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I wanted to talk about a board game recently, and realized that I am missing all related vocabulary. Before you shout foul and throw dictionaries at me, these expressions are very difficult to look up, because most of them use existing words in new contexts. And I cannot ask the native Japanese I know, because they don't know the english terminology either. I'll make a list, and possibly add more to it if some are suggested. I am basically looking for the vocabulary to be able to explain any board game to someone.

General

  • Take a turn ("Your turn!", ...)
  • Passing a turn.
  • Token. (Many games have tokens, be it for money, health, victory points and so on)
  • Piece, as in Chess.
  • [Some statistic] meter / counter. (Threat meter?)
  • Pick a card/miniature/faction/... randomly.

Words I have seen often, but which are made up to begin with

  • Victory Point.

Cards

  • Draw a card.
  • Discard a random card.
  • Discard a card of your choice.
  • A deck of cards.
  • The correct expression for "hand".

Dice

  • Throw dice, or roll dice.
  • Reroll dice.
  • Count the sixes. (or any other)
  • Non-6-sided dice, in english usually called d8, d12 or d20.
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  • The Eijiro DB is really good for stuff like this.
    – Louis Waweru
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 12:34
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    @kdansky: I agree with Dave. But if you clean your question and narrow it down to the most problematic terms, it might get more acceptable to the site standards. Search all of those expressions and if you still have some you can't translate, come back here and show us your searching progress.
    – Alenanno
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 13:09
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    I put everything here on purpose including those that I actually know already. Having partial answers will annoy the next person looking for this immensely. If you take a look at area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7526/japanese-language-usage it should be clear that the quality is fine, but the quantity is horrible. 3.5 daily questions is the result of the impossibly high standards. If I remove 80% of the examples, it's "cleaner", and less useful.
    – Kdansky
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 13:31
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    I see nothing wrong with asking this question. The faq says "ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face". This is an actual problem the OP faces, and it's relating to the use of the Japanese language.
    – Flaw ♦
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 13:37
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    @DaveMG No there isn't. It's about personal preference. Everyone is free to vote according to his/her judgement. Just that I tend to believe in giving more leeway. It's not absolutely wrong to downvote, it's a way to let the asker know that there might be something that needs improving. But I'm worried that a high propensity to downvote will inhibit questions and answers. So if something is "not good", it gets a no-vote instead of downvote. Only if something is really "bad", then it gets a downvote from me. I distinguish "not good" from "bad".
    – Flaw ♦
    Commented Oct 14, 2011 at 8:25

1 Answer 1

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General

  • Turn ("Your turn!", ...)　→　あなたの番【ばん】　・　出番【でばん】 ・　ターン　(俺のターン！）
  • Take a turn → （ターンを）行【おこな】う
  • Passing a turn.　→　パス
  • Token. (Many games have tokens, be it for money, health, victory points and so on)　→　トークン1　・　硬貨【こうか】？
  • Piece, as in Chess.　→　駒【こま】
  • [Some statistic] meter / counter. (Threat meter?)　→　？
  • Pick a card/miniature/faction/... randomly.　→　ランダムに（・無作為【むさくい】に）取【と】る　・　選【えら】ぶ

Words I have seen often, but which are made up to begin with

  • Victory Point.　→　点【てん】　・　得点【とくてん】　・　勝利点【しょうりてん】1

Cards　（カード）

  • Draw a card.　→　カードを（X枚【まい】）取【と】る　・　引【ひ】く
  • Discard a random card.　→　カードをランダムに捨【す】てる　・　捨【す】て札【ふだ】（に）する
  • Discard a card of your choice.　→　｛捨【す】てたいだけ　・　勝手【かって】に　・　選【えら】んで｝捨【す】てる
  • A deck of cards.　→　デッキ　・　山札【やまふだ】
  • A hand of cards.　→　手札【てふだ】
  • Discard pile. →　捨【す】て札【ふだ】置【お】き場【ば】　・　捨【す】て札【ふだ】の山【やま】
  • Play a card　→　カードを出す

Dice　（さいころ（賽子・骰子） or ダイス)

(usually サイコロ in katakana)

  • Throw dice, or roll dice.　→　サイコロを振【ふ】る　・　振【ふ】り出【だ】す　・　投【な】げる
  • Reroll dice.　→　再【ふたた】び（サイコロを）振【ふ】る　・　振【ふ】り出【だ】す
  • Count the sixes. (or any other)　→　6をまとめる　・　揃【そろ】える ?　(educated guess)
  • Non-6-sided dice, in english usually called d8, d12 or d20.　→　ｎ面【めん】ダイス (usu. not サイコロ)

Coins （コイン）

  • Flip a coin → コインを投【な】げる
  • Heads → 表【おもて】
  • Tails → 裏【うら】

1 ドミニオンより

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  • 骰子 or 賽子 apparently, though I don't know which one is the more common. My IME also failed me.
    – Kdansky
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 14:58
  • I think the latter is more common.
    – istrasci
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 15:05
  • Can I use 駒 for pieces in other games too? Or is that very specific for chess?
    – Kdansky
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 15:06
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    (I added a few things, since the answer was made community wiki. Hopefully this is okay. I'll add more as I come across them.)
    – Hyperworm
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 17:11
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    @Hyperworm It is okay, yes. Actually it's what you're supposed to do with Community Wikis I think :D
    – Alenanno
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 21:58

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