Prompt Refinery · broke & free · PLY
The Traveler
Earn cards, then you may travel. 2–4 players · 25 min · ages 8+ · 52 cards. Rival backpackers in your region take a cut of your pay.
Components
52 place cards. Four regions (shape + word, never color alone): ▲ Americas · ■ Europe · ● Africa & Middle East · ◆ Asia & Pacific. Each region has 8 Cities and 5 Wonders. Cities hire one skill — 📷 Photo, 🛵 Deliver, 🚩 Guide, or 🎸 Busk — and are worth 1 stamp. Wonders (★) are worth 2 to 6 stamps, but nobody hires at a waterfall: you cannot work there. Every card shows a fare.
Setup
Shuffle. Deal 4 cards each. Everyone places one City from their hand as their first stop (no City? reshuffle that hand). Flip one card face up as the Swap Shelf. Whoever slept in the strangest place goes first. Play left.
Goal
Most stamps on your trip after everyone flies home.
Your turn
Earn cards, then you may travel.
1. Earn — pick one. Work (only if your last stop is a City): take 1 card, plus 1 for every card on your trip with this City's skill. This City counts, so work pays at least 2. Before you take your pay, each rival whose last stop is in your region takes 1 card from the deck. That is their cut. You always keep at least 1. Scrounge: take 2 cards, then put any 1 card from your hand on top of the Shelf. Whenever you take a card, take it from the deck or the top of the Shelf.
2. Travel (optional) — play one place from your hand onto the end of your trip. Pay its fare with other cards (onto the Shelf). New region? Pay 2 more. Your newest card is your last stop.
Hand limit 8. Deck empty? Shuffle the Shelf into a new deck; leave its top card where it is.
How it ends
At the end of a round (everyone has had the same number of turns), if someone's trip has 8 stops, or Last call (the deck ran out a second time, or nothing was left to take), everyone flies home: pay 3 cards, or call home and lose 3 stamps.
Scoring
Add the stamps on your trip. All four regions? Add 3 (Grand Tour). Most stamps wins. Tie: most cards left in hand. Then read your trip out loud — that's your story.
Sample turn
Ana's trip: Lisbon 📷 → Prague 📷. Bo is in Paris (same region). Ana works in Prague for 3; Bo takes a cut; Ana keeps 2 and draws Santorini. She goes there (fare 3, same region), paying with Barcelona, Hanoi, then Zion Canyon so Zion sits on top. Next turn she stands on a Wonder with no work — the trade for 3 stamps now.
2 people / FAQ
Same rules; the Shelf carries more of the interaction. Traveling is optional; Scrounge is always legal. Empty hand? Scrounge. On a Wonder? Scrounge, then leave when you can pay. Two rivals in your region? Each takes 1 to your left, but you keep at least 1. Deck and Shelf both empty? Last call.
9-up sheets — 6 face pages, 1 back page, 1 aid page. Region = shape + word. Skill = icon + word. Numbers are 1–6.
Live rules: https://tablepress.space/the-traveler/rules/ · Shareable intro: https://tablepress.space/the-traveler/ · Play / simulate: https://tablepress.space/the-traveler/play/