Description

Word Travellers is a word game for two to six players, aged 7+. It is a game of building air routes between airports and picking up lost luggage whose luggage tags become words.

TWO LASERCUT VERSIONS:
As a board game, it is packaged in a pizza box with:
• game board frame (four pieces)
• four “bowtie” connectors
• 66 airport tiles with airport codes
• 195 luggage tags with letters and bigrams
• 110 two-sided air route tiles
• 6 airplanes
• 6 dice.
As a card game:
• 66 airport cards with airport codes
• 195 luggage tags with letters and bigrams
• 110 two-sided air route cards
• 6 airplanes
• 6 dice.

TWO GAME MODES
1. Lost Luggage – visit airports to collect letters to make words by combining letters on luggage tags.
2. Drop Your Bags – visit airports to drop luggage tags and unscramble letters into words.

"LOST LUGGAGE" SETUP
1. Build the game board frame by connecting the four frame pieces with the little bowties.
2. Shuffle all the air route and airport tiles face up.
3. All players simultaneously build the game board by randomly placing the tiles face up anywhere you like.
4. Ensure that all airport tiles are placed and have air route.
5. Discard the extra tiles.
6. Place two luggage tiles face up per airport.
7. Discard the remaining luggage tags.
8. Give each player one die.
9. The youngest player rolls their die and rotates the board the number of times indicated by the die roll.
10. Each player selects an airplane and places it on the nearest airport location.
 
PLAN YOUR ROUTES
Examine the top letters of luggage tags at the airports. Plan the best route to pick up the best letters as practical. Anticipate that the air route tiles will line up to get your airplane to the destination.

"LOST LUGGAGE" GAME PLAY
In turn, you will:
• Flip over and/or rotate two air route tiles.
• Move your plane a maximum of 10 spaces.
• Land at an airport
• Pick up a luggage tag
• Continue flying if less than 10 spaces used
• Optionally, close an airspace or airport and/or decrease a closed airspace die.

Once you turn is over, rearrange your letters into groups of words.

MOVING YOUR AIRPLANE
Move your airplane along air route tiles that line up towards your destination airport. You cannot pass another player’s airplane. Wait until your next turn to move again.

In order to land your plane, the air route tile must go into the airport. A tile that merely passes by an airport prevents planes from landing there. To land, rotate the tile or flip and rotate.

CLOSING AN AIRSPACE
An airspace can be temporarily closed in order to thwart an opponent. If you have a die, roll it and place the die onto an air route space (but not adjacent to an airport). While the die is there, planes cannot pass through the air route space. On each player’s turn, decrease the die by one (rotate). Once the die reaches “0”, the player last rotating the die keeps it.

PERFORMING A GROUND STOP
An airport can experience a ground stop in order to thwart and opponent. If you have a die, roll it and place the die onto the airport space. While the die is here, planes cannot land. On each player’s turn, decrease the die by one (rotate). Once the die reaches “0”, the player last rotating the die keeps it.

Once a player has collected an airport tile, the plane is “grounded” and can no longer fly. The plane remains on the now-empty airport space.

FLIPPING AND/OR ROTATING TILES
Air routes are paths to airports. Their tiles are two-sided. One side has a straight routes segment, while the opposite side has a curve(s). When a tile does not align with the direction your plane must travel, you can either rotate it or flip and rotate it.

TRACKING YOUR SCORE
Your score is the sum of all the point values of words you have collected. Add any airport tile you collected (runway numbers are the score). Add up the number of tiles in all words. Deduct any letters that are not parts of words. The final total is your score.

GROUNDING PLANES
With the first player’s plane grounded, all players must now “ground” their planes - without collecting any additional letters. These players can fly their planes to any suitable airport to control it.

WINNING THE LOST LUGGAGE GAME
Once all planes have been grounded, everyone scores their words. The player with the most points is the winner. In case of a tie, the person with the alphabetically highest airport code is the winner.

"DROP YOUR BAGS" SETUP
Build the game board frame by connecting the four frame pieces with the little bowties. Unlike the first mode, you will start with an empty game board.
1. All players simultaneously build the game board by randomly placing the tiles face up anywhere you like.
2. Ensure that all airport tiles are placed and have air route.
3. Discard the extra tiles.
4. Examine the baggage tags and extract just the single letter A-Z tiles.
5. Place them upside down.
6. Each player takes 20 tags
7. The youngest player rolls their die and rotates the board a number of times indicated on the number rolled.
8. Each player selects an airplane and places it on the nearest airport on the frame.
 
"DROP YOUR BAGS" GAME PLAY
In turn, a player will:
• Flip over and/or rotate two air route tiles.
• Move their plane a maximum of 10 spaces.
• Land at an airport
• Drop off a letter that when combined with the letters of the airport code, forms a word. You may need to unscramble all the letters.
• Continue flying if less than 10 spaces used

DROPPING YOUR LUGGAGE TAG
You may drop a luggage tag at any airport as long as the combined, unscrambled airport’s letters (3-letter airport code), the letter on your luggage tag and any existing letter(s) all form a valid word of four or more letters.
For example, dropping “T” on airport code “FRA” will form “RAFT”. Later, one can make “RAFTS” by adding “S”.

WINNING "LUGGAGE DROPS "
The first person to use all their letters and return to their starting airport is the winner.

CARD VERSION
The card version is played the same ways as described above, except the airports and routes are not constrained by a frame. Start with a 3x3 grid structure and start your airplanes in the middle. Draw cards to build routes and fly planes as you play.

-description from designer