History Main / FirstPlayerAdvantageMitigation

* ''TabletopGame/DigimonCardGame'': The memory counter always starts at zero, so whoever goes first will have their turn ended the moment they spend any memory. It's usually enough to hatch a Digi Egg and either Digivolve it twice, or Digivolve it once and play a Tamer or Option. The second player can do a little bit more thanks to however much the first player spent.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Imhotep}}'': The starting player takes 2 stones at the beginning, and each successive player cumulatively gains one additional stone.

* Parodied in WebVideo/ProZD's "learning all the steps in a card game". The first player is playing for the first time, so the other player is telling him about all the phases... only to be told that he has to skip most of them because he's the first player.

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': The first player can't conduct their Battle Phase on their first turn, as they would otherwise get a nigh-unavoidable shot at their opponent's LP. It turned out that the game still had a considerable first-player advantage, so as of the Master Rules 3, the first player's first turn also lacks the draw step.In practice however, the player going second can gain a tremendous advantage, being able to respond to the first player's setup, especially given that monster removal traps have largely fallen out of favor in the meta, and "hand traps" (Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring most notable among them), playable during either player's turn as they are, can disrupt a first turn player's setup. Worse, if the Speed Duel format, perhaps most notably via ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks'', is being followed, starting hands begin at 4 cards per player, which can handicap the first turn player that has to start with said paltry hand and doesn't even get to decide whether to go first or second [[UnluckilyLucky if they win the coin toss]] and they run a deck that benefits more from going second.

** Tournament matches get around this by giving each player an equal number of games as White and Black rather than changing the game, but there's an exception for [[https://www.chess.com/terms/armageddon-chess Armageddon rules]], which are designed to force a decisive result and can't go this route. Instead, they give both sides a bonus with Black's draw odds (meaning black wins if the game result is a draw) being stronger than White's time advantage to compensate for White's first-move advantage.

* Some ''TabletopGame/{{Hex}}'' versions introduce a [[https://www.hexwiki.net/index.php/Swap_rule swap rule]]. If the first player picks an opening that is seemingly powerful, the second player can either swap sides or swap pieces. In general, the first move in the middle of the board tends to be a swap candidate.

** The developers tried a lot of different methods to balance going second before the game went live. One idea was to start the player with a free [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Avatar_of_the_Coin Avatar of the Coin]], a 1/1 minion with no effect. It was removed sometime before the open beta, but [[DummiedOut still exists in the game files]].

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Everdell}}'', the first player starts with 5 cards. For each subsequent step in the turn order, the player in question gets one additional card. This compensates for how the first player gets the first opportunity to visit exclusive locations and achieve events.

* ''LordsOfWaterdeep'': The first player begins the game with 4 coins, and every other player has one more coin than the player going before them (2nd player has 5, 3rd has 6, etc).

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': The first player can't conduct their Battle Phase on their first turn, as they would otherwise get a nigh-unavoidable shot at their opponent's LP. It turned out that the game still had a considerable first-player advantage, so as of the Master Rules 3, the first player's first turn also lacks the draw step. In practice however, the player going second can gain a tremendous advantage, being able to respond to the first player's setup, especially given that monster removal traps have largely fallen out of favor in the meta.

* ''TabletopGame/Arimaa'' has the first player setup their pieces, allowing the second player to notice that the first player is trying a non-standard opening, or to create a response in the setup (e.g. aim their elephant towards the opponent's camel to make it easier to capture).

* The ''Century'' series of board games has starting resources based on player start order but varies based on the installment. In Golem Edition, the start player has more resources. In Eastern Wonders, starting resources seems equal in raw value, but is picked up in reverse turn order, possibly allowing earlier access to a market.

* Players in ''Istanbul'' can move to a location, and other players activating the location's ability need to pay 2 Lira to whomever is there. Because of that, the first player gets 2 Lira, and subsequent players gain an additional Lira than the previous player.

* The end of a ''TabletopGame/{{Splendor}}'' game is triggered once someone reaches 15 points, but the game finishes the round to make sure that every player gets the same number of turns.
* ''[[TabletopGame/VillainousRavensburger Villainous]]'': The player going second starts with one additional Power (currency), and any subsequent players start with two additional Power.

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': The first player can't conduct their Battle Phase on their first turn, as they would otherwise get a nigh-unavoidable shot at their opponent's LP. It turned out that the game still had a considerable first-player advantage, so as of the Master Rules 3, the first player's first turn also lacks the draw step.

* In American Football, the team that wins the toss gets the choice of whether to get first possession. Assuming they choose to go first (most do) the other team picks which goal to defend. Depending on the direction and strength of the wind this can be significant.

* UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} has visitors always go first, balancing this slight advantage against home field advantage.
* UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball: The team that wins the toss gets the choice of whether to get first possession. Assuming they choose to go first (most do) the other team picks which goal to defend. Depending on the direction and strength of the wind this can be significant.

Sometimes, a game was not originally designed with such mechanics, but turns out to have a non-negligible first-player advantage in competitive play. This often leads to the addition of a first-player advantage mitigation rule, which has happened for games from ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' to ''TabletopGame/{{Go}}''. If no such fix is possible, tournaments will have to take into account that games are lopsided in favour of the first player; for instance, TabletopGame/{{chess}} matches usually have an even number of games, with both players getting the same number of games with each colour.

See also ExtrinsicGoFirstRule to figure out who goes first. Compare ComebackMechanic, ExtraTurn and ObviousRulePatch.

* The ''Century'' series of board games has starting resources based on player start order, but varies based on the installment. In Golem Edition, the start player has more resources. In Eastern Wonders, starting resources seems equal in raw value, but is picked up in reverse turn order, possibly allowing an earlier access to a market.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Go}}'', the player with the black stones has an advantage because their going first gives them the initiative. The ''komi'' system was introduced to even things out by giving extra points to the player with the white stones. The exact value varies, but is usually between 5 and 8 points (and usually a half-integer to make draws less likely).

* Some ''TabletopGame/{{Hex}}'' versions introduce a [[https://www.hexwiki.net/index.php/Swap_rule swap rule]]. If the first player picks an opening that is seemingly powerful, the second player can either swap sides or swap pieces. In gneral, the first move in the middle of the board tends to be a swap candidate.

* ''TabletopGame/ResArcana'': For the first round, magic items are drafted in the opposite of the play order. This gives the later players the chance to grab a good one, which helps compensate for how they're at risk for falling behind in the race for Places of Power and Monuments.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/GwentTheWitcherCardGame'', which has the player who ''loses'' the opening coin flip be the one with an advantage, since if they're the first to pass, the other player will be forced to go into the next round with card disadvantage. The player who goes first starts the game with Strategic Advantage on the board to compensate, which can be played to boost one of their units by five points, along with getting an extra mulligan before the first round starts. Strategic Advantage can be replaced by a handful of other Stratagems in the deck editor, most of which play for a five point difference, but others provide more unique benefits, such as putting a card in your hand at the bottom of your deck and replacing it with a card of your choice from your deck.

** The developers tried a lot of different methods to balance going second before the game went live. One idea was to start the player with a free [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Avatar_of_the_Coin Avatar of the Coin]], a 1/1 minion with no effect. It was removed some time before the open beta, but [[DummiedOut still exists in the game files]].
* ''VideoGame/JurassicWorldTheGame'': Averted in the PlayerVersusPlayer battles and a few of the weekly events. Typically the match is over once one team completely knocks out the other, with 3 creatures per team. The player and the AI opponents (as despite all appearances, the player will never actually fight another player even in the PVP battles) are always granted a set number of points to use per turn, which they can use to defend, attack, or reserve (which means their points will be much higher on their next turn). Whoever starts first gets 1 point on their first turn, while whoever goes second gets 2 points on their first turn. In theory the second player should have the advantage, but because both players have their point limits increased by the same amount, it actually puts the second player at a huge disadvantage, simply because the first player will reach the max amount of points allowed per turn sooner than the second player will. To put this into perspective, if the first player reserved their points on turns 1-3, they would go from 1 to 3 to 6, while the second player would only have 4 points at the start of the first player?s third turn, and unless the second player is running a StoneWall of a tank, the two point difference is usually enough for the first player to take down the second player's first creature. The second player then is forced to either attack, at the risk of having fewer points in defense or reserve for the next turn, or do nothing and let the first player build up their points again, and in both cases potentially leaving the second player's second creature incredibly exposed for the first player to take down.

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* UsefulNotes/Baseball has visitors always go first, balancing this slight advantage against home field advantage.

* ''Baseball'' has visitors always go first, balancing this slight advantage against home field advantage.
* ''American Football'': The team that wins the toss gets the choice of whether to get first possession. Assuming they choose to go first (most do) the other team picks which goal to defend. Depending on the direction and strength of the wind this can be significant.

* To mitigate the first player's tempo advantage in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', Wizards eventually added the rule that the starting player skips the draw step of their first turn.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}'' has a well-documented first-player advantage. Tournament matches get around this by giving each player an equal number of games as White and Black rather than changing the game, but there's an exception for [[https://www.chess.com/terms/armageddon-chess Armageddon rules]], which are designed to force a decisive result and can't go this route. Instead, they give both sides a bonus with Black's draw odds (meaning black wins if the game result is a draw) being stronger than White's time advantage to compensate for White's first-move advantage.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}'' has a well-documented first-player advantage. Tournament matches get around this by giving each player an equal number of games as White and Black rather than changing the game, but there's an exception for Armageddon rules, which are designed to force a decisive result and can't go this route. Instead, they give both sides a bonus, with Black's draw odds being stronger than White's time advantage to compensate for White's first-move advantage.

* Players ''Istanbul'' can move to a location, and other players activating the location's ability need to pay 2 Lira to whomever is there. Because of that, the first player gets 2 Lira, and subsequent players gain an additional Lira than the previous player.

* The developers of ''VideoGame/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft'' knew that the first player would have a tempo advantage, and experimented with ways to give the second player their own advantages to compensate. They ended up going with two: The first is that they start with an extra card in their hand. The other is that they start with a copy of "The Coin", which gives them an extra Mana Crystal for one turn.
* ''VideoGame/JurassicWorldTheGame'': Averted in the PlayerVersusPlayer battles and a few of the weekly events. Typically the match is over once one team completely knocks out the other, with 3 creatures per team. The player and the AI opponents (as despite all appearances, the player will never actually fight another player even in the PVP battles) are always granted a set number of points to use per turn, which they can use to defend, attack, or reserve (which means their points will be much higher on their next turn). Whoever starts first gets 1 point on their first turn, while whoever goes second gets 2 points on their first turn. In theory the second player should have the advantage, but because both players have their point limits increased by the same amount, it actually puts the second player at a huge disadvantage, simply because the first player will reach the max amount of points allowed per turn sooner than the second player will. To put this into perspective, if the first player reserved their points on turns 1-3, they would go from 1 to 3 to 6, while the second player would only have 4 points at the start of the first player?s third turn, and unless the second player is running a StoneWall of a tank, the two point difference is usually enough for the first player to take down the second player?s first creature. The second player then is forced to either attack, at the risk of having fewer points in defense or reserve for the next turn, or do nothing and let the first player build up their points again, and in both cases potentially leaving the second player?s second creature incredibly exposed for the first player to take down.