This got me thinking about the games I have set on Mars, which made me think about Mars Needs Mechanics, which features the cringiest “first player” rule I’ve ever seen:
“The First Player Marker is given to the contestant with the best English accent.”
Yeah, but it’s not “Best British Accent”… So someone with a spot-on Mid-atlantic accent would be a contender?
(Though I think most Americans would interpret it as “Best British Accent” or, at least, "Best English accent matching a dialect found in England. Maybe UK readers would also. I’m just a pedant doing pedant things)
Edit: still doesn’t explain what a group of people native to England should do… Other than laugh at the absurdity
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember which game instructs the person to most recently captain a fishing boat to go first; otherwise, just choose randomly
I like that Archaeology has both a suggested “fun” start player picker (last to step in sand) and a “strategy” one (person dealt the lowest total value in their starting hand).
“If there is a tie, the player with the most Trait Card points is the winner. If there is still a tie, the player with the most Population points is the winner. If there is still a tie, then you must immediately order pizza (either a meat lover’s pizza or vegetarian pizza) and play again.”
And from Arboretum:
“In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most species present in their arboretum wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players must each plant a tree. In five years’ time, the player whose tree has grown the tallest wins.”
I’m having trouble with the forum software letting me split this conversation into another thread, but in the meantime, I’ve gone through a couple of games in my collection and this is best one I’ve found so far:
Bridges of Shangrila
Whoever has last reached the peak of Mount Everest using nothing but blue and white checkered stilts carved form the wood of a Mammoth tree is declared the Starting Player. In case of a tie, the wisest player of the group begins the game.
I’m fine with them as a “huh, the rulebook’s silly, let’s just pick a first player” thing. But a few groups I play with insist on actually following the rule. I really dislike that. I don’t want to have a dull conversation about who last climbed a mountain or wrapped a present.