The following is a list of all board game mechanics I know in this category, and that aren’t too niche. Card game mechanics are also included. I’m posting this mainly for my own reference.

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Action Drafting: Players select from an assortment of Actions in a shared pool. The available Actions are limited in quantity, and once a player has chosen an Action it may not be chosen again.

Action / Event: On their turn, the player plays a card that shows Action Points and an Event. They must choose to either use the Action Points or perform the Event. If they choose to use Action Points, typically the Event may be performed by another player.

Action Points: A player receives a number of Action Points or Operation Points on their turn. They may spend them on a variety of Actions.

Action Queue: Players create Action Queues and perform them in sequence. Queues can either be “Batch” queues, where all actions are executed in sequence, or “Rolling” queues where actions are added to the end of the Queue, and the first action is then executed. Players may each have their own queue of actions, or there may be a shared action queue. Nuclear War is an example of a Rolling queue. Colt Express is an example of a Batch queue. Impulse utilizes a shared rolling queue. Some games utilize a fixed action queue printed to the board, such as in Bus and Dominant Species.

Action Retrieval: Each player has a set of Actions available to them, embodied in cards, tokens, or some other affordance. Once performed, they are spent and may not be performed again until retrieved. Action Retrieval typically is itself an Action, or may take an entire turn.

Action Timer: Players place owned timers on action spaces and pieces and take an action. When the timer runs out, it may be moved to another location to take that action. There are no turns -; players may move their own timers any time after they have expired.

Advantage Token: One player has a token that permits them to do a special Action, or modify an Action. Once used, the token passes to another player.

First used in Storm over Arnhem, this mechanism has been used to great impact in many games since, notably as The China Card in Twilight Struggle.

Auction: Players bid for turn order. A variety of auction mechanisms may be used.

Claim Action: In each round there is a First Player, and turns are taken clockwise from the first player. There is an action that may be taken to claim a place in the turn order (typically, but not always, first) for the next round, with play proceeding clockwise from the First Player. If no one takes the action, turn order remains unchanged.

Command Cards: Players have a hand of cards that allows them to activate and perform actions with a subset of their units.

Follow: One player selects an Action. Other players may then perform that Action, or a modified version of it. This is closely related to Action Drafting (ACT-02) and Role Selection (TRN-10), and is often implemented alongside those systems.

Impulse Movement: A turn is broken up into a series of small Impulses. Depending on their speed, units will be able to move in specific Impulses. An early example of this is contained in Star Fleet Battles.

Interrupts: This is a meta-mechanic for Turn Order. Players may take an action that interrupts the normal turn flow.

Order Counters: Players place “Order Markers” into specific regions (or zone, or hexagon, or square) of the game board, indicating what they want to do in that particular region of the game board. After all markers are placed, they are executed in sequence.

Passed Action Token: Players possess one or more Action Tokens. Those who have an Action Token may take a turn, then they pass the token clockwise, allowing the next player to perform an action. Actions are performed in real time; – there is no pausing and structure within the turn. Typically, to prevent stalling and to keep the game moving, in games with multiple Action Tokens, if both tokens are held by the same player, then they suffer a penalty.

Pass Order: On their turn, players may either take an action or pass. The first player who passes becomes the new first player for the next round. The second player who passes becomes the second player for the next round, and so on. Reversing pass order and turn order is also possible when going later in turn order is more advantageous.

Programmed Movement: Players simultaneously program their movement, and then reveal and execute it. This mechanism tends to promote chaos in a game, and benefits those with good spatial relations. This is a specialized form of the Action Queue mechanism.

Progressive: One player has the First Player token. At the end of the round, the token passes to the player to the left, who becomes the new First Player for that round. During the round, players take turns clockwise around the table. Counterclockwise movement is called “Regressive Turn Order” and can also be included in this category.

Random: Representatives of play pieces or players are randomized, and one is drawn at a time. That player or play piece takes its turn, then a new random draw is made.

Role Order: Players secretly and simultaneously select an action, role, or priority. Then they are revealed, and the actions/roles revealed determine the order in which players act.

Rondel: The available Actions are represented as pie wedges in a circle. Each player has one or more tokens on Rondel’s wedges. On their turn, they may move their token around the Rondel and perform the Action indicated by the wedge where they stop. It is typically more costly to move further around the Rondel.

Simultaneous Action Selection: Players plan their turn secretly and simultaneously. Then, they reveal their plans at the same time.

Stat-Based: The turn order within each Round is set by some statistic relating to the players’ resources or position in the game. A typical case is when turn order is performed in order of current score (as a catch-up mechanism).

Time Track: In this Turn Order mechanism, there is a linear “Time Track” with many spaces. Each player has a marker on the track, which indicates where they are “in time.” Markers farther on the track are further forward in time. The player with the marker lowest on the track (furthest “back in time”) takes the next action. Different actions have different costs in time. The player’s marker is advanced a number of spaces according to the cost of the selected action. Then, the next lowest marker on the track takes an action. It is possible that the same player takes multiple turns in a row. NOTE: If there is a time tracker that does not determine turn order, that does not qualify as using this Time Track turn order mechanism.

Variable Phase Order: Variable Phase Order implies that turns may not be played the same way as before and / or after.

Using Puerto Rico as an example, every turn is different. Depending on who starts selecting the roles and what roles they take, you may have to play the ‘build’ action sooner than you’d wish. In other games, you may be denied from taking certain action.

Most games with limited action and any game without a static game turn order fall under this ‘mechanism’. Use of variable player turn order are not Variable Phase Order games.

Worker Placement: A stylized form of Action Drafting, players place tokens (typically the classic person-shaped “meeple”) to trigger an action from a set of actions available to all players, generally one-at-a-time and in turn order. Some games achieve the same effect in reverse: the turn begins with action spaces filled by markers, which are claimed by players for some cost. Each player usually has a limited number of tokens with which to participate in the process, although these may increase as the game progresses.

There is usually(*) a limit on the number of times a single action may be taken. Once that limit for an action is reached, it typically either becomes more expensive to take again or can no longer be taken for the remainder of the round. As such, not all actions can be taken by all players in a given round, and “action blocking” occurs. If the game is structured in rounds, then all actions are usually refreshed at the start or end of each round so that they become available again.

From a thematic standpoint, the game pieces which players use to draft actions often represent “workers” of a given trade (this category of mechanism, however, is not necessarily limited to or by this thematic representation). In other words, players often thematically “place workers” to show which actions have been drafted by individual players. For example, in Agricola each player starts with two pieces representing family members that can be placed on action spaces to collect resources or take other actions like building fences. When someone places a piece on a given space, that action is no longer available until the next round.

Keydom, which was published in 1998, is widely recognized as the first of the worker placement genre of games. Other early design experiments with the mechanism include Bus (1999) and Way Out West (2000). Well known examples of worker placement include Agricola (2007), Caylus (2005) and Stone Age (2008).

Variable with dice: Workers are represented by dice whose pip values impact play. Kingsburg and Alien Frontiers are examples of this mechanism.

Variable with different worker types: Workers can differ in abilities, or can be upgraded and downgraded, or are valid for placement in different areas and buildings. Games that implement this mechanism include Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery and The Manhattan Project.