Who goes first?
From the publisher’s rulebook

Who goes first in Gloomhaven?

Cephalofair English original edition

Gloomhaven official game box cover

Players secretly choose two cards and select one as their leading card. Reveal those initiatives and a card for each monster type present; the lowest initiative acts first.

Official tie-break or fallback

For tied players, compare their non-leading cards; if still tied, the players decide. A player acts before a monster type with the same initiative. Players decide ties between monster types.

Rule details

Initiative is determined again each round. A long rest has initiative 99; it can only be chosen when the character has at least two cards in their discard pile.

Source & edition

All 3 Cephalofair Games starting rules

Image: © Cephalofair Games and any cover-art licensors or artists (precise ownership not stated on source page) · Cephalofair Games

If your rules call for a random choice, use the player picker.

Related games and editions

Browse available game rules

Free game-night tools: score keeper · turn timer · dice roller · all tools

Embed this answer on your site

Copy this HTML into a blog post, forum or game café page. It’s plain text with a link back to this rule, so it works almost anywhere. More embed options

Found a different instruction in your edition? Send a correction with the game, edition, and source.