How do you decide who goes first in a board game?
Paste everyone at the table and run one Race. First across the line takes the first turn, and the rest of the finishing order is your full turn order — so seating, turn order and tiebreaks are all settled by a single fifteen-second run that the whole table watches together.
Every board game has a rule for who starts, and most of them are terrible. Highest roll needs a re-roll on a tie. Youngest player never changes. Whoever last ate something spicy starts an argument about what counts as spicy.
Run one race instead. Each player becomes an animal, they run, and the finishing line hands you the entire seating and turn order at once — not just the first player, which is the part the dice-off always leaves unsolved.
The whole order in one run
A roll-off answers one question and leaves you sorting out second, third and fourth by hand. A race ranks every player from first to last in a single go, so turn order, seating order and tiebreak order all come out of the same run.
For games where going first is a disadvantage — worker placement with a first-player penalty, anything with a reverse setup phase — run a Rumble and read the standings from the bottom.
Games this suits
- Heavy euros where first player is worth real points and everyone knows it.
- Card games and party games where the deal order matters more than anyone admits.
- Campaign games — save the link and you have a record of session one's order to rotate from.
- Remote game nights. Send the link and the table watches the same race on their own screens.
Two players at the table
With exactly two of you a coin flip is faster, and you can label the two sides with the actual names instead of heads and tails.
How it works
Paste the players
Everyone at the table, one per line.
Run the race
First across the line takes the first turn.
Play
Seating and turn order, both settled.
Questions
How do you decide turn order in a board game?
Any method that is random and that the whole table watches resolve. A race is both: the order is drawn before the animation and everyone sees the same run.
Can it handle a big group?
Up to 12 players in a Race or a Rumble, which covers any table and most tournaments.
Can we rotate the first player each round?
Run it once and keep the link — the order it produced is fixed, so you can rotate from it. Or run a fresh race each round; it takes seconds.
Does it work for a remote game night?
Yes. The share link replays the identical race for everyone who opens it, on their own device.