Home / Board Game Therapy™ / Game-to-Goal
What does the mechanic ask people to do?
Game-to-Goal is selection logic. The same game can be useful, neutral, or harmful depending on goal, group, timing, and facilitation.
Mechanics only in context
Mechanics are interventions only in context. Do not choose a popular game and invent the goal afterward. Ask what the mechanic asks people to do, then match goal, group readiness, and facilitator scope.
Examples (not a shop catalog)
- Cooperative crisis → distribute leadership and prioritize under pressure
- Negotiation / trading → ask, bargain, tolerate refusal, define fairness
- Limited communication → handle ambiguity and repair misunderstanding
- Interpretive imagery → perspective-taking and partial disclosure
Also named in method notes (use carefully, not as a product list): role selection; hidden information; push-your-luck; social deduction (high relational demand; not suitable for every group).
Social deduction and high-betrayal mechanics are high relational demand and not suitable for every group. Do not engineer humiliation to create a lesson.
Field guide later
Field guide coming later
The full Game-to-Goal matrix / field guide is a planned product, not available here. We will not invent a commercial database that does not yet exist.
When game photos land
If named commercial games get photos later: prefer BoardGameGeek table or box photos with documented permission or a clear reuse license; self-host under staging assets; do not hotlink BGG/CDN files; credit photographer or rights holder and BoardGameGeek with a link to the BGG game page. Do not print “Used with permission” until permission is on file. Until then, omit the photo or use a non-photo abstract placeholder. Game titles remain trademarks of their publishers.