Turn tracking is a table setting that keeps track of whose turn it is and shows it to everyone seated. It exists because Playtest Parlor does not enforce any game's rules -- the turn indicator is shared table state, like a shared counter, not a rules engine deciding who is allowed to act.
Turn tracking is off by default
Most games played here have no turn concept at all, so a new table starts with turn tracking off. With it off, there is no indicator, no End Turn action in the Action Dock, and no End Turn entry on the table's right-click menu -- these are absent, not present and disabled. Clicking a seat in the Players Panel does nothing turn-related while tracking is off.
Turning tracking back off leaves no turn behind: the table forgets whose turn it was, and turning tracking on again later starts with no turn set rather than resuming where it left off.
Turning it on
Open Table Settings, go to the Players tab, and open the Turn Tracking section. Its toggle turns tracking on for the table. Turning tracking on does not assign a turn to anyone -- the first turn is set by a seated player or by a sequence.
Once tracking is on, a Turn Direction field appears in the same section, offering Left and Right. This sets which way the turn advances around the table when a player presses End Turn; it is the same Left/Right choice as the Pass Left / Pass Right actions. See Which way Left and Right go for what Left and Right mean in terms of seating order.
Turn order is ring order
The turn advances to the adjacent occupied seat, in the direction the table's Turn Direction setting names. Unoccupied seats are not part of the ring, so the turn skips over an empty seat to the next seat that actually has a player in it -- the same ring an occupied stack pass travels. For which way Left and Right go around that ring, see Which way Left and Right go; this page does not restate it.
If no turn has been set yet, the first press of End Turn lands on the lowest-numbered occupied seat rather than doing nothing.
Changing the turn
Four surfaces change the turn, and they are not interchangeable -- some set the turn to a named seat, others advance it one step around the ring:
- The End Turn verb in the Action Dock advances the turn to the next occupied seat in ring order. This is the surface to teach a new player. It sits in the dock's Interact-mode no-selection bucket, so it is there whenever you are in Interact mode with nothing selected. If you cannot see it, deselect whatever is selected and check you are in Interact mode. (The table's right-click menu carries the same End Turn entry, doing exactly the same thing, for players who prefer it.)
- Clicking a seat in the Players Panel sets the turn directly to that seat, rather than advancing it.
- A sequence's Change Turn step can either set or advance the turn as part of an automated sequence.
Any seated player may change the turn. Playtest Parlor does not enforce rules, so there is no concept of "only the active player can end their own turn" -- ending or setting the turn is table state anyone seated can adjust, the same way anyone seated can move a piece. The host running the table from the rail may change it too, for the same reason they may move a piece. A plain spectator or a replay viewer cannot.
A turn change made from the Action Dock, the right-click menu, or the Players Panel is exactly one entry on the table's undo stack, and the indicator moves the instant you act rather than waiting for the server's reply -- the same optimistic-then-confirmed pattern every visible table action here follows.
A Change Turn step is different on both counts. The whole sequence run is a single undo entry, so undoing a turn change a sequence made also takes back every other step that run performed. And because the step runs on the server rather than in your browser, the indicator moves when the run lands rather than the instant it starts.
What the indicator shows
Every seat sees the same indicator, in one of three states while tracking is on:
- No turn set -- tracking is on but no turn has been set yet.
- Your Turn -- shown to the seat whose turn it currently is.
<name>'s Turn-- shown to every other seat, naming whoever holds the turn.
While tracking is off, the indicator is not in the interface at all.
When the ring changes
A seat joining, leaving, or switching mid-session can move the turn. These five outcomes cover every case, and none of them is a coin flip -- each preserves the rule that the turn always points at an occupied seat:
| What happens | Effect on the turn |
|---|---|
| A seat joins the table | No change. The new seat simply takes its place in ring order for future advances. |
| A non-active seat leaves | No change. |
| The active seat leaves | The turn advances to the next seat in ring order, resolved against the ring as it stood before the departure -- so it lands on the seat that was genuinely next after the departing one, not on the lowest-numbered survivor. With seats 1, 3, and 5 occupied and the turn on 3, seat 3 leaving puts the turn on 5, not on 1. |
| A player switches seats | The turn moves with them, if it was theirs -- the same way their hand moves with them. |
| The ring empties entirely | The turn clears. There is no seat left to hold it. |
The active seat leaving cannot simply leave the turn where it was: any other choice strands the turn on a seat nobody occupies, and none of the four surfaces above could then move it -- there would be no player left who could press End Turn on that seat's behalf.