There are a good number of games where turns themselves are generally very fast, but the setup includes a hefty amount of drafting, selection, and/or placement which requires many times more consideration. As it stands, the time limits currently used are not just overly punitive to the starting player (who gets rushed into making a brash and ill-considered decision), but wildly disproportionate because turns are fast while the pre-game considerations are massive. Could a separate pre-game timer be implemented to improve the playing experience of such games?
Well-known examples:
Agricola: 95% of turns don't take more than 30 seconds, but 4 minutes for drafting is hardly even enough to read through and consider 14 or 20 cards' worth of text and abilities.
GWT: 90% of turns can be resolved in a minute or two, since there are typically only 2 or 3 real choices in terms of which space to go to. However, the RTTN board and the bonuses available, the station master tiles and their positions on the track, the layout of the neutral buildings, distribution of hazard tiles, distribution of employees, cards in the cattle market, the offer spaces in Kansas City, and the 12/14? buildings that are used in that specific game interact with your starting hand to make it an incredibly large amount of information to parse and process. I've literally never had enough time to assess the starting board state even when playing on Slow, but I've never once come close to busting my time limit during a regular turn even when playing on Fast.
Gaia Project: Not as extreme, but I'm sure most players need time to examine the layout of planets, the advanced tech tiles available and the positions of the tech tiles, the scoring bonuses for each of the rounds as well as end game, and the bonus tiles available before they choose which faction to pick.
Well-known examples:
Agricola: 95% of turns don't take more than 30 seconds, but 4 minutes for drafting is hardly even enough to read through and consider 14 or 20 cards' worth of text and abilities.
GWT: 90% of turns can be resolved in a minute or two, since there are typically only 2 or 3 real choices in terms of which space to go to. However, the RTTN board and the bonuses available, the station master tiles and their positions on the track, the layout of the neutral buildings, distribution of hazard tiles, distribution of employees, cards in the cattle market, the offer spaces in Kansas City, and the 12/14? buildings that are used in that specific game interact with your starting hand to make it an incredibly large amount of information to parse and process. I've literally never had enough time to assess the starting board state even when playing on Slow, but I've never once come close to busting my time limit during a regular turn even when playing on Fast.
Gaia Project: Not as extreme, but I'm sure most players need time to examine the layout of planets, the advanced tech tiles available and the positions of the tech tiles, the scoring bonuses for each of the rounds as well as end game, and the bonus tiles available before they choose which faction to pick.