It’s game time and everything is set up… so… who goes first? Well, most games are likely to give you a rule on the first player so let’s jump in and we’ll go from the sublime to the ridiculous with a few stops on the way.
It’s a classic
This is where you’ll find the standard ways to go first… here’s a selection of them.
Like most card games Uno (made sense to start with Uno, well, who else would be number one?) has a simple rule, left of dealer. This is pretty standard for most card games… the weird thing is it tells you to choose a dealer. So… if you want to go first…
White always goes first in Chess, or if you’d like it in more detail. White goes first and black goes second. There is an inherent advantage in going first in chess so who gets to play as white? Toss a coin or draw lots is normal so really first is randomly chosen. This all began in 1889 when the first World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, stated this as the rule.
Age can be the deciding factor for instance in Guess Who? the youngest player goes first, there are a lot of games that state this, normally due to the inherent first player bias in these types of games. If the first player is more likely to win then giving that to the less experienced player seems fair.
Draw a letter tile and whoever is closest to the first letter of the alphabet goes first, that’s the Scrabble way. Redraw on matching tiles then place them back in and crack on with the game. Scrabble basically has its own built in lot system so uses that!
Qwirkle is Scrabble for those that don’t like to spell. The game is all about building sets of tiles with either the same colour and different shapes or the same shape and different colours, so the player with the biggest set goes first. If that’s the same then it’s the oldest player.
In Pandemic everyone starts with a hand of city cards and each of them has the population of that city listed on it, the highest city population goes first. So really just a lotto, come on Matt, you can do better than this! Luckily he has, check out later on.
Project L is a modern classic and has ‘First Player’ on one of the player boards so it’s a random draw for the first player position. Shuffle up them boards and hand them out and let fate decide.
Grubs Up!
There’s an obvious call to make when there is food involved and most games go that way, for instance Nice Egg! keeps it simple and whoever has eaten a fried egg most recently goes first. Funghi on the other hand gets a bit more specific and it’s the last player to have mushrooms for dinner that goes first. Had them for lunch or tea or breakfast? Tough.
Wonder Woods is also all about mushroom picking too but goes for the person who has most recently gone mushroom picking who gets the first turn.
If you’re a parent with a competitive kid who is a picky eater then try Abandon all Artichokes as whoever most recently ate a cooked green vegetable goes first.
The Elephant in the room…
Animals are cute. So a lot of games about animals have cute first player rules, here’s a few of them!
Cascadia has a bunch of animals in it so they go for whoever has most recently seen any of the wildlife that features in the game is first, the problem is does a picture or a video count as if you’re in the wrong part of the world you may never have seen them directly. If it does, well, at this point the cards with pictures of all the animals are right in front of everyone so… hmm… High Rise Penguins does the same but sticks to penguins…
Barenpark is all about Bear Parks so they stick to the nice and simple ‘player to most recently have visited an animal park’ will go first.
There are so many cat games we could have just done a bunch of these in this post but here’s some of the best starting player rules across some of them… Cobra Paw is the person with the smallest paws goes first, awww! Calico, the cat and quilt game is whoever most recently petted a cat goes first. Mlem takes it up a notch and it’s whoever most recently cleaned the litter tray goes first. Truly a friend to those felines, worthy of going first!
Rhino Hero takes a different tact and goes toward the superhero route so whoever did a good deed most recently goes first.
On yer bike!
Travel and locations feature heavily in games so let’s take a look at some of their first player rules.
Azul is all about Portuguese tile laying (Azulejo) so its rule is whoever visited Portugal most recently goes first. I love teaching the game and asking this question and if nobody has, then I start to pack the game away…
Rebirth is set in Scotland so when playing the starter game it’s whoever visited Scotland last goes first. When you flip the board to the expert variant then it’s Ireland so guess what the rule is then. Question is though, what if you’re playing in that country, who goes first then?
Sagrada is themed about making stained glass windows in the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona so they opted for the person to most recently visit a cathedral.
If you’re playing a game with a bunch of people who travel a lot then don’t pick Ticket to Ride. The base game rule is the most experienced traveler goes first. I’ve seen people get stuck at this point as they try to figure out who has traveled more between them. Ticket to Ride Europe is easier, tot up the number of European countries you’ve visited and whoever has been to the most goes first.
Hellapagos is set on a deserted island so the player to go first in this game is the one who looks most like a castaway, cheeky!
You What?
Now this is the bit you’ve been waiting for, the all out weird and wonderful ones that just don’t belong anywhere else, we wouldn’t blame you for skipping to this section.
I took a look at the Forbidden Series by Matt Leacock and expected something boring like Pandemic but this time he was a bit more creative. In Forbidden Island he kept it simple and the last person to visit an island goes first. Forbidden Desert is next in the series and as one of the new mechanics is thirst then it’s the thirstiest player that goes first, quite easy to figure out in a cafe, just ask the table if anyone needs a drink! After that it’s Forbidden Sky and that’s just the last to have traveled by air transport. Forbidden Jungle is the most recent and has the wonderful last to have touched a tree goes first.
Sticking with the cooperative games we have Sub Terra up next where you are all trying to escape from a cave and so the player who has most recently ventured underground is thematically the first player. I’ll also mention Wilmot’s Warehouse where it’s the Chance and Counters employee that goes first, no, sorry, the most enthusiastic worker… oh yeah, same thing.
Call to Adventure is all about fantasy novels so aptly if you’re the most recent player to finish reading a novel, you’re first.
Here’s two that are closely related… Cards against Humanity has the rule that whoever most recently pooped goes first, unless you’re Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman always goes first no matter how recently he pooped. Plague Inc. has the rule that the player who most recently cleaned their hands goes first… I recall a lady saying that her partner had just been to the toilet and he just blushed. She went first.
A few more odd ones, Clank! is all about being quiet and not waking a dragon so the sneakiest player goes first. Death by Coconuts has the oldest player going first, why? As they’ve got the least amount of time left on earth, it’s only fair.
Exploding Kittens suggests a few ideas for first player choice but leaves it up to you, they suggest, most excited, most intimidating odour and shortest spleen. You figure that out.
Finally, one of my favourites is Everdell, it’s the simple, yet effective ‘humblest player goes first’ rule. Try declaring you’re the most humble and you won’t go first but if you all insist the others are the most humble then it can be tricky getting the game started…
Still undecided?
Why not ask a member of our staff who goes first instead, we’ll be happy to name something random… if we’re feeling particularly evil we may suggest you have a game of Diplomacy to decide.
Any way, does it really matter who goes first? The fact you are all together playing a game is the important thing and it’s the winner that counts… (that’s a cunning segue into next week’s blog…)