A Way Back Home
A Way Back Home Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
How to Play
In A Way Back Home players will create links between sources of light (stars or lanterns depending on the board). When you light the first stars/lanterns, you will get into negative points, but the more you commit to a single path, the higher you score will be. Don't just focus on a single path though, as intersections help speed things up, and you are more likely to win with multiple lit paths.
Setup
Each player takes the following components:
- 1 player board (if this is your first time playing the game, play on the side with the night sky: Side A)
- 1 bag
- 5 crystals in each of the 6 colours: green, pink, purple, black, orange, blue, and puts them all in their bag, giving them a good shuffle.
- 2 wild crystals (translucent) and places them next to their board for now.
All unused components are returned to the game box, you will not need them.
Now, each player draws three random crystals from their bag and places them in a play area easily accessible to all players, ideally in the middle of your play area. This is the common pool from where all players will be able to take new crystals during the game.
Finally, each player will add the two wild crystals to their bag and give it a good shuffle again.
Determine the starting player by your favourite means. You are ready to play.
Turn Overview
A Way Back Home is played clockwise starting with the starting player. On their turn, each player will perform one of two actions:
- Draw 3 crystals from your bag, or
- Take crystals from the common pool into your bag.
Note that intersections, i.e. spaces that are part of two different paths, can be occupied by a crystal of either colour, and support both paths.
1) Draw 3 crystals from your bag
Draw exactly 3 crystals from your bag. If there are fewer than 3 crystals in your bag, you will not be able to perform this action, and you must perform the other action (take crystals from the common pool into your bag) instead.
After you have drawn 3 crystals, you must place one of them on your board, you may place two, but you cannot place all three of them. The crystal(s) you haven't used must be placed in the common pool.
Placing crystals on your board: in order to score points at the end of the game, you need to get as close as possible to the most valuable space in any of the paths. Please note that you will always score the next unoccupied space along any of the six paths. You start your paths from the centre of the board towards the most valuable space of each of the paths.
After you draw three crystals, you decide which crystal(s) you want to place on your board, and each one is placed on the first empty space of the path matching its colour, nearest to the starting point in the middle of the board. Players are allowed to place two crystals of different colours on the same turn.
Example: You can play a crystal in a space because it is the next empty space on the green path. Later, if you reach the same space with blue, it will count as an occupied blue space.
Example: This player just drew these crystals and decides to place green and orange on the board. They aren't allowed to place all three so the blue crystal is placed in the common pool instead.
Place the crystal(s) you didn't use in the common pool. This concludes your turn. It's the next player's turn.
Wild crystals: wild crystals can be placed on any path, but follow the same rules as all other crystals, i.e., they can only be placed on the next empty space of any given path. Like with other crystals, if you play a wild and another colour, you may place them both on the same path, or separate paths. If ever there is a wild crystal in the common pool, they count as their own colour, and can never be collected in combination with another colour.
2) Take crystals from the pool into your bag
If you chose to take crystals from the pool, you must take all the crystals of a single colour and put them in your bag. Give the bag a good shuffle. This concludes your turn. It's the next player's turn.
NOTE: you cannot choose this action if there are no crystals in the pool.
NOTE: In the rare case when you cannot perform either of the 2 actions (draw or take), you must pass. This is the only way you can pass.
Game End
Any player may declare the end of the game on their turn in which:
- They emptied their bag AND at least one of the paths on their board has reached (or continued past) their zero-point space.
Declaring the end of the game is not mandatory. Players may choose to keep the game going (without telling the other players that their bag has emptied) until a later turn when they meet the condition again, and wish to end the game. If a player continues with an empty bag, by the time it is their turn again they will have to take crystals from the pool and will need to empty the bag anew in order to end the game if they wish to do so.
IMPORTANT: Players are never allowed to look at the contents in their bag, but each player is allowed to count the number of crystals they still have in them. Players are not allowed to ask about the number of crystals in their opponents' bags.
If a player's bag has no more crystals but none of their paths has yet reached a zero-point space, they are not allowed to declare the end of the game and must instead take crystals from the pool into their bag.
If a player has reached (or moved past) a zero-point space, but their bag still has one or more crystals after the player took their action, the game end cannot be declared. The bag must be emptied first.
If the end game has been declared, all other players get one more turn and players then check their scores. The player who declared the game end does not get another turn.
Final Score
Each player now checks the first empty space from the centre for each of their paths and adds/subtracts the scores of those spaces. Note that it is possible for all players to end up with negative points; regardless, the player with the most points (fewest negative points if all are on minus) wins the game. In case of a tie, the winner is the player in playing order closest to the one who declared the end game (or that player wins if they are tied for the win).
Example: In this example, this player will not score anything for black, pink and purple because they have not been started, but they will score 20 for the green, 10 for the orange, and -10 for the blue paths, for a final score of 20 points.
The Boards and Their Place in the Story
Side A
The Tzerzurians have been found and freed. They use their powers to restore the constellations in the sky which makes it finally possible for the people of Zura to navigate their way back home through the desert.
Rules: no additional rules. This is the base-game experience and played as explained in these rules.
Side B
Now that families have been reunited, it is time for the Tzerzurians to reunite with their past, present and future. Players must help them find their way back home to rediscover their place in this world, which has become unrecognisable to them after millennia of imprisonment. With the help of unique characters, players travel the lands of Zura, rekindling ancient lamps as they gain in on mysterious locations, long forgotten...
Rules: when playing with this side of the board you will add the character tiles. These will modify the base game rules, but you will only ever play with one character.
Set-up: exactly like base game plus place one character tile in the common pool. You can choose your favourite, or a random character.
Play: exactly the same as base game. Players either take three crystals from their bag, or they take crystals from the pool. The difference now depends on the character in play and affects action 2) only (Take crystals from the pool).
NEW RULE: If you are unable to perform the "take crystals from the pool" action in its entirety, you must instead perform action 1) Draw 3 crystals from your bag. If you can't perform either action, you must discard the character (return to box) and revert to the original rules (as if you were playing without characters); if you still can't take action 2) now, you must pass.
NEW RULE: If any of the players reaches the building that the active character is looking for, that player takes the character tile and flips it over. It is now worth 1 VP for that player. If that player, in a later turn, moves past the building (placing a crystal on it), they lose that point, and return the tile to the game box. In either case, the rules for action 2) revert to the base game rules.
End Game: no changes.
Scoring: no changes.
The tiles
Each tile changes action 2) as follows (the tiles are shown on the sheet by icons only):
- You must take exactly 2 crystals; they may be of the same or different colours.
- You must take one crystal of each colour currently in the pool.
- You must take all crystals of the colour there is the fewest (at least one) of in the pool (a colour that has no crystals in the pool does not qualify as fewest). If two or more colours are tied for fewest, you can choose which of the tied colours you want to take.
- You must take exactly 5 crystals, but they may be of any colour, i.e., they don't all have to, but may, be of the same colour.
- You must take all crystals of two colours of your choice.
- You must take all crystals of the colour there is the most of in the pool. If two or more colours are tied for most, you can choose which of the tied colours you want to take.