Word Traveler
Word Traveler Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 165 Word Cards
- Score Marker
- 5 Passports (1 each in 5 colors)
- 5 Player Markers (1 each in 5 colors)
- 2 Game Boards (double-sided)
- 25 Arrow Tokens (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th each in 5 colors)
- 20 Map Cards
- 5 Player Aid Cards
- 5 Footprint Tokens (with stands)
- 6 Souvenir Tokens
- Sand Timer
- 2 Travel Guides (double-sided)
TIP: The travel guides may remain in the box. They provide optional fun facts about each city.
Setup
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Choose Game Board: Choose a city for your game: New York, Paris, Tokyo, or London. Place that city's board faceup on the table and put the other back in the box.
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Prepare Score Track: Place the pigeon score marker on the Word Traveler sign in the corner of the board, near space 1.
Then place the 6 golden souvenir tokens on the spaces based on your player count. A 3-player game is shown in this example.
Players 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 2 Players 4 6 8 10 12 14 3 Players 6 9 12 15 18 21 4 Players 8 12 16 20 24 28 5 Players 10 15 20 25 30 35 -
Choose Color: Each player chooses a color and takes the marker, arrows, and passport of that color. Each player then places their marker in the center board space. If it's your first time playing, insert a player aid into the left side of your passport.
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Prepare Pieces: Shuffle the word card deck (It's fine if black or white sides are showing when shuffling) and place it near the board. Shuffle the map card deck. Each player draws a map card, and the remaining map cards can be returned to the box. Place the sand timer and the footprint tokens nearby.
Playing the Game
Word Traveler is a cooperative game—all players are on the same team, share the same score, and try to win together! Your team's goal is to collect as many golden souvenirs along the score track as possible.
Each map card shows a grid with 2 symbol types, circle (worth 1 point) and star (worth 2 points), indicating points of interest. For each space on the board your player marker stops in that corresponds to a symbol on your map card, the team will score points equal to the symbol's value. If your team reaches a golden souvenir, add it to your collection!
However, this is easier said than done. You cannot move your own marker, so you must use your word cards and arrows to give savvy clues and rely on your teammates to correctly deduce where you want to go.
The game lasts 2 rounds—both days of your trip.
A map card showing points of interest and cardinal directions.
Day 1
Each day has 3 steps: Prepare, Plan, and Travel.
Step 1: Prepare (simultaneous)
- Arrange Arrows: Set your 4th and 5th arrows aside, as they are used only on Day 2. Place the remaining 3 arrows in ascending order in front of you.
- Draw Word Cards: Each player draws 10 word cards.
- Insert Map Card: Each player immediately inserts their map card into the right side of their passport.
CONFIDENTIAL! Be sure to keep your map card hidden from other players, and don't examine it until the sand timer starts!
Step 2: Plan (simultaneous)
All players: Start the sand timer, after which you all can examine your map card and start planning your moves from your player marker's starting position (the center board space on Day 1).
Identify the points of interest on your map card that you want to visit, then look over your word cards. Using your 3 arrows and as many of your word cards as you wish, plan your moves along a path so that your fellow travelers can guess your intended stops and move your marker to a space that scores points!
Planning Your First Move
To plan your first move, rotate the 1st arrow in the cardinal direction you wish to move (N S E W—no diagonals). Then, below the arrow, place any number of word cards that offer useful clues about the art shown in your target destination space.
A card's white side describes that location; a card's black side does not describe that location. The best clues are those that describe the space where you want to stop but can't be easily confused for other nearby spaces.
Looking in straight lines from their starting position, and considering the points of interest on their map card, Jayden notices that 2 of their word cards describe a subway car, which is only 2 spaces away to the east. They rotate their 1st arrow to point east (right) and then place the "Busy" and "Not Comfortable" cards below the arrow.
Jayden continues planning their second move starting from the subway car space.
Planning Other Moves
Other moves function the same way. If you are turning, rotate your arrow in the direction of your next stop and use any number of word cards that provide the most obvious clues about where you want to stop on your path. Make sure that your following move begins from the previous location you intend to stop in. For example, for your second move, you will plan by starting from where you expect to stop on your first move, and for your third move, you will begin from where you expect to stop on your second move. Note: The team does not score points for passing symbols on your map, only for stopping on them.
Time's Up!
When the sand timer runs out or all players are done planning, everyone sets aside their unused cards and goes to Step 3: Travel.
Step 3: Travel (turn order)
Each player takes a turn as the traveler. The person who most recently took a plane trip is the first to be the traveler. The rest of the players are the locals, trying to figure out the traveler's planned moves.
Traveler Asks for Directions
The traveler announces all of their planned moves by reading aloud, in full, their arrow directions and word cards in order, from first to last arrow.
Jayden is the traveler. They describe their moves: "First I make my way east, looking for somewhere 'Busy' and 'Not Comfortable'; next I go south to somewhere 'Cool,' 'Refreshing,' and 'Slippery'; then finally I head west to somewhere 'Active' and 'Circular.'"
IMPORTANT: The traveler cannot communicate while other players discuss the options.
Locals Guess the Path
After the traveler has stated all of their moves, the locals discuss the options together and guess the traveler's intended path. They place a footprint token in each space they think the traveler wants to stop in (the "1" footprint where they think the first move ends, the "2" footprint where they think the second move ends, etc.).
Players can freely move footprints around while discussing. If the group can't agree on where to place the footprints, the player on the traveler's left makes the final decision.
After Jayden describes their moves, they must remain quiet. As the locals, the other players discuss and collectively place the 1, 2, and 3 footprint tokens marking the board spaces where they think Jayden wants to stop in.
Traveler Follows the Path
The traveler reveals their map card, and the team gains points for each space with a footprint token that matches a point of interest on the traveler's map card. If the score marker reaches a golden souvenir, the team adds it to their collection. If the locals guessed incorrectly, the traveler can now freely discuss where they intended to move, and why they chose the words they did.
Move the traveler's player marker to the space with the last footprint token. This will be their starting space for Day 2.
The player in clockwise order from the traveler becomes the next traveler, who then resolves their own Travel step. Continue in clockwise order until all players have been the traveler. After everyone has been traveler and points have been scored, proceed to Day 2.
Once the locals are satisfied with their guesses, Jayden reveals their map card. The footprints cover 1 circle space (1 point) and 1 star space (2 points)—the locals correctly guessed the first 2 moves!
The words on Jayden's third move generally referred to "Baseball Stuff," but the locals interpreted those clues as referring to the courier's bike—not a bad guess, but the courier's space is not worth any points on Jayden's map card. The team gains 3 points, moves the score marker, and collects a golden souvenir they reached.
Day 2
Day 2 plays very similarly to Day 1, with only minor changes to Step 1: Prepare as explained below. (Steps 2 and 3 are identical to Day 1.)
1. Prepare (Day 2 only)
- Arrange Arrows: Add your 4th and 5th arrows in front of you. Now you can score even more points!
- Draw Word Cards: Each player discards their word cards and draws 10 more.
- Flip Map Card: Flip over your map card to its other side and use it for Day 2.
Repeat Steps 2 and 3 from the previous round, using your extra arrows, new words, and map card. Good luck!
IMPORTANT: Leave your player marker where it is! This is your new starting space for Day 2.
Game End
After Day 2, the game ends!
Use the chart on the back cover of this rulebook to see how well your team did! Count up your golden souvenirs and find out if your team are Word Travelers!
Tips and Clarifications
- You are not required to use all 10 of your word cards; too many cards can actually be more confusing than helpful!
- You are not required to use all your arrows. For Day 1 use up to 3 arrows. For Day 2, use up to 5 arrows.
- You need to place a minimum of 1 word under each arrow you use.
- You can use each card for 1 arrow only, not across multiple arrows.
- You can score each point of interest space only once per day.
- You can try to land on a space that will provide no points. This is sometimes helpful to line up a future valuable move.
- If the locals are confident about one of the later clues in a traveler's path, they can use that information to help deduce earlier arrows in the path.
- Locals can look at word cards a traveler didn't use to learn more information.
- If a player marker stops in a space with a point of interest on their map card, they score points—even if they did not intend to stop in that space!
- On Day 2, players do not score points for starting at a point of interest. To score that space, they must first move away and then stop again in that space.
Score Chart
How many golden souvenirs did your team collect?
| Golden Souvenirs | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Lost In Translation... |
| 2 | Tourist |
| 3 | Day Tripper |
| 4 | Frequent Flier |
| 5 | Expert Explorer |
| 6 | Word Traveler! |