Jenks
United Kingdom
Carterton
Oxfordshire
Maybe one day...
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I'm editing a set of rules for a game in which there are square tiles laid out in a grid. Things can effect other things in orthogonally adjacent squares. I think that this is such a common concept in boardgames nowadays that is doesn't need clairifying as meaning "not diagonally." Am I right?
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Regional Man of Mystery
New Zealand
Christchurch
try the other overtext
No, nothing to see here
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But I didn't till I played a lot of boardgames
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Jonathan Tullsen
United States
Tigard
Oregon
Soli deo gloria!
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
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I used to have no idea what it meant
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T. R.
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future. H.G. Wells
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. Chief Seattle
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I think you just spent more time writing up this question and poll than it would take to include the definition in the rulebook.
Those who are familiar with the word can overlook the two word definition, those unfamiliar with the word may overlook the rule entirely.
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Aaron Morgan
United States
Sacramento
California
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I know what it means, but wouldn't think of using the word in a ruleset without explaining it.
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Andy Andersen
United States
Newark
Delaware
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It's sexy.
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It should be explained. "Orthogonal" is not a very common word; it appears to have a somewhat specialized use in board games; and anyway, "not diagonally" is not that hard to write!
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Brook Gentlestream
United States
Long Beach
California
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I first found this in a PnP rulebook. I knew what it meant just fine, but still found it a very odd way to describe something in a game rulebook (without any further explanation).
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Joe Salamone
United States
Aggravating people worldwide since 1964
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I know what it means. But why not add the extra explanation? It won't hurt anything.
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Anthony
United States
Lawton
Oklahoma
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While I know what it means, not everyone will know it deals with the musculoskletal system and which bones are next each other.
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Kent Reuber
United States
San Mateo
California
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I knew about orthogonal orientations, but I have a physics degree. If I were writing rules for gamers I'd just use "adjacent", then explain that diagonal areas (or two areas sharing only a corner if the areas are irregular) do not count as adjacent.
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Ben Pinchback
United States
Romeo
Michigan
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Yoren wrote: While I know what it means, not everyone will know it deals with the musculoskletal system and which bones are next each other.
Yes, the orthogonal surgeon did a nice job on my knees! 
I'd include at least a picture. Don't leave things to chance.
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A small illustration to show what is meant never hurts
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Freelance Police
United States
Palo Alto
California
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Yoren wrote: While I know what it means, not everyone will know it deals with the musculoskletal system and which bones are next each other.
Last time I used it was in trig. There you go -- your tax dollars at work educating kids to learn an obscure game term when they could be spending their math time learning personal investing and supply and demand curves.
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Anthony
United States
Lawton
Oklahoma
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All of my poor punning aside, I think you should explain it and skip the Orthogonal wording as not everyone will know that word and you would like it to be as acessible to as many as people as possible even though you may end up using less precise wording than you would perfer.
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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Just because I and others know what it means doesn't mean you shouldn't explain it.
Always assume you've got at least one new game player buying your game.
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Peter Collins
Arlington
Washington
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By orthogonally adjacent, do you mean, "adjacent along an edge, not merely at the corners"?
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Kathy Sheets
United States
Port Saint Lucie
Florida
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I never came across this term until I started board gaming. Include a definition or example.
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T. R.
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future. H.G. Wells
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. Chief Seattle
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I was explaining a game, used the word orthogonal, and explained what it meant. The guy looked at me and asked "are you sure you're using that word correctly?" Then he thought about it a bit more and said, yeah I guess that makes sense.
So there you go, even people who know what the word means might have difficulty translating it to boardgaming.
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Alfred Wallace
United States
State College
Pennsylvania
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Somewhere on here, I think buried in the Abstracts subdomain, there's a bitterly obnoxious debate over what this word means. Somebody had a very idiosyncratic definition.
Also: Some subset of the "Yes, and don't need it explain[ed]" respondents might think they know what it means, but are wrong. Keep them in mind, too.
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I was somewhat surprised at the term when I first saw it used in board games, because it diverts from the mathematical meaning of the word orthogonal. Outside math and games, the word is not in common use, so I'd explain it.
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Jerry Martin
United States
Loveland
Colorado
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I agree you should explain in the rule book. I know what it means, but it is because of board games.
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Joshua Wood
Australia
West End
Queensland
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I think you need to explain what the term means. A newbie picking up the game will not be likely to understand what you are talking about.
Not having seen the term before in a board game context I wondered what the term meant. I wondered, "orthogonally adjacent to what aspect of the square?" For example adjacent diagonal squares are orthogonally adjacent to the diagonals of the center square.
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Paul Doherty
United States
McKinney
Texas
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The way I always explain the orthogonally adjacent thing is by saying, "it means things are only adjacent if they're connected North-South or East-West"
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I think you are making it sound far more complicated than it really is, 'orthogonally adjacent' would mean that the objects share a side whether that be two tiles, two pieces on chess board squares,or whatever and 'diagonally adjacent' would mean they do not share a side...This is my understanding, but I am happy to be corrected, if it is actually more complicated than that!
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