The Way Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object
• Setup
• Order of Play
• Victory Conditions
• Variations

Object

The object of The Way is to get from your Start card to your Midpoint card, and back again, before your opponent. By rotating or replacing the various cards that make up the board, each player tries to find The Way while at the same time blocking The Way for the other player.

Setup

1. Shuffle the deck of cards.
2. Place the cards face up in a 5 by 5 matrix. Leave enough space between the cards to allow them to freely rotate.
3. Remove each of the corner cards, and put them back into the deck with the remaining cards. Put the Circle Start card in one corner, and the Circle Midpoint card in the opposite diagonal corner. Put the Square Start card in a remaining corner, and the Square Midpoint card in the last corner.
4. Deal the remaining cards, face down, evenly to each player. One card will be left over, this card is out of the game, to be left face down. Players may examine their own cards.
5. Find two items to use as tokens; such as different color buttons or loose change. Place the Circle player's token on the Circle Start card and the Square player's token on the Square Start card. The loser of the previous game gets first choice of either going first or choosing which piece to play with. If this is the first game, determine who gets this choice randomly.

Card reference (printed diagrams): Square Start card, Square Midpoint card, Circle Start card, Circle Midpoint card.

Order of Play

1. A player may either a) rotate any one card 90 degrees or b) cover any one card with one from their hand. When a card is covered the new card is put directly on top of the old card in any orientation the covering player wishes. A player need not rotate nor cover any card if they do not wish to.
   • Exceptions: a) a player may not rotate or cover a card that the other player is currently on, and b) a card that has already been replaced is locked into place and may not be further rotated, but may be covered again.
2. A player may now move their token from the card it is currently on to an adjacent card that is connected to the current card.
   • Examples: Moving from the left card to the right card.
   • a) Legal Move - the cards are 'connected'.
   • b) Illegal Move - the cards are not 'connected'.
3. Once a player has moved (or decided not to) that player's turn is over, and play proceeds to the other player.
4. The first player to get back to their Start card after having gotten to their Midpoint card wins.

Victory Conditions

1. The Way is played in sets of three games. Winning all three games is a Victory, winning two of the three is a Win. Losing all three games is a Defeat, losing two of three games is a Loss.
2. After the first game the losing player gets to choose either to go first or what piece to play.
3. The cards that were covered (those under newly placed cards) are taken from the board, and along with the one card left out of the game and any extra cards the players haven't played, are reshuffled. From this each player will be dealt their four cards, leaving one to sit out. This results in each board of a set of three games being similar, and means a player must think ahead to the next game when placing a card.

Variations

For advanced players the following variations may be amusing:

1. Use of the One Way Arrows - Players may only move in the direction of the One Way Arrows on cards that have them. This increases the level of complexity, forcing players to consider less direct ways to success.
2. Clockwise Rotation Only - Players may only rotate cards clockwise.
3. Replace not Cover - Instead of covering a card in play with one in your hand players switch cards. When you replace a card the card that would be covered up goes back into your hand, to be used later if desired.
4. Various Variations - One player chooses whether to go first or what piece they play, and the other player chooses which variation will be played. Players may choose either variation, no variation, or all at the same time!