Random Turn Order Generator

A small ritual that costs more time than it should

Deciding who goes first is the last thing that happens before a game starts, and it reliably takes longer than anyone expects. Rolling dice around the table produces ties that need re-rolling. Traditional tie-breakers — youngest first, whoever last visited a bakery, whoever most recently fed a cat — are entertaining once and tiresome by the third session.

A shuffle produces the entire order in one step, with no ties possible, and puts it on screen where everyone can see it for the rest of the game.

First-player advantage is real

Going first is an advantage in a great many games. In chess, White’s edge is measurable across large numbers of recorded games. In abstract strategy games generally it is often decisive enough to require a compensation rule.

Modern board games take it seriously enough to design around it. Some give the last player extra resources, some let later players choose their starting position, some stagger the setup. The existence of those rules is the clearest evidence that the advantage is not imaginary.

Where a game has no such compensation, the fairest available response is to make sure the same person does not go first every time — which means drawing the order rather than defaulting to whoever sits nearest the box.

Every ordering, equally likely

The shuffle is Fisher–Yates, the standard correct algorithm: walk the list and swap each position with a randomly chosen one at or before it. Every possible ordering results with identical probability.

The tempting variant — swapping each item with any position in the whole list — is subtly biased, producing some arrangements more often than others. It is a well-known implementation trap precisely because the output looks fine and the flaw only appears across many runs.

Redrawing between rounds

Whether to redraw depends on the game. Many specify that turn order passes clockwise, or is set by score, or reverses each round; in those cases the rules have already decided and the draw is only for the first round.

Where the order is genuinely arbitrary each round, redrawing spreads any first-player advantage around and stops one player benefiting from the same position all evening. It costs a few seconds, which is a good trade in a long game.

Late arrivals

Someone turning up after the order is set should normally be added at the end. Redrawing the whole order mid-game moves everyone for reasons that have nothing to do with the game itself, and it tends to annoy whoever had drawn a good position.

The exception is a game that has barely started, where redrawing is cheap and nobody has invested in their position yet.

Keep it visible

The numbered order stays on screen, which sounds trivial and prevents the most common turn-order failure: three players into a round, nobody can remember who is next. A visible list settles it instantly, particularly in games with long turns where several minutes pass between a player’s go and the next one.

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Order in games with asymmetric roles

Some games give players different roles, factions or starting positions, and those are usually more consequential than turn order. Drawing them at random has the same benefit and the same rationale: nobody chose, so nobody can be accused of choosing well.

A common approach is to draw turn order first and then let players pick roles in that order, which turns the first-player advantage into a compensating disadvantage — first to play, last to choose. Some games build exactly that trade into their rules.

Putting the roles rather than the players into the list draws the assignment directly, if your group prefers to leave the whole thing to chance.