Who goes first?
From the publisher’s rulebook

Who goes first in Mage Knight Board Game?

WizKids English Rulebook and Walkthrough, 2011

Mage Knight Board Game standard edition box

Each Round, the player who took the lowest-numbered Tactic card takes the first turn. Before that, players pick Tactics in order of lowest Fame; at the start everyone has 0 Fame, so ties go to the player whose Round Order token is lower in the column.

Official tie-break or fallback

Ties in Fame when choosing Tactics go to the player whose Round Order token is in the lower position.

Rule details

Full game: players determine an order for choosing Heroes (the Rulebook gives no method), and Round Order tokens are stacked in that order with the first picker on top.

First (Walkthrough) game: the Round Order tokens are randomized during setup, and the player whose token is last picks a Tactic first.

After Tactics are chosen, the Round Order tokens are rearranged by Tactic number, lowest on top; that is the play order for the whole Round.

Source & edition

All 3 WizKids starting rules

Image: © WizKids / Vlaada Chvátil · WizKids

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

More starting rules

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.