First Player Picker

Because the rulebook is no help

Almost every box says something like the player who most recently visited a farm begins. It is a charming line and it settles nothing — either two people have a claim or nobody does, and either way you are three minutes into an evening that has not started.

A phone on the table ends it. Everyone reaches in, holds still for a moment, and one ring lights up. There is no case to argue with, because nobody chose anything.

Two ways, because one is never enough

Fingers on the screen is the one you want at a table. It needs a touchscreen and at least two fingers — a mouse produces a single pointer no matter how many people are gathered round the laptop.

The list draw works everywhere and does something the fingers cannot: it gives you the whole turn order, not only the first name. That is the argument you would have had next, and you can paste the names straight out of the group chat — a pasted list splits itself across the rows.

An honest shuffle

A draw is the one thing a tool like this can quietly get wrong. The usual shortcut is to sort the list with a comparison that answers at random. It looks right, it is one line long, and it is skewed: a random comparator breaks the assumptions a sorting algorithm makes, so the distribution depends on which algorithm the browser happens to use, and it is not even in any of them.

This one walks the list from the back and swaps each entry with a randomly chosen earlier one — Fisher-Yates. Every arrangement is as likely as every other. Nobody at your table will ever notice the difference, which is exactly why it is worth doing properly.

What to do once you know

Going first is worth more in some games than others — in Mancala it is worth a great deal, and the usual fix is to play two games and swap. If the problem is not who starts but who takes forever once they have, the turn timer is the other half of this toolbox.

Splitting into sides rather than taking turns? The team randomizer deals the same names into even teams.

Frequently asked questions

How does the finger picker work? Everyone puts one finger on the shaded area. Each finger gets its own numbered ring. Once at least two are down, a ring starts closing around each of them, and after about two and a half seconds one is chosen at random. Adding or lifting a finger starts that wait again, so nobody can sneak on at the last moment.

Why does nothing happen when I use a mouse? A mouse only ever produces one pointer, and the picker needs at least two. On a laptop or desktop use the draw from a list underneath, which works the same way and gives you the turn order as well.

Is the draw actually random? Yes. Each finger and each name has exactly the same chance, and the list is shuffled with the Fisher-Yates method rather than by handing a random comparison to a sort function, which is the common shortcut and is not evenly distributed.

Can it give the whole turn order, not just the first player? The list draw does. It shuffles everyone and shows the full order, first name highlighted. That saves the second argument, which is who follows the person who won the first one.

How many players can it handle? The finger picker takes up to ten fingers, which is more than any screen you can crowd around. The list takes up to twenty-four names.

Is anything stored or uploaded? No. There is no account and no server. The picker forgets everything the moment you close the tab.

Also in the toolbox: boards to print and score sheets that add up as you type, and games to play in the browser when there is nobody at the table at all.