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Most contemporary board games have a turn-based system. This is a category of ludic sequence made up of a succession of chosen or prescribed actions that one player will perform before handing over to the next player and so on. Putting this category of device in action within the broader framework of the gaming encounter (Goffman 1961) involves considering how these elements of action relate to those of the conversation and the particular social world that frames it (Barbier 2018; Hofstetter 2020). This article seeks to describe how this category of active player, though derived from rules, will structure the exchanges between participants. The article will draw on descriptions of how the sequential category (Evans & Fitzgerald 2017) of the active player is expressed in situations, in particular the importance of ‘doing being ordinary’ (Sacks 1985), which will allow players to mark or identify the playful sequences in the interaction.