Who goes first in Magalon?
Ravensburger ©1998 (German summary; archived) · English
The youngest player begins the first round's faceup magic-card selection, which continues clockwise. Everyone must select a different card value. Once all cards are chosen, the player with the highest value takes the first action turn, followed by the others in descending value order.
Rule details
Being youngest selects who chooses a card first; it does not guarantee the first action turn.
In later rounds, the player who acted last in the previous round, with the lowest selected card, begins card selection. The others choose clockwise, and action turns again follow descending card values.
If all of a player's available card values have already been selected in a round, that player sits out the round and begins card selection in the next round.
Players may choose the order of their own permitted actions within a turn. This does not change the descending-value order of player turns.
Source & edition
- Magalon: preserved Ravensburger German manual, ©1998Ravensburger Spieleverlag; copy hosted by spielen.de · Spielablauf, first-round card selection and action order (p4); next-round selection (p5); Sonderfälle/Hinweise and publisher imprint (p10); setup (p2–3) · Checked 2026-09-26Printed page references: 4, 5, 10
Image: © Ravensburger Spieleverlag; original box illustrators Tim Gill and Mark Holiday · Der Spieleonkel, photograph of the 1998 Ravensburger box
If your rules call for a random choice, use the player picker.
If there’s a tie
The rulebook doesn’t say. If you need a tie-break, pick a player at random.
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