Turn Taking

Letting one player do some action or actions before letting other players act.

Many games only let one player act at a time. This Turn Taking makes the evaluation of actions in the game easier to do, since all players can supervise each other. Further it lets each player have control over what to do without having to keep track of what the other players are doing at the same time.

Examples

Many classic Board Games, including Chess, Go, and Hnefatafl, alternate between two players that can make their moves. In constract, Diplomacy] is a turn-based game without Turn Taking as all players do their turns simultaneously. Puerto Rico as a week form of Turn Taking: a round consists of each player in turn choosing an action that they wish to have performed. The action chosen by the first player is however performed by all players before the next action is chosen and so on until all players have chosen actions (part of the challenge of the game lies in that the choosing player gets a bonus and not all actions occur each round).

Some games have Turn Taking but may let the same player do several turns in a row depending on the game state. For example, Golf uses Turn Taking where the player the farthest from the hole has the turn until all players have hit the ball into the hole. Eight-ball in contrast lets a player continue to make turns until he or she has committed a foul or has fails to legally pocket a ball. Spin the Bottle uses randomness to determine whose turn it is next and players may play a complete game session without having a turn. Agricola and Carolus Magnus are examples of games where players can intentional make plans for being able to both the last turn in a round and the first in the next, setting up a flip-flop situation.

Using the pattern

The pattern Turn-Based Games discusses the general effects of dividing games into different parts where some actions are possible and others not.

Interruptible Actions

Turn Taking in Turn-Based Games may occur on many levels and is more often done in rounds, segments, and phases than in turns. This allows players more chances to perform actions, including interrupting Interruptible Actions and increasing possibilities for reasonable waiting times in Synchronous Games, and can modulate actions such as Capture. Many times the Turn Taking for interrupting actions is not explicitly called out in game play every time they occur but players have to individually claim them within a reasonable Time Limit.

The order in which Turn Taking takes place can be varied in several different ways. The Turn Taking can be constructed so that every player gets one turn before the Turn Taking process begins to repeat or is reset (with possible Ultra-Powerful Events interjected), that players can have several turns as long as they have some form of Limited Resource, or simply uses continuously use Randomness to determine who has the next turn. Having each player get one turn in a larger cycle provides a sequential turn-taking cycle with the round-robin sequences as the most common and causing "hit left; dodge right"patterns to emerge. Other sequential orders can be produced by Bidding or by measuring Resources or Score values, of which the latter can be used to have Balancing Effects.

Turn Taking in Real-Time Games is not common and most often reserved for Negotiation in Trading where players must do some form of Resource Management to conduct the trade. Putting a Time Limit on a player in Turn Taking creates a form of sequential Tick-Based Game. It is also possible to construct sort of Tournaments from Quick Games by allowing the players to take turns in playing their game instances and comparing the overall results.

These consideration is of primary interest for Multiplayer Games since the "problems" of Downtime and Analysis Paralysis does not typically affect Single-Player Games.

Analysis Paralysis can occur as soon as Turn Taking is used in Multiplayer Games but can be further encouraged by many other patterns (e.g. Action Programming, Budgeted Action Points, Cognitive Engrossment, Predictable Consequences, and Stimulated Planning).

Can Be Instantiated By

Dedicated Game Facilitators, Game Masters

Can Be Modulated By

Balancing Effects, Budgeted Action Points Time Limits, Units

Consequences

Having Turn Taking in games make them into Turn-Based Games of one form or another and is likely to have many of the typical characteristics of these types of games (e.g. limiting Freedom of Choice since one cannot act whenever one wants and potentially creating Analysis Paralysis without the presence of any other specific pattern). Turn Taking modulates Multiplayer Games by allowing players to separate their activities during gameplay into planning what to do, performing the planned actions, and observing the effects of the actions (this can become intermixed if players have a possibility of making several different turns, e.g. through Budgeted Action Points or having many Units). The planning can be done in other players' turns to a certain extent (depending on the presence or not of Predictable Consequences and Limited Foresight, and in this sense Turn Taking can support Stimulated Planning. Turn Taking does however also modulate Predictable Consequences since players can have more or less good knowledge in which order turns may be made (depending on if a game has a fixed or flexible turn order). Also for Multiplayer Games, Turn Taking not modified by Time Limits can lead to Analysis Paralysis. Since this can give other players Downtime, they may start to use Guilting as a way of Self-Facilitating the game flow.

Turn Taking can both relieve and create Tension. Players may be relieved from Tension since they do not have to consider that The Show Must Go On while it is their turn and from having Downtime when it is not their turn. The latter can however also create Tension to others due to Analysis Paralysis. Tension may also be caused by having to wait while Anticipation, Hovering Closures, and Interruptible Actions exist. Having Turn Taking may cause the players not having their turn to have Downtime, which can be used to gain Game State Overview or act as Spectators to the active player's actions in order to deduce possible secret tactics and Unknown Goals.

In games where the order in which Turn Taking takes place players may have two turns after each other. These flip-flop events usually give significant advantages to the player and if they can be the cause of Stimulated Planning this is one way to achieve Game Mastery in the game. Carolus Magnus Agricola

Turn Taking can be enforced by Dedicated Game Facilitators but also exist in most Self-Facilitated Games. As the other players can help and supervise the actual handling of physical game elements used by the active player, Turn Taking supports Self-Facilitated Games and may let every player take part in Storytelling or let every players temporarily take the role of the Game Masters.

Turn Taking can be used to create civilized Negotiation, for example in Bidding, and thereby encourage less pressurized Social Interaction.

Can Instantiate

Interruptible Actions, Role Reversal,

Potentially Conflicting With

Real-Time Games

Relations

Can Instantiate

Analysis Paralysis, Interruptible Actions, Role Reversal, Self-Facilitated Games, Stimulated Planning, Tension, Turn-Based Games

with Analysis Paralysis

Downtime, Guilting

with Multiplayer Games

Analysis Paralysis, Downtime

Can Modulate

Multiplayer Games, Predictable Consequences

Can Be Instantiated By

Dedicated Game Facilitators, Game Masters

Can Be Modulated By

Balancing Effects, Budgeted Action Points Time Limits, Units

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

Real-Time Games, Tension, The Show Must Go On

History

A renamed version of the pattern Turn Taking that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.