BETA Library Search Syntax

You can use keywords to find library items with precision. Some examples are below:

Note: This library syntax search feature is currently in BETA. Due to the complicated nature of the system, there may be bugs. Please report any bugs you find.

Name and Description

You can search for words that appear in the name or description of library items by using the name: or desc: keywords. Using the text: keyword will search in both.

You can enclose text in quotes to find an exact phrase. For example, to find the exact phrase "battle for control" in the description, you would use desc:"battle for control".

The search will also attempt to also attempt to match words with the same root words. The same search as above (desc:"battle for control") would also match an item with "battling for control" in the description.

Note: currently the system will only search for whole words, not parts of a word. This will be fixed in a future update.

`name:root`

Finds all items with "root" in their name.

`desc:dungeon`

Finds all items with "dungeon" in their description.

`text:"role-playing"`

Finds all items with "role-playing" in their name or description.

Item Types

You can search for items based on their type.

To search for item types, use the is: keyword, followed by one of the item types. (book, boardgame, cardgame, or other.)
Some aliases for these are supported, so you can usually type what you're thinking of. As an example, to search for card games, you can use is:cardgame, is:card-game, or is:cg.

`is:book`

Finds all books.

`is:cg`

Finds all card games (using short syntax.)

`is:board-game`

Finds all board games.

Item Tags

To search for items based on their tags, you'll need to know the exact slug title of the tag you want. This is done by converting everything to lower-case, removing all punctuation, and replacing all spaces with hyphens. (-).
For example, the tag Dice: d6 would become dice-d6.

Once you've done that, you can use the tag: keyword to find tags.

`tag:dice-d6`

Finds all items that have the "Dice: d6" tag.

`tag:steady-hands`

Finds all games that require steady hands (and have been tagged as such.)

`tag:call-of-cthulhu`

Finds items belonging to the Call of Cthulhu family.

Play-time and Player Count

You can search based on the player count and play-time of games.

Using the players: keyword will filter for any games that can be played with that amount of players. A search for players:1 will find all games that can be played solo, as an example. It won't exclude games that can be played with more or less players, as long as it support the number you provide.

You can search for games playable in a certain amount of minutes using the time: keyword. Some items entered in our database have an average playtime, and some also have a maximum play time. This search term will filter based on the items maximum playtime (if it exists) or on the average playtime (if it doesn't.)

As an example: searching for time:30 will attempt to find games that are playable within 30 minutes maximum. It will find games with a maximum play time of 30 minutes or lower. If games don't have a maximum play time set, it will check their average play time instead.

`players:1`

Finds games that support solo play.

`players:4`

Finds games that support 4 players.

`time:20`

Finds all games that have a playtime set that can be played in 20 minutes or less.

Advanced Features

You can combine search operators using boolean logic to creature powerful search queries.

By default, every search term you enter is combined. All of them must match to find an item.
If you wish to search over a set of options or choices, you can put the special word or / OR between them.

You may nest conditions inside parentheses ( ) to group them together. This is most useful when combined with the OR keyword.

All keywords can be negated by prefixing them with a hyphen (-). This inverts the meaning of the keyword to reject items that matched what you’ve searched for.
Loose text words can also be inverted with -.