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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
Each game in the Game Library is tagged by Game-to-Goal family, so you can filter by the goal you have.
Game titles remain trademarks of their publishers.
Games in the Library, by Mechanic
Each example above has games in the free Game Library with a TABLE plan excerpt. These are starting points, not prescriptions. The goal still comes first.
- Cooperative crisis: Pandemic, Spirit Island, Gloomhaven. All cooperation games.
- Negotiation and trading: CATAN, Sheriff of Nottingham, Monopoly. All negotiation games.
- Limited communication: Hanabi, Mysterium. All communication games.
- Interpretive imagery: Dixit, Mysterium. All perspective games.
- Push your luck: King of Tokyo. All self-management games.
Read more: Choosing a Game for the Goal You Actually Have.