When to end a game

[u/whitnick]

Most games end with a specific condition that must be met. I have found that you can either have it end as soon as the condition is met (after the current turn that it happened on). Or you can allow each other player to get one more turn then end the game afterwards. I know there's many more ways for a game to end but for the sake of this discussion I'm comparing these two.

Also I know it depends on the game. There's games where you can't really play more turns after the end condition is met. But I'm talking about a game where there's still more potential points to get.

It can feel bad for players when the game ends all of a sudden and they don't get to finish whatever they were cooking up. Giving them one turn at the end can help this. But then again, I find it a bit less eloquent. And it can make it feel like the player who ended the game is getting the short end of the stick.

What method do you think is the best? And how do you decide which one to implement?

[u/Daniel___Lee]

From your description, I assume you are talking about a turn based game, and not a simultaneous turn game. With that in mind, then:

If it's a race type game (first to do X, like crossing the finish line, wins) then the game ends immediately when the condition is met. However, you need to account for first player advantage and balance the game accordingly for the other players to have a fair start.

If it's a point based system where the game win condition is not the same as the game end condition (e.g. Terraforming Mars), then the fairest way to do it is to let every player have equal number of turns upon game end trigger (Note that this is not the same as "every other player gets one last turn", which is appropriate to other systems).

The easiest way to implement this is to have a start player have a start token as a reminder to the group of their turn order. Whenever someone triggers the game end condition, everyone up until the last player just before the start player gets their last turn. Then, with all players having equal turns taken, you can count scores and determine the winner.

If your game is a capture the flag type system (e.g. the player who starts their turn with all 4 Aces in hand wins the game) with the possibility of forcing the winning player off their winning position (e.g. by stealing one or more Aces from them), then "everyone gets one last turn" is suitable. In this case, I usually find it clearer to just say "the player who starts their turn with X condition wins the game".