ludo, which simply involves moving all the pawns around the board once, which can take a long time and can get frustrating when dice rolls don't want to line up late in the game.
|-
| Abstract || This board game has more abstract tones, involving the arrangement of geometric shapes for reasons that may not be immediately clear. Some people may find this kind of game, without a relatable framing they can use as a starting point for understanding it, hard to get to grips with.
|-
| Hyperspecific Theme || This board game has a weirdly specific back-story, being centred around a very specific historical event, and a specific task within that. Lengthy back-stories that have to be explained before you get to the actual gameplay can feel contrived and be off-putting to some players. The {{w|Congress of Vienna}} was a gathering of diplomats from many different countries at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. There exists an [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296578/congress-of-vienna actual board game] about the Congress of Vienna, but it has nothing to do with lighting candles.
|-
| Overcomplicated || {{w|Twilight Imperium}} is widely regarded as being an extremely complex board game (despite "only" having a weight rating of 3.75 on [http://boardgamegeek.com Board Game Geek]). Cones of Dunshire is a joke board game (first shown on the TV show ''{{w|Parks and Recreation}}''), but was eventually turned into a real game where its extreme complexity is key to the joke. Combining them would likely be far more complex than either. {{w|Category theory}} is a branch of mathematics famous for its layers of abstractions, and is notoriously difficult to understand. {{w|Monads}} is one concept from category theory, with the famous definition of "A monad is simply a monoid in the category of endofunctors".
|-
| Cooperative || Cooperative board games center around players attempting to reach a common goal, winning or losing together. Many feature impediments to communication that make this more difficult; for instance, players may be restricted from saying certain words, or have secret cards they are unable to reveal before playing. The game in this panel appears to forbid all communication between players except for hand gestures. The punchline likens it to a very mundane activity, sorting a junk drawer, made artificially more difficult due to silence, and suggests the game is just as boring. It also raises suspicions that [[Megan]] has organised or hijacked this games night to trick her friends into doing chores she can't be bothered with.
|-
| Branded || Some board games are published and marketed as tie-ins to other forms of media, using settings, characters, or events from the source to appeal to its fans. The theming often has little to nothing to do with the gameplay, as the many branded variants on Monopoly can attest. The game in this panel is themed after the sitcom {{w|Friends}}, with the unlikely addition of Son Goku from {{w|Dragon Ball Z}}.
|-
| Party || It can be hard to determine what makes a party game, other than it generally doesn't have the kinds of gameplay and strategy in other kinds of board games. Such games (like {{w|Pictionary}} or {{w|30 Seconds (game)|30 Seconds}}) are often aimed at creating humorous or mildly embarrassing situations. However, party games marketed as "for adults" (such as the well known {{w|Cards Against Humanity}}) do tend to have one thing in common — swearing or references to sex.
|-
| Social Deduction || {{w|Social_deduction_game|Social deduction games}} revolve around the players attempting to deduce the roles or allegiances of other players, based on both special abilities provided by the game and the players' native abilities to tell which of their fellow players are being dishonest. Commonly, they involve an 'uninformed majority,' who do not know the allegiances of other players, attempting to discover the 'informed minority,' who know the members of their team. The minority is often framed as 'evil,' with the ability to 'kill' other players and remove them from the game; their victory condition often revolves around killing most or all of the 'good' players. The game in this panel revolves around finding a 'secret murderer,' but evidently has required clarification that discovering a ''real'' murderer does not count, implying that one or more of the participants has actually killed someone in real life (this would particularly make sense if [[Black Hat]] was at the table). This might be a reference to the case of Tiernan Darnton who admitted killing his step-grandmother during a game of Truth or Dare.
|-
| Title text || "Candles of Vienna" is presumably the game described under "Hyperspecific Theme". An expansion pack is an additional set of playing equipment that can be combined with an existing game to add new gameplay possibilities. It appears that the rights holders for Goku have decided on a strategy of getting the character included in multiple board games. The character would arguably be even more out of place in Napoleonic Vienna than lounging on the sofas at Central Perk.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[There are 8 cells, each with a different type of board game.]

Boring

Megan: Each turn, roll a die and move your token. Turns proceed clockwise around the table until we get bored and go home.

Abstract

Cueball: Each turn, you can place any number of red triangles or blue squares on a hexagon, or move any hexagon to a...

Hyperspecific Theme

Ponytail: It's October 2, 1814. The Congress of Vienna convenes. You are each in charge of distributing and lighting candles for the opening ball, which was held at these three locations...

Overcomplicated

Whitehat: It's a cross between Twilight Imperium and Cones of Dunshire, but implemented entirely in category theory. Every cone is a monad, and...

Cooperative

Megan: We're working together to sort these decks of cards using only hand gestures. After that, we'll silently organize my junk drawer.

Branded

Cueball: You can play as Phoebe, Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Joey, or, due to an ill-advised tie-in, Goku.

Party

Ponytail: Each of the cards in your hand has a bad word on it. On the count of three, yell the...

Social Deduction

Megan: Remember, per our ''Find the Secret Murderer'' house rules from last week, discovering that a player had committed a real-life murder does ''not'' count.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

Talk:3235: Types of Board Game

2026-04-21T09:57:34Z

Redmess:

I created a starter explanation, but I have no idea how to create tables. [[Special:Contributions/47.146.30.92|47.146.30.92]] 04:08, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

It is rare that xkcd makes me laugh out loud, but this comic's title text really got me! XD [[Special:Contributions/2601:241:8002:3E0:C95E:1939:2ED0:CD78|2601:241:8002:3E0:C95E:1939:2ED0:CD78]] 04:22, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I wonder if blackhat is the one who committed the murder in the last game, and was expunged from the current round with the social deduction game [[User:RG|RG]] ([[User talk:RG|talk]]) 04:35, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
: Also, I "fixed" panel 6: https://www.pasteboard.co/hxBFDL497SLH.png [[User:RG|RG]] ([[User talk:RG|talk]]) 04:54, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
: Whoever it was didn't necessarily commit the murder ''in the game'' - all we know is that it was ''discovered'' during the game. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:39, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

The reference to Monopoly seems ultra-specific given the plethora of games that have this structure, including Candyland, Snakes and Ladders, Sorry, and if one allows for multiple tokens, Parchisi and even Backgammon. Despite the amount of hate for Monopoly, it seems more likely that the editor has something against Monopoly than Randal. [[User:Mneme|Mneme]] ([[User talk:Mneme|talk]]) 05:14, 21 April 2026 (UTC)
: Also, Monopoly, played by the correct rules, is not that boring. It's just, that too many people skip the bidding rule. With 4 Players, after one turn around the table for all four game pieces (which required 10-12 dice rolls per player), statistically 75% of all properties should be snatched up. [[Special:Contributions/195.65.24.115|195.65.24.115]]

::Probably not worth debating how boring/bad Monopoly is or isn't. Suffice it to say that there are a large number of people who despise it, rightly or wrongly. [[User:Mneme|Mneme]] ([[User talk:Mneme|talk]]) 06:13, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Monopoli? Is that the Italian version?--[[Special:Contributions/2A00:23CC:D248:8901:8046:B94B:F152:34FA|2A00:23CC:D248:8901:8046:B94B:F152:34FA]] 07:51, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

It's possible that [[Special:Contributions/2A02:8071:5C20:40:84FB:9239:8AB8:1729|2A02:8071:5C20:40:84FB:9239:8AB8:1729]] (who made both this edit and the Pachisi edit), coming from Germany, doesn't realize that in America, Parcheesi and Monopoly are the more accepted spellings (Pachesi is probably more appropriate for the historical game Parcheesi is based on, but this is about table games not historical games). [[User:Mneme|Mneme]] ([[User talk:Mneme|talk]]) 08:02, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I misread the tie-in as being Grogu, which would have made it even weirder. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:52, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I think a clearer example of a "boring" game is Ludo, where the goal is simply to move all the pawns around the board once. [[User:Redmess|Redmess]] ([[User talk:Redmess|talk]]) 09:57, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3235: Types of Board Game

2026-04-21T09:56:39Z

Redmess:

Talk:842: Mark

2019-11-07T19:30:06Z

Redmess:

The title "Mark" referring to both the mark on his arm, and the fact that he is a "mark" -- a victim of a prank or confidence scheme. [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 22:18, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Hey, I'm part of this club too! Been burning down houses and killing people for years now. ~JFreund

I guess this gives us a pretty good approximation of Cueball's age. He's probably 30-33 years old. [[User:Jake|Jake]] ([[User talk:Jake|talk]]) 14:28, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.176|199.27.128.176]] 08:26, 6 February 2015 (UTC) In other words, never, ever let Cueball play Hotline Miami.

:To the sane person this is absurd. [citation needed]
lol {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.180}}

The explanation doesn't clearly say that the actual mark is simply: "Pen15" (even though it becomes clear after reading the explanation, for the record: this joke is new to me, I've never been invited to that club :-) {{unsigned ip|162.158.90.194}}

This comic reminds me of the novel [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darkroom_of_Damocles The Darkroom of Damocles], in which someone during WWII believes he is recruited into the resistance, and performs several missions, but his recruiter disappears after the war, and he is arrested for collaboration. One interpretation of the novel is that the main character has made everything up or is delusional, similar to how Cueball is delusional about having entered some secret organization. - [[User:Redmess|Redmess]] ([[User talk:Redmess|talk]]) 19:30, 7 November 2019 (UTC)