Faraway
Faraway is a card game that was supposed to take me far away on an exploration of a mysterious island. But the main goal of the game is to play cards and get various symbols for scoring. Maybe there are no bears, bees, trout and other such nice things here. But we get quite specific flora and fauna and inhabitants of this land.
A straightforward path
The gameplay of Faraway comes down to playing a sequence of cards. We start our journey by placing one card. We all do this at the same time and we can be surprised at what our rivals have done. However, let’s not set ourselves up for any interaction between players. Well, unless one likes to hate draft and watch others in their plot. The person who played the lowest numbered card takes the first card from the market and then the other players do it in ascending order.
The first card played may not cause a sensation, but the next card placed can make things happen. Because if the card played is higher than the previous one then we draw a shrine card. If we had maps before then we would draw more of these cards. Although we can still keep only one.
Once we have placed the 8th card then we can move on to counting up our points. This is when it happens.…
Twist and shout
Because you listened as I explained the rules, didn’t you? Suddenly the players realize they’ve messed everything up. I used, of course, a polite word for this effect of the first Faraway. In a nutshell it involves counting points backwards. Cards sometimes give points, but in most cases we have to make an effort to meet certain requirements. However, we need to check the symbols required on the cards to the right of the card in consideration. That is, at the very end of our journey. Now it’s getting to you where you made a mistake?
Seemingly such a simple twist, but what a good one. Throughout the entire trek we have to keep an eye on how to arrange our cards. Maybe it’s worth starting with something that requires a fair number of symbols? But will we manage to reach our goal? Here comes a bit of push your luck mechanism. Because we don’t know what cards will come in the next rounds. For this we can count on the shrine cards. By themselves, they provide us with different symbols, colors and even scoring. Therefore, it is worth building our path in ascending order. However, it won’t be easy considering that other players will steal cards from the market.
Summary
Faraway is a simple game about collecting symbols on cards to score BIG points. Maybe it wouldn’t have made me so enthusiastic if it wasn’t for the interesting twist with counting points backwards. It’s something so different that makes me feel like going Faraway. By the way, the game itself lasts quite fast and you can squeeze in a few games after dinner instead of donuts. The ability to play up to 6 players is another plus because the game was perfect for our board game club meetings when someone asked me if they could still join us.
Final verdict: Faraway but so close to my gaming table
Bonus round:
I love how we start counting up the points from our gameplay. Because in our case, we count each card one at a time with all players. It makes the scoring itself very exciting. It’s also accompanied by that feeling of euphoria when we’ve been getting 0 points all the time, and suddenly we shout “20!”. Then everyone turns in our direction and checks to see if we made a mistake. Priceless.
[Game provided by Lucky Duck Games]
