Nobody asked, but I would like to propose that we call these Meeples. We started calling the little people in Carcasonne this on Saturday (eg- "If I place this here, I would get two points and my meeple back") and they really did remind me of the totally cool pieces in Sumera and Europa 1945-2030. I like games with Meeples!
2001, Justin B. Green, "Survive", rec.games.board, Feb 18 2001
After all, in the definition of a swimmer, the meeple is not a swimmer _until_ he jumps in, and the special rules do not take place until a meeple is a swimmer.
2003, Tom Vasel, "Polterdice", rec.games.board, Dec 5 2003
On a turn, a player rolls the eight dice, and splits them up into four pairs – obtaining four "magic numbers". After this, a player may then move up to four of their meeples, using these numbers.
2003, Don Hessong, "Re: Wooden Bits with Detail", rec.games.board, Dec 16 2003
Just to clarify one point, I'm not looking for anything in particular. Castles, trains, horses, people, dinosaurs, space ships, etc. etc. I'm more interested in the degree of detail being meeple-level or better. The castle thingies in Carolus Magnus would be another example, borderline again, but OK.
2007, "It's Key lime pie in a glass", in "Chicago Sun-Times", April 18, 2007
To my luck, I still get to kick some meeple (that's game club lingo for human-like pieces) ass and dine at different, unfamiliar restaurants with my dining [....]
2008, Tracy Fullerton, Christopher Swain, Steven S. Hoffman, Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 2nd Edition, page 141
quoting Alan R. Moon: “On your turn, you draw a tile and play it, and then you can place one of your Meeples or not.”
