January 9, 2025: Who Goes First?

[RoboAdmin]

January 9, 2025: Who Goes First?

Read this article on the Illuminator.

[scimon]

Tagentially related but here's my thought for a first turn rule for Monopoly.

Seat everyone in age order youngest to oldest.
Youngest goes first.
Each other player can only start taking turns when the player before goes to jail or passes Go.

It might help if you're having problems explaining to grandpa why you don't own a house yet ;)

[RogerBW]

Sometimes being first player is a big advantage, of course.

Mostly in practice I use a "fingers on the phone" app (Chwazi is popular, but I quite like Fingers). Some years ago Ted Alspach of Bézier Games brought out "Start Player", a deck of cards with first player rules: pick a card, and that rule determines first player for the next game. You can see some examples at https://boardgamegeek.com/image/414203/start-player .

[ed_hammerbeck]

In the game, Azul, the player who most recently visited Portugal goes first.

[RobKamm]

I love the thematic first-player choice options, but for us the most practical solution is the Chwazi app on a phone.

[Mack_JB]

Fleet Commander: Genesis has a tongue-in-cheek rule that the last player to observe gravitational waves goes first ... otherwise roll the dice and see who scores higher.

[acroyear]

One case where the rule is built into the game's model is AH's History of the World. The societies all have to come out in the (relative) historical order, so who goes first each round changes depending on what cards each one has.

[Alden Loveshade]

GURPS (Players at the Table): Basic Speed for combat-oriented and many other games. Or maybe randomly left to right or right to left, or whatever seems funniest, for comedy games. For online, see Play by Post

Play by Post: Order of posting. Sometimes exceptions based on circumstances, but usually whoever posts first

Munchkin: Dice roll, or whoever gets the biggest laugh

Monopoly, Backgammon, and just about anything else (other than Chess or Checkers): Dice roll

[PracticalM]

Who goes first and What goes second.

[Frisbeedragon]

In our family, our favorite is from the kids' game Herd the Sheep. The instructions say the first player is the one who has most recently "stroked a sheep." That translation from the German sounds funny, and it's kind of a game in itself to remember the last time you even saw a sheep.

IIRC, Forbidden Island has the first player as the one who has most recently visited an island, which is also good.