Worker Placement and Variable Turn Order

1. There's a placement which gets you the first player token (Lords of Waterdeep, I think), and it's just clockwise from there. This is best where going first is a big advantage but there are diminishing returns after that.

2. Players go in reverse order of current score. (A number of games.) It's an interesting catch-up mechanic, especially if there are some harder-to-get points that aren't scored until the final reckoning. This makes staying in last place a viable strategy as you focus on those hidden points.

3. Players go in order of "the favor of the gods." There is some placement that improves your favor (i.e. pray at the temple), but the other placements that are the most beneficial tend to hurt your favor. I've seen this somewhere, but I forget where. (If you do this, have a single ladder which represents favor, and you don't count rungs that other players are on. That is, if Fred is one ahead of me on the ladder and Barney is two ahead of me, I pray for 2 points of favor, I pass Fred and Barney as 1 point and then move one more rung for my second point. This has the advantage that there can't be ties, and it means that going last has the one advantage that it's easier to move up on the favor ladder.)

4. Bidding on some other aspect that also determines turn order. There's a Greek mythology game that does this well -- I think it's called Olympus, but BGG is down at the moment. It's not a worker placement game, though, and it might not translate as well to that style.

I didn't see anyone mentioning it, but simply taking turns being starting player is one way. Passing a "starting player" -token around in clockwise order if you want to make it clear who's starting player.

Spending an action to get the starting player token is good but if it continues in clockwise order after that it can often feel a bit unbalanced. I therefore like it when turn order for all players are decided by some given factor in the game, preferably some factor which has a thematic foundation, i.e. the amount of a certain resource (influence/power/wealth etc.). In Nations turn order is determined by military strength which I like.

The game Alchemist uses the first player token which is passed around, but that initial turn order is only used for determining the turn order for the game round. The first player choses his position, going first costs money and going later gives benefits. Then every player choses where to go after that, which decides the turn order for the game round. I know many games use similar mechanisms but I can't think of them right now. I think it's a good way to mitigate the determinism of just passing the first player token around.

Pillars of the Earth has a really interesting mechanic for turn order that combines drawing from a bag and paying money. However, a player has the option of paying the cost or passing. Mr. Vasel will tell you about it here: https://youtu.be/GVsqB-1tigk?t=241

Also, The Capitals has a pretty cool mechanic where turn order cost gets multiplied based on the prior turn. It's a little hard to explain, so just watch this: https://youtu.be/ZKuTpXl5bcM?t=175

I'm particularly fond of the use of time as a concept in turn order in Thebes. Each action you take will use your time and you move your time pawn forward on the time track. You will not be allowed to make another move until you have been passed by all the other players on the time track. This allows for some interesting choices - should I do a mighty but time lengthy action or several smaller less potent actions?

It is less obvious how to implement this is in a WP game. I would love to see an implementation of it though! Perhaps each worker could be placed on the time track?

-Erik