by Eli Lester
2-5 Players, Ages 10+, 10 Mins./Player
Do you dream of romantic train travel across Europe? Well,
we’ve got it (minus the romance), and even some planes and
buses to boot. To be honest, we were feeling a bit generous,
so we went ahead and added some of the other famous parts
of traipsing through Europe as well - you know, the sketchy
taxi drivers, border controls, bad kebabs, and arrogant
backpackers. Really, it’s because we want your experience to
be complete and believe us, some of those negative parts are
every bit of memorable as the Eiffel Tower. Use your cunning
and skill, avoid common travel pitfalls, and visit exciting
countries to make the most of your time TRAVELIN’.
www.facebook.com/travelingame
www.trvln.com
1
The SeUp
For a fine-tuned Travelin’ setup executed to perfection, just
look at the image to the right. Here’s how you can replicate it at
home or on the road for your group of 2-5 players:
1. Those cards won’t shuffle themselves. Get to work.
2. Deal 8 cards face down to each player and 3 Common cards
face up on the table. Each player should check their hand to
make sure they have at least 1 Country card. If a player doesn’t
have a country, check to make sure your opponent is not a lying
snake (or an idiot), move their hand to the discards pile, and
deal them another 8 cards.
3. Each player then picks a starting travel point by selecting
one Country card from their hand and placing it face down on
the table. Once all players have picked a starting country, all are
revealed simultaneously and the player with the lowest-point
country has first turn. In the case of a tie, the player that was
born furthest from where you are playing Travelin’ goes first.
Super-Balanced Ultra Competition Mode
Travelin’ is all about having fun, but if there’s more on the
line than bragging rights, a more level starting field may
be desired. To accomplish this, have each player choose
1 of their initial 8 cards to keep and pass the rest to the
left. Take the stack on your right and repeat. Continue
with this draft until all players have 8 cards and proceed
as normal. If a player ends up with a hand that has no
country, all of their cards go to the discards and they take
the top 7 cards from the deck.
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3-PLAYER GAME SETUP
DISCARDS
will go
here.
DECK COMMON CARDS
Steve Hsin
Jane
In this setup, both Steve and Jane are tied for the lowest-
point country. Jane is from Madrid, Steve is from Toronto,
and they’re playing Travelin’ in Bucharest, so Steve will be
the first player because he is from further away.
Note: During the course of the game, a player must
always have at least 1 played country. This means that
certain actions, such as Russian Gambit or Arrogant
Backpacker, cannot target a player with only 1 country.
3
The Play
Now here’s where you’ll want to strap in because it’s gonna be
a wild ride. Actually, wait a minute – no it won’t. The play is
easy to learn, and once you have the basics down, you’ll soon
be on your way to orchestrating daredevil combos that win you
more than just admiring glances. Each player’s turn will have a
succession of 3 phases:
1. The DRAW Phase – Draw 1 of the 3 Common cards, the top
discard, or 2 cards from the deck and add them to your hand.
2. The ACTION Phase – Each turn, you may take 1 action.
There are 2 ways to take an action:
a. An Action card may be played, such as a Bus to a bordering
country (the Country card would also be played), a Sketchy Taxi
Driver to steal 2 cards from another player, a Bidet to add 1 card
and 2 actions, or many others. Used Action cards are placed on
top of the discards pile after being used.
OR
b. The other way to take an action is to use a played Country
card. Each Country card has an action that may be used once.
When this action is used, the card is turned upside down to
show that it can no longer be used. The country and its points
still count in your total after its Action has been used.
3. The DISCARD Phase – Select 1 card from your hand and put
it face up on the top of the discards pile. After the discard has
been made, play moves to the next player on your left (or right,
if the direction of play has been reversed).
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DECK COMMON CARDS DISCARDS
Draw 1 of the 3 Common
cards or the top Discard.
OR
Draw 2 cards from the
deck.
Note: The best way to determine whether an action can be
used during the ACTION phase is to look at the icon on the
card. There are 3 types of cards: COUNTRY, ACTION, and
SPECIAL. Only those with the action icon may be used as
an action during the ACTION phase of a player’s turn.
COUNTRY ACTION SPECIAL
Unused Used
Country ---> <--- Country
Action Action
5
The win
Serious business is approaching and you’re thinking about the
endgame. You’ve got all your travel plans neat and tidy with
some Diplomatic Immunity as backup just in case things get
tight. How ‘bout a nice little FAQ to keep you company?
How do I win?
If you have the most points when the game ends, then you are
declared the winner.
Aw, really, another one of those games that uses “points?”
Ok, first off, that sounds more like a rhetorical question than a
useful one. Secondly, there’s a reason why so many games like
the tried-and-true points system. It works, and if you can’t get
on board with that, then it’s your loss, not ours.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Actually, don’t hate the
player. Or the game. Just embrace your inner points.
Ok, whatever. How does the game end?
The game ends when a player reaches 5 played Country cards.
At this point, the game is over and the points on the Country
cards and any other relevant cards are tallied.
Cards in your hand are worth nothing, with the exception of
Golden Passport (adds +5 points). As previously stated, the
player with the highest score wins. If a player has reached 5
played Country cards, they receive a bonus of +5 points.
Help! I don’t know what to do in case of ties. Save me.
In case of a tie in points, the player who has traveled to 5 coun-
tries wins. If there is still a tie (not very likely), the victory is
shared between all players with the tied score.
6
ClaRiIcaTins
Here’s a few quick pointers to make sure tricky cards are being
used to their utmost ability.
Border Control – This card/action is used to
stop a player from playing a new Country card.
The player attempting to travel returns the
Country card to their hand, but any Bus/Train/
Airplane/other modes of transport that were be-
ing used are discarded.
Bus/Train – Buses (cross 1 border)
and trains (cross 1-2 borders) may be
combined to reach a new country. For
example, you could travel from Portugal to
Poland (4 borders, PT-ES-FR-DE-PL) with
1 Airplane, 2 Trains, 4 Buses, or 1 Train +
2 Buses. You may use Trains to cross a
single border if desired.
Rerouted – When you reroute an opponent,
you must give them a Country card from your
hand that now becomes their destination. In
exchange, you take their intended destination
Country card and add it to your hand.
Note - You are always “located” in your last country played
and can only travel from there to a new country.
7
Russian Gambit/Day Trip – Place the
“annexed” Country card underneath your
played Country card that borders it. The
points of the “annexed” country count
towards your total, but the added country’s
action may not be used. In addition, this is
1 single country towards the 5 countries
needed to end the game. Because the
combined countries now form a single
entity, you may travel using the borders of
either (if you are currently located there).
Germany
Germany <--- annexed by
annexed by ---> Czech Republic
Czech Republic with action
used
Thank fR TraVeIn’!
www.facebook.com/travelingame
www.trvln.com
Game Design: Eli Lester
Art Direction: Paula Lazaroni
Special thanks to Raphael, Marius, Radu, Anca, Tina, Robert,
and the rest of the Midland Hostel gang in beautiful Bucharest,
Romania. Also, of course, thanks to Mom, Dad, and anybody
who played the game and helped us make it better.
©2017 SC TRVLN GAMES SRL All rights reserved.
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