Wanderlust: Discover the World Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
  • Cards Anatomy
• Components
• Game Setup
• Turn Overview
• 1. Acquire a Ticket
• 2. Travel
• 3. Gain Collectibles
  • Get a Souvenir (must be located in a City)
  • Send a Postcard (must be located in a Port)
  • Take a Photo (must be located at a Natural Wonder)
• Fulfilling a Race Objective
• Efficient Planning
• Racing Strategies
• Game End and Scoring
  • Family Friendly Variant: Ages 8-12
• House Rule (Advanced)
• Solo Mode
  • A. Setup
  • B. Automaton Rules
    • Automaton Player Guide
      • 1. Gain Collectibles
      • 2. Travel
    • Reaching a New Destination
  • C. Game End and Scoring
    • Nearest Available Destination
• Icons Overview
  • Available Actions
• Credits

Goal of the Game

WANDERLUST is a fast-paced racing game for 2-5 players. Players will acquire tickets, spend them to travel to different destinations, collect souvenirs, send postcards and take photos, all the while, encounter new people and make friends that will help them achieve their goals.

The first player to achieve two objectives triggers the end of the race. The player with the most Victory points is declared the winner!

Cards Anatomy

Destination card — Available action, Destination type, Destination name, Destination zone color.

Encounter card — Encounter title, Card bonus.

Objective card — Objective title, Objective overview, Objective target based on player count, Victory point value for achieving the objective.

Components

• 4x Rulebook (12 pages)
• 4x Reference sheet
• Score sheet
• 6 Double-sided player boards (Passports)
• Playing board (World-map)
• 30 Souvenir tokens
• 20 Postcard tokens
• 12 Camera tokens
• 80 Transport ticket cards
• 68 Destination cards
• 32 Encounter cards
• 3 Destination markers
• 8 Personal Goals cards
• 8 Secret Mission cards
• 8 Race Objective cards
• 6 Travel experience markers
• 18 Race Objective experience markers
• 6 Character meeples

Game Setup

1. Place the World-map in the middle of the table.

2. Each player choose a trotter randomly and take all the matching color components: Meeple - Passport - Experience marker - 3 objective markers.

   Place the player passport with 'Special Skill' side up. The other side is only used for the 'Family-Friendly Variant'.

3. Shuffle the Destination Deck and deal each player 1 card to be placed on their passport as their 'Hometown' (home icon).

   If any player draws a Natural wonder as their Hometown, deal them another card instead, repeat this until they receive either a City or a Port card. Return all Natural wonders back and shuffle the Destination Deck afterwards.

4. Draw 3 Destinations and place them face up on the board. These are the 'Available Destinations'. Place the deck face down next to them. Place the Destination Markers on the corresponding locations on the map.

5. Shuffle the Transport Tickets deck and deal three tickets face-down to each player. These tickets should be kept hidden from other players.

6. Fill the available Ticket display, and place the remaining tickets face down on the designated space.

7. Shuffle the Race Objectives, reveal 3 objectives and place them on the designated spaces on the board. Return the remaining objectives back to the box.

   For your first game, we suggest playing with the following objectives: First to the finish - Collector - Around the World.

8. Shuffle the Encounter Deck, and place it on the designated place on the board.

9. Create supply piles for Souvenirs, Postcards and Camera tokens within reach of all players.

   If you run out of tokens during the game, use any suitable replacement.

10. Shuffle both the Secret Mission & Personal Goal decks, deal 1 of each to all players secretly. Return the remaining cards back to the box without looking at them.

    Skip this step when playing the 'Family-Friendly Variant'.

11. Each player places their trotter in the corresponding location of their Hometown on the World-map, their Travel experience marker on the zero space on the track and their 3 objective markers in their personal items area on their passport.

The starting player is the one who traveled most recently.

...AND THE RACE BEGINS!

Turn Overview

Starting with the first player, players take turns performing exactly 2 actions on their turn. Then next player in clockwise order perform their 2 actions and so on. The game continues until one player achieves their second Race Objective. This triggers the end of the race. Each player gets one more turn (including the player who triggered the end of the race), and then move on to final scoring.

There are THREE AVAILABLE ACTIONS in the game:

1. ACQUIRE A TICKET
2. TRAVEL
3. GAIN COLLECTIBLES

Players MUST spend exactly 2 action points to perform actions each turn. You are allowed to use the same action twice on your turn, but you CAN'T skip an action point.

1. Acquire a Ticket

For 1 action point, players can take one ticket, either from the tickets display or from the face-down pile. There is no limit to the amount of tickets players can have in their hand.

If you take a ticket from the display, directly fill in a new one instead; So if you decide to acquire another ticket as your second action, you will always have 5 tickets in the display to choose from. If the deck is empty, shuffle and place the discard pile.

There are 6 different types of tickets: Cars, Trains, Ships, Charter Flights, Airline tickets and Wild tickets. Wild tickets can be used as any type of ticket but they will not gain you any travel experience.

At any time during the game, if there are only two different types of tickets available in the display, the active player MAY choose to reset the display, discarding the available tickets and refilling the display with 5 new tickets from the deck.

Example: SAM decides to use both action points on his turn to gain tickets. He spends his first action point to take the Train ticket from the display, refilling the empty slot. For his second action he decides to take one blind ticket, ending his turn.

2. Travel

For 1 action point, players can spend tickets to travel from their current location to one of the 3 displayed 'Available Destinations' ONLY. Players can not stop in airports or any destination in-between.

Players travel by spending the required tickets between their current trotter's location on the World-map and their aimed destination. The tracks on the map correspond to the tickets required to travel along that track.

Example: JACKIE has two tickets in her hands, 1 Car and 1 Ship ticket. For her first action point she takes a train ticket from the display. For her second action point, she decides to travel from Denver to Anchorage, spending a car ticket to go to Mexico City, a train to Los Angeles and finally a ship ticket to Anchorage.

She could have also reached Bogotá by using a car, a ship ticket to 'Auto stop' (white track) and finally a train to reach Bogotá instead.

There are 4 different tracks on the board. The grey track requires Car tickets to travel through, green tracks require Trains, blue tracks are for Ships, purple tracks are for Charter flights and white tracks are 'Hitchhikes' — any transport ticket can be spent to use them.

Airline Tickets are used to travel between any two airports on the world map. There is one Airport in every continental zone, and Airline tickets make it easy to travel across the continents of the world, Encountering new fellow travelers.

Whenever a player uses an airport during traveling, either by using an airline ticket or a wild ticket, they Gain 1 Encounter card, taking it from the top of the deck and keeping it hidden from other players.

Encounter Cards will provide you with a one-time bonus that will help you during the race. Whenever you gain an Encounter card, you may use its effect at any time during your turn. It doesn't require any Action Points to play, however you are limited to playing 1 Encounter card per turn. There is no limit to the amount of Encounter Cards you can have in your hands.

Airline tickets used for 'Auto-stop' (the white tracks on the board) do not gain you an Encounter Card when played, but it still provides you with one travel experience point.

After performing a Travel action, proceed with the following steps:

A. Gain Encounter cards — For every Long flight (between airports) in this trip, if any.

B. Gain Travel Experience Points — Players will then gain Travel Experience for their trip. The longer the trip goes, the more tickets are spent and the more places you go through to reach your destination, the more Travel experience points you will earn!

Players then gain Travel Experience points for every ticket used for the trip except for wild tickets, moving their counter on the Travel Experience track.

C. Clean-up — Discard all tickets spent for the trip in the ticket discard pile.

Take your new Destination card from the display and place it next to your passport, in the 'Visited destination area'.

Finally, refill the Available Destinations and move the destination marker to the new location shown on the card.

An important rule to note when traveling; It is NOT possible to use the same route or airport twice in the same trip, so you are not able to keep going back and forth between two destinations to earn travel experience points or get rid of tickets.

Example: LAURA wants to travel to Victoria Falls from New Delhi; She spends an Airline ticket to reach Kabul via an 'Auto Stop'. She uses another airline ticket to fly to N'Djamena Airport, earning her an Encounter Card, afterwards she spends a Wild ticket to reach Kinshasa, and finally a car ticket to reach her destination, Victoria Falls.

She decides to directly play her Encounter card and gains a free postcard from the general supply and places it on her passport.

LAURA also gains 3 travel experience points from this trip for spending 4 tickets. Wild tickets do not earn any travel experience points! She moves her marker on the travel experience track.

At any point during the race, and regardless of the number of players, there will always be only 3 available destinations to travel to. Easily identified by the white markers on the world-map.

3. Gain Collectibles

There are three types of Destinations in the game. As long as the player's trotter is visiting a destination (standing on it on the World-map), They are allowed to perform the destination's action. Only as long as they are visiting (currently standing on) that destination.

Once they travel to a new destination, moving their trotter to a new place on the World-map, they will no longer be able to do that destination's actions; Since players can not travel back to an already visited destination.

When visiting Cities players can get souvenirs, in Ports they can send postcards, and in Natural wonders they can take photos.

Get a Souvenir (must be located in a City)

Players can spend 1 Action point in a City to gain 1 souvenir.

You can get up to 3 souvenirs in each city (1 action point for every souvenir). When you get a souvenir token, place it directly on the city card you acquired them from.

Every collected souvenir gains you 1VP at the end of the game.

Example: SCOTT is currently visiting Cairo; He decides on his turn to use both his action points to gain souvenirs from Cairo. He takes 2 souvenir tokens from the general supply and places them on his Cairo card, ending his turn. Remember, you can gain up to 3 souvenirs from cities.

Send a Postcard (must be located in a Port)

Players can spend 1 Action point + 1 Ticket in a Port to gain 1 postcard.

You can send only 1 postcard from each port. When you do, place the postcard token directly on the Port card you acquired it from.

Every sent Postcard gains you 2VP at the end of the game.

Take a Photo (must be located at a Natural Wonder)

Players can spend 2 Action points at a Natural Wonder to take 1 photo.

You can take only 1 photo from each Natural wonder. When you do, place the camera token directly on the Natural wonder card you acquire it from.

Every Camera token (photo) gains you 3VP at the end of the game.

Every set of collectibles, 1 souvenir, 1 postcard and 1 camera will earn you an additional 3VP at the end of the game.

Example: SCOTT has his eyes on Darvaza, as it would enable him to complete a race objective, as well as gaining a camera token from there, enabling him to receive the 'collectibles set bonus'.

He uses his first action point to travel from Cairo to Darvaza, spending six tickets, gaining him an encounter card and 4 travel experience points, reaching 23 points on the track. He has no tickets left in his hand.

Since he has only 1 action point left, he is not able to take a photo since it requires 2 action points. Instead he has to spend his second action point to acquire a ticket, ending his turn. SCOTT does not gain the 'Efficient Planning' bonus since he still ended his turn with a ticket in his hand.

SCOTT manages to achieve 2 Race objectives on this turn, 'FIRST TO THE FINISH' having more than 20 travel experience points, and 'AROUND THE WORLD' having visited 5 different Continental zones, triggering the end of the race. All players will get one last turn.

Players not only need to be fast! but a great deal of strategy and planning is required, deciding which Race Objectives to go for, when to travel, plan long or short trips, and deciding to spend time to gain collectibles or jump on to the next destination!

Fulfilling a Race Objective

When a player fulfills the requirements of a Race objective they place their objective marker to mark its completion. Multiple players can achieve the same Race Objective.

Players can still achieve Race Objectives even after the game end has been triggered, thus allowing the possibility of achieving all three Race Objectives.

Efficient Planning

If a player manages to efficiently use all their tickets at the end of their turn (this means only after performing the second action), they gain 2 Blind tickets as a reward for their Efficient planning. This can become very useful if is planned well!

Example: SCOTT uses his last turn spending 2 action points to gain a camera token from Darvaza, completing one collectibles set, earning him a bonus 3 VP at the end of the game. Players move to final scoring.

Racing Strategies

At the end of the game, players will gain VP for the visited destinations; The more you visit of one type (City / Port / Natural wonder), the more points you will earn. This can help you decide which destination you will visit next, not just to achieve the race objective but focus on visiting more of a specific type.

This is a traveling game after all! So players will earn more points the more they see from the world, and gain VP equal to the number of continental zones you have visited in this race. These can easily be identified by the bottom color of the destination cards.

Game End and Scoring

Once a player achieves their second Race Objective, it triggers the end of the race. After that, each player performs one last turn (including the player who triggered the end of the race), before moving on to final scoring.

Using the score sheet provided with the game, players will go through each scoring aspect in the game, scoring all 6 points, A to F.

For a Family Friendly Variant, only score points A, B and C.

The player with the most points wins the game! In case of a tie, the tied player with the most destination cards wins the game. and in case of a further tie, The player with the most collectibles wins, If still tied, both players share the victory.

A. COLLECTIBLES

• 1 VP for every Souvenir
• 2 VP for every Postcard
• 3 VP for every Camera
• 3 VP bonus for every set

B. TRAVEL EXPERIENCE Gain x-VP equal to your travel experience marker score.

C. RACE OBJECTIVES Gain x-VP corresponding to the achieved Race Objectives. Players may still achieve Objectives after the game end has been triggered.

D. DESTINATION POINTS Gain x-VP for the number of visited destinations of each type as seen in the scoring sheet.

E. ZONE POINTS Gain x-VP for the number of visited zones all over the world, regardless of the destination type (city, port or Natural wonder) and score according to the scoring sheet.

F. SECRET MISSIONS Gain 2VP if you managed to achieve your Secret Mission during the race.

PERSONAL GOALS Players reveal their Personal Goals to check if they managed to achieve it. Gain 4VP corresponding to your goal if you achieved its requirements.

ADD THE TOTAL SCORE: A + B + C + D + E + F

During the game set-up for the Family Friendly Variant, skip the secret mission and personal goals as they are not used in this variant, and player passports should be set on the 'Neutral side' with no player abilities on it.

Family Friendly Variant: Ages 8-12

Only score A + B + C.

House Rule (Advanced)

We suggest this rule for the veteran travelers who don't fancy luck in their games, nor do they travel short trips!

Play Wanderlust with this added rule:

When preforming a TRAVEL action, you may only travel to an available destination with a MINIMUM of 3 tickets.

This rule reduces the luck factor of having new available destinations revealed within reach of one trotter's location easy to travel to, adding more strategy to the game.

Solo Mode

Want to go on a solo adventure? Take part in 'THE BIG RACE' competing against other trotters, where the 'Automaton' would also try to capture the destinations and achieve the race objectives before you do.

The SOLO MODE is based on the BASE GAME RULES, with certain additional rules / changes. Please read the Base Game Rules before continuing to learn the additional rules.

A. Setup

First, you can set the game length by choosing how many trotters you would like to compete against in the race (Automaton trotters):

• 1 trotter for a short game (~20 mins)
• 2 trotters for a medium game (~25-35 mins)
• 3 trotters for a long game (~45-60 mins)

Setup the game following BASE GAME SETUP, with the following notes:

2. Choose your favorite Trotter (skill side face up) taking all its components. Then set up the Automaton trotters:

Take all three objective markers and Travel Experience markers and place them next to the world map, leaving a space next to each player to later be used as their 'visited destinations area' (Check image for reference).

3. Draw your home town, then draw home towns (starting positions) for the Automaton trotters one by one, with the added rule:

Automaton cannot start in the same zone, if you draw a hometown (city or port) in the same zone as another Automaton, draw another card instead.

After placing all Automaton's hometowns, Slide all of the cards used (their hometowns) under the World-map in their play area, placing their Race objective markers on them respectively.

7. Remove "Around the World" & "Travel Planner" objectives. Shuffle the rest and draw three.

10. Skip this step (secret mission & personal goals).

B. Automaton Rules

In 'THE BIG RACE' you basically play the family friendly variant of Wanderlust, however you only score if you manage to finish the race (place at least 2 objective markers) otherwise you lose the race.

Follow the base game rules on your turn, Preform 2 actions choosing between the 3 available actions (Acquire a ticket / Travel / Gain Collectibles), After finishing both your actions, the Automaton trotters will have their automated turns following the 'AUTOMATON PLAYER GUIDE', and back to you.

Automaton Players will have different counts of Action Points based on the number of Automatons in the race:

4 action points for the Automaton player in a 2 player game (racing against 1 Automaton) 3 action points per Automaton player in a 3-4 player game (racing against 2/3 Automatons)

Automaton players will also be working towards achieving the race objectives, if they do, they would trigger the end of game, and each trotter gets one last turn (where you can try to achieve your second objective) and the race ends.

Automaton Player Guide

On the Automaton's turn, you go through the following steps in order, spending their action points:

Step 1: Gain Collectibles → Step 2: Travel

1. Gain Collectibles

ONLY if the "Collector" objective is in play, the Automaton will spend their action points when visiting a destination to gain collectibles.

• 1 action point per souvenir
• 1 action point per postcard
• 2 action points per camera

Automaton players will always stay in their newly acquired destination to gain its max. Collectibles (3 souvenirs / 1 post card / 1 camera) before they start traveling again. Remember! This happens ONLY if the "collector" objective is in play.

They will keep gaining collectibles from new destinations to achieve the objective. Once the Automaton player collects the minimum required number of each collectible (according to player count), they will no longer gain that collectible type for the rest of the game thus skipping the 'Gain Collectibles' step.

Example: In a 3 player game (playing against 2 trotters) players require 6 souvenirs, 2 post cards and 1 camera to achieve the "Collector" Race Objective.

SCOTT Automaton has already visited 2 cities and gained 6 souvenirs, for the third city destination onwards, he will no longer spend action points to collect more souvenirs, as he have fulfilled the min. required souvenirs from the previously visited cities (6 souvenirs in a 3 player race).

SCOTT Automaton started his turn in Denver, following the 'AUTOMATON PLAYER GUIDE' step 1 you first check if he will 'Gain Collectibles'. Since he already has collected 6 souvenirs from previous turns, satisfying the "Collector" Race Objective for 3 players, he will move on to step 2 and start traveling again toward the 'NEAREST AVAILABLE DESTINATION'.

2. Travel

The Automaton players will always be on the move to the 'NEAREST AVAILABLE DESTINATION', they do not acquire Tickets or spend them to travel, instead, they use their action points to move one step closer to the nearest available destination, regardless of the track type. Automatons can stop in 'None-Available' destinations.

Move the Automaton player as many steps as their action points (4 in a 2 player game - 3 in a 3/4 player game) towards the 'NEAREST AVAILABLE DESTINATION'.

• IF THEY FLY THROUGH AN AIRPORT, they still gain an encounter card, but they never gain the benefit. Whenever they fly through an airport, take an encounter card and place it face down next to their play area. This will count towards achieving the "Frequent Flyer" objective.
• IF THEY REACH AN AVAILABLE DESTINATION during their turn, they will gain that destination card adding it to their visited destinations area, and continue spending the remaining action points (if any) following the 'AUTOMATON PLAYER GUIDE'.

Example: In a 2 player game, the Automaton has 4 action points on their turn. since the 'Collector' Race Objective is not in play, Automaton players will always travel on their turn skipping the 'Gain collectibles' step.

LAURA'S Automaton starts the turn in Busan, since Tehran is the 'NEAREST AVAILABLE DESTINATION' LAURA'S Automaton will travel there, spending 3 action points and earning one Encounter Card.

Reaching a New Destination

When you or the Automaton reach a destination:

1. Add the card to the visited destination area.
2. Shift all remaining cards in the display 1 step to the right (if possible).
3. Reveal a new destination card in the leftmost spot of the display.
4. Gain Travel Experience points:
   • FOR YOU: number of tickets excluding Wild Tickets.
   • FOR AUTOMATON: they will always gain 3 Travel Experience points for each new destination reached.

C. Game End and Scoring

Game play continues until one trotter manages to achieve their second objective. This triggers the end of the game. All players get one last turn and the race ends. Then check if you:

1. DID NOT ACHIEVE TWO RACE OBJECTIVES? Tough luck! you have lost the race. Do not continue to the scoring phase.

2. ACHIEVED (at least) TWO RACE OBJECTIVES: Great! Congratulations on finishing the race. You get to move on to scoring phase, as described in the base game rulebook. Score only Points A, B and C.

The trotter with the most points wins the Race!

Nearest Available Destination

Always follow this guide to determine the nearest destination the Automaton player will head towards a destination:

1. WITHIN 3 STEPS WITHOUT USING AN AIRPORT

• The destination can be in a different zone.
• In case of multiple Destinations available within 3 steps, the priority goes to the destination card furthest to the right (from the 3 available destinations).

2. IN THE SAME ZONE

• If another player is 1 step away from it, disregard this destination.
• In case of multiple Destinations in the same zone, the priority goes to the destination card furthest to the right in the available destination's display.

3. IN A DIFFERENT ZONE

If none of the above steps apply, Automaton players will first,

3.A HEAD TOWARDS AIRPORT

• in the same zone they are currently in.
• if the airport is occupied by another Automaton player the route is considered to be 'blocked'. instead they will head towards the second nearest airport connected by land, if possible (no ship cards).

Once they reach an airport, determine the available destination with the highest priority (3.B).

3.B PRIORITY DESTINATION

Starting with the furthest on the right of the Available Destinations display,

• if another player is 1 step away from it, it is considered 'blocked'. Move on to the destination on its left.
• if all three destinations are 'blocked', the Automaton player does not move and end their turn instead.
• Once the target destination is determined, Automaton players will fly to the new zone and continue spending their action points moving towards the target destination.

Example: JACKIE'S Automaton starts her turn in Cape Town and is planning to travel, you will first check for any available Destination is within 3 steps from her current location. Since Santiago De Chile is two steps away, Jackie will spend 2 action points to travel there.

Follow the 'Reaching A New Destination' guide, then continue spending the remainder of Jackie's action points, starting with the 'Automaton player guide' Since the 'Collector' is not in play, she will travel again.

Since there are not Available Destinations within 3 steps, Jackie will start traveling towards Bogotá, since it is in the same zone, spending her last 2 action points going through Asunción and stopping in Brasilia Airport.

Example: LAURA'S Automaton starts her turn in Busan, since there are no Available destinations within 3 steps or in the same zone, she will start traveling towards the Destination in a different zone. She first heads towards the nearest unoccupied Airport, spending 1 action point to reach Beijing Airport.

Laura will then fly towards the zone containing the 'Priority Destination' determined by being the furthest to the right on 'Available Destination' display.

Cairo has the highest priority however, since SCOTT'S Automaton is currently visiting N'Djamena Airport, the route is considered blocked. So Laura's Automaton will instead travel towards Dubai.

She spends her last 2 action points to fly from Beijing to Kabul (earning her an Encounter card) then moves to Tehran, ending her turn.

Icons Overview

• Home town — Home
• Travel to a destination — Location pin
• Race Objective — Flag
• Travel experience point — Suitcase
• Acquire ticket from display — Ticket (star)
• Acquire ticket blind — Ticket (face down)
• Acquire ticket (display or blind) — Ticket (either)
• Spend tickets from hand — Hand with ticket
• Discard a ticket from hand — Hand with crossed ticket
• Tickets in hand — Hand with tickets
• Encounter card — Suitcase tag
• Different zones — Globe
• Same zone — Globe (single region highlighted)
• Collectables — Souvenir, postcard, camera
• Secret Mission — Envelope
• Personal Goal — Envelope with seal
• Discard and draw — Circular arrows
• Car ticket, Train ticket, Ship ticket, Charter flight ticket, Airline ticket — colored circular ticket icons

Available Actions

1. Acquire a Ticket — 1 action point : take a ticket.

2. Travel — 1 action point + spend tickets : move to a destination. (Airline ticket at an airport → gain an Encounter card. Any combination of tickets → gain Travel Experience.)

3. Gain Collectables

• 1 action point : get a souvenir (City, max. 3)
• 1 action point + spend a ticket : send a postcard (Port, max. 1)
• 2 action points : take a photo (Natural wonder, max. 1)

Credits

Greetings and thanks to all friends and family who supported us through this journey. A big shout out to all the play testers who helped us; And a huge thank you to: Mike, Sarah Nina Mann, Sander Kruis, Iris van Dijck, Lena Asleh, Christoph Nau, Naila Fuhlrott, Lukas Hamelmann, Fayrouz & Adham Gomma, Tomasz Chojnacki, Klaudia Królikowska and Alexander Radcliffe.

• Game Design: Julian Asleh
• Art & Illustration: Xue Cui
• Game Development / Solo Game Design: Mahmoud Abdelwahab
• Graphic design: Mahmoud Abdelwahab, Xue Cui
• Rule book: Mahmoud Abdelwahab, Julian Asleh
• Campaign Management & PR: Julian Asleh, Xue Cui